Symbolic Elements In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Young Goodman Brown, a gothic, love story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, tells the story of Young Goodman Brown’s journey through the forest. He is exposed to horrific scenes and has battles with himself and the evil spirits of the forest. Throughout the story, Hawthorne displays many characters who are symbolic and resemble things in a person’s life. There are three aspects that play a key role in this story: Young Goodman Brown and the people of the forest, who represent all people, Faith, who represents the spirit of a person, in this case Young Goodman Brown, and the forest, which represents sin and evil. In this story, Hawthorne wanted to indicate the connection between these three aspects. Hawthorne wants to emphasize that committing sin is a natural thing for all people, and when people commit sin, their spirits are affected as well and it alters the way people
After feeling lonely in the woods, he decides to pray for guidance. Preventing him from praying were voices of people in his community, both sinners and christians. At that moment, he begins to lose hope that there is a God and surrenders himself to the devil as he says, “Come, devil! for to thee is this world given”. Young Goodman Brown has seen people of the Church, those who teach the word of God, negotiating with the devil. He then thinks that the devil overrules everyone, no matter how religious they are. “There was one voice, of a young woman, uttering lamentations, yet with an uncertain sorrow, and entreating for some favor, which, perhaps, it would grieve her to obtain. And all the unseen multitude, both saints and sinners, seemed to encourage her onward.” This passage shows that even his wife, the one who told him not to go, is now grieving in sorrow and preaching