Symbolism And Imagery In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” the author uses symbolism and imagery to create meaning by developing an atmosphere that utilizes its historical and Bible references. Through Goodman Brown’s journey to and back from the forest, the message that Hawthorne is trying to convey is when faith is undermined, the results can cause one to be feel doubt and cynic towards everyone else.
The story begins with Goodman Brown leaving his wife, Faith, for an unknown errand in the forest. Despite Faith begging him not to go, Brown leaves that night. The reader later learns that Goodman Brown had made a decision to meet with the devil in the forest. This expresses that Brown had a strong faith before he entered the forest and even …show more content…
This quote defines that even though everyone else had gone to the devil, Brown wanted to stay true to God for Faith’s sake, suggesting that he was making an attempt to keep his good faith as it began to weaken. Hawthorne used Goodman Brown's wife, Faith, as a symbol of Brown's own faith throughout the story. Once Brown saw a pink ribbon fall from the sky and recognized Faith’s voice, he had lost his faith in his wife and in humanity. Again, Faith is used as a symbol of Goodman Brown’s faith when he says, “‘My Faith is gone!’cried he, after one stupefied moment. ‘There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given’” (5). When Brown arrived at the devil’s ceremony, he was astonished at the number of people he saw and came to believe that they were sinners, describing them as “a grave and dark-clad company” (6).
It is uncertain whether the events in the forest really happened. Therefore, if the experience was real, Goodman Brown lost his faith because of the hypocrisy of his religious belief. However, if he had “only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting” (8), then his loss of faith is of his own doing; because of the depravity of his own soul, his own hypocrisy,
The story begins with Goodman Brown leaving his wife, Faith, for an unknown errand in the forest. Despite Faith begging him not to go, Brown leaves that night. The reader later learns that Goodman Brown had made a decision to meet with the devil in the forest. This expresses that Brown had a strong faith before he entered the forest and even …show more content…
This quote defines that even though everyone else had gone to the devil, Brown wanted to stay true to God for Faith’s sake, suggesting that he was making an attempt to keep his good faith as it began to weaken. Hawthorne used Goodman Brown's wife, Faith, as a symbol of Brown's own faith throughout the story. Once Brown saw a pink ribbon fall from the sky and recognized Faith’s voice, he had lost his faith in his wife and in humanity. Again, Faith is used as a symbol of Goodman Brown’s faith when he says, “‘My Faith is gone!’cried he, after one stupefied moment. ‘There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given’” (5). When Brown arrived at the devil’s ceremony, he was astonished at the number of people he saw and came to believe that they were sinners, describing them as “a grave and dark-clad company” (6).
It is uncertain whether the events in the forest really happened. Therefore, if the experience was real, Goodman Brown lost his faith because of the hypocrisy of his religious belief. However, if he had “only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting” (8), then his loss of faith is of his own doing; because of the depravity of his own soul, his own hypocrisy,