Young Goodman Brown Symbolism Essay
In “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, many forms of symbolism are present to help in develop the theme that all of mankind has a capacity for sinful actions. Three major symbols in the text include the stranger that Brown meets in the forest, Brown’s wife Faith, and his journey into the forest.
Hawthorne uses a symbolic journey to represent Brown’s transition from naive, faithful Puritan to cyncial and bitter adult. At the onset of the journey, Brown meets a stranger in the woods who represents the Devil. The Devil attempts to influence Brown by suggesting dark secrets in Brown’s ancestry. The encounter with the Devil is placed in the woods because the woods symbolize our primal nature, the darkness within all of us. The identify …show more content…
The woods, opposite of Brown’s city of Salem, are a dark and nightmarish place in which Brown is unfamiliar with. This area of darkness outside the village is outside the normal boundaries of right and wrong, which are outside of Brown’s comfort zone. Inside the forest is where all of Brown’s fears and suspicions come into play, doubting his initial decision about his life. This journey also represents the journey that all people must make, where they see rights and wrongs of man. At the end of the journey, most either lose their faith like Brown did, or return with a stronger mindset than they started with. In the text, it states, “He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through… It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude” (Hawthorne 2). Clearly exemplified, the loneliness Brown feels causes him to feel out of the norm, uncomfortable with what he is about to do. With his doubts in mind, Brown fights the influences of evil and comes out as himself, though his view on the rest of humanity is corrupt
Hawthorne uses a symbolic journey to represent Brown’s transition from naive, faithful Puritan to cyncial and bitter adult. At the onset of the journey, Brown meets a stranger in the woods who represents the Devil. The Devil attempts to influence Brown by suggesting dark secrets in Brown’s ancestry. The encounter with the Devil is placed in the woods because the woods symbolize our primal nature, the darkness within all of us. The identify …show more content…
The woods, opposite of Brown’s city of Salem, are a dark and nightmarish place in which Brown is unfamiliar with. This area of darkness outside the village is outside the normal boundaries of right and wrong, which are outside of Brown’s comfort zone. Inside the forest is where all of Brown’s fears and suspicions come into play, doubting his initial decision about his life. This journey also represents the journey that all people must make, where they see rights and wrongs of man. At the end of the journey, most either lose their faith like Brown did, or return with a stronger mindset than they started with. In the text, it states, “He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through… It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude” (Hawthorne 2). Clearly exemplified, the loneliness Brown feels causes him to feel out of the norm, uncomfortable with what he is about to do. With his doubts in mind, Brown fights the influences of evil and comes out as himself, though his view on the rest of humanity is corrupt