Young Goodman Brown

"Young Goodman Brown" (1835) is a frequently taught and anthologized short story by American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story takes place in Puritan New England, a common setting for Hawthorne's works, and addresses one of his common themes: the conflict between good and evil in human nature and, in particular, the problem of public goodness and private wickedness.

Summary

Template:Spoiler The story begins late one evening in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts, with young Goodman Brown leaving his home and Faith, his wife of three months, to meet with a mysterious figure deep in the forest. As they meet and proceed further into the dark forest, and it is broadly hinted that Goodman Brown's traveling companion is, in fact, the Devil, and that the purpose of their journey is to join in an unspecified but obviously unholy ritual. Goodman Brown is wavering and expresses reluctance, yet they continue on. As their journey continues Brown discovers others also proceeding to the meeting, many of them his townsfolk whom he had considered good Christians including his minister and deacon and the woman who taught him his catechism. He is astonished and disheartened and determines, once again, to turn back. But now he hears his wife's voice and realizes that she is one of those to be initiated at the meeting. Recognizing that he has lost his Faith (in both senses), he now resolves to carry out his original intention and enthusiastically joins the procession.

At the ceremony, carried out at a flame-lit, crude rocky altar in a clearing deep in the forest, the new converts are called to come forth. He and Faith approach the altar and, as they are about to be anointed in blood to seal their alliance with wickedness, he cries out to Faith to look to heaven and resist. In the next instant he finds himself standing alone in the forest, next to the cold, wet rock.

The narrator suggests that the experience might have been a dream, but Goodman Brown is deeply shaken. He lives out his days an embittered and suspicious cynic, wary of everyone around him, especially his wife Faith. The story concludes with this dismal statement:

"And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave...they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom."

Interpretation

One possible moral of the story pertains not so much to young Goodman Brown's encounter with "evil" but rather to the way he personally deals with his experience/dream. Template:Endspoiler