Young Goodman Brown
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.
Plot summary

The story begins at sunset in the late 17th century
Salem, Massachusetts, with the young Goodman
Brown leaving his home and Faith, his wife of three
months, to meet with a mysterious figure deep in the
forest. As he and this mysterious figure meet and
proceed further into the dark forest, 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 exemplary
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 then he hears his wife's
voice and realizes that she is one of the ones who is
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, which is carried out at a crude,
flame-lit 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.

Arriving back in Salem the next morning,
Goodman Brown is uncertain whether his
experience was real or only a dream, but he
is nevertheless deeply shaken. His view of
his neighbors is distorted by his memories of
that night.
He lives out his days an embittered and
suspicious cynical man, wary of everyone
around him, including 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."

Analysis

"Young Goodman Brown" is often generalized as
an allegory about the discovery of evil, the true
nature of humanity.The story is set during the
Salem witch trials, during which Hawthorne's
great-great grandfather John Hathorne played a
role as judge.

Hawthorne, for years plagued by guilt from
his ancestor's role, vindicates his grandfather
by featuring two fictional victims of the witch
trials who really were witches and not merely
innocent victims of the witch-hunt.It was also
this ancestral guilt that inspired Hawthorne to
change his family's name, adding a "w" in his
early twenties, shortly after graduating from
college.

Nathaniel Hawthorne often based his novels and
short stories on events that occurred in the 17th
century. One of his favorite settings that reoccur in
several of his works was that of New England,
especially Salem, Massachusetts, during the 1600s.
In order to best convey the setting in his work, he
would often use various literary techniques. For
example, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses specific diction,
or colloquial expressions, to enhance the setting in
his short story, "Young Goodman Brown".

Throughout the piece, women are often called "Goody" and
men are labeled with the honorific "Goodman". One example
would be the main character Goodman Brown and one of the
female characters, Goody Cloyse. Such titles are archaic today
but were common forms of address in early 17th century New
England. Another example of Puritan dialect is the quote,
"prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own
bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and
such thoughts that she's afeared of herself sometimes. Pray
tarry with me this night, dear husband".

Historicizing is an important technique that
Hawthorne likes to employ.Yet again, the dialect in
which Hawthorne uses is critical to this
technique.Without the Puritan dialect, "Young
Goodman Brown" loses much of the historical
significance that Hawthorne is trying to get across.
Although it is explicitly stated the short story takes
place in Salem, Massachusetts, the time in which it
takes place is not stated.

However, by using such Puritanical dialect
throughout the piece, the reader can deduce
that the setting was sometime during the
17th or 18th century. Furthermore,
Hawthorne’s use of dialect truly propels the
reader into the world of Goodman Brown and
helps them to gain a better insight into the
setting.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is known in his writings for his
criticism of the teachings of the Puritans.Young
Goodman Brown is no different as it seeks to expose
his perceived hypocrisy in Puritan doctrine. The plot
and textual references in Young Goodman Brown
reveal the Puritans as being like "a city upon a hill"
as John Winthrop said, a founder of Puritanism, and
wanting to be seen that way as good, holy men.
However, their doctrine teaches that all men are
inherently evil and they strive to cause each person
to come to terms with this and realize their sinful
nature.

This hypocrisy that Hawthorne presents in his story
is how he reflects on the hypocritical teachings of the
Puritans. They taught that man was inherently evil in
nature much in accordance to Enlightenment
philosopher Thomas Hobbes. They presented
themselves as pure, holy, righteous, moral people
when, according to their very own teachings, they
were beings fueled by sin and evil.
Critical response and impact

Herman Melville said "Young Goodman Brown" was "as deep
as Dante" and Henry James called it a "magnificent little
romance". Hawthorne himself believed the story made no more
impact than any of his tales. Years later he wrote, "These
stories were published... in Magazines and Annuals, extending
over a period of ten or twelve years, and comprising the whole
of the writer's young manhood, without making (so far as he
has ever been aware) the slightest impression on the public.
"Contemporary critic Edgar Allan Poe disagreed, referring to
Hawthorne's short stories as "the products of a truly imaginative
intellect".