Young Goodman Brown
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Think about those images….
…do not forget them.
Summary
 A young puritan man reluctantly left his loving wife to meet with a
very suspicious unnamed man in the forest around his home town.
After meeting this curiously dark individual, they talk about how
Goodman’s ancestors were friends with the cloaked man. The
dark man is trying to convince Goodman to follow him like so
many other people, including very powerful holy men, have
chosen to do. Hawthorne nearly stated that the man that
Goodman is talking to is the devil himself. Goodman however is
not convinced that he should follow the mysterious man. An old
woman that had taught Goodman about the church talks of
witchcraft with the devil while Goodman hides in the bushes.
Goodman is still unconvinced that following the old man is a
good idea.
Summary (continued)
 However as he waits by the path as he was told to do, his pastor
comes and makes known that he is in the devil’s ring of friends.
Mr. Brown is wavering but does not give in because of his wife.
That is until he hears a crowd of people chanting before hearing
his wife’s screams. He then is forced into a temporary insanity and
runs into a group of people from his town in a ring singing an evil
song. Goodman’s pastor then brings him out to the middle along
with his wife. They are forced to accept the evil of the world.
Goodman then screams at his wife to stay true to the lord and
finds himself in the middle of the forest. He doubts whether this
actually happened and is forever distrustful and hateful of
everyone.
Characters
 Young Goodman Brown
 Faith
 Unnamed Man in the Forest
 Goody Cloyse
 Minister
 Old Goodman Brown
Goodman Brown and his “Faith”
 Goodman Brown leaves his Faith (his wife) at home.
Although she asks him to stay , there is something he
must do.
 Faith- very childlike, wears pink ribbons in her hair.
 Faith is innocence also she is Goodman Brown’s
innocent faith.
 Goodman is a “good man”
Literary Devices
• Symbolism
• Allegory
• Imagery
Symbolism
o Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas
and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings
that are different from their literal sense.
o Symbolism can take different forms. Generally, it is an
object representing another to give it an entirely
different meaning that is much deeper and more
significant. Sometimes, however, an action, an event or
a word spoken by someone may have a symbolic value.
For instance, “smile” is a symbol of friendship.
Similarly, the action of someone smiling at you may
stand as a symbol of the feeling of affection which that
person has for you.
Faith’s Pink Ribbons
o Symbolism: Faith’s pink ribbons represent the
difference between the positive and negative aspects
that Brown sees when he sees his wife Faith. The pink
representing the positive.
o This is also a comparison between his own
faith/religion.
o Brown tells the man he meets in the woods that “Faith
kept me back a while.” This statement contains two
meanings:
o His wife, Faith, made him late.
o His religious Faith almost kept him from the journey.
Allegory
o Allegory is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas
and principles are described in terms of characters,
figures and events. It can be employed in prose and
poetry to tell a story with a purpose of teaching an idea
and a principle or explaining an idea or a principle. The
objective of its use is to preach some kind of a moral
lesson.
The Fall of Man
o Allegory: “Young Goodman Brown” functions as an
allegory of the fall of man,.
o Brown gives in to temptations and desires.
o Hawthorne sets up a story of a man who is tempted by
the devil and succumbs because of his curiosity and the
weakness of his faith.
o Brown says to his wife before the altar in the
woods:“Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!”
Differences between
Symbolism and Allegory
o Although an allegory uses symbols, it is different
from symbolism. An allegory is a
complete narrative which involves characters, and
events that stand for an abstract idea or an event. A
symbol, on the other hand, is an object that stands for
another object giving it a particular meaning. Unlike
allegory, symbolism does not tell a story.
Imagery
o Imagery means to use figurative language to
represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way
that it appeals to our physical senses.
o Usually it is thought that imagery makes use of
particular words that create visual representation of
ideas in our minds. The word imagery is associated with
mental pictures. However, this idea is but partially
correct. Imagery, to be realistic, turns out to be more
complex than just a picture.
The Woods/Forest
o Imagery :“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, and closed
immediately.
o Forest: isolated and unpredictable
o Goodman Brown: secluded and uncertain
Literary Connections
 Hawthorne’s life vs. work
 Hawthorne’s guilt of ancestors’ judgment of the Salem trails shows
through his work.
 There’s a constant reference to the Salem trials.
 The stories show the harshness of Puritan times.
 Goodman Brown vs. other stories
 There were similar settings.
 All stories took place in Puritan times.
 Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter took place in Salem
 There were similar conflicts within the stories.
 The main character in the stories had to confront sin in some
way.
 Some characters hid beneath their sin and were secluded
from life, or they were (in the case of Goodman Brown) trying
to be converted to being controlled by their sin by Satan.
Literary and Life Connections
o The major overall relation Yong Goldman Brown has to our daily lives is that
not everyone is perfect. Going into the story when Goldman meets all the
people he knows including his wife at the meeting with the devil, he
understands that even though they were good people, anyone can be tempted to
do bad.
o We tend to do what the people close to us are doing. Goodman finally gave in
and went to the meeting after knowing that his wife was attending it as well.
Not knowing that, he would have resisted the temptation and still walked with
the Lord.
o Basically in life, we go through certain situations for a reason. Even though he
never knew what had happened that night whether or not he was dreaming, but
in the end he learned something from that experience. We shouldn’t take things
for granted and accept that we can’t be perfect but try to do things perfectly.
Young Goodman Brown Passages
Paragraph 13, 14:
But the only thing about him that
could be fixed upon as remarkable was
his staff, which bore the likeness of a
great black snake, so curiously wrought
that it might almost be seen to twist
and wriggle itself like a living serpent.
This, of course, must have been an
ocular deception, assisted by the
uncertain light.
“Come, Goodman Brown,” cried his
fellow-traveler, “this is a dull pace for
the beginning of a journey. Take my
staff, if you are so soon weary.”
After finishing the story, the reader might
realize that this is important to the plot for
several reasons:

The man, who is revealed to be the devil
at the end of the story, carries staff which
looks like a snake. The snake is a symbol
commonly associated with the devil, or
with trickery and deception, and it is
stated that the way the staff imitates a
snake is just a trick of light.

When the man offers Goodman Brown
his staff, he is, in a very subtle way, trying
to tempt the Goodman, as Satan is
constantly trying to tempt humanity. In
the bible, specifically the book of Job,
Satan is allowed to tempt Job away from
God by torturing him and taking away
everything he has, short of actually killing
him. In the book of Matthew, chapter
four, Satan tries to tempt Jesus after he
has been fasting in the wilderness for
forty days and forty nights.
Discussion Questions
1. Could this story be all a dream?
2. Who can we infer the man that Goodman Brown walking
with is? Satan?
3. What was significant about the wide variety of people
portrayed to be demonic?
4. What is the significance about the wife’s name?