“THE FALL OF THE GOODMAN IN NATANIEL HAWTHRONE’S YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN”
Nathaniel Hawthrone wrote this short story Young Goodman Brown in the Romantic Period. Characteristics of the American Romantic period include a fascination with the supernatural, an impulse toward reform, the celebration of the individual, a reverence for nature, and the idealization of women.
The fall of the Goodman in this short story because of his decision to go to forest at night and he turns to devil. At the first paragraph of the short story, he decides to leave his wife at home and go to the forest.
“Young Goodman Brown came forth at sunset into the street at Salem village; but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap while she called to Goodman Brown. ”
Hawthrone presents the character Young Goodman brown and Faith as his wife. The symbolism of the names, Young Goodman Brown symbolizes the innocence of young, good men, who are all tempted and to some extent all give in and Faith symbolizes the Young Goodman’s Brown faith.
This short story takes place in Salem Village that remains the most notorious colonial town in American History, famous for its witch trials in 1692 (dramatized brilliantly by Arthur Miller in The Crucible). At the core of the Salem Witch Trials was the hypocrisy of the town's more prominent citizens and the stupidity and pride of the town's clergy in encouraging the trials to take place. It would not be a stretch, therefore, to assume that the "good people" of Salem would have communed with the devil (symbolically speaking). Hawthorne had a personal connection with the trials, being a descendant of one of Salem's prominent judges who sentenced several "witches" to death.
The fall of this Young Goodman Brown by leaving his wife and go to the forest. Although Brown dies a bitter man, blaming the wickedness and hypocrisy of others, he leaves his Faith first. Puritans believed the woods or the forest to be the habitat of the devil. The woods in "Young Goodman Brown" are an obvious symbol of the devil's abode. It can be construed further as the journey into sin and darkness. The pink ribbons that Faith puts in her cap represent her purity. The color pink is associated with innocence and gaiety, and ribbons themselves are a modest, innocent decoration. Hawthrone mentions Faith’s pink ribbons several times at the beginning of the story, imbuing her charater with youthfulness and happiness.
“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 afeard of herself sometimes. Pray tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year.”
Young Goodman Brown sounds like a real dork, leaving his poor wife alone after being married for only three months. Faith is obviously a symbol and Young Goodman Brown is denying his faith and intends to make a pact with the devil. Although no specific sin is mentioned and Young Goodman Brown’s journey is symbolic of embracing sin in general, it can be assumed that a young man taking off at dark and not returning until the morning is probably being unfaithful to his marriage covenant. Young Goodman Brown gets what's coming to him when he spots Faith in the forest. He should have realized that "a lone woman is troubled" and that there are plenty of forest dwellers who enjoy taking advantage of lonely, troubled women, whose husbands tramp about at ridiculous hours. Faith has a warn him that she has such afeard that something might happen, but Young Goodman Brown still leaves her. He should stay at home.
Loss of the innocent
“With this excellent resolve for the future, Goodman Brown felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose. 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 behind. 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.”
In this paragraph, Young Goodman Brown has engaged in an ironic self deception, believing his iniquitous acts have no consequences. It is this same mentality that deceives humans into racking up credit card debt, buying things they cannot afford, eating themselves into obesity, smoking, not saving for retirement, committing adultery, waiting until the night before an assignment is due to do it, and achieving mediocrity (learn how to avoid this mentality by setting goals).
He goes to the forest that symbolized as the place of the devil. He is lonely for take a walk in the forest and might be afraid. “the traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead”; This is the problem Young Goodman Brown does not take into account. He has set foot on a treacherous path and despite his future resolve to mend his ways, he may not get a chance on account of the "innumerable trunks and thick boughs overhead." And then a man joins him in his journey.
“beheld the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree. He arose at Goodman Brown's approach and walked onward side by side with him.”
Young Goodman Brown should not let anyone joins in his journey. Because as we know that anyone that mysteriously appear and join in our journey, we’ll take the wrong way or they could ruin our journey. The devil is dressed decently enough. He does not resemble the traditional image of a horned, tailed figure with a pitchfork. In fact, he bears a resemblance to YGB and "had an indescribable air of one who knew the world." If not for the fact he resided in the devil's domain, he would be difficult to detect. Note the pun: "grave means serious and where dead people go."
“It was now deep dusk in the forest, and deepest in that part of it where these two were journeying. As nearly as could be discerned, the second traveller was about fifty years old, apparently in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to him, though perhaps more in expression than features. Still they might have been taken for father and son. And yet, though the elder person was as simply clad as the younger, and as simple in manner too, he had an indescribable air of one who knew the world, and who would not have felt abashed at the governor's dinner table or in King William's court, were it possible that his affairs should call him thither. 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.”
In this paragraph, two people come along and join with Young Goodman Brown and the unknown man. These two men represent the devil and they have plan for him but he don’t recognize it. He refuses that it could his father and grandfather. One man brings a great black snake just like a living serpent as his staff. It is represented as the devil’s staff, which is encircled by a carved serpent, draws from the biblical symbol of the serpent as an evil demon. In the Book of Genesis, the serpent tempts Eve to taste the fruit from the forbidden tree, defying God’s will and bringing his wrath upon humanity.
“Of this fact, however, Goodman Brown could not take cognizance. He had cast up his eyes in astonishment, and, looking down again, beheld neither Goody Cloyse nor the serpentine staff, but his fellow-traveller alone, who waited for him as calmly as if nothing had happened.”
Young Goodman Brown can’t accept that the people in his village turn to devil. He couldn’t say anything when he knows the truth.
“in a gloomy hollow of the road, Goodman Brown sat himself down on the stump of a tree and refused to go any farther.”
“Without more words, he threw his companion the maple stick, and was as speedily out of sight as if he had vanished into the deepening gloom. The young man sat a few moments by the roadside, applauding himself greatly, and thinking with how clear a conscience he should meet the minister in his morning walk, nor shrink from the eye of good old Deacon Gookin.”
Young Goodman Brown fails to realize that the sin has been committed and that he has no real reason to applaud himself or to have a clear conscience. That would be like heading to a strip bar and applauding oneself for not buying a lap dance. Irony soon follows as the reverend and the deacon pass by.
“"Of the two, reverend sir," said the voice like the deacon's, "I had rather miss an ordination dinner than to-night's meeting. They tell me that some of our community are to be here from Falmouth and beyond, and others from Connecticut and Rhode Island, besides several of the Indian powwows, who, after their fashion, know almost as much deviltry as the best of us. Moreover, there is a goodly young woman to be taken into communion."”
Don't you hate it when everything you thought was good isn't? It would be like finding out politicians are corrupt, or professional athletes use steroids, or that college football coaches cheat. What a horrible world that would be. What Young Goodman Brwon doesn't realize is that everyone is guilty of sin, even those whom he considers above reproach. Perhaps Young Goodman’s Brown faith is misplaced.
The Weakness of Pubic Morality
“The hoofs clattered again; and the voices, talking so strangely in the empty air, passed on through the forest, where no church had ever been gathered or solitary Christian prayed. Whither, then, could these holy men be journeying so deep into the heathen wilderness? Young Goodman Brown caught hold of a tree for support, being ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened with the heavy sickness of his heart. He looked up to the sky, doubting whether there really was a heaven above him. Yet there was the blue arch, and the stars brightening in it.”
“Once the listener fancied that he could distinguish the accents of towns-people of his own, men and women, both pious and ungodly, many of whom he had met at the communion table, and had seen others rioting at the tavern. The next moment, so indistinct were the sounds, he doubted whether he had heard aught but the murmur of the old forest, whispering without a wind. Then came a stronger swell of those familiar tones, heard daily in the sunshine at Salem village, but never until now from a cloud of night There was one voice of a young woman, uttering lamentations, yet with an uncertain sorrow, and entreating for some favor, which, perhaps, it would grieve her to obtain; and all the unseen multitude, both saints and sinners, seemed to encourage her onward.”
Young Goodman Brown sees the corruptibility that results from Puritan society’s emphasis on public morality, which often weakens private religious faith. Although Goodman Brown has decided to come into the forest and meet with the devil, he still hides when he sees Goody Cloyse and hears the minister and Deacon Gookin. He seems more concerned with how his faith appears to other people than with the fact that he has decided to meet with the devil. Goodman Brown’s religious convictions are rooted in his belief that those around him are also religious. This kind of faith, which depends so much on other people’s views, is easily weakened. When Goodman Brown discovers that his father, grandfather, Goody Cloyse, the minister, Deacon Gookin, and Faith are all in league with the devil, Goodman Brown quickly decides that he might as well do the same. Hawthrone seems to suggest that the danger of basing a society on moral principles and religious faith lies in the fact that member of the society don’t arrive at their own moral decisions. When they copy the beliefs of the people around them, their faith becomes weak and rootless.
“The cry of grief, rage, and terror was yet piercing the night, when the unhappy husband held his breath for a response. There was a scream, drowned immediately in a louder murmur of voices, fading into far-off laughter, as the dark cloud swept away, leaving the clear and silent sky above Goodman Brown. But something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon.”“"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."
When the pink ribbons flutters down from the sky, Goodman Brown perceives it as a sign that Faith has definitely fallen into realm of the devil. Young Goodman Brown finds that Faith is present the ceremony, it changes all his ideas about what is good or bad in the world, taking away his strength and ability to resist.
“"You will think better of this by and by," said his acquaintance, composedly. "Sit here and rest yourself a while; and when you feel like moving again, there is my staff to help you along."”
The staff makes clear that the old man is more demon than human and that Young Goodman Brown, when he takes the staff for himself, is on the path toward evil as well.
“Another verse of the hymn arose, a slow and mournful strain, such as the pious love, but joined to words which expressed all that our nature can conceive of sin, and darkly hinted at far more. Unfathomable to mere mortals is the lore of fiends. Verse after verse was sung; and still the chorus of the desert swelled between like the deepest tone of a mighty organ; and with the final peal of that dreadful anthem there came a sound, as if the roaring wind, the rushing streams, the howling beasts, and every other voice of the unconcerted wilderness were mingling and according with the voice of guilty man in homage to the prince of all. The four blazing pines threw up a loftier flame, and obscurely discovered shapes and visages of horror on the smoke wreaths above the impious assembly. “
Young Goodman Brown is near the place of the ceremony of witch. The hymn and song that are played represent that he is in the place of the ceremony of the witch-the devil. It means that he is closer to turn himself to the devil.
“ At the word, Goodman Brown stepped forth from the shadow of the trees and approached the congregation, with whom he felt a loathful brotherhood by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart. He could have well-nigh sworn that the shape of his own dead father beckoned him to advance, looking downward from a smoke wreath, while a woman, with dim features of despair, threw out her hand to warn him back. Was it his mother? But he had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought, when the minister and good old Deacon Gookin seized his arms and led him to the blazing rock. Thither came also the slender form of a veiled female, led between Goody Cloyse, that pious teacher of the catechism, and Martha Carrier, who had received the devil's promise to be queen of hell. A rampant hag was she. And there stood the proselytes beneath the canopy of fire.”
“"Welcome, my children," said the dark figure, "to the communion of your race. Ye have found thus young your nature and your destiny. My children, look behind you!"”
“They turned; and flashing forth, as it were, in a sheet of flame, the fiend worshippers were seen; the smile of welcome gleamed darkly on every visage.”
They start the ceremony. Goodman Brown can do nothing. He can’t ignore himself to go there. He is going to become a devil. Martha Carrier is the hell queen starts the ceremony and lead it till the end.
“"Lo, there ye stand, my children," said the figure, in a deep and solemn tone, almost sad with its despairing awfulness, as if his once angelic nature could yet mourn for our miserable race. "Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race."”
Young Goodman Brown certainly never expected that all were evil by nature, symbolizing his loss of innocence. Even Faith, his trusting wife is not pure as he imagined. He certainly did not expect that.
“And there they stood, the only pair, as it seemed, who were yet hesitating on the verge of wickedness in this dark world. A basin was hollowed, naturally, in the rock. Did it contain water, reddened by the lurid light? or was it blood? or, perchance, a liquid flame? Herein did the shape of evil dip his hand and prepare to lay the mark of baptism upon their foreheads, that they might be partakers of the mystery of sin, more conscious of the secret guilt of others, both in deed and thought, than they could now be of their own. The husband cast one look at his pale wife, and Faith at him. What polluted wretches would the next glance show them to each other, shuddering alike at what they disclosed and what they saw!”
The witch baptized Young Goodman Brown with blood and put the shape of evil in his forehead as the symbolism of the devil. She wants to make Young Goodman Brown completely turn to devil by give him the demon shape.
