In “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne makes the reader believe that Goodman Brown has learned that truth about the world and how evil it really is. In the story the accounts of Goodman Brown let you believe that he has truly seen the evil in the world and knows what lurks behind everybody masks. He makes you realize that even though the person may look holy and religious that evilness is all around us and most people will never ever find out the truth.
The character Young Goodman Brown written by Nathaniel Hawthorne finds many issues of evil concerning the town’s people in which he lives, about himself, and the reality behind the evil. In the story “Young Goodman Brown” Goodman Brown learns about evil in the towns people and how what he thought was the truth is really not. When Goodman Brown starts his voyage he knew what he was going in the woods to do, what he didn’t realize is that the same reason he went to the woods was the same reason as the towns people.
When Goodman encounters Goody Cloyse in the woods he is shocked that he sees her out there “A marvel, truly, that Goody Cloyse should be so far in the wilderness at night fall. ”(Hawthorne 98) When he learns of her travels and of how she is acquainted with the old man he is in disbelieve that a women that taught him religion is evil. When Goody asks the old man for a hand to take her to a communion he offers her cane and throws it down when it hits the ground it turns alive and Goody Close disappears. Leading you to believe that she is just an imagination to get Brown to believe in the evil.
Goodman Brown also sees other town’s members in the woods such as highly respected people such as Deacon Gookin, and even his wife Faith. When Brown learns of Faith participating in this gathering in the woods he is distraught he loses his mind and goes crazy. Goodman brown learns valuable lessons in the woods about his town and the people and about the world. His journey changed the way he looked at things when he awoke from that night his feelings towards the people changed he believed that everybody is evil.
Goodman Brown learns many things about himself when he takes that journey into the woods, among many if his faith. His faith is presented in many ways but most importantly as his wife Faith. Faith is a very pretty woman who wears a pink ribbon in her hair; the pink ribbon symbolizes her innocence towards the world. Faith also symbolizes Goodman Browns faith, you learn this when he meets the old man in the woods and the old man say he was late Brown replied that faith kept him.
Faith kept me back awhile. ”(97). When Faith tells Goodman of her dream and how she doesn’t want him to go he she is almost foreshadowing events to come. Goodman’s wife Faith that in actuality his is faith in good almost kept him from his journey. As the story progress Goodman Brown is slowly losing his faith, when Brown is in hiding in the woods he hears his wife Faith and then sees her pink ribbon fall from the sky Brown had completely lost his faith as long as his sanity.
Brown learns the most important lesson of all after the night he learns that the towns people where just like him, even though he changed his mind halfway through his journey he was still led into the woods by evil. He learns that even though a person maybe be religious and look like to have no flaws there is always evil inside and the whole world is evil also “the whole earth one stain of guilt, one mighty blood spot. ”(103) The story of “Young Goodman Brown” can be interpreted in many ways there is so many symbols and hiding meanings in the story that any interpretations can be right.
Goodman Brown becomes insane throughout the story even though Hawthorne does not directly tell you this there are points in the story that you can take and realize this. I feel that Goodman Brown loses totally sanity when he hears faith in the woods and begins to run very fast. I believe that this never really happened to Goodman or it did but it was a hallucination created by evil or the devil. Goodman never really sees the people in the woods it was something created by the devil as almost a prank.
The biggest indication that this would not be real is when Goody Cloyse just disappears in front of his eyes. Another interpretation that could be is that the devil wanted to prove that Goodman is just like everybody else in the world they all sin and are led by temptation, temptation being the party held by the devil in the woods. The devil ultimately succeeds in his task in showing Brown that the world is all the same as him, because when he eventually passes way on his tombstone “they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone; for his dying hour was gloom.
Goodman Brown goes through much in this story he learns a lot and also loses a lot. He has to make important choices in situations. Evil eventually conquers him an everything he believes in. The evil that he finds in the people leads him to live a horrible life in which he finds everyone to be evil and sinners. The character Young Goodman Brown written by Nathaniel Hawthorne finds many issues of evil concerning the town’s people in which he lives, about himself, and the reality behind the evil.