The short story, Young Goodman Brown is written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the year 1835. Young Goodman Brown is about the story of a man with the same name who had lost his faith and trust to the people and to the community where he lives in. His trust and faith was lost when he began to find out that everything is not what it seems in the community that he lives in with his wife of three months, Faith. He came to realize that behind the communitys puritanical beliefs and practices are people who worship the devil. It seems that everybody is living a double life. His journey in the forest had enabled him to learn that everybody in the community is practicing witchcraft when the townspeople convened in the forest at night. Knowing the negative side of the community had totally change Browns perspective and his way of life. He had totally lost trust upon knowing that the even the pillars of the community are not what they seem. Because of it, he became disenchanted with life and he died a lonely and a cynical man for he failed to trust the people that surround him. Hawthorne, the writer of the story is known to have a puritan upbringing and lives in a New England town. He and Goodman Brown had that in common. But whether or not Hawthorne had lost faith in the community that he lives in is something that the story does not tell. On the other hand, the community that Hawthorne lives in had greatly influenced the story, on the way that he viewed their way of life and in the way that they practice their religion.
Hawthornes story is set in a puritan town of Salem that practices traditions and beliefs in the most puritanical sense of the word. Brown is a newly married man who had decided to embark on a journey in the forest. The true purpose of the trip was not divulged but it was described as being perilous and something that he must do that night. On his journey, Browns faith and his beliefs about God and of the goodness of the community has been put to a test. As he traveled towards the heart of the forest, he had met various characters from his community and came to realize that they are living a double life. The people in the community are known to be noble and religious. They have let everyone see their fastidiousness and their goodness but beneath the façade is a community that practices witchcraft, short of worshipping the devil. Everybody he knows seems to be at it which includes his wife. Brown resisted the urge to become like them when he declined the initiation rites that the villagers had prepared for him. He does not want to belong and he does not want to practice witchcraft for it is a far cry to what he believes in. Knowing the negative side of the people in his community had changed Brown considerably. He had lost faith and his family life was affected. His life did not end in death but it ended at the time when realization came to him that the people that he knew are not what they seem.
Hawthorne in general had despised the community that he lives in for he seemed to relish in reveling the not so good side of the community and of the religion that he is practicing. History will tell you that the Puritans are not faultless individuals. They were known to have practice their religion to the extreme that causes harms to others who does not practice the same religious as theirs. Writing this story might be his way of resisting the norms of the community and of the puritan way of life. Brown had resisted it and so is Hawthorne through his work. The story is Hawthornes way of saying that he wants to take a different route. A route where there is no hypocrisy. He does not want to follow the customs and traditions to which he is born with for he learned that it is not as perfect as the community perceived it to be. He is known to have hated the idea that his family had played a role in the prosecution of the witches of Salem that had resulted to the death of a number of innocent victims. On a different perspective, Hawthorne might be too idealistic for his own good. He failed to realize that there are two sides of every coin, that everything has a negative and positive side. His community and his family have that too.
The story can be considered as a way for Hawthorne to reveal the customs, traditions and practices of his community that he does not want to practice or he wants to change. Not because he despise the Puritan way of life but because the community that he belongs to is not truly practicing Puritan beliefs in every sense of the word. Goodman Browns first steps into the woods symbolize the ambivalence of a faithful Puritan. He knows full well his evil intentions, knows himself for the sinner he is, but he has convinced himself nonetheless that he is a saint and will ultimately go to heaven. (Reis) (199) Though the story is written in an objective way, still, it reveals the not so good side of their community. It shows the hypocrisy of the people with the way that they make harsh judgments. They failed to realize that their harsh decisions had ruined others. That behind the façade of goodness and purity is their not so good side. Hawthornes story is a revelation of its own. It seems to tell its readers that everything is not what is seems. It is also sending a message to the readers that once the trust of a person is broken it will be hard to mend it. Hawthornes trust might have been broken and so is Young Goodman Brown.
A number of lives were ruined in the story. Goodman Browns life was never the same after his journey in the woods. Even his family life had suffered. He no longer is the same man who is sweet and loving to his wife. Change is inevitable once the realization seeped in. He seems to be an unforgiving person too. The story seems to deliver the message that the truth hurts and sometimes it could ruin a mans life.
Brown became a jaded man who despised the Puritan community. Not because of their way of life but because there are people who are not true to their word which includes his father and grandfather before him. Hawthorne despises the same community. He knew from history that his family had played an important role in the death of those innocent people who were prosecuted mercilessly during the Salem witch trial. Hawthorne condemned it so much that he is known to have changed his name because of it. Hawthorne had incorporated the said fact to the story. Goodman Brown knew of the not so honorable ways of his father and grandfather. I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and thats no trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Phillips war. They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily at midnight. (Hawthorne) (12) The devil had told him about it. But whether to verify its truthfulness or not is something that Brown didnt do. Brown is an idealist to the core and that is one of his failings.
Goodman Brown concludes, for example, that everyone has given in to Satans temptations-that he is the only goodman left in town- and he distrusts his neighbors and his wife for the rest of his gloomy life. Hawthorne thereby critiques Puritan introspectiveness-the tendency to examine oneself for evidence of salvation-but the ideas that Goldman Browns situation illustrates certainly transcend that historical time and place. For one thing, Hawthorne toys with his readers throughout the tale, suggesting that Goodman Brown is only dreaming. (Person,(42) However, if Goodman Brown were just dreaming of the incident that took place that night. Why did he choose to wallow on it, to let it change his life and his relationship with his wife and of the community? Perhaps, the dream is just an analogy of what truly happens. Hawthorne had lost faith of the puritan ideals, thus, the story.
Indeed, Hawthornes community and environment had influenced in this story. However, the influence did not help him become the person that the community wants him to be. The communitys practices had made him want to become different. He does not want to become the person that he had despised. Hawthorne wants to be a practicing Puritan through and through but he cannot expect his community to the same, thus the story. Hawthorne and Goodman had a lot of things in common for he chose to voice out his concern. Writing this story had enabled him to deliver his message.
really a good story