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The Story of Young Goodman Brown

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Destruction of Faith: The Story of Young Goodman Brown The story of “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, chronicles the dream of a young man struggling with his beliefs in the Puritan society in Salem. In the dream, Goodman Brown is forced to examine evil as it exists in men and struggles to maintain the balance with the good that he knows. He becomes acutely aware of evil through his encounter with the devil, and is completely disillusioned from the experience. The significance of the text relies heavily on the reader being able to discover the meaning of Goodman Brown’s encounter in the woods. The story begins with Goodman Brown’s leaving his wife Faith to run a late night errand. Though she makes an attempt to deter his departure he still goes. Faith is his conscience, the purveyor of something good, which is what Goodman hopes for. Hawthorne writes that Goodman Brown believes Faith “is a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night, I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven”. Goodman Brown hopes that Faith, his love, will redeem him after he completes his “evil purpose” (Hawthorne). When he encounters the devil he uses the pull of his conscience, “Faith”, as the reason for his late arrival, he states that “Faith kept me back awhile” (Hawthorne). Goodman’s statement magnifies his awareness of his conscience and faith in God, as he accepts that the meeting in the woods will not bring good but evil. When he encounters the “fellow traveler” he notes the resemblance he has with him, though a difference in age was noticeable. He finds nothing significant about the man himself, but notes his staff because the staff “bore the likeness of a great black snake” (Hawthorne). The staff directly correlates to evil, because it is symbolic of the serpent in biblical times in the story of Adam and Eve. In the Bible the staff leads to

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