Nathaniel Hawthorne's story of "Young Goodman Brown"
introduces us to a pious Christian man who leaves his newly-wed wife to travel in the
forest for an undisclosed reason. At the center of the story is Brown's
perceptions of the world, compared with the
realities—specifically with regard to his religious
beliefs.
This story includes themes common in Hawthorne's
work:
...exploring the evil actions of humans and the
idea of original sin.
As he
enters the woods (where Puritans believed the Devil lived), Brown meets an old man who
is really the Devil, but Brown doesn't know this. As they walk, Brown senses evil nearby
and looks to his ancestors, his religious leaders and his wife, to strengthen his own
resolve to resist it. However, in each case, he learns none of them are what they seem
and that each has been in "congress" with the Devil. At the end, when the Black Mass
starts, Brown sees his wife and tells her to turn away from evil. In a flash, he finds
himself alone. Returning to town, not knowing if what happened was real or a dream—or
Faith's answer in either case—Brown turns his back on his community for their sins;
isolated from everyone, even his wife, he dies a miserable, lonely, unloved old
man.
The bottom line is that there is sin in everyone: no
one, not even Brown himself, is pure. However, Hawthorne's story is believed by many to
be:
...one of
the most effective literary works to address the hysteria surrounding the Salem Witch
Trials of 1692.
In the
Puritanical society in Salem Town, Massachusetts, on the word of several young girls,
twenty-five adults were convicted of witchcraft: nineteen people were hanged; one man in
his eighties refused to answer the accusations against him, Giles Corey, and was pressed
to death. (It is said that when he was told again to confess, he replied, "More
weight.") Five others died in prison. It seems that the Puritans' lack of tolerance for
any kind of sin (even sleeping in church) allowed only for penalty,
not forgiveness. (It is said that it was stopped when the governor's wife was
accused.)
It is easy, then, to see Hawthorne's parallel of
those events to what is portrayed in the story of "Young Goodman Brown".
Brown is symbolic of Puritan society ("the" religion and law then)
which could not abide any kind of sin. This inflexibility not only
cost people their lives, but was ultimately the death knell of the Puritan faith. Brown
also suffers the fate of the Puritan religion. Over time, he became
alienated from the society at large for his inability to accept and forgive the sinful
nature of humanity. He felt comfortable about his faith and that of
his ancestors and fellow townspeople, yet when confronted by the truth, his mind cannot
accept the reality of man's sinful nature. A biblical tenant states that
all people sin, but Brown represents those who believed that
righteous living meant a sinless life: an
impossibility.
Had Brown stayed at home, his wife would not
have gone out, so what is Brown's responsibility?—to support those around him, not to
condemn them.
In terms of a thesis, it depends on
your response to the reading. For me, it would
be:
Regardless of one’s beliefs, should they be
challenged, a person must not lose faith in what is important to him; he should not
blame others who do not live up to his expectations—or judge them,
but keep to his own
truth.
After all, no one is
perfect, and that is, unrealistically, what Brown wanted.
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