young goodman brown symbolism essay

A Summary and Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Young Goodman Brown’ (1835) is one of the most famous stories by the American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Inspired in part by the Salem witch craze of 1692, the story is a powerful exploration of the dark side of human nature. How Hawthorne loads his story with such power is worthy of some closer analysis, but before we get there, you can read ‘Young Goodman Brown’ here .

Let’s begin with a summary of the story’s plot. We have  analysed the story’s symbolism in a separate post .

Plot summary

In the village of Salem one evening, a young man named Goodman Brown bids farewell to his wife, Faith. Faith wants him to stay with her, but Goodman Brown says he needs to travel tonight. When he leaves her, he vows to himself that he will be good after his business is done tonight.

He meets an old men dressed in ‘grave and decent attire’, as he is travelling on the road. This man has a staff in his hand which resembles a snake. Sensing his young companion is weary, the man offers Goodman Brown the staff but Goodman Brown declines. Indeed, he has honoured his promise to meet with the man tonight, but he has misgivings about it, and wants to turn back and go home. He is a good Christian, and his ancestors were good Christians, and he doesn’t want to get involved.

The man with the staff responds by saying that he knew Goodman Brown’s father and grandfather as well as numerous other high-profile Christians in the state, including the governor himself.

Goodman Brown asks how he will be able to look his minister in the face if he goes on with the business they have planned. This amuses the older man, although when Goodman Brown expresses his fears concerning his wife, Faith, the man is more sympathetic, and reassures him that Faith will come to no harm.

As they walk deeper into the woods, Goodman Brown recognises Goody Cloyse, the old woman who taught him religious instruction when he was a child. As she is well-respected back in his village, he doesn’t want her to recognise him and see him with the strange man with the staff, so he tells the older man that he will come off the path until they have passed the woman.

From the trees, Goodman Brown is astonished when the older man, upon reaching Goody Cloyse, taps her on the shoulder with his snake-staff, and she recognises him as ‘the Devil’. It turns out she is actually a witch (she even cackles) and is accompanying the man to their sabbath!

The two of them talk of young Goodman Brown, whom they will be initiating into their ‘communion’ tonight. Goodman Brown watches as the woman takes the man’s staff and promptly vanishes. He then rejoins the man on the path, shocked by what he has witnessed.

They continue on for a while, but then Goodman Brown has second thoughts again, and sits down, determined not to go any further. But the older man tells him he will think better of it. Two riders approach, who are clearly also involved in the ‘deviltry’ of the night, and as Goodman Brown and his companion walk on, they hear a woman lamenting, and then a scream.

A pink ribbon floats through the air to him, such as his wife Faith wore. ‘My Faith is gone!’ Goodman Brown cries.

Realising all hope is lost, he becomes almost possessed by demonic despair and powers on through the forest, laughing wildly. He stumbles into a clearing in the woods, where a black mass or witches’ sabbath appears to be taking place, featuring many people he recognises, including Deacon Gookin.

He then sees a veiled figure, who turns out to be his wife, Faith, who is a member of the sinful community gathered there. Blood is presented in a bowl, preparatory to the ‘baptism’ initiating the new converts. However, Goodman Brown resists, before staggering against a rock.

The next morning, he returns to Salem village, and everyone from the witches’ sabbath is acting as usual: Goody Cloyse is catechising a child, and Deacon Gookin is praying, while Faith welcomes her husband with joy. We are led to doubt whether what he witnessed the night before actually happened.

Was it all a dream? Either way, he becomes a sterner man thereafter, very ‘distrustful’, seeing sin everywhere. He becomes distant from his own wife. The story ends years in the future, with the narrator telling us that when Goodman Brown died, his neighbours ‘carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.’

Herman Melville, the author of Moby-Dick , thought ‘Young Goodman Brown’ was ‘deep as Dante’ in its exploration of the darker side of human nature.

The story is remarkable in its depiction of evil not least because it raises interesting questions about what it means to ‘become’ or ‘know’ evil. Young Goodman Brown actually resists the initiation in the woodland clearing, involving the blood-baptism, but the story suggests that this doesn’t matter: he has still come to recognise evil and has thus been initiated into its ways.

If it’s true that the only two kinds of person who are wholly obsessed with evil are the very bad and the very good (in the sense of being puritanical about making sure everyone else is as ‘good’ as they are), then ‘Young Goodman Brown’ is as much a cautionary tale about being lured over to the ‘dark side’, because even if you don’t end up embracing it, it will already have embraced you. The Puritan is as possessed by ‘evil’ as the devil-worshipper they condemn; they’re just possessed in different ways.

In other words, Goodman Brown is clearly drawn to the world of sin and witchcraft, as his meeting with the older man with the snake-staff (the ‘serpent’ summoning the satanic snake from the Garden of Eden, of course, which tempted Eve) indicates. Once he has made the decision to go down to the woods tonight he was always going to be in for a big surprise.

The twist, of course, is that in leaving Faith (his wife) behind, he finds Faith again, in the woodland black sabbath, where she is at first veiled and then revealed to him. (Calling her ‘Faith’, by the way, is an inspired touch by Hawthorne; it was a popular woman’s name among Puritans, but it resonates with obviously symbolic significance in this story about faith and sin.)

‘Young Goodman Brown’, then, is a highly symbolic and suggestive story about the nature of evil and also the nature of puritanism: once the veil has been lifted, Young Goodman Brown sees evil everywhere, even where it may well not actually exist.

This last part is important: although Hawthorne leaves some room for ambiguity, and the narrator himself seems uncertain, if Goodman Brown did merely dream the events of the witches’ sabbath, that raises further questions. He already suspects those in authority around him, those who teach religion to the village children or who dutifully pray, of secretly harbouring evil desires and performing dark deeds. His dream was merely an enacting of these (paranoid) suspicions.

But his conviction that the dream was real, and that his wife, his minister, Goody Cloyse, and the others are all secretly marked by evil, suggests that extreme puritanism destroys one’s moral compass and leads to a life devoid of pleasure or meaning.

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2 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown’”

The symbolism in this story is as subtle as a ton of rocks. This is not one of my favorite Hawthorne stories.

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Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel hawthorne, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions, faith’s pink ribbons.

Hawthorne draws attention to Faith ’s pink ribbons in the story’s first few paragraphs, when she tries to convince Goodman Brown to stay at home. Delicate (Faith lets “the wind play with the pink ribbons)… read analysis of Faith’s pink ribbons

The devil’s serpent staff

When Goodman Brown meets the man whom Hawthorne later reveals to be the devil, Hawthorne draws attention to the man’s staff, which resembles a black serpent and almost seems to twist like a live snake… read analysis of The devil’s serpent staff

Analysis of the “Young Goodman Brown” Essay

First published in 1835, “Young Goodman Brown” is a poem by Nathaniel Hawthorne to reveal the corruptibility ensuing from the Puritan society’s emphasis on public morality. Leveraging the formalist, feminist, and postcolonial literary approaches, subjective analysis of the Young Goodman Brown poem highlight the motifs, techniques, and methodical and systematic styles utilized in the reading. First, the formalism approach advocates for methodical and systematic reading of the texts to delineate the figurative languages employed in a poem, such as an allegory, illusion, and symbols (Darma 17). Allegory is the interpretation of hidden meaning, and Hawthorne illustrates the allegory of the fall of a man. Symbolism is evident in the naming of Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith. For instance, Goodman told Faith: “Say thy prayers dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk,” (Hawthorne 1). The description of how Pharaoh’s court converted staves to serpents illustrates illusion in the poem.

Feminism or gender equality is highly featured in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” to depict women as discriminated against, powerless, non-influential, and powerless members of society. At first, Hawthorne was a protagonist perceiving women as saints. Hawthorne (3) reads: “There is my wife, Faith. I would break her dear little heart; and I’d rather break my own”. However, he gradually realizes women are not righteous as he thought, and women gain a negative connotation as cunning. Relevant to the poem, feminism sets the ground for Hawthorne’s journey to self-criticism.

Post colonialism is employed in “Young Goodman Brown” to distinguish cultural identity. The postcolonial aspects of race and identity when Hawthorne describes the dark figure narrating to the children the postcolonial identify of the black race as awful and miserable (Hawthorne 8). Postcolonial aspects of race and identity create an awareness of colonialism’s influence on social structure in the poem highlighted through the formalist, feminist, and postcolonial literacy.

Works Cited

Darma, Budi. “ Literature: Human Reality .” Welcoming Remark from the Chair Of The Organizing Committee. The 1 st International Conference on Education Language and Literature (ICON-ELITE). (2018). Web.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “ Young Goodman Brown .” Short Stories & Classic Literature for Readers & Teachers , n.d. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2023, November 14). Analysis of the "Young Goodman Brown". https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-the-young-goodman-brown/

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1. IvyPanda . "Analysis of the "Young Goodman Brown"." November 14, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-the-young-goodman-brown/.

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IvyPanda . "Analysis of the "Young Goodman Brown"." November 14, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/analysis-of-the-young-goodman-brown/.

Young Goodman Brown: Symbolism from a Dark Tale

How it works

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne tells a compelling story that brings readers to think about society set up by group values, principles, and the concept of personal moral decisions. The short story is enriched with symbolism that focuses on the everlasting battle between good and evil. Hawthorne creates a character to represent an everyday man, his journey on losing his innocence and entering the force of evil’s darkness. The story contains society corruption, the lack of personal moral choices, and an encounter with the devil himself.

While the story ends vague, the idea of Goodman not knowing if the devil encounter was reality or fantasy gives readers a hint that Goodman experience society corruption in front of his eyes or Goodman is having morbid thoughts. Good vs. Evil is the overall theme that is supported by the protagonist and his wife’s names, the wife’s pink ribbons, along with the story setting.

The protagonist’s name helps develop the short story’s overall theme. Goodman Brown is a play on words. Goodman can be separated into “good man”. While it is clear that the protagonist represents the average man, the irony of his name will stimulate the theme of the short story. Goodman is first presented as an innocent, godly man who is freshly married. Though, in the scholarly article, How Young Goodman Brown Became Old Badman Brown by Robert W. Cochran, the discussion of the symbolism Goodman’s name has appeared. Cochran states that Goodman was never a “good man” as he was the one to choose to leave his Faith (154). To support Mr. Cochran, as the short story furthers the corruption and consumption of evil come over our “good man”. Readers will quickly take note that Goodman Brown may present a “good man” to his society but when he sees his father, grandfather, Goody Cloyse, Deacon Gookin and his wife on the Devil’s side, he is quick to forget his personal morals and religious beliefs to follow the same footsteps as his community. As ironic as the protagonist’s name can be, he is not the only character in this chilling tale to have some irony behind their name.

The main character wife’s name developed the Good vs. Evil theme as well in the short story. Goodman Brown wife’s name is Faith. Her name symbolizes the faith Goodman Brown carries in his soul. Though at the start of the literature, readers are informed that Goodman is leaving his wife Faith at night to attend a mysterious journey. Goodman claims after the late night encounter he will never leave Faith’s side. “ She’s a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night, I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven” (Hawthorne 7). As the appearance of Mr. Brown’s wife disappears so does his own personal faith as well. In the scholarly article, Young Goodman Brown’s “Heart of Darkness” by Paul J. Hurley, the importance of Goodman Brown’s departure from his wife Faith is written. Hurley notes that Goodman leaving his wife Faith also was the beginning of him losing his faith (religious faith in this context) (412). “What a wretch am I, to leave her on such an errand! She talks of dreams, too. Methought, as she spoke, there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done to-night. But, no, no! ‘t would kill her to think it”(Hawthorne 7). Goodman Brown knows that this “errand” he is going to run will kill his Faith. In the scholarly article, Young Goodman Brown’s “Heart of Darkness” by Paul J. Hurley, Hurley claims that when Goodman Brown is being scolded for being late for the night encounter, he says that Faith held him back. Though Faith (his wife and his religious faith) did not stop him to continue his journey (413). Having an encounter with the devil made Goodman Brown become full of doubt, confusion, and loss of religious principles and values.

Though, innocence does not only comes from Faith’s name but her attire as well. The pink ribbons on Faith’s (the main character’s spouse) cap is a symbol to enrich the overall theme of Young Goodman Brown. In the short story, we are introduced with Faith wearing her cap with pink ribbons. Nathaniel Hawthorne describes Faith in the beginning as a bubbly, young, pure woman and her pink ribbons enhance Hawthorne’s image of Faith to readers. The color pink is often associated with modesty and innocence. The color pink is usually directed towards young girls especially on their clothes and their bedroom decor. Even ribbons are associated with delicacy, modesty, and pureness as they can be found in little girls’ hair, and their clothes like dresses, shoes, and socks. Readers can make the connection that the pink ribbons also further develops Nathaniel Hawthorne’s image for Goodman Brown’s wife. As readers continue to read the short narrative, Goodman sees familiar faces when meeting the devil including his wife, Faith. In the scholarly article, Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”: Cynicism or Meliorism? By Paul W. Miller, he touches upon what happens to Faith’s pink ribbons during their devil encounter. Miller proclaims when Goodman sees Faith’s pink ribbons fly away through the forest, it was a sign of Faith’s loss of innocence (260). “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” (Hawthorne 49). Removing those accessories from Faith is a sign of removing the element of innocence that Hawthorne added when creating the character Faith.

This also showed Goodman Brown that his image of his wife was wrong as she is not a bubbly, pure and modest woman but a woman who is committing the same sin as him. The tale may have mainly focused on the main character’s corruption, it fits the overall theme of Good Vs. Evil because Hawthorne hints to readers that Goodman is not the only character to become corrupted. To continue with the loss of innocence of Goodman Brown and Faith, the setting of tale helps support the overall theme. The narrative takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. In the 1600s, Salem was notorious for their Salem witch trials. The characters encountering with the devil, living in Salem during the time the Puritans lived there make readers question if this story was about the witch trials. In the scholarly article, The Sources of Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” by Fannye N. Cherry, the topic of characters being possible witches was discussed. Cherry claims, the characters Goodman sees at the encounter may be people with positions in their community, average folk during the day time but during the night time, they take part of these nightly activities, fitting the characteristics of being accused as a witch in Salem (345). To support Fannye Cherry’s claim, the fact that Goodman’s community does not react to the night encounter the next morning can help prove that Goodman’s community members may be witches or that it was all a bad dream. Historically in the Salem trials, the accused citizens were recorded as being tempted by the devil. So if Goodman Brown was dreaming the whole encounter, that must mean Goodman Brown could have some dark temptations that could have come from the devil himself. If Goodman Brown did not dream the encounter and it actually happened, the members that were involved could have pretended it did not happen. Like Cherry said, certain citizens that were accused were often labeled as average citizens during the day and witches at night so why would Goodman’s community bring up what happened at night when they are trying to keep it a secret during the day? The setting being Salem, Massassachussetts created a foundation to bring forth the chilling theme of Good Vs. Evil in the short story.

The unsettling narrative about Goodman Brown centers around the theme Good Vs. Evil by highlighting symbolisms that shows personal loss of innocence. The irony of Goodman Brown’s name shows readers that even though Goodman represents a “good man” at first but as the story continues, readers find out that Goodman is not actually oh-so-good. Goodman is not the only character with meaning in their names. Goodman’s wife Faith represents Goodman’s religious faith. Readers find out that Goodman leaves his wife Faith to go on this “errand” just like he left his religious faith when he attended the errand. Faith’s pink ribbons represent innocence and modesty by color and design. When Goodman sees the ribbons flying through the sky, Hawthorne hints that Faith has lost her innocence. Having Young Goodman Brown taking place in Salem, Massassachussetts sets the mood for the iconic battle between Good and Evil by introducing the historical Salem Witch Trials concept. Having Goodman see certain members of his community partake in the satanic encounter can bring up the question if there are some witches in the community. Overall, Young Goodman Brown weighs on the idea of losing innocence, losing religious faith, the historical concept of demons and witches, and evil temptation. Nathaniel Hawthorne fills this literature with symbolism that can make readers even question their own moral choices. Young Goodman Brown raises the question of how far curiosity can go to bring up one’s deepest and darkest temptations.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Young Goodman Brown — The Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”

The Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"

• Categories: Young Goodman Brown

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Words: 778 |

Published: Jan 29, 2024

Words: 778 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Analysis of the protagonist, young goodman brown, exploration of the allegorical elements in the story, examination of the theme of moral ambiguity and sin, evaluation of the role of faith and religion.

• Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." Ed. Nina Baym. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 385-395.
• Laws, Karen. "The Struggle in 'Young Goodman Brown'." 2010. Humanities-Ebooks. http://www.humanities-ebooks.co.uk/cgi-bin/tbl.cgi?filename=hl02/ch18-21f.html
• McKeithan, Daniel. "Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown': An Interpretation." The Bijdragen. 1952. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/360534?seq=1

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Symbolism in “Young Goodman Brown”

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is full of symbolism throughout the story. Perhaps the most interesting examples of symbolism include the title character, Young Goodman Brown, as well as his wife, Faith, and the woods that Young Goodman Brown enters on his journey. Included are many allusions to Christianity and also to evil and sin. These references are expressed mainly through characters and settings in the story . The character Young Goodman Brown is an excellent example of symbolism being used in a story.

First of all, the name Young Goodman Brown implies that he is indeed a good man, which is a reference to his Christian faith. This implies that he is a good man who has the morals and values of a good Christian . Also, the last name Brown implies that he is just an ordinary man with a common last name. This usage of a common last name helps the reader realize that almost anyone could be this man, that he is just as ordinary as anyone else.

Additionally, in the beginning of the story, he is referred to as Young Goodman Brown, with the emphasis on Young as a reference to his innocence, and implies that he is without sin. After he enters the woods, however, he is no longer referred to as Young Goodman Brown, just Goodman Brown, as if the innocence and purity he once possessed is with him no longer. He left his wife, Faith, for sin and impurity in the woods, so he no longer deserves the title Young Goodman Brown. Young Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith, is also an important symbol in this story .

Her name alone implies that she is a symbol for goodness and the Christian life that Young Goodman Brown leaves behind when he departs on his journey. In the story, it says that she calls out to him and he turns his back on her, which can either be taken literally or in the sense of one turning his back on God and Christian life, because he heads for the woods, an implication of sin and witchcraft. In her hair, Faith wears pink ribbons, which are a sign of her innocence and playfulness.

When Goodman Brown sees her pink ribbons in her hair, he is aware of her innocence, so when he finds a pink ribbon belonging to her clinging to a tree branch in the woods, he doubts the faith of her and of all those around him. The woods are also an important symbol in the tale of Young Goodman Brown. The story is written in times past, when the woods were thought of as evil places where witchcraft often took place. This is reinforced when Goodman Brown sees the townspeople amongst him in the woods, and is appalled to see them, his wife and the preacher included.

Also, it is mentioned that the stranger he meets in the woods bears a strong resemblance to Goodman Brown, signifying that he resembles evil and sin. He even stops midway and considers returning to Faith, meaning he considered leaving sin to rejoin the Christian life. Instead he continues on his journey, and encounters what resembles a dark gathering of sin and witchcraft. When in the middle of the woods, Goodman Brown even cries out for Faith, for she is nowhere to be seen.

This is a reference to the fact that there is no hope or innocence in a life of sin and evil , which are referred to as the woods. The tale of “Young Goodman Brown” is one full of symbolism and imagery. It is full of literal meanings and many references to Christian life and to evil and sin. Characters in the story and also settings make up these references to goodness and evil, and are represented throughout the piece. The symbolism in “Young Goodman Brown” is highlighted with Young Goodman Brown, his wife, Faith, and the woods he spends time in on his journey.

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