“Young Goodman Brown” 539Calvinist conviction of the total depravity of human-
kind, so Brown, after witnessing the secret evil of the
townspeople, ends convinced that “evil is the nature
of mankind.” In this story, the good and the wicked
are mixed together in an abased version of democracy,
and the wicked inevitably corrupt the good, as seems
the case with Brown’s wife Faith. The community is
prone to violence and mass hysteria, as demonstrated
in the witch-hunts in which Brown’s ancestors partic-
ipated. These themes are also central to Hawthorne’s
most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter.
The story seems to mock American political ide-
als as well. Community bonds in early America were
described in terms like “covenant,” “communion,”
and “congregation,” but this lexicon is perverted
in Hawthorne’s story, and “congregation” becomes
coven or den of evil. The challenge of American
civil life has always been in how to balance the needs
of the individual against the good of the group.
The new democracy had to be forged by common
consent, by people working together. But it is very
difficult to achieve social cohesion if, as Hawthorne’s
story suggests, you cannot trust your neighbor.
The story seems to offer the possibility of indi-
vidual salvation, even in the face of a corrupt society.
Brown’s ability to resist the ominous ritual seems
to save him; the dark vision disappears and he is
left alone. Brown makes his own decision regard-
ing his fate in rejecting what he perceives as evil in
society. However, the result is that Brown becomes
estranged from the townspeople, even from his own
family. This suggests that the cost of the individual’s
decision to follow his or her conscience is social
ostracism.
Much American literature, especially in the 19th
century, is concerned with the issue of individual
conscience and its cost. In essays and fiction, writers
like Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and
Twain exhorted readers to follow their own sense of
right, even if it meant acting counter to the interests
and wishes of the majority.
Mary Goodwin
innocence and experience in “Young
Goodman Brown”
As Hawthorne’s tale begins, young Goodman Brown
sets off on a solitary expedition into a dark, forbid-
ding forest. Brown is a Puritan “everyman,” and his
journey can be seen as an initiation into knowledge
and experience of the world along the road of life.
In tracing the chronological progress of Brown’s
life from young adulthood to old age and the grave,
the story charts the effects of his experience on his
character and convictions.
But Brown’s journey does not proceed as the
reader might expect. In the first place, the young
man sets forth at sunset, a time of day associated
with the onset of old age and death rather than new
beginnings. It is also strange that the newlywed
Brown leaves his young wife, Faith, behind, rebuff-
ing her when she tries to persuade him to stay the
night with her. And although he seems willing to
make the trip, Brown at times expresses reluctance
to proceed on what he refers to as his “evil” mission.
His journey is thus a solitary and troubling under-
taking in which he moves further and further away
from “faith.”
As Brown travels deeper into the forest, he
encounters other travelers who unsettle rather than
comfort him with their company. His first compan-
ion is an older man who carries a staff in the shape
of a snake. This sinister person says that he had
known Brown’s ancestors, shocking the young man
by revealing that his forebears had not been good
Christians at all but oppressive and cruel. The man
also claims that he is on intimate terms with many
others in Brown’s community who are respected for
their high position and apparently unimpeachable
character. An old woman who had taught Brown
his catechism appears in the forest, and the young
man is disturbed by her eagerness to join the sinister
occasion of the night. The stranger with the staff
warns Brown that everyone, no matter how pure
or venerable in appearance, harbors secrets of evil
deeds. The final blow to Brown’s innocent, naïve
faith in the goodness of human nature comes with
the evidence that his wife is among the nighttime
congregation. Spying a pink ribbon of the sort that
Faith wears on her cap, Brown declares that the
world is an evil place and belongs to the devil. He
rushes into what appears to be a witches’ mass in the
forest, and sees his wife there. They stand together
to be joined in an unholy marriage attended by those
townsfolk he had once respected.