The Downfall of Young Goodman Brown
"Young Goodman Brown", by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is thick with
allegory.
"Young Goodman Brown" is a moral story which is told through the perversion of a
religious
leader. In "Young Goodman Brown", Goodman Brown is a Puritan minister who lets his
excessive pride in himself interfere with his relations with the community after he meets
with the
devil, and causes him to live the life of an exile in his own community.
"Young Goodman Brown" begins when Faith, Brown's wife, asks him not to go on an
"errand". Goodman Brown says to his "love and (my) Faith" that "this one night I must
tarry
away from thee." When he says his "love" and his "Faith", he is talking to his wife, but
he is also
talking to his "faith" to God. He is venturing into the woods to meet with the Devil,
and by doing
so, he leaves his unquestionable faith in God with his wife. He resolves that he will
"cling to her
skirts and follow her to Heaven." This is an example of the excessive pride because he
feels that
he can sin and meet with the Devil because of this promise that he made to himself. There
is a
tremendous irony to this promise because when Goodman Brown comes back at dawn; he can
no
longer look at his wife with the same faith he had before.
When Goodman Brown finally meets with the Devil, he declares that the reason he was
late was because "Faith kept me back awhile." This statement has a double meaning
because his
wife physically prevented him from being on time for his meeting with the devil, but his
faith to
God i psychologically delayed his meeting with the devil.
The Devil had with him a staff that "bore the likeness of a great black snake". The
staff
which looked like a snake is a reference to the snake in the story of Adam and Eve. The
snake led
Adam and Eve to their destruction by leading them to the Tree of Knowledge. The Adam
and
Eve story is similar to Goodman Brown in that they are both seeking unfathomable amounts
of
knowledge. Once Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge they were expelled from
their
paradise. The Devil's staff eventually leads Goodman Brown to the Devil's ceremony
which
destroys Goodman Brown's faith in his fellow man, therefore expelling him from his
utopia.
Goodman Brown almost immediately declares that he kept his meeting with the Devil
and
no longer wishes to continue on his errand with the Devil. He says that he comes from a
"race of
honest men and good Christians" and that his father had never gone on this errand and nor
will he.
The Devil is quick to point out however that he was with his father and grandfather when
they
were flogging a woman or burning an Indian village, respectively. These acts are ironic
in that
they were bad deeds done in the name of good, and it shows that he does not come from
"good
Christians."
When Goodman Brown's first excuse not to carry on with the errand proves to be
unconvincing, he says he can't go because of his wife, "Faith". And because of her, he
can not
carry out the errand any further. At this point the Devil agrees with him and tells him
to turn back
to prevent that "Faith should come to any harm" like the old woman in front of them on
the path.
Ironically, Goodman Brown's faith is harmed because the woman on the path is the woman
who
"taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser." The
Devil and
the woman talk and afterward, Brown continues to walk on with the Devil in the disbelief
of what
he had just witnessed. Ironically, he blames the woman for consorting with the Devil but
his own
pride stops him from realizing that his faults are the same as the woman's.
Brown again decides that he will no longer to continue on his errand and
rationalizes that
just because his teacher was not going to heaven, why should he "quit my dear Faith, and
go after
her". At this, the Devil tosses Goodman Brown his staff (which will lead him out of his
Eden) and
leaves him.
Goodman Brown begins to think to himself about his situation and his pride in
himself
begins to build. He "applauds himself greatly, and thinking with how clear a conscience
he should
meet his minister...And what calm sleep would be his...in the arms of Faith!" This is
ironic
because at the end of the story, he can not even look Faith in the eye, let alone sleep
in her arms.
As Goodman Brown is feeling good about his strength in resisting the Devil, he hears the
voices
of the minister and Deacon Gookin. He overhears their conversation and hears them
discuss a
"goodly young woman to be taken in to communion" that evening at that night's meeting and
fears
that it may be his Faith.
When Goodman Brown hears this he becomes weak and falls to the ground. He "begins
to doubt whether there really was a Heaven above him" and this is a key point when
Goodman
Brown's faith begins to wain. Goodman Brown in panic declares that "With Heaven above,
and
Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!" Again, Brown makes a promise to
keep his
faith unto God. Then "a black mass of cloud" goes in between Brown and the sky as if to
block
his prayer from heaven. Brown then hears what he believed to be voices that he has
before in the
community. Once Goodman Brown begins to doubt whether this is really what he had heard
or
not, the sound comes to him again and this time it is followed by "one voice, of a young
woman".
Goodman believes this is Faith and he yells out her name only to be mimicked by the
echoes of the
forest, as if his calls to Faith were falling on deaf ears. A pink ribbon flies through
the air and
Goodman grabs it. At this moment, he has lost all faith in the world and declares that
there is "no
good on earth." Young Goodman Brown in this scene is easily manipulated simply by the
power
of suggestion. The suggestion that the woman in question is his Faith, and because of
this, he
easily loses his faith.
Goodman Brown then loses all of his inhibitions and begins to laugh insanely. He
takes
hold of the staff which causes him to seem to "fly along the forest-path". This image
alludes to
that of Adam and Eve being led out of the Garden of Eden as is Goodman Brown being led
out of
his utopia by the Devil's snakelike staff. Hawthorne at this point remarks about "the
instinct that
guides mortal man to evil". This is a direct statement from the author that he believes
that man's
natural inclination is to lean to evil than good. Goodman Brown had at this point lost
his faith in
God, therefore there was nothing restraining his instincts from moving towards evil
because he
had been lead out from his utopian image of society.
At this point, Goodman Brown goes mad and challenges evil. He feels that he will
be the
downfall of evil and that he is strong enough to overcome it all. This is another
demonstration of
Brown's excessive pride and arrogance. He believes that he is better than everyone else
in that he
alone can destroy evil.
Brown then comes upon the ceremony which is setup like a perverted Puritan temple.
The
altar was a rock in the middle of the congregation and there were four trees surrounding
the
congregation with their tops ablaze, like candles. A red light rose and fell over the
congregation
which cast a veil of evil over the congregation over the devil worshippers.
Brown starts to take notice of the faces that he sees in the service and he
recognizes them
all, but he then realizes that he does not see Faith and "hope came into his heart".
This is the first
time that the word "hope" ever comes into the story and it is because this is the true
turning point
for Goodman Brown. If Faith was not there, as he had hoped, he would not have to live
alone in
his community of heathens, which he does not realize that he is already apart of.
Another way
that the hope could be looked at is that it is all one of "the Christian triptych".
(Capps 25) The
third part of the triptych which is never mentioned throughout the story is charity. If
Brown had
had "charity" it would have been the "antidote that would have allowed him to survive
without
despair the informed state in which he returned to Salem." (Camps 25)
The ceremony then begins with a a cry to "Bring forth the converts!" Surprisingly
Goodman Brown steps forward. "He had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even
in
thought...". Goodman Brown at this point seems to be in a trance and he loses control of
his
body as he is unconsciously entering this service of converts to the devil. The leader
of the
service than addresses the crowd of converts in a disturbing manner. He informs them
that all the
members of the congregation are the righteous, honest, and incorruptible of the
community. The
sermon leader then informs the crowd of their leader's evil deeds such as attempted
murder of the
spouse and wife, adultery, and obvious blasphemy. After his sermon, the leader informs
them to
look upon each other and Goodman Brown finds himself face to face with Faith. The
leader
begins up again declaring that "Evil is the nature of mankind" and he welcomes the
converts to
"communion of your race". (The "communion of your race" statement reflects to the irony
of
Brown's earlier statement that he comes from "a race of honest men and good Christians.")
The
leader than dips his hand in the rock to draw a liquid from it and "to lay the mark of
baptism upon
their foreheads". Brown than snaps out from his trance and yells "Faith! Faith! Look up
to
Heaven and resist the wicked one!" At this, the ceremony ends and Brown finds himself
alone.
He does not know whether Faith, his wife, had kept her faith, but he finds himself alone
which
leads him to believe that he is also alone in his faith.
Throughout the story, Brown lacks emotion as a normal person would have had. The
closest Brown comes to showing an emotion is when "a hanging twig, that had been all on
fire,
besprinkled his cheek with the coldest dew." The dew on his cheek represents a tear that
Brown
is unable to produce because of his lack of emotion. Hawthorne shows that Brown has "no
compassion for the weaknesses he sees in others, no remorse for his own sin, and no
sorrow for
his loss of faith." (Easterly 339) His lack of remorse and compassion "condemns him to
an
anguished life that is spiritually and emotionally dissociated." (Easterly 341) This
scene is an
example of how Goodman Brown chose to follow his head rather than his heart. Had Brown
followed his heart, he may have still lived a good life. If he followed with his heart,
he would
have been able to sympathize with the community's weaknesses, but instead, he listened to
his
head and excommunicated himself from the community because he only thought of them as
heathens..
"Young Goodman Brown" ends with Brown returning to Salem at early dawn and looking
around like a "bewildered man." He cannot believe that he is in the same place that he
just the
night before; because to him, Salem was no longer home. He felt like an outsider in a
world of
Devil worshippers and because his "basic means of order, his religious system, is absent,
the
society he was familiar with becomes nightmarish." (Shear 545) He comes back to the
town
"projecting his guilt onto those around him." (Tritt 114) Brown expresses his
discomfort with his
new surroundings and his excessive pride when he takes a child away from a blessing given
by
Goody Cloyse, his former Catechism teacher, as if he were taking the child "from the
grasp of the
fiend himself." His anger towards the community is exemplified when he sees Faith who
is
overwhelmed with excitement to see him and he looks "sternly and sadly into her face, and
passed
on without a greeting." Brown cannot even stand to look at his wife with whom he was at
the
convert service with. He feels that even though he was at the Devil's service, he is
still better than
everyone else because of his excessive pride. Brown feels he can push his own faults on
to others
and look down at them rather than look at himself and resolve his own faults with
himself.
Goodman Brown was devastated by the discovery that the potential for evil resides
in
everybody. The rest of his life is destroyed because of his inability to face this truth
and live with
it. The story, which may have been a dream, and not a real life event, planted the seed
of doubt in
Brown's mind which consequently cut him off from his fellow man and leaves him alone and
depressed. His life ends alone and miserable because he was never able to look at
himself and
realize that what he believed were everyone else's faults were his as well. His
excessive pride in
himself led to his isolation from the community. Brown was buried with "no hopeful verse
upon
his tombstone; for his dying hour was gloom."
Works Cited
Capps, Jack L. "Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown", Explicator, Washington D.C.,
1982 Spring, 40:3, 25.
Easterly, Joan Elizabeth. "Lachrymal Imagery in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown",
Studies in Short Fiction, Newberry, S.C., 1991 Summer, 28:3, 339-43.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodmam Brown", The Story and Its Writer, 4th ed. Ed.
Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1995, 595-604.
Shear, Walter. "Cultural Fate and Social Freedom in Three American Short Stories",
Studies in Short Fiction, Newberry, S.C., 1992 Fall, 29:4, 543-549.
Tritt, Michael. "Young Goodman Brown and the Psychology of Projection", Studies
in
Short Fiction, Newberry, S.C., 1986 Winter, 23:1, 113-117.
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