Good and Evil in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay -- Young Goodma

Good and Evil in spring chicken Goodman Br confess In Young Goodman Brown. Nathaniel Hawthorne considers the question of good and evil, suggesting that true evil is judging and condemning others for evil without looking at ones own sinfulness. He examines the idea that sin is part of macrocosm human and there is no escape from it. Of the many symbols he uses in this story, each has a profound meaning. They represent good and evil in the constant struggle of a young innocent man whose faith is being tested. As the story begins, Young Goodman Brown bids farewell to his young wife Faith, as she was aptly named (211). When she ...thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind romance with the pink ribbons of her cap we associate the purity of Faith and the pink ribbons as a sign of the innocence and goodness of the town he is leaving loafer (211). As he continues on his present evil purpose he sets off at sunset to enter the set (212). A place darken by all the gloo miest trees, unknown territory, and a place where there may be a devilish Indian behind every tree, with this we know the forest represents evil and sinfulness (212). His decision to enter the forest and leave his Faith behind is the first decision, of many, between good and evil that he must make. afterwards entering the forest he meets a traveler whom he later finds out is the devil. He is carrying a staff representing evil, which bore the likeness of a immense black snake, so curiously wrought, that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself, like a living serpent (213). When the traveler offers his staff to Young Goodman Brown he resists by replying, having kept covenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose to return whence I cam... ...the forest ultimately causes him to believe that he is better than everyone else and he disassociate himself from all those in the town as he judges them as being sinners. He becomes a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful , if not a desperate man... after his journey when he commits the ultimate sin of judging and condemning others without looking at ones own sinfulness. In the end they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone for his dying hour was gloom (221). Works Cited and ConsultedBenoit, Raymond. Young Goodman Brown The Second Time Around. The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 19 (Spring 1993) 18-21.Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Complete Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York Doubleday and Co., Inc.,1989.Wagenknecht, Edward. Nathaniel Hawthorne The Man, His Tales and Romances. New York Continuum Publishing Co., 1989.