Loss of Innocence in Young Goodman Brown Essay

In Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Goodman Brown enters the woods young and innocent. However, the fact that he is making most haste on his evil purpose, proves he has entered the forest of his own free will because of his curiosity about evil. Accordingly, this joinery that he sets out on so quickly portrays his naiveness and innocent perspective on the world that he thought he knew. Therefore, he makes an active choice by choosing to embark on this journey on his own free will to understand this evil and it's purpose. Similarly, In the woods the stranger who walks alongside him is the devil, which symbolizes his walking with evil and encountering evil. Likewise, his awareness of evil and the fact that not just himself but every human, even the local church people and his own wife, may fall prey to it causes him to lose his faith in mankind. As soon as innocence is gone a person can never quite look at life the same way again. For example, Goodman Brown started his journey a young man and returned with a loss of his youthful innocence. Whether his journey into the woods was a real one or only a dream, it had a negative effect on Goodman Brown; it corrupted his innocence and pureness. Though he hopes that virtue were not all a dream, he is never again able to regain his trust in people or in life.

From that point on Goodman Brown doubted everyone, even his wife, Faith. The consequences from his journey, both literally and symbolically, made him lose his Faith. In contrast, Hawthorne equated faith with happiness and loss of faith with despair. For example, Goodman Browns loss of faith had a traumatizing effect on him for he saw evil everywhere, and was no longer able to see the good in the people around him. Thus, Goodman Brown's encounter with evil changes him by making him bitter, cynical and suspicious. Therefore, he continues to live the rest of his life a sad man whose dying hour was gloom" which personifies the innocence and faith he lost that leads him to live a tainted life.

Goodman Brown's name refers to Everyman, and his wife's name, Faith, represents his own faith in God and in humanity. His name also symbolizes his innocence and purity and "faith" in mankind even though it is shattered at the end of the story where he has lost his "faith" and innocence. Moreover, Goodman Brown represented the widespread innocence of mankind and after having lost his faith, portrays the corruption of mankind versus mankind that destroys Goodman Brown's perspective on life.

Consequently, when Goodman Brown embarked on his journey into the dark forrest, the dark forrest foreshadowed evil events were going to happen. In most literature works, anything that was dark or was set during nighttime meant evil, death, or was dangerous; meanwhile, daylight symbolized purity, goodness, and life. The imbalance of Goodman Brown's faith and curiosity leads him to a corrupted and tainted state of mind where he is surrounded by evil and darkness. This kind of darkness, the dark forrest, is the corruption that begins to take it's toll on Goodman Brown; thus, leading to his tragic revelation. Furthermore, the dark forrest comes to represent Goodman's own hell because he's torn between his faith and giving in to evil, the struggle which every man must confront. For this reason, Goodman tries to resist the temptation of the devil, but he continues his way into the darkness of the forest, unsure of what to do and overtaken by darkness.

In the end, Goodman Brown takes his own personal hell with him because he distrusts his wife and the other people for the remainder of his life. This alienates him and deprives him of the life he could have had. Moreover, Throughout the writing of "Young Goodman Brown", the allegorical message was being given to the Puritan followers to show how to overcome the temptations of the devil and evil. Instead of putting his faith solely upon God, Brown was blinded by the reality of sin and sentenced himself to a life of miserable isolation because the corruption of his faith and innocence. In addition, Hawthorn's use of allegorical meanings portrayed the reality of sin and the terror of the human hell that was revealed to Brown in the dark forrest as well as to take that awareness of the devil's deceitfulness and use it to better deal with life. In conclusion, Hawthorne exemplified the idea of a dark future of evil using allegorical meanings in his story and with his last sentence of the story. "When he had lived long...bourne to his grave, a hoary corpse....they carved no hopeful verse upon his tomb-stone; for his dying hour was gloom."