In his deep and particularly dark short story, Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne explores a very real but uncomfortably thought of side of the human spirit. Set in the real town of Salem, Massachusetts, where the historic Salem witch trials took place, this story is a glimpse into the depths of the spiritual battle being waged for the hearts and minds of mankind. While at first glance the story is about a man’s surreal late-night walk in the forest and his experience of a dark sort of witch meeting, the story uses these illustrations to symbolically portray man’s dangerous attraction to evil, a theme seen in Goodman Brown and his wife, other supporting characters in the story, and the forest.
Goodman Brown could represent anyone. He is basically the everyman. The symbolism starts to build at the very beginning of the story. Goodman Brown is first described as young and newly married. His wife’s name is Faith, a detail that bears significance to the theme. Within the context of the story, we could symbolically view Goodman Brown as a believer, a follower of God, albeit a young one. His connection to “Faith” is also young and still being established. He does not yet completely cling to faith, which can be seen from his thoughts about leaving on this “journey”, away from his wife Faith for the evening:
Poor little Faith!” thought he, for his heart smote him. “What a wretch am I, to leave her
on such an errand!…Well; she’s a blessed angel on earth and after this one night I’ll cling
to her skirts and follow her to Heaven. (5)
Much like a weakened believer, Goodman Brown has intentions to come back and take care of his Faith, but only after he gets the darker things out of the way, because his faith (or Faith) has not yet been integrated into his life enough to be involved in this decision-making. Upon having met up with his walking companion and being chided for lateness, Goodman Brown makes the comment, “Faith kept me back awhile”, a statement that is almost ominous within the symbolic context. Symbolically speaking, he is going into the dark forest while trying to leave his shield behind. The confusion and doubt in Goodman Brown’s mind continues as he goes deeper into the forest, much in the same way that the more someone strays from his closeness to God, the more he becomes vulnerable to being drawn into spiritual danger and destruction. Goodman Brown is enticed, and even though he hesitates and momentarily pulls back and later on even calls out for his “Faith”, he lets himself be drawn further into the forest, further from safety. Believers and followers of Christ are prime targets for being spiritually attacked and enticed to draw closer to other things in this world, instead of yielding all areas of their life to God. The character of Faith in this story is the picture of innocence: the fact that she is a sweet young bride with pink ribbons (suggesting the innocence of a young child) suggests a parallel to the Christian life: an innocent, childlike faith in God. This is just what Satan would have a Christian be drawn away from, and just what Goodman Brown is traveling farther from in the story. In fact, he makes a frightening suggestion during his panic in the forest:
“My Faith is gone!” cried he, after one stupefied moment. “There is no good on earth, and
sin is but a name. Come, devil! For to thee is this world given.” And maddened with
despair, so that he laughed loud and long, did Goodman Brown grasp his staff and set forth
again at such a rate that he seemed to fly along the forest path rather than to walk or run.
(50)
This happens just after he takes hold of a pink ribbon that has just fluttered down out of the sky. This could symbolize the perceived abandonment of one’s faith, or even the intentional abandonment of it. Either way, it is a dangerous breaking point, which we can see from Goodman Brown’s reaction, a reaction of giddy despair and then diving headlong into the rest of the depths of the forest. Despite the fact that he claims he has lost his Faith, he still looks for her upon arriving at the witch meeting, and at the moment of truth, the final moment of decision when they are about to be “baptized” into this group of witches, he calls out to Faith, telling her to “Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!” (65) Despite the dark circumstances, faith was still there, and he made a desperate attempt to reach out to it.
While Goodman Brown and his wife present the main inner struggle of the story, there are a few supporting minor characters who contribute to this. The first is the elder that meets with Goodman Brown and walks with him into the forest. While being dressed in “decent attire” and not one instantly recognized as being hostile or dangerous, this walking companion subtly slips doubts into Goodman Brown’s convictions. His subtle but potent influence mixed with his cane which represents a serpent, is suggestive of Satan’s efforts at luring Christians away from God and undermining their resolve. The other characters left in the story are also significant in that they are all people with whom Goodman Brown is familiar, such as Goody Cloyse, who was a “spiritual adviser” to him in his younger days, and a great number of these are people who, to his knowledge, are known for their piety and devotion to God and goodness. The reality that comes to level him at this point is the fact that despite appearances, these “godly” people are all here taking part in the witch meeting, and tomorrow they will go on about their daily life and activity as upstanding church members, as hypocrites proclaiming light while dealing in darkness. Interestingly, near the end of the story, at the witch gathering when they are about to initiate Goodman Brown and his wife, they truly are going to strip the innocence from his wife Faith by making her a part of worshipping evil, much in the same way that the hypocritical acts of supposedly stronger Christians can have a great debilitating effect on our faith, chipping away at us because what we believe to be true and what we see are turning out to be very different things.
Finally, the forest plays a large role in this story. It is a place that, while Goodman Brown journeys through it, fills him with doubt and fear. At the same time despite his initial hesitance, the dark situation has a certain pull on his spirit and he continues deeper and deeper until, at the witch gathering, he has finally reached the pinnacle of the night’s evil activity, seemingly at a point of no return. This forest exemplifies what sin and doubt that goes unchecked in one’s life will do. When it is not dealt with in a straightforward manner and yielded to God, but rather is gradually allowed to build, sin will eventually and effectively run amuck in a person’s life. It’s a progression we can easily see in the story: first he hesitates but goes on despite his better judgment, then his doubt builds, followed by fear and despair which ultimately leads to abandonment to these awful ideas. This is definitely a situation in which some good accountability could have saved this man from his heartache and agony.
The outcome of this story has a certain ambiguity about it. Goodman Brown avoids this baptism into evil, but it appears to have still left a deep impression on him. This is definite cause and effect, the fact that if you are playing with fire you should not be surprised if you get burned. Goodman Brown is the essence of someone who has wandered too close to evil, and while he has tried to get away unscathed, has not had his faith (or Faith, depending on the case) fully restored to him. My prayer is that those of us who have a living, growing relationship with Christ will keep each other accountable and be ready to reach out and help pull back any weaker brothers or sisters who are getting too close to the edge of the forest.
