No Sympathy for the Devil: Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Young Goodman Brown," is a study of human nature and psychology. Goodman Brown's internal self-doubts manifest themselves in a dream, which causes him to doubt others. In "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne uses symbols, most of which are affiliated with religion, and reveals an intrinsic religious struggle that is universal to the human race. He criticizes the Puritans, but shows that, while there is much hypocrisy in the Church, the principle of religion itself is a good thing. Hawthorne also means to show his readers that while social institutions need to be doubted in order to keep them free of corruption, life-long pessimism does no good to anyone involved.

In young goodman Brown's dream, his "Faith," who is symbolized by his wife, is brought into question, as is the faith of his fellow townspeople. Brown's "journey, as thou [Faith] callest it, forth and back again, must be done 'twixt now and sunrise" (1264). Brown feels that he must finish his quest under the cover of the night because no respectable citizen would be seen going into the woods alone. Symbolically in literature, "going into the woods" is seen as choosing a dark path, which is exactly what Brown contemplates doing. Goodman Brown leaves the village and goes to the forest to meditate in solitude, without the interference of Faith, presumably, although "Faith kept me [Brown] back awhile" (1264). His trip away from his town, which interestingly is Salem - the home of the infamous witch trials, is taken so that he may leave, and question, his "Faith."

Goodman Brown anticipates the nature of this dream, "what a wretch am I to leave her [Faith] on such an errand" (1264), and he "felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose" (1264). Because this is not the first time Brown questions the validity of his faith, he is more aware that "he had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest" (1264). Any other times that he doubted faith, he probably pushed his thoughts to the "deepest forest" of his mind. Any utterance of his doubts could have caused the Salem townspeople to think him a witch. But it is true that subconscious thoughts generally manifest themselves in dreams, so no matter how deep in the "forest" these thoughts are, they are not forever silenced.

Young goodman Brown's doubt of his own faith is revealed during his absence from home. "He looked up to the sky, doubting whether there really was a Heaven above him" (1268). "'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'" (1269). The devil is trying to destroy Brown's faith: "Let us walk on, nevertheless, reasoning as we go; and if I convince [tempt] thee not thou shalt turn back" (1265). If Brown is not tempted to sell his soul, he will go back home to his "Faith." The reader knows that Brown's own faith is strong, because Hawthorne chooses to portray Brown as married to his faith. Being married to Faith is an obvious sign that Brown's is important to him, and will that it will pose a threat to any "deviltry." His Faith is even more important than his own self: "there is my wife, Faith. It would break her dear little heart; and I'd rather break my own" (1266).

Believing that his dream was a revelation of the true nature of his constituents, he can trust no one, and his life becomes miserable. Brown's extreme paranoia gets the better of him and ruins the remainder of his life. One wonders whether Brown is condemning his neighbors because he is so devout, or if he is so afraid of being tempted by evil, that he is afraid of interacting with others. Brown turns his head when his family prays (1272). How sure is he of his faith? It is quite possible that he is afraid that faith would not stand another test of the devil. Though the nature of Brown's doubt is unclear, Hawthorne surely implies that one should be fair in evaluating others. Hawthorne wanted to convey that while people cannot be rightly judged at face value, neither can they be indiscriminately doubted, and he shows this by describing the miserable remaining years of goodman Brown's life, in which he is too self-righteous to appreciate life:

A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night of that fearful dream. On the Sabbath-day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen, because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear, and drowned all the blessed strain...Often, awakening suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith, and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled, and muttered to himself, and hazed sternly at his wife, and turned away...they carved no hopeful verse upon his tomb-stone; for his dying hour was gloom. (1272)

Goodman Brown faces serious self-doubt, and his dream is merely a test of faith. He is aware that his "journey" will bring many questions, and that his faith could fail. It seems that the night described is not Brown's first night of dreaming of doubt, but it is apparent that this dream is more deeply explored than any previous dreams. Most likely, he avoided these "dreams" before, as he knew they would bring a struggle. Dreams bring up thoughts unuttered in the day, and in puritan New England, one would not have dared to question his faith in Christianity for fear of being tried as a witch. Faith senses his troubles, "she talks of dreams, too. Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight" (1264). While Faith is symbolic of Brown's beliefs, she is also his wife, and the fact that they both dream, presumably of un-Puritan ideas, is Hawthorne's way of showing that doubt is a universal feeling.

The fact that goodman Brown meets the devil in the forest, and eventually overcomes evil, is Hawthorne's attempt to show the reader that doubt is a necessary component of self-affirmation. Brown follows the devil, walking with his serpentine staff - another symbol of evil and temptation, until he finds the congregation of religious hypocrites. He sees that deacon Gookin, as well as goody Cloyse, "a very pious and exemplary dame" (1266), are actually witches, as they journey towards a meeting-place in the woods. There, he is faced with the possible loss of his Faith, but overcomes in the end and returns to his village.

His doubt is centered on the validity of one's sincerity of action and speech. Brown is at first worried for his own sake: "...how should I meet the eye of that good old man, our minister, at Salem village? Oh, his voice would make me tremble both Sabbath day and lecture day" (1266). His dream causes him to doubt the true piety of all those for whom he had deep respect. Hawthorne believed that there were too many people who didn't "practice what they preached (literally)," and his character, young goodman Brown, speaks out against these falsities, making religious insincerity the gravest sin. After waking up and returning to Salem, goodman Brown begins, in his thoughts, to fanatically convict the whole town. Brown sees hypocrisy everywhere:

The good old minister was taking a walk along the graveyard, to get an appetite for breakfast and meditate his sermon, and bestowed a blessing, as he passed, on goodman Brown. He shrank from the venerable saint, as if to avoid an anathema. Old deacon Gookin was at domesticity worship, and the holy words of his prayer were heard through the open window. 'What God doth the wizard pray to?' quoth goodman Brown. Goody Cloyse, that excellent old Christian, stood in the early sunshine, at her own lattice, catechising a little girl, who had brought her a pint of morning's milk. Goodman Brown snatched away the child, as from the grasp of the fiend himself. (1272)

Hawthorne also shows that hypocrisy has occurred throughout time, and affected even Brown's family, showing that he is not above dealing with the devil. The devil tells Brown that he knew Brown's father and grandfather, and implies that he helped them reach their goals in life, while they sold their souls as a payment:

I [the devil] have been well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that's no trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem. And it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth [hell], to set fire to an Indian village, in king Philip's war. They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. (1265)

In this passage, Hawthorne reveals his conceptions about the true piety of the Puritans. He means to show that going to church and calling oneself a Christian does not necessarily make one devout. In this story, Hawthorne is criticizing the insincere Puritans, as he also does in The Scarlet Letter. In both pieces, he shows that the absolute fanaticism that most Puritans tended to adhere to was completely unfounded in their true natures. Their faith was not genuine, so they often made other people look bad, like Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, for example, just to make themselves feel better about their own piety, or lack thereof. Unlike The Scarlet Letter, Young Goodman Brown is told from the perspective of one of the insanely devout (or someone who believes he is), rather than one of the publicly condemned. However, Hawthorne still reveals the problems of fundamentalist Puritans.

Hawthorne projects his nineteenth century Christian ideals into his stories about Puritans. In Hawthorne's stories, the characters of the highest morals are those who do not unfairly judge others. Although he condemns adultery, he also allows Hester Prynne a second chance, and she becomes the heroine of The Scarlet Letter. In Young Goodman Brown, every character is criticized in some way, because none of them have absolute morals. Goodman Brown exhibits his self-doubt by doubting others. Deacon Gookin and Goody Cloyse are questionable characters, because Brown sees them as false (even if it is a figment of his imagination). Hawthorne shows that faith should be genuine, because Faith is the purest character. Brown does not know what happened to Faith at the witch meeting, but when he returns home, "he [spies] the head of Faith, with the pink ribbons, gazing anxiously forth, and bursting into such joy at the sight of him" (1272). Today, pink ribbons are a symbol of strength and camaraderie, (worn by those who have survived breast cancer). However different the purpose of the pink ribbon may be today, it still has the same meaning. Faith's pink ribbons are a sign that she is unfaltering. So, when she meets Brown wearing the ribbons, the reader knows that Faith survived, both literally and symbolically.

At the end of the story, Hawthorne asks the reader, "had goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?" (1272). In analyzing "Young Goodman Brown," one should treat the "witch-meeting" as a dream. If, in fact, Brown did attend a "witch-meeting" that caused him to prove his faith, then unanswerable questions arise. If a majority of the population of Salem, along with others, had attended this "witch-meeting," then, because there are so many of them, they could openly worship the devil, without fear of persecution. Goodman Brown dreamed that he and Faith were the only ones left who had yet to submit to Satan. This allows the reader to see that the witch-meeting is a manifestation of his paranoia, and his doubt of the human race, which are universal. Hawthorne shows the reader that it is human nature to doubt one's beliefs and one's self, but that extreme paranoia is a disease. In general, humans are also able to overcome these doubts. Hawthorne shows us the extreme, and unfortunately for goodman Brown, he can never cease to doubt others. One can argue that doubt of others stems from self-doubt, coupled with the fact that one cannot know the true thoughts of another, which always causes a trace of doubt.

Brown chooses to remain pessimistic, while Hawthorne, by showing how miserable Brown was, means to encourage people to believe there is goodness in people until they prove otherwise. Before Brown becomes a pessimistic, disillusioned man, he is fairly content with his life, and with his wife. But afterwards, he can hardly stand to be around other people, because he does not believe that they are genuine, and also because he is afraid of being pulled into sin.

In his disillusionment, however, Brown is not able to practice Christian behaviors, because he is too busy doubting that anyone is genuine. A genuine Christian would be more likely to try to help society, than to withdraw from it altogether. Hawthorne means to warn against the practice of self-righteousness, and also warns that, if one does not believe in oneself, then one cannot have faith in others.

As was common during the Romantic period of literature, Hawthorne convicts those who insincerely practice religion. The importance of the individual was one of the most prominent themes in Romanticism. He focuses on the importance of knowing oneself, and on individual faith, rather than on attending church, because he shows that many hypocrites attend church on Sundays, while they sin the other six days of the week. Hawthorne also stresses that one cannot be full of doubt, or one will never be able to see good in anything. In Young Goodman Brown, Hawthorne stresses the importance of not acting superior to others, by conveying his belief that faith in oneself must be pure in order to see the goodness in other people.

Work Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." Rptd in The Norton Anthology of American Literature: 1820-1865- Volume B. Sixth Edition. Nina Baym ed. New York: Norton, 2003. 1263-1272.