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¶ … Quality of Evil in Young Goodman Brown and Ethan Brand
When examining the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, it is interesting to note the role of evil or indeed perceived evil. Evil appears to distort lives and destroy egoistical souls. One such egoistical soul was Young Goodman Brown (Hawthorne 1937). He leaves his wife Faith in complete trust that her name adequately describes her nature. The end of the story however results in delusion and a confirmation of what Brown has suspected of himself (Leavis 36): all people are inherently evil.
Brown's egoism lies in the fact that he separates himself from the "sinful" and attempts to befriend only those he perceives as pious. He is however shown that the most pious are in reality the most sinful. Even his own family is shown to be composed of people committing evil in the name of good. In this way evil is used under the guise of good to destroy those who believe themselves untouchable by the devil.
It is also interesting to consider Brown's name: "Goodman." It appears that, like Faith who is not particularly faithful, Goodman is not...
His egoism in this case lies in his self-deception. When this is peeled away, the sinner is left.
An in-depth analysis of the story will then consider the above issues in detail. All the "holy" inhabitants of Salem in actual fact prove themselves particularly unholy. Goodman and Faith's lives are not the only ones being distorted. They are only the latest converts in a whole town filled with distorted lives. Nothing is as it seems. Good reveals itself to be evil and egoism is the good man's worst enemy. Indeed, Brown finds within himself that which he most wanted to deny.
The same is true of Ethan Brand (Hawthorne 1937). His journey also takes him on a road to self delusion until his search finally ends with his own heart. The "unpardonable sin" he looks for is within himself, as he explains to Bartram, the lime-burner. He finds his sin within separation. "Brotherhood" in terms of the community sharing a certain set of values. Ethan, by looking for the Unpardonable Sin, distances himself from this community, and finds the Sin in this very action.
Interestingly, although Brand fully accepts the implication of the sin within himself, he is unable to repent, but adheres to the sin rather than the community. Thus his alienation is effected and completed by himself, by his own choice and his own pride (Matthiessen 312). This is Brand's chosen egoism, which…
Spiller, Robert, E. The Cycle of American Literature. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1955-56.
Tharpe, Jac. Nathaniel Hawthorne Identity and Knowledge. London and Amsterdam: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967.
Winters, Yvor. "Maule's Curse, or Hawthorne and the Problem of Allegory." In Hawthorne: A Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
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