Symbbolism in Hawthorne\'s Young Goodman

SYMBBOLISM IN HAWTHORNE'S YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown is an allegorical story about a man who is apparently not consciously aware of the relatively thin line between good and evil or with the fact that evil potential exists in all people including himself. In the story about the protagonist's dream, he leaves his wife, who also symbolizes morality and all that is good, to explore the world where evil exists. The story relies heavily on symbolism, from the names of the characters, the visual descriptions of the journey, and the characteristics and actions of the other characters he encounters to the reactions of Young Goodman Brown to what he discovers in his dream.

Symbolism and Dual Meaning of Hawthorne's Choice of Names

The name of the protagonist, Young Goodman Brown, symbolizes both the connection between innocence (as in the innocence of youth or childhood), and the fact that he is (still) a good man (Fogle, 1952). Before he embarks on his journey, Young Goodman Brown is still innocent and also still convinced that the world around him and people in his life are essentially good. Likewise, Hawthorne's choice of the name Faith for Young Goodman Brown's wife symbolizes both innocence as well as Young Goodman Brown's belief (or faith) in God (Fogle, 1952).

Naturally, the references later to Young Goodman Brown's fear of losing faith, his fears about her possibly taking the same path as he had travelled, and his yearning to return to Faith symbolize his struggle to remain good and virtuous after encountering both evil (Arvin, 1961) and also his own susceptibility to becoming the evil that he encounters in the woods (Fogle, 1952). Obviously, Faith's begging her husband not to leave is symbolic of Young Goodman Brown's realization that he could be leaving behind something significant in himself. He also refers later to being delayed because "Faith kept me back a while" which is further symbolic of the perpetual struggle that man experiences continually between good choices and evil choices in life. .

Symbolism in the Journey

The choice of Hawthorne to describe the journey in the woods as a narrow, winding trail is a way of symbolizing the darkness of evil (Fogle, 1952), the convoluted path that leads man to evil ways, and possibly the darkness that Young Goodman Brown fears may lie within him and in everyone else he knows (Franklin, 1994). It is also symbolic that the wooded trail appears to close up immediately behind Young Goodman Brown symbolizes the permanence or irretrievability of innocence and goodness once it is lost (Fogle, 1952).

That element symbolizes the fact that Young Goodman Brown has made the transition to someone he has become and that he has lost his faith, both literally because his wife is still innocent and also because his decision to embark on the journey already marks his rejection of his religious faith and belief in God and human goodness (Franklin, 1994). It is symbolic that Young Goodman Brown has to poke his head back into the house to kiss Faith goodbye, possibly further illustrating the struggle that he is having leaving hi faith in leaving his Faith (Tharpe, 1967).

Symbolism in Young Goodman Brown's Encounters in the Woods

Young Goodman Brown's first encounter in the woods is his walking companion who carries a walking staff that Young Goodman Brown realizes is dark and snakelike in its appearance. The connection to evil in general and to the story of the serpent in Genesis is unmistakable. It is also significant that the companion does not immediately appear to be evil, which is consistent with what Young Goodman Brown has been taught about the evil hiding amongst all of us and the manner in which the Devil is believed to disguise himself (Tharpe, 1967).

When first offered the snakelike staff, Young Goodman Brown refuses to accept it although his does later accept a new staff instead. This symbolizes his simultaneous fear of evil and his temptation to embrace it (Miller, 1991). The staff itself likely represents a tool of evil (Miller, 1991). Similarly, the way that Young Goodman Brown takes the first steps toward the evil ceremony also symbolizes the inevitability of the fall of human beings from goodness to evil when the choice is presented to them. In that regard, the flaming alter also symbolism a baptism of fire or formal entrance into the world of evil in much the same way that baptism represents the acceptance of God and all that is good and virtuous (Franklin, 1994).

Young Goodman Brown's response to encountering Goody Cloyse and realizing that she is already acquainted with the Devil is symbolic of his disappointment in realizing that evil infects everybody, even the woman who introduced him to and mentored him in his religious faith (Franklin, 1994). He refers to the realization about her fall from goodness and godliness when he decides not to follow her in her choice to forsake heaven and God for the alternative represented by the Devil and his snakelike staff. Nevertheless, the fact that Young Goodman Brown encounters here as well as both the minister and Deacon Gookin symbolizes that nobody Young Goodman Brown believed represented goodness and virtue is above falling prey to the influence of the Devil and evil (Franklin, 1994).

The closest Young Goodman Brown comes to choosing to embrace evil is apparently when he believes that he hears the voice of Faith elsewhere in the woods, presumably following the same windy, dark, irreversible trail as he took. Until he realizes that the voice is not actually Faith's, he seems to take that as the last straw, so to speak, or the final proof that evil on earth truly infects everybody, even his innocent Faith (Tharpe, 1967). His eventual realization that Faith has not accompanied him on his dark journey may be what saves Young Goodman Brown from forsaking his wife, his own innocence, and his God for the Devil and the evil that he represents.