This makes him question "heaven above him" (Hawthorne 594). While he does decide to take a stand against what he sees in the forest, it is too late because what he has seen has already changed him. Faith's pink ribbon flickering is important because it represents his wife and his faith, which he has seemingly lost in one night. We read that that are simply "gone" (595). Goodman is radically transformed by what he believes took place in the forest and while it was something he thought he could handle and something he thought he wanted to know, he was deadly wrong but there was not way for him to go back and reverse events. Like Louise, he is changed but not in a good way.
Symbolism is significant to each story as well. In "The Story of an Hour," the house and the window are important to Louise's development because they symbolize the prison and her freedom, respectively. The house is where she has been locked away for most of her life and the widow allows her to see what awaits her. In "Young Goodman Brown," Faith becomes a symbol of the goodness in man while Goodman's journey symbolizes the dark areas of the human soul. In addition, the devil is a symbol that also represents the dark side of humanity. These symbols destroy Goodman's faith. To think of his wife with the devil is too much for him...
They failed to consider other options. Louise could only see her future without her husband and when she realized that he was not dead, she was devastated. Goodman let curiosity get the best of him and it ruined the things that were the most important to him. Both characters were resigned to one outcome and they did not allow room for any variation from that. They forgot to consider the unintended consequences that life usually throws into the mix. Their lives would have been better had they left a little room for change but as it was, Louise wanted her husband dead and Goodman had to know what was in the forest. They were their own victims because they could not see beyond their curiosity and desire.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. New York W.W. Norton and Company. 1981.
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lauter, Paul, ed. Lexington D.C. Heath and Company.…
