“And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grandchildren, a goodly procession, besides neighbors not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.” –Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”
In short stories of classical literature, there are often many more messages conveyed than what is apparent in the first reading. Most every word in a story has a larger purpose than its initial meaning. This concept holds true in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown”. In this tale, Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts a 17th century Puritan attempting to find justification for the existence of Satan as Brown sets off on a radical journey through the woods. He leaves his newly wedded wife, Faith, at home so that he may embark upon this sinful adventure with the devil. Upon completion of his journey, however, Brown finds himself unable to fully confront the terrors of evil in his heart and chooses to reject all of society in order to avoid confrontation with the dark places which live within mens’ souls. He lives out the remainder of his life as a cynical, skeptical, and unhappy man without ever regaining his original, innocent faith in those he once trusted.
To discuss the inherent meaning of “Young Goodman Brown” one must also acknowledge the abundance of symbolism which Hawthorne employs in the telling of the story. The primary setting of “Young Goodman Brown” is the forest. The Puritans associated the woods with evil due to the presence there of Indians and witches whom they believed performed satanic rituals in the forest. The forest, dark and evil, represents the deceit and darkness within a mortal man’s heart. Just as Brown finds he cannot trust the shadows and figures he sees hidden in the forest, so, also, can he not trust his own desires, which he seeks to be purged during his journey deep into the forest. The corruptness of his heart is exposed after he hears Faith’s voice and sees her pink ribbon, screaming, “My Faith is gone…There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come Devil; for to thee is this world given” (Hawthorne, 239 ). This shocking revelation makes Brown ”a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man” (Hawthorne, 242), as was often believed to be the result when a Puritan confronted his own repressed evil.
Puritan justification was a topic Hawthorne addressed as an internalized journey to hell necessary for a moral man. By referring to the heart of man as hell, Puritans thought themselves living in the midst of Satan and his army of devils as he established his evil kingdom in man’s heart. This was a dreadful revelation that caused Brown to grow bitter and distrustful, just as it did with 17th Century Puritans. Literary critic Mark Van Doren (from McKeithan, 93) speaks about Hawthorne’s portrayal of the Puritan viewpoint of evil and sin in “Young Goodman Brown” thusly:
“Young Goodman Brown means exactly what it says, namely that its
hero left his pretty young wife one evening to walk by himself in the
primitive New England woods, the Devil’s territory, and either to
dream or actually to experience (Hawthorne will not say) the discovery
that evil exists in every human heart. Brown is changed. He thinks
there is no good on earth. Brown, waking from his dream, if it was
a dream, sees evil even where it is not. He had stumbled upon
that ‘mystery of sin’ which, rightly understood, provides the only sane
and cheerful view of life there is. Understood in Brown’s fashion, it
darkens and sours the world, withering hope and charity, and perverting
whatever is truly good until it looks like evil at its worst: like blasphemy
and hypocrisy.”
Hawthorne, in “Young Goodman Brown”, develops the conflict of the story through the dark setting, the identification of evil in all mens’ souls, and Brown’s resolution to this realization. The story was written approximately a generation after the era of the infamous Salem witch trials when Puritan communities, secured by their orthodox faith, dealt with evils residing in the ungodly wilderness around them. Set in Salem in 1692, during the early period in which Puritans rallied against the practice of witchcraft. Brown’s experience in the dark, evil forest correlates with the evil abundant in their world and would have been recognized by Puritans as a symbol of mistrust in their own corrupt hearts and faculties. The abiding Puritanical influence in “Young Goodman Brown” can only be justified by the fact that Hawthorne himself grew up in Salem, Massachusetts in a society which still adhered to Puritan beliefs. Even with his deep roots in the Puritan community (his great grandfather sat on the jury for the Salem witch trials); Hawthorne never quite came to terms with his ancestral heritage. While most critics feel that Hawthorne’s “chief literary motivation” was rooted in Puritanism, others feel somewhat different (Mills, 78).
“Frank P Stearns wrote that Hawthorne ‘pursued a middle course. He separated himself from the Puritans without joining their opponents’ and Barrett Wendell, while admitting that Hawthorne ‘could never shake off the temperamental earnestness of the Puritan’ and that he is ‘most characteristic when…he expresses that constant, haunting sense of ancestral sin’ which he inherits from his Puritan forefathers, nevertheless pointed out that for Hawthorne, Puritanism was no longer a way of life but rather a subject for literary art”.
As the story of “Young Goodman Brown” continues, Hawthorne delves further into subject of faith. While on his journey with the devil in the forest, Brown encounters a lady named Goody Cloyse, who, coincidentally, taught him his catechisms. A catechism was a book given to Puritan youth summarizing the religion and all it stood for. However, in this story with the manner in which Brown meets Goody Cloyse in the forest and her association with the darkness, the symbol of the catechism becomes evil and quite the opposite of religious; it is almost blasphemous that he would speak of her teaching him his catechisms in such a wretched place. Hawthorne also develops the witch-like tendencies in Cloyses’s character by saying she cackles and describes her as carrying a broomstick. He affiliates her with the devil when Cloyse refers to Satan as her “friend”. Apparently, Hawthorne intended the reader to view these symbols as a reality of sin and the terror of the human hell which was revealed to Brown. It is important to note that in this story Brown enters the forest thinking he can easily overcome temptation in whatever form it might present itself. However, after running into Goody Cloyse and witnessing her darker side, it precipitates Brown’s downfall and the inception of his lost faith in man. Cloyse was an important person in Brown’s life and for him to view her with characteristics which he did not associate with a religious figure causes distress in Brown’s mind. He later overhears a conversation between the minister of Salem and Deacon Gookin as they are hiking into the forest as well. Not only were these two men of high stature in the community but they also held religious significance for Brown. Consequently, his confidence in religion is greatly diminished.
Brown continues down the trail into the forest looking for hope in the heavens but hears only howling voices in response. He eventually reaches his destination and there finds the rest of the community participating in satanic rituals. When he sees this it destroys any faith he may have once held for the members of the community and for himself, which causes him to renounce his place in such a hypocritical society. In studying about Hawthorne and trying to read this story as a conventionalist, one might suspect that Hawthorne himself struggled with these issues in his own life. Although he did not, some might argue that he bore the weight of the consequences of his ancestors’ actions which occurred generations before him. Through his writings, primarily “Young Goodman Brown” and its references to witchcraft and deceit, Hawthorne may have been trying in some way to ask forgiveness for the sins of his forefathers. Hawthorne may have intended for his readers to take the allegorical context of this story and use it to better their own lives. The moral implied is that isolation from society and complete rejection of all who have sinned can only lead to a miserable and desperate end to an individual’s life.
While Hawthorne may have subconsciously shared the passions of Brown, he was by and large well liked by many people and admired in his field. Herman Melville became one of Hawthorne’s closet friends. In a letter written to Hawthorne from Melville shortly after the release of “Moby Dick”, Melville (from Davis) had this to say:
“Your letter was handed me last night on the road going to Mr. Morewood’s, and I read it there. Had I been at home, I would have sat down at once and answered it. In me divine magnanimities are spontaneous and instantaneous — catch them while you can. The world goes round, and the other side comes up. So now I can’t write what I felt. But I felt pantheistic then — your heart beat in my ribs and mine in yours, and both in God’s. A sense of unspeakable security is in me this moment, on account of your having understood the book. I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb. Ineffable socialites are in me. I would sit down and dine with you and all the gods in old Rome’s Pantheon. It is a strange feeling — no hopefulness is in it, no despair. Content — that is it; and irresponsibility; but without licentious inclination. I speak now of my profoundest sense of being, not of an incidental feeling.”
Melville’s letter is fascinating in that it reveals the friendship which ensued between two great writers. It also helps state the case that, despite writing stories such as “Young Goodman Brown”, and possibly sharing the same ideas as Brown, Hawthorne was able to look at the world with possibility instead of dire judgment. He was able to maintain healthy friendships and relationships and still create characters like Brown who were not as fortunate. Even though “Young Goodman Brown” is a fictional story, Hawthorne puts himself in Brown’s shoes and makes the point that just because our views of people may be flawed at some point, it doesn’t mean men have to live the rest of their lives with a cynical and untrusting nature. However, if man finds himself unable to move past the sin which resides in his soul, then Hawthorne has provided a story and a character with which to identify and the resulting moral of the not so happy ending which lies in store.
As many critics continue to argue over whether Hawthorne meant “Young Goodman Brown” to be an allegorical tale or not, this interpretation from D.M. McKeithan (96) sums up the moralistic intent of the story:
“Moreover, it is not necessary to choose between interpreting the
story literally and taking it as a dream. “Young Goodman Brown”
is an allegory – which is what Hawthorne meant when he suggested
that it might have been a dream-and an allegory is a fictitious
story designed to teach an abstract truth. In reality, Brown did not
go into a forest at night nor did he dream that he did. What
Brown did was to indulge in sin (represented by the journey into
the forest at night-and of course the indulgence might have
lasted much longer than a night: weeks, months, even years) under
the mistaken notion that he could break off whenever he wanted to.
Instead of breaking off promptly, he continued to indulge in sin
longer than he had expected and suffered the consequences, which
were the loss of religious faith and faith in all other human beings.
Because of the ambiguities in the story, Hawthorne leaves the real interpretation up to his readers. Perhaps it was just a dream, one that Hawthorne himself once had, or perhaps it was a reality which this impressionable young character had to experience to learn a life lesson. Either way “Young Goodman Brown” will long be remembered as one of Hawthorne’s most significant pieces of literature. And at the end of the day, Puritan-influenced or not, Hawthorne’s reputation will still enjoy the respect of his peers while we as writers, critics, and readers will enjoy the deeper meaning to this great work from an extremely talented author.
Works Cited
Davis, Merrell R., and William H. Gillman. “Melville’s Letters to Hawthorne.” The Life and Works of Herman Melville. 1960. New Haven: Yale University Press. 22 Feb. 2008 <http://www.melville.org/corresp.htm>.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown.” Theory Into Practice: an Introduction to Literary Criticism. Comp. Ann Dobie. Ed. Bill Hoffman. The Wadworth Group, 2002. 234-243.
Literary History of America (New York, 1900), 433.
McKeithan, D.M. Modern Language Notes, Vol. 67, No. 2. (Feb., 1952), pp. 93-96.
Mills, Barriss. The New England Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 1. (Mar., 1948), pp. 78-102.
Stearns, Frank P. The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne. J.B Lippincott Company, 1906. pp.106.
Van Doren, Mark. Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Critical Biography. Viking Press, 1957. 77-79.
