As one of the earliest symbols seen, the forest is also one of the strongest. The forest provides the setting for most of the st

within the darkness of the forest play an integral role in the representation of evil. However, the shadows represent Brown’s own fears that evil exists inside him. Another part of the forest that is symbolic is the path that Goodman Brown walks along while in the forest. This path symbolizes the path towards evil because the farther he walks along it, the wilder the forest gets and the closer to yielding to evil he gets. Several times he steps off of the path when he thinks of his wife, knowing it is the right thing to do. However, when he thinks that he has lost her, he blindly bolts down the path again in a fit of madness. As he runs, “the road grows wilder and drearier, and more faintly traced, and vanishing at length, still rushing onward, leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness, still rushing onward, with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil” (Literature 7th ed. 408). This represents Brown’s giving in to the evil in his despair, and eventually leads him to the devil’s meeting, which is as far down the path of evil as a person can go.

Another use of symbolism by Hawthorne in “Young Goodman Brown” is displayed by the characters themselves: Goodman Brown, Faith, and the rest of the people who Goodman believed to be devout Christians. Goodman Brown’s symbolism can be easily spotted in his name. Taken literally, his name describes who he truly is, a good man. He knows this about himself and exclaims to the devil, ‘… [my family and I] have been a race of honest men and good Christians, since the days of the martyrs….’ (405). In his name, Goodman Brown represents the everyday, good-hearted, albeit naïve, average Joe. He struggles to resist the evil that his companion is leading him toward

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