Allegory & Symb.. in Nathaniel Hawthorne's

Merriam-Webster’s Eleventh Edition Collegiate Dictionary defines an allegory as “the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truth or generalizations about human existence” (32). In other words, an allegory is a literary story with a spiritual message. The allegory implied in “Young Goodman Brown” is that when you leave your faith behind, you are doomed. Symbolically, Hawthorne uses the name Faith as the character of Goodman Brown’s wife. Her character is wri

His father and grandfather’s deceitfulness bewilders Goodman Brown, that such thought good men could get away with such evil. Goodman Brown fights himself, deciding whether or not to turn back. At one point, he stops at a tree stump and refuses to go further, questioning his morality. Nevertheless, he continues after he sees the townspeople pass by, as well as the minister and deacon. He finally realizes the unfortunate truth of what the Devil told him; the people of Salem Village are not actually free of sin when their Puritan views are that destroying the villages of heathen Indians, tormenting practitioners of other faiths, or burning witches is not evil, but virtuous. He now understands that instead of serving God, they are all serving the Devil. This is when Goodman Brown turns around and can only see sin, which the dark, dense forest of trees symbolizes. No longer is there hope, and his faith is uncertain. This is how Hawthorne builds his allegory. Goodman Brown gets up and continues his journey through the evil forest. The Devil has succeeded.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s constant use of symbolism builds a strong spiritual allegory. Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith, his journey through the dark forest, and the witch meeting all point towards Hawthorne’s purpose in “Young Goodman Brown.” Journalist Walter Shear says, “Brown represents the unstable Puritanism as it decreases in its religious conviction and becomes somewhat hypocritical” (547). The Puritan townspeople were thought to be pure and moral, but their religious enforcements, as were mentioned earlier were actually against God’s will. Therefore, Goodman Brown, like his fellow Puritans, was an unconscious sinner. Now, he sees what all is wrong and evil and suffers the guilt, while most still do not

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