Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story in which man's fall is inevitable. It is literally and metaphorically a story about a newlywed man who is walking toward spiritual crisis in the company of the devil himself.
The allegory that Hawthorne is trying to portray in the story is that Young Goodman Brown explores man's instinctive drive to do sin through his journey in which the fall is inevitable. This story is not to be understood as a rejection of faith, but as a symbol for man and his question of his faith in religion. This story also acts as a defense for mankind because all of us face struggles with temptation, sin, and faith. .
I believe that the setting of the story is set during the same time of the Salem witch trials. Evidence is found through references of Young Goodman Brown's father who fought during King Phillip's war. (p. 82) This war was fought during the years of 1675 and 1676, and a son would have been of marrying age by the early 1690's. The Salem witch trial was in the year 1692, and the story is likely to be set just before this date. The setting is symbolic of how the village of Salem was in a heightened state of religious oppression and strict moral code. Goody Cloyse reminds Brown that his own family was motivated to sin, and seeing his father in the forest only proved her words true. .
"Faith, as the wife was aptly named," (p.80) suggests that Brown's wife embodies the goodness that is found in a young wife. On page 80, paragraph two, Faith, Young Goodman Brown's newlywed wife says, "prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts that she's afeared of herself sometimes." This quote demonstrates Faith's doubtful and uncertain thoughts of her husband. Even though Faith is his wife in the story, she also serves as a symbol for her faith in Young Goodman Brown, and the faith that he has in her.
