Consuming most of Hawthorne’s tale is a test of faith. For three months Brown has been married to a young woman symbolizing his faith (60 ). She even carries this name and lets her role in the story tie to that aspect of her husband’s life. Brown calls for his wife three times as he stands before the devil at the alter. Goodman then cries, “My Faith is gone.”(9 ) As Brown is drawn into the deepest shadows of the forest and enters the devils sacred service, Hawthorne dramatizes his feeling that once commitment to evil has been made, its purpose must prevail by securing a

There is a mysterious aura around the area that places Young Goodman Brown in a trance where, despite the presence of faith, he unconsciously continues walking. He even stays when Goody Close screams “The Devil” (187 ) as the dark figure touches her with his staff. Society has only shown Goodman Brown of the religious path in life so that sin and evil dumbfounds him. Young Goodman Brown does indeed try to resist the dark figure and go home, until he hears his wife Faith in the woods. Although the trip through the forest is the turning point in the life of Young Goodman Brown, this is the transitioning point of his journey. Brown was able to blindly acknowledge the new side of Goody Close, the minister and the Deacon, but with the sight of her pink ribbon “after one stupefied moment” Young Goodman Brown cried “my Faith is gone” (190 ). On the outside he believes his wife too has fallen into the trap of the devil, yet internally his own faith has diminished. “There is no good on earth…come, devil; for to thee is this world given” (190 ). To Goodman Brown his world is now changed for eternity and his faith in the world and society leads him to succumb to the evilness of the forest.

This madness that Young Goodman Brown experiences escalates further more the psychological struggle he is having. What he learns in this forest changes him so much that he cannot look without judging in the manner of his experience. As Walter Shear states, “he underestimates the power of time, failing to see the degree to which he has…made himself a particular kind of individual, (and) ultimately the prisoner of his own psychological prisoner” (Shear, 545). Young Goodman Brown came into the journey somewhat aware of what he would see in terms of the presence of evil but did not believe that one night of this evil could change his life forever. Due to the strict Puritan society he was used to, Young Goodman Brown underestimated the power that this journey would hold and therefore he becomes a victim of his own journey and paranoia. He is now in a different world.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” presents an interesting perspective on how strongly society can affect one’s being. Hawthorne uses historical material, a touch of allegory, and a somber view of human nature to pull the reader inside the mind of Goodman Brown. Brown’s inability to see his own participation in evil showcases his emotional immaturity, revealing his denial of the human potential for both good and evil (56 ).

shelf in Goodman’s soul. There is no struggle of power to oppose it and in this tale the power is so unequal that Faith, supposedly the Devil’s antagonist, is drawn into the camp of the enemy (11 ). She appears at the service as a baptismal candidate along with Goodman, a faint insinuation that Faith has her own covenant with the Devil. This

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