Young Goodman Brown :: Literature Fiction Religion Essays

three-year-old Goodman BrownIn the tier of Young Goodman Brown the main eccentric finds much more then he imagined by venturing into the woodwind. Leaving from the township of Salem, Massachusetts, Young Goodman Brown travels into the forest to confront and conquer the temptations of evil. However, the artistry of this story lies in what Goodman Brown finds, realizes, and becomes. In Young Goodman Brown the main temper goes through a period of self-realization, and ironicall(a)y comes to harbor the evil he fears so much. The time period in which the story is set contributes firmly to the irony of the events. The group to which Young Goodman Brown belonged is the prudes. This religious group had genuinely strict Christian beliefs, morals, and ethics. Shortly before the story of Goodman Brown the Puritan peoples of Salem had condemned people believed to be witches. Obviously, in the time of the Puritans evil was by no means tolerated. It was more or less hunted verboten and de stroyed. Being the wildly religious Puritan he is, Goodman Brown sets of into the forest on a quest to find evil and relinquish its temptations at one time and for all. Brown expresses that by doing so he will gain virtually unworldly benefit when he states . . . after this one night Ill cling to her his wife, Faith skirts and follow her to heaven (444). Brown meets Satan during his journey passim the forest and manages to resist his evil. However, Brown becomes discouraged when he finds his old religious belief teacher in the forest whom has already succumbed to Satan. Next, Brown reaches an altar of sorts in the forest, and finds the entire town worshiping Satan. At this instant Goodman Brown comes to a realization, and in the end loses his faith. Goodman Brown wakes the next morning in the forest alone, with no soft touch of the devil worshiping citizens. Whether or not it was all just a dream, or reality, we will never know, but regardless it bestowed Goodman Brown with a adept of betrayal. The epiphany comes when Brown sees that there is evil in everyone and the Puritan beliefs cannot hold prompt against it. Browns quest to denounce evil brought him to realize it was all for not. As a result of his findings, Brown becomes a hardened, distrusting soul. As utter by Hawthorne A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that imposing dream (453.