Young Goodman Brown and Morality Term Paper

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Doubts enter Brown's mind on page 15, as he looks "up at the sky" (which of course is pitch black in the deep forest at night) and doubts whether there is a heaven. But he cries out that he will "stand firm" - so readers know he still hopes to be strong and resist what is happening to him. But this night is not about resistance: "The cry of grief, rage, and terror" went out from him as he believes his lovely wife's pink ribbon indicates that the Devil has taken her. "Come devil; for to thee is this world given."

The story - like Goodman Brown's heart and conscience - is filled with opposites and contrasts; Brown is "maddened with despair" yet he "laughed loud and long"; there is a scream, then laughter; the night is black, yet a pink ribbon flutters down out of the darkness. There is "horrid blasphemy" and yet "laughter as set all the echoes of the forest laughing like demons."

And this once-nice young man is now a "demoniac," who is "brandishing his staff with frenzied gestured." Hawthorne is filling the night and the story with conflicting, confusing, hideous images of people he knows, even church members - "chaste dames and dewy virgins...men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice...suspected even of horrid crimes" - and through it all, "...where is Faith?" he wondered.

Well, where is "faith" indeed - this is no doubt one of the morality messages given to readers (and to the world) by Hawthorne in this story. Do people have an abiding faith that right will prevail over wrong? Brown (page 18-19) then approaches the "congregation, with whom he felt a loathing brotherhood by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart." His mother and father appear in this nightmare of images; and the "deep mystery of sin" must be penetrated, said the "sable form."

Throughout all this mayhem and madness, it is worth observing that as the Devil persuades Brown to continue this weird experience, the twisted and wretched logic of it all is not that different from what many of us are subjected to in today's advertising blitz by hundreds of manufacturers. If you drink Coors Light beer, or Bud Light, the ladies will swarm all over you, and you will leave your hapless roommates in the dust; if you use a certain shampoo, you'll be youthfully thin, seductive, and prized by men.

And so, this story - though it doesn't "prove" anything at all - inspires the careful reader to question his or her moral outlook and values. It should cause readers to wonder if, when tempted (whether in a dream or in wide-awake life) to follow the creed, "Evil is the nature of mankind," can any of us resist? And it should also give pause and make one ask: does evil lurk within all institutions, even the Church? It should cause readers to wonder if guilt rules because evil is ever-present; and did Hawthorne write this story to show the wickedness of the Salem witch trials? If readers do not ask such questions, they weren't paying attention to the story.

Reference

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill….....