Young Goodman Brown Term Paper

Young Goodman Brown: Faith -- the Wife

In the Young Goodman Brown, the two important characters are the protagonist, Brown and his wife Faith. While Faith, the wife, has a small role to play yet her significance increases as we closely study her symbolic use in the story. The story revolves around a man's journey into the heart of darkness to discover the strength of his own faith. He considers himself a moral being but on this one occasion, he realizes that faith is but a weak power which can easily be suppressed by evil forces. Faith acts as a force that continuously tries to stop Brown from committing sin. The author aptly named his wife Faith because throughout the story, she acts as the force that stands opposed to evil. And references to Faith also depict the various stages and forms of Brown's faith at different points in the story.

Faith is a pretty young woman who recently got married to Brown. She is an innocent person and pink ribbons are symbolically used to depict her beauty and purity. "And

Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the soft ribbons of her cap" (610). Faith wants Brown to postpone his journey so the two can enjoy each other's company. At this point in their relationship, the power of Faith should be the strongest since they are newlyweds. It is that power which delays his journey by a few hours.When questioned by his evil companion, Brown confesses: "Faith kept me back a while." Though he is referring to his wife Faith, the young woman has been used to represent the positive force of faith commonly known as conscience and goodness. As the night progresses and Goodman Brown moves deeper into the forest which represents evil, he promises himself that "after this night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven" (611).

We can see Faith the wife has repeatedly been used as a symbol to represent goodness. Pink ribbons are also repeatedly mentioned in the story. They represent both Faith the wife and faith, the goodness within. Pink is the color of innocence and when they fall, it means Brown's faith is gradually dissipating. At one point he looks up at the sky and feels that he still has his faith intact: "The blue sky was still visible, except directly overhead, where this black mass of cloud was sweeping swiftly northward" (615). The mass of black cloud represent evil which had momentarily taken over faith. It was when "dark cloud swept away, leaving the clear and silent sky above...and something fluttered lightly down through the air...and beheld a pink ribbon" did he understand his faith was quickly being overpowered. As he draws closer to evil, he can feel the lore of sin calling on to him: "[he] stepped out of the shadow….....