Faith In Young Goodman Brown

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In Salem Village, when one experiences doubt in their faith, that person is deemed as flawed. To Puritans, even the smallest doubt in their religion is seen as if one is pledging their soul to the devil. Nathaniel Hawthorne sees human nature in much the same way and depicts his feelings in the short story, Young Goodman Brown. His writings suggest that once the flaws are seen and noticed there is no going back to the original ignorance. He suggests this idea through the many symbolisms in the story such as Brown’s wife, Faith.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Puritans lived in Salem Village, New England. The religion in this community had precedence over every aspect of the villager’s lives, in church and at home. They believed …show more content…
She represents a part of him that is purer than he realizes but can be easily broken. When Brown says he has to go into the woods, Faith tries to keep him at home. She does so because their marriage is so new and she has doubts about him going into the forest. Although Brown feels guilty about leaving his faith behind, he truly believes that “after this one night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven” (Hawthorne 1). With this as his consolation, he thinks he will be able to go into the wild forest that no one in the town of Salem dares to enter and remain completely the same as before he enters the …show more content…
However, the goal is to find a balance between Puritan extremists and human nature being completely flawed. According to the Bible, Jesus died for the sins of humans because they are not perfect. With this perspective, the Puritans did not have to be so extreme in their religious practices to which execution was involved. Brown’s halfway faith, symbolized by his wife’s pink ribbons, would be acceptable in modern times. One must accept that humans are not perfect and with this acceptance, they will be able to accept themselves and live happily. But, because of the extreme lengths the Puritans went through to remain ‘worthy’ of God, Brown turns bitter towards everyone and sentenced to his own
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