Symbolism And Imagery In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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Even the most trusted and innocent people can have evil hidden inside of them. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, Goodman Brown discovers that many of the people he trusts are secretly evil. He begins to lose his faith in humanity and no longer sees anyone as righteous. Hawthorne’s use of symbolism and imagery causes Goodman Brown to lose faith in humanity due to his new realization of evil in society.
Hawthorne uses symbolism in both Young Goodman Brown and Faith’s names. Goodman Brown starts the story as a young, good man. Goodman Brown later begins to discover the evil within inside himself. This leads him to partake in an evil ritual. Over the course of the story Young Goodman Brown goes from a good man, to an evil man. Hawthorne also uses the name of Young Goodman Brown’s wife Faith, to display his loss of hope in humanity. Later on in the story, Brown believes that his wife has been killed. He …show more content…
Hawthorne creates images of a dark and creepy forest that display the evil nature of Brown and society as a whole. The woods represent the darkness that is inside of Goodman Brown. Goodman travels deeper and deeper into the woods, showing how he is descending into his own dark thoughts and hidden fears. Every person he sees in the forest, he sees as evil. He fears that the other villagers are secretly evil and so he creates his own reality.
Goodman Brown’s realization of evil in society is represented through symbolism and imagery. Throughout Young Goodman Brown, Brown realizes that everyone he once perceived as good is now evil; causing him to lose faith in humanity and change the way he views the world. In today's society people are not always who they say they are and can be deceiving. When a person realizes that someone who they trust is not who they say they are, that person can lose faith in humanity and view the world
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