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Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown"

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Student First Reading Responses
Virginia Commonwealth University

This is the first time I have read "Young Goodman Brown," and I have to say I found Mr. Brown to be a bit of a fanatic. I understand and respect his passionate belief in God, Heaven, and Hell, but I think his imagination and/or conscience got the best of him. I feel that he never left his house at all, but that he dreamt the whole thing from the comfort of his bed. Being such a religious man, what could be more frightening than to dream of walking with the devil? The reasons I believe this to be a dream are as follows: First, I believe that we have all had nightmares where we experienced being the only living creature left somewhere or the me against the world dream. If this is true it would follow that Mr. Brown's feelings of being the only "good man (or woman) left in his town are the result of his dreaming. He couldn't actually be the only good, honorable, and faithful-to-God man left in town, could he?

Second, being that Mr. Brown is such a religious man, I would find it normal that he would try to deal with questions of good and evil daily. Maybe something happened to him that day to test his obedience to God, and his subconscious led him to dream about what would happen if he diverted from his path of goodness. Was he trying to justify something he had done or was thinking of doing? Dreams can feel, as we all know, quite real and elaborate; they can also contain an amazing amount of detail. I felt this story was so elaborate that it couldn't be anything but a dream.

Young Goodman Brown spends a great deal of his time dreaming about the fall of all the people he knew to be heavenly. Why? I still feel he is trying to justify something. Our minds work in curious ways when we are trying to make right of something we did that we know to be wrong, either morally or ethically.

I think that he truly believed the dream to be an evil omen from the devil. He never trusted himself or anyone else again. He had turned from a believing man to a desperate and sad man. I have read that this feeling of self doubt was one that Hawthorne himself struggled with, that he was unhappy and never satisfied with his accomplishments.

Later addition: After doing some research on "Young Goodman Brown" I have a whole new understanding of the story. I read "Visible Sanctity and Specter Evidence: The Moral World of Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown' " by Michael J. Colacurcio in the Norton Critical Edition on Nathaniel Hawthorne.

To begin, my initial response to "Young Goodman Brown" was fairly accurate when I said there was an internal struggle going on in Mr. Brown. Michael Colacurcio says "Brown's trip to the forest is a projection of his disordered imagination and that his conversations with the devil are interior monologues" (389). There is, however, much more going on within this story, and something I found interesting was that it makes no difference to this story if you think it was a dream or not. What is important, however, is that we should be able to see from the beginning of the story that Brown is on his way to self destruction. Young Goodman Brown questions his wife's faith in him: "Dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married?" There is no evidence that Faith distrusts him; this comment, however, is Brown's own guilty projection of what lies ahead.

The Puritan setting of this story is extremely important in understanding Brown's character as well as his state of mind. Michael Colacurcio says that Brown is the product or victim of "third generation Puritanism" and that this explains why he struggles with moral righteousness. Goodman Brown had finally reached that visible sainthood so desired by Puritans, only to fall victim to the psychology of being a saint. ". . . it is inevitable that Young Goodman Brown would have envisaged his loss of faith as he did and as a consequence have been destroyed as a person" (394).

The Puritan setting is also important in understanding Hawthorne. Some of Hawthorne's "most powerful stories grew directly out of an authentic and creative encounter with the Puritan mind" (404). Hawthorne's subjects were Puritans trapped by the moral definitions of their historical world, and Young Goodman Brown demonstrates that. Young Goodman Brown has also been said to be a statement about how it might have felt to live in the moral climate of Puritanism's most troubled years.

Jackie

* * *

The biggest unanswered question here seems to be "was Young Goodman Brown dreaming this horrible dream of walking with the devil? Did he actually walk with the devil?" I'm leaning towards him walking with the devil. Hawthorne gives us such great detail in the beginning of the story, describing how Faith talks of her dream, foreshadowing that something bad is going to happen, and he is consciously aware that he is about to set off on an evil journey—"With this excellent resolve for the future, Goodman Brown felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose." This leads me to believe that this is more than just a dream. YGB knows that his purpose is an evil one, but he continues with his journey (against his wife's protest), anticipating some sort of resolve for the future. Even though none of Brown's forefathers have ever ventured into the darkness of the woods, he feels that he must in order to have some sort of resolution (what is he trying to resolve anyway?—this is very ambiguous). In the very beginning of the story he exclaims, "Poor little Faith!" He is foreshadowing his own lack of faith about his mission into the woods, his intentions. And from what I know about Hawthorne, this is an autobiographical self-analysis, constantly doubting his own intentions. There are so many clues along the path that I find it really hard to fathom why a man that comes from "a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs" would even set off on such a mission. This makes me wonder if Hawthorne himself felt he chose the wrong path in life. Obviously if he led an unfulfilling and self-doubting life, he probably feels that he too (like YGB) overlooked many hints that might have foreshadowed his own unhappiness. (I really need to look more into the life of Hawthorne before I lay him down on my leather couch.) Has it all been a dream, or shall I say nightmare? It doesn't really matter either way, for YGB's life has become one of solitude and unhappiness, regardless. I think Hawthorne probably wishes that he could have awakened from this dream, his own dream perhaps. He describes, "conscious of the guilty purpose that had brought him thither, though now so happily turned from it." He (YGB or maybe Hawthorne) is doubting himself, his intentions and now he has to deal with his decision. He also doubts "whether there really was a heaven above him." He cries out for "Faith!" "My Faith is gone!" He has lost all faith. And the next day, whether or not he was dreaming is unimportant, because he has lost all faith in humanity.

Crystal

* * *

I noticed from the very beginning the heavy foreshadowing. First, Faith is very nervous about her husband leaving that evening. And he says to himself, Well, "she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven." The next paragraph starts: "With this excellent resolve for the future, Goodman Brown felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose."

So Goodman Brown meets with the devil. It seems that he knows where he's going and why, and yet he still seems surprised that the devil is a bad guy. Um, Brown, get a reality check! This guy's the devil!! He's not trying to help you out with anything! He's trying to take your soul!! Duh! The devil makes himself look like Brown's father so that Brown will trust him more, I'm assuming. And the devil actually sounds like kind of a reasonable guy: "Let us walk on, nevertheless, reasoning as we go; and if I convince thee not thou shalt turn back."

The whole time, Brown seems like he's hesitating, but at the same time, he keeps walking along with the devil. The devil keeps taunting Brown, in an "everybody-else-is-doing-it" kind of way: "I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that's no trifle to say. . . . The deacons of many a church have drunk the communion wine with me . . ." [isn't this a little sacrilegious?]. So when he sees the whole town, pretty much, in this satanic ritual and, especially, sees his wife, I thought two things: (1) this is all a big illusion set up by the devil so that he can win over Brown to the Kingdom of Darkness, or (2) Man, is Brown in a heap of trouble!! The worst part is this: as soon as he sees Faith there in the congregation, Brown shouts out, "There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil; for to thee is this world given." Not a great thing to shout out if you still think that maybe God is watching over you, you know? And Goodman notices the equality within the devil's circle of evildoers: ". . . It was strange to see that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints." I guess if you're all Friends of Satan, there is no longer any need to think in terms of good and wicked, sinner and saint: if you've all signed over to join the devil, I guess you've committed the ultimate sin, and there's not anything "good," and there would be no "saints" in that sort of group. Finally, some creepy dark figure beckons Brown forward, and he says, "Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness." Wow! So then Brown screams, "Faith, Faith, look up to heaven and resist the wicked one." And then he wakes up. And he wonders if it was all a bad dream. And he spends the rest of his life "A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man . . ." The poor guy!

So what I'm wondering is: was he just obsessed with sin and had this terrible dream? But it couldn't have been a dream, because he set off going into the forest that night on his "evil mission." He knew that he was going to meet the devil. And what happened to Faith? Did she fail to look up to heaven? ". . . A dream of evil omen for Young Goodman Brown." So even if he resisted the devil, he lived the rest of his life a miserable, bitter old man. I'd love to know more about the history of this story.

I'm guessing that what happened was that when he looked up to heaven and resisted the wicked one, the devil realized the gig was up, put YGB to sleep, made the whole darn illusion disappear and shouted something fittingly evil like, "Drat! Foiled again!!" Ta-daaa! Still one question, though: What about Faith? Was she really there? It seems like YGB's faith in life, God, etc., were all filtered through his wife "Faith." So did seeing her there shatter all of his faith?

Caitlin

* * *

Young Goodman Brown was not so much a good man, I think. Why else would he go to a clandestine meeting with the devil and other evil creatures? He says, ". . . shall I be the first of the name of Brown, that ever took this path . . ." Guilt? Maybe, but YGB proceeds. He knows what he is going to do full well.

At the beginning, he crosses the threshhold of the house . . . a physical representation of the distance between Brown and his faith (Faith). Then, he says, "Faith kept me back awhile." Did it? If he cared more about Faith (faith), then would he have agreed to this meeting in the first place?

I found it odd that the stranger in the woods would bear "a considerable resemblance to him." Are they somehow related? Is this how Brown's family ties in with the evils? The stranger also carries a staff (word I've heard in this context only in the Bible). It "bore the likeness of a great black snake." Perhaps this is the original sin . . . "a living serpent." Brown believes that no one else in his family has ever dared meet with the Devil. However, later he finds out that he is not the first. It's a whole evil generation. Everybody's evil and sinning left and right. Sinners coming out of the woodwork—Goody Cloyse, Goody Cory, Deacon Gookin—all these holy people. In fact, one could make the case that if Brown hadn't gone to the meeting, then he would have performed the original sin (to the evils, of course) of not showing allegiance to Satan & Co.

I thought that the part about his family and their previous sins was highly autobiographical. I know from other classes that Hawthorne was extremely guilt-ridden over his grandfathers, etc. burning witches. He probably feels as if they had sinned and now he (YGB) must redeem himself for their sins. But what he fails to realize is that participating in some blood-bath orgy ceremony is not the way to do it. When the deacon and the stranger are talking they mention a "goodly young woman to be taken into communion." Of course, we find that this young woman is Faith, but what does "goodly" mean? Good in whose eyes? God's? Satan's? Also, in a few paragraphs below that, YGB raises his hands to pray. To who? God? Maybe. Satan? After all, Satan was the one who helped his family out and his times preached "respect your elders . . ." Very ironic how he loses his "faith" when he sees the pink ribbon of his wife, Faith. He won't be riding her skirt tails any time soon. . . . He also feels a "loathful brotherhood" as he steps from the shadows of the trees. Has he always felt this way? He's already got wickedness in his heart. Maybe he's just realizing it. Hawthorne writes that there was a basin hollowed naturally in the rock. Naturally? Could this be God's hand? Or could it be science, nature? Is Mother Nature one of the founding members of Satan, Inc.? In that same paragraph, Faith turns pale. She is no longer her youthful pink. She is now a cold woman of the world.

The question Hawthorne asks (Had Goodman Brown been asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?) has no relevance. Whether it was a dream or not does not matter because his life is altered forever. He will never think or see things the same. Hawthorne doesn't mention YGB's relationship with Faith at all in the last paragraph. Poor Faith. I guess YGB found guilt more interesting than her.

Leigh

* * *

There are so many gaps that you can have fun with. For instance why did Goodman Brown go into the forest to meet the devil, what made him feel that compulsion, and how did he meet the devil in the first place? Why did the devil bear such a resemblance to Brown? Do we all walk with the devil as Hawthorne seems to feel? The doctrine of original sin was very prevalent at this time and that could be the reason Hawthorne writes such a black story. Brown was called silly in the story by the old woman: did the townspeople not like him? Brown becomes the devil in the story as he races along the woods to get to the meeting, and he is much more hideous than the devil himself. Everyone walks with the devil at one time or another, and Brown needs to accept this. In the end he cannot and he shies away from human contact and dies lonely and hated.

Travis

 

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