Allegorical “Young Goodman Brown”

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name of Goodman Brown and his wife Faith are clear symbolic elements. Goodman Brown stands for the naïve, immature young man who only sees the good in his fellowman, and has yet to be confronted with evil. Faith, Goodman Brown’s young wife stands for what Goodman Brown believes in. He sees his wife as all that is good and when he realizes that she too has made a pack with the devil he cries “my faith is gone…There is no good on earth.” This makes Brown a stern, sad and distrustful man. I think Hawthorne was saying that when man’s faith is gone he is lost and without purpose.
There are many objects in “Young Goodman Brown”, that have dual meaning such as the pink ribbons Faith wore upon her hat, the staff offered to Goodman Brown by the devil, the forest, and a hanging twig and the coldest dew. The pink ribbons worn by Faith symbolized the innocence of Goodman Brown’s faith. Pink is associated with being sweet, playful, and child like. It is when Goodman Brown sees the ...

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