Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

In “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne the setting plays an important role in determining the mood thought the story. The story takes place in Salem during the witch trials. The story itself is dark and it focuses on the evil in everyone therefore the mood is very grim. The author uses the settings to bring out the dark and scary effects through vivid descriptions of unbelievable and twisted things that Goodman Brown saw and heard.

The story begins with a husband leaving his wife at sunset after a mundane day. In the same sentence he describes the location by mentioning a famous town of Salem:

Young Goodman Brown came forth at sunset into the street of Salem village; but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife (325)

The protagonist has a mischievous task that he must undertake during the night. Goodman journeys through a dark forest at night which sets the mood for claustrophobic and unexpected things to happen:

He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path through, and closed immediately behind (326)

At the climax of the story the author extensively uses the setting to his advantage to bring out the evil and to illustrate the bizarre things that Goodman Brown saw. The author uses light of fire and darkness of night to produce terrifying effects:

At one extremity of an open space, hemmed in by the dark wall of the forest, arose a rock, bearing some rude, natural resemblance either to an altar or a pulpit and surrounded by four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems untouched, like candles at an evening meeting.”…”The four blazing pines threw up a loftier flame, and obscurely discovered shapes and visages of horror on the smoke wreaths above the impious assembly (331-332).

The setting made the character curious, scared and paranoid at the same time. The way the author told the story, it is unclear neither...