Young Goodman Brown Symbolism

Assignment I: Symbolism in Young Goodman Brown

In “Young Goodman Brown”, symbolism is used throughout the story as each character and some items are meant to have meaning. Nathaniel Hawthorne does a great job unveiling these symbols throughout the short story.

The main character, Young Goodman Brown, symbolizes innocence of young, good men, who are all tempted towards evil and to some magnitude all give in. His trip through the forest symbolizes loss of innocence and his experience with evil which is ironic because his name is Young “Goodman” Brown. In the beginning of the story, we read “He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind” (Hawthorne 357). This is the statement that symbolizes his journey into evil because the narrowness of the path can be seen as Brown being suctioned in by evil.

Young Goodman Brown comes upon a character in the forest described as “one who knew the world, and who would not have felt abashed at the governor's dinner table or in King Williams court” (Hawthorne 358). This character he meets can be seen as the devil. This character had a walking staff described as having “the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent” (Hawthorne 358). The staff, which has a snake-like appearance, suggests that the character of Brown's fellow traveler is a slick, misleading person and one that should not be trusted. Brown's companion offers his staff to Brown but Brown rejects which symbolizes Brown's unwillingness to give in to the evil in the world. However this all started to change as the devil or companion stated “I have a very general acquaintance here in New England. The deacons of many a church have drunk the communion wine with me; the selectmen of divers towns make me their chairman; and a majority of the Great and General Court...