A Symbolic Conflict: Faith in Young Goodman Brown

In the literary world, it is rather general knowledge that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short-story, “Young Goodman Brown”, is an allegorical tale of Puritanism. If we were to look at the story without this knowledge in mind, the story is simply about a man venturing into the woods, encountering the devil along the way, and then trying to keep his ‘Faith’ from the clutches of evil. Hawthorne wittily intended for the word ‘Faith’ to have a double meaning: ‘Faith’ is meant to be the name of the main character’s wife, but also his belief in God. It is reasonable to conclude that Faith represents all things good and holy in the story. However, in Young Goodman Brown’s struggles to not succumb to the devil’s temptations, it is evident there is an inner battle between good and evil within him; to which, ‘good’ is ‘Faith’. It can then be seen that Faith is not the representation of all things good and holy, but rather a source of conflict in the story.

For example, the story opens up with Young Goodman Brown being ready to embark on his journey to the woods, but Faith is holding him back. Although very minor, this is still a depiction of conflict. We can see that Goodman Brown is determined to go on with “his present evil purpose” (Hawthorne); ‘Evil’ in this scenario is the beginning of his temptations, with Faith representing the anchor that is supposed to keep him grounded metaphorically. She tries her hardest to convince him to stay with her that particular night “of all night in the year”, to which Goodman Brown replies if it was any other nights but not that night (Hawthorne). From this, we get the notion that Goodman Brown has lost to evil from the very beginning if ‘Faith’ is unable to stop him from going on his errand.

Once he meets the devil in the forest, Goodman Brown refers to his wife in order to resist the devil’s seduction; “with Heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the Devil” (Hawthorne). By constantly mentioning Faith, he is reminding...