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 THESIS

After I read Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown", these questions lingered in my mind: Does the name Faith stand only for religious faith, or can it also stand for one's faith in one's fellow human being? Are the events of a dream or is it reality? Why does Brown live an unhappy life? These questions I sought to answer by comparing Richard Abcarian's "The Ending of 'Young Goodman Brown'," Robert Ellis's "Young Goodman Brown," Marilyn and Stanford Apseloff's "'Young Goodman Brown': The Goodman," Joan Elizabeth's "Young Goodman Brown," Jules Zanger's "Young Goodman Brown" and "A White Heron" and Walter Shear's "Cultural fate and social freedom in three American short stories."

In this paper I intend to show that Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown" is one that examines the mysteries behind theology.

Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown" takes place during the end of the 17th Century in Salem, Massachusetts. There are a few characters mentioned in the story, but the main characters are Goodman Brown, his wife Faith and the stranger who accompanies Goodman Brown in the forest.

At the beginning of the story Brown is bidding his wife, Faith farewell at their front door. It is evening in the village, and he is going on a guilty errand, which his wife bids him not to go. She shows this by saying "Prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep...tonight." (Hawthorne 74). Even though Faith pleaded, Brown nevertheless leaves on his errand.

 Taking a lonely route into the forest, he meets an older man who bears a fatherly resemblance to both Brown and the Devil. Later that night Brown discovers to his amazement, that many exemplary villagers are on the same path including, Goody Cloyse, a pious old woman who once taught him his catechism, but who readily shows that she certainly knew the Devil and practiced witchcraft. With Brown still confident that he could turn back, his older companion departs, leaving behind his curiously snakelike staff and fully expecting that Brown would follow.

 Brown hides yet another time, but again to his surprise he again sees very God-fearing and respectful people such as the minister, and deacon of his church and even - to his horror - his wife, Faith. At this point, he yields to despair and sets forth to join in what is obviously a witches' Sabbath or Black Mass. Seconds later, Brown seems to find himself in the forest alone, shivering and confused.

 On Brown's return from his errand he finds that all seems apparently normal, but he cannot help shun his wife, who runs to meet him in the street, Goody Cloyse and the other good people. Brown's experience in the forest permanently blights his life. He scowls and mutters during prayers, suspects all the pious, recoils from his wife in bed at night and finally dies sad and without hope.

 Perhaps the most obviously recurrent symbol in "Young Goodman Brown" is the pink ribbons worn by Goodman's wife, Faith. They are mentioned three times in the first page or so of the story. Near the center of the story, a pink ribbon falls, or seems to fall from a cloud that Goodman Brown sees, or thinks he sees, overhead. At the end of the story, when Faith eagerly greets her returning husband, she still wears her ribbons.

 Since the Puritan setting of "Young Goodman Brown" is basic to the story, we can expect that some of its thematic patterns derive from traditional Christian concepts. Readers generally assume that Goodman Brown loses faith, either in Christ or in human beings, or in both. Thomas E. Connolly has argued, on the other hand, that the story is an attack on Calvinism and that faith (that is, faith) is not lost in the story; on the contrary, he says, Goodman Brown is confirmed in his faith, made aware of "its full and terrible significance." I however, do not agree with this statement fully, however, either way- loss of faith or still firmer belief, we see the story in a theological context.

 I strongly believe that if we extend this theological view of "Young Goodman Brown," by following the exponents of faith, hope and charity (love) and their opposed vices, we shall find them in a two-fold context: first, Christian revelation and tradition; and second a demonic literary raised up as a defiant travesty of traditional Christianity.

 Robert P. Ellis sees the story slightly differently. He makes sure as to what his view is by emphasizing that the story reminds him of a "Classic American Short Story of the guilty conscience" (Ellis 2738). He believes that this "guilt is shown by Brown's wavering between the desperate cynicism of the corrupt soul that is within, and the hopefulness of every believer. Ellis believes that at the beginning of the story we see that Brown has made a bargain of some sort with the Devil, but this bargain cannot be used as condemnation on Brown's part, but one should note that whether by act of will or by divine grace on Brown's part, he seems to have resisted evil before, and assumes salvation is beyond his wife and himself.

 Secondly, Ellis believes that, "if the ability to resist the Devil at his own table is victory, he [Brown] has triumphed; if he has made the effort at the expense of his capability for human trust, he has met spiritual defeat" (Ellis 2738). Another fine point in Ellis's analysis is the fact that this story can also be interpreted as one, which assesses the moral prospects of the guilty and the psychological effect of guilt. Ellis makes sure to mention that most Christians are baffled by dilemmas such as the opposition between divine foreordination, with God's divine mercy, and proffered grace. This was no different from Brown, who according to Ellis, believed that Christians were better than non-Christians were, and that he was above sin.

 Finally, Ellis rests his opinion on the fact that when Brown realizes that he is simply another member of a corrupt race, he thus loses all dignity, all his capacity for moral inquiry. To Ellis, "Hawthorne depicts the inner conflict resulting from a guilt that is suppressed, felt to be unshakable and forgivable" (Ellis 2739) this shows that Brown can be regarded as "irrational", mainly because he allows one night to destroy his life.

 I, agree with Ellis' statement for the most, however, I believe it is quite possible that Hawthorne had some passages from the Bible in mind when writing this story. For it appears that he wove into the cloth of "Young Goodman Brown" a pattern of steady attention to these virtues. Surely he provided a clue for us when he chose a name for Goodman Brown's wife. By naming her Faith, he gave faith first place in the story, not necessarily because faith is the story's dominant theme, but because faith is traditionally listed as the first of these three virtues. Further, Faith's name is appropriate enough in a Puritan setting (as is Goodman's, which may be read as a proper name as well as an epithet); as a symbol her name would not be far fetched and would permit many passages to grow directly from it.

 An analysis of these passages, for example, shows not only explicit mentions of faith, but also implicit allusions to faith, to hope and to love. "And Faith, as the wife was aptly named..."; My love and my Faith"; "... dost thou doubt me already...?"; "... he looked back and saw the head of Faith!"; and "... I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven" (Hawthorne 76). Both Goodman Brown and the man he meets in the forest make similar allusions in the second scene, where we read: "Faith kept me back a while"; "We have been a race of honest men and good Christians"; "We are a people of prayer and good works to boot..." (a hint of the theological debate on faith and good works); "Well, then, to end the matter at once, there is my wife, Faith"; "That Faith should come to any harm"; and "...why I should quit my dear Faith and go after Goody Cloyse." (Hawthorne 80). In the episode after the older man leaves Goodman Brown, we have these passages: "so purely and sweetly now, in the arms of Faith !"; "He looked up to the sky, doubting whether they really was a heaven above him"; "With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil"; "a cloud," confused and doubtful sound of voices," "he doubted'; "Faith! Shouted Goodman Brown, in a voice of agony and desperation; and "My Faith is gone! ... Come, devil ... And, maddened with despair..." (Hawthorne 81).

 The last scenes, the forest conclave and Young Goodman Brown's return home, offer these; "'But where is Faith?' thought Goodman Brown; and, as hope came...", "the wretched man beheld his Faith ... before that unhallowed altar"; "Faith! Faith! Cried the husband, 'look up to heaven...'" "the head of Faith ... gazing anxiously'; "a distrustful, if not a desperate man"; "... he shrank from the bosom of Faith ... and turned away"; and " no hopeful verse... for his dying hour was gloom." (Hawthorne 83).

 "Goodman Brown's experience in the woods involves projection and because his basic means of order, his religious system, is absent, the society he was familiar with becomes nightmarish, inducing paranoia. Brown is historically the victim of an altered relationship to both God and nature." (Shear 544).

Thus, if Faith is faith, and Goodman looses the latter, how do we explain the fact that Faith remains with him and even outlives him? Strict allegory would require that she disappears, perhaps vanish in that dark cloud which the story associates with her. On the other hand, a pattern of symbolism centering around Faith is easier to handle and may even be more rewarding by offering us more pervasive, more subtly intervening ideas which, through their very questions in the story from a strict adherence to the Calvinistic concept of election and conviction in the faith, so that the story becomes more universally concerned with Goodman as Everyman.

 "The people Brown apparently observes in the forest are most real in their absolute reverence for evil and in their complete contempt for naïve social beliefs such as his. Under these terms Brown as individual must struggle against society for the very ground of personal value, ever alert for external threats continually betrayed by the double edged nature of all social meaning, and periodically forced to declare to himself that his beliefs can only transcendent." (Shear 545).

 Easterley argues in her article that although literary critics have interpreted the significance of Goodman Brown's experience in many fashions -- allegorical, moral, philosophical, and psychological. She feels that there is an absence of any reference to the last line of the Sabbath scene to explain Hawthorne's characterization of the young Puritan.

 Easterley further debates in her article that Hawthorne's story is one that carefully delineates the image of a young man who has faced and failed a critical test of moral and spiritual maturity. She believes that Young Goodman Brown fails because (1) he shows no compassion for the weaknesses he sees in others; (2) because he has no remorse for his own sin; and (3) because he has no sorrow for his loss of faith. "The one action that would demonstrate such deep and redemptive human feelings does not take place." Goodman Brown does not weep. Therefore, Hawthorne quietly and gently sprinkles the coldest dew on his cheek to represent the absence of tears." (Easterley 343).

 Easterley believes that Brown's lack of tears "the outward sign of an inward reality, posits the absence of the innate love and humility that would have made possible Brown's moral and spiritual progression." (Easterley 340). She believes that Hawthorne deliberately and ingenuously uses the image of dewdrops suggestive of an uncomfortable, chilling dampness from the earth to reprove Goodman Brown. "The Puritan has just seen the sinfulness of his neighbors and friends clearly exposed, and has become acutely aware of the evil in his own heart as the unholy celebration arouses in him feeling of "loathful brotherhood' with the fiend worshipers." (Easterley 342).

Whether we emphasize symbol or allegory, however, Goodman must remain a character in his own right, one who progressively looses faith in his ultimate salvation, in his forebears as members of the elect or at least as, "good" people, and in his wife and fellow towns people as holy Christians. At a literal level, he does not loose Faith, for she greets him when he returns from the forest, she still wears her pink ribbons, she follows his corpse to the grave; furthermore, she keeps her pledge to Goodman, for it is he who shrinks from her. In otherworlds, Goodman has not completely lost Faith; rather he has lost faith, a theological key to heaven.

Abcarian, Richard. "The Ending of Young Goodman Brown." Studies in Short Fiction 3 (1976): 343-45.

Apseloff, Stanford and Apseloff, Marilyn. "'Young Goodman Brown': The Goodman." American Notes and Queries, 20 (1982): 7-8.

Connoly, Thomas E. American Literature, XXVIII, 370-75.

Ellis, Robert. "Young Goodman Brown." Master Plots II. Ed. Frank Magill. 5 vols. New York: Salem Press, 1986. 5: 2737-40.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, Willam Burto. 10th ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1993. 74-85.

Easterley, Joan Elizabeth. "Lachrymal imagery in Hawtorne's 'Young Goodman Brown'." Studies in Short Fiction, Summer91, Vol.28 Issue 3, p339, 5p.

Shear, Walter. "Cultural fate and social freedom in three American short stories." Studies in Short Fiction, fall 92, Vol. 29 Issue 4, p543, 7p.

Zanger, Jules. "Young Goodman Brown" and "A White Heron":Correspondences And illuminations. Papers on Language & Literature. Summer90, Vol. 26 Issue 3, p346, 12p.