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Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne “Young Goodman Brown” by Hawthorne belongs to the Romantic tradition, one of the major themes of which ispresence of fear or horror in literary works. The mood of the story itself is gloomy implying some sadness and fear. The central theme of the work is fear of some imaginary or dream worlds. Thesis: Fear is something we have to learn to cope with, but personages of both stories got lost in their dream worlds where their fears got over them and led to irreversible outcomes.

Goodman Brown’s decision to come to the forest and meet with the devil is, on the one hand, mystical and, on the other hand, courageous. The major concern of the man is not the fact of meeting itself, but the thought of how others would think of him after that. Religious beliefs of Goodman Brown are interesting from psychological perspective, because this faith is based on his conviction that people around him are also religious. Unfortunately, protagonist’s faith is too weak and can be easily influenced by other people.

Therefore, when a man gets to know that his close people like father, wife, grandfather, Goody Cloyse, Deacon Gookin, the minister are in friendship with devil, he makes up his mind to join the majority as well. People who joined devil used to be pious and respected in their village. Thus, Goodman Brown does not even question rightfulness of his decision concerning religious and faith matters. The protagonist simply does the same as everyone he knows well. Being inherently corrupted Goodman Brown is destined to lose his innocence, which is a symbol of transgression from the God’s world into the world of devil.

From the very beginning it was Goodman Brown’s choice to go to the forest and meet with the devil. No one tells him to do so. Such an order of events is very convenient to the devil and he even facilitates Goodman Brown in his decision. Whether the whole story is reality or a dream does not really matter, because in any case Goodman Brown makes a decision in favor of the devil. Thus, loss of innocence is an indication of some inevitable event related to the dark angel or the devil. Oddly enough, Goodman Brown does not fear the devil himself.

The man fears what others would think about him when they see him in the devil’s company. Even though Goodman Brown tried to resist and stay Christian to the end in the forest, his faith does give him much spiritual strength, because his faith is weak. After the night in the forest the man continues to live in this village with his wife, but his soul is as if torn apart between two world, good and evil. He lost his innocence and cannot come back to the pure state of his soul. And, at the same time, he does not wish to worship the devil.

It seems that his soul stuck on the crossroads and he got lost in his faith not knowing which way to go. Dark forest is the embodiment of fear for the main character. Moreover, being himself a Puritan, the man associates the forest with the people Puritans feared the most, the Indians. So, the man is saying to himself: “There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree,” (Hawthorn, 25). Therefore, the forest looks like a demonic place: dark and frightening. Only after Goodman Brown decided to take the staff from the devil, be becomes more comfortable in the dark forest.

With the help of protagonist’s loss of innocence Hawthorne points out at corruption and hypocrisy of American religion in the 17th century. Corruptibility of religious faith is one of the greatest fears a man should have. The theme of the devil is represented through Goodman Brown’s fear. Fearing what others will think or say about you is hypocrisy and selfishness. It is not that kind of fear a man should have. Normally a man should fear to loose his faith or to do something immoral and, therefore, think over his every thought and deed to act and talk according to some moral or religious principles.

However, fear is such a feeling which is common and everyone has at least once experienced it. One has to fight his/her fears before it is too late, before this fear gets over you completely influencing on your thoughts, deeds, life on the subconscious level. Works Cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories. Dover Publications, 1992.