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Young Goodman Brown: Literary Interpretation
prayers into heaven. This cloud also seems to have the effect of filling up the empty air surrounding him. From this evil cloud, he begins to hear voices, and one sounds just like Faith. The cloud disappears and leaves behind a pink ribbon, and he realizes that Faith is gone. Acknowledging that his Faith is not pure, he then claims the world is evil, and belongs to the devil. Now, he has fully let the devil inside of him, and is more frightening than anything in the forest, but yet he still does not realize evil exists inside of him too. He began to see a fiery light at the congregation, which is significant because it represents hell and evil. The congregation is setup like an evil New England church service, with flames surrounding it. In the congregation, he saw both pious and unholy people. Again, this emphasizes the fact that everybody has some evil in them, but Goodman Brown still does not realize this, and instead casts them all as evil, thus excluding himself completely from everybody he knows.
An unknown force is drawing Goodman Brown forward when all of the new converts were supposed to come forward. He should be able to realize that this is telling him that even he has evil inside of him, but he still does not understand this. The congregation of a perverted church is the last chance for Goodman Brown to hide his pride and admit that he is a sinner. Rather than admit this, Brown’s pride causes him to attempt to battle evil. He believes that he can overcome it by himself. He is told that “Evil is the nature of mankind,” but this still has no effect on him. He defiantly resists the devil and the evil “baptism.”
The next day, Goodman Brown refuses to associate with his own community because of his delusion. He even denies his own wife as he passes her by. He cannot accept evil as an inevitable part of life. His struggle to deny the presence of evil in his own life, leads to his horrible skepticism of everyone around him, including his Faith. He sees everybody as a sinner, but his pride keeps him from seeing the devil in himself. He sees the churchgoers as hypocrites rather than people who seek the guidance of God to steer them away from their evil ways. Ultimately, while trying to distance himself from evil, he distances himself from his Faith. His struggle at denying evil in his life, leads to the rejection of himself, and makes his dying hour gloomy.