Nathaniel Hawthorne in Young Goodman Brown does a good job in characterizing Young Goodman Brown as a character that embodies the disillusionment of the young into senile elders. Young Goodman Brown is fiction and is made up of fictional characters based on stereotypes of 17th Puritans. Though a complex story of one mans life it contains both characters that are flat, stock, and one character in particular that is dynamic yet very mimetic, Young Goodman Brown.
As the story starts off young Goodman Brown is shown to be a stereotypical Puritan in the 17th century or a stock character. This is done through indirect characterization. Hawthorne has been noted for his research into the period of time that "Young Goodman Brown" takes place. But this would be unknown unless attention is paid to how Young Goodman Brown reacts to the various events through out the story. Especially the initial set of events which include when the protagonist prepares to leave his wife Faith gives us a good early picture of who this character is but contradictory evidence is offered in paragraph 8, line 1. Throughout the rest of the story we see this initial conflict slowly lead to a cataclysmic change.
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The name itself Young Goodman Brown tells a lot about who he might be and what he might think of himself it as well gives insight into the conflict present in the story. First Young in Young Goodman Brown tells us that the character is most likely young we are then given direct evidence of this in paragraph 3, line 4. Goodman in Young Goodman Brown also gives indirect evidence in who he might be. If we were to isolate Good in Goodman good means "1. adj of a high quality or standard, either on an absolute scale or in relation to another or others" as written by Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001. We are given direct evidence in paragraph 18 that Young Goodman Brown obviously thinks himself of highly and tells directly that he believes his father to have been a good Christian man and in paragraph 20 we are shown that believes his family name to have good standing in the Salem community.