Young Goodman Brown Story's Symbols or Our Own Life's Symbols? .
Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbols to create a religious ambiguity in his story Young Goodman Brown. It is necessary to mention that he obtained much of this style from his Puritan ancestry. In this story Goodman Brown doubts himself and reiterates his false confidence to himself. His struggle between the evil temptations, the devil, and the church abiding life is struggle he doesn't know he can handle. He challenges his faith in himself and in the community in which he resides. He will to venture into the forest, refuse the temptations of the devil, and return to the village before the sunrise. This challenges and temptations Goodman had in this story can be a representations of all our challenges and temptations we encounter in our own lives. .
Goodman Brown is a puritan, and he lives in Salem, which is a Puritan village that appears to be a good Christian community in the beginning of the story. Hawthorne criticizes this community who believes they are pure but the evil resides just as in the people they persecute. At the beginning Goodman leaves his house at sunset while his wife, Faith, is trying to persuade him to depart at sunrise. Faith symbolizes Goodman's real faith in God, and he leaves his faith behind him and set forth into his journey with his own strength and power. He felt guilty leaving his Faith back home in their early stage of marriage, and he justifies it swearing that after that night he will "cling to her skirt and follow her to heaven". His faith described with "pink ribbons" is sincere, pure, and innocent. It is this faith strong enough to walk through "a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest of the forest"?.
A man was waiting for Goodman in the forest and then walks by Goodman's side. It is not mentioned that this man is devil but "the clock of Old South was striking, as I came through Boston; and that is full fifteen minutes ago", interpreting that has supernatural power to move faster than normal humans.
