Into the Woods: Sin as Landscape in Hawthorne, Essay Example

Introduction

To describe Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” as a moral allegory is to understate the reality, and also not do full justice to the message so potent within the tale.  It is virtually a fable in story and structure, as its characters and events are not open to variations of interpretation; this is very nearly fairy tale or parable, so allegorical is the story. At the same time, it also adheres to a component of classic fable in that its ultimate statement is as dark as may be conceived, a reality heightened by the immense symbolic value of the New England forest.  Essentially, Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Browne” is an allegory presenting, not necessarily a conflict of morality, but the overwhelming power of sin as the inescapable landscape of humanity.

Analysis

The story is only beginning when Hawthorne’s reliance upon allegory or parable is evident.  The hero is off as night is falling; he has business to attend to in the woods, and his adoring wife Faith is fearful: “’Prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night’” (Hawthorne). This initial exchange is the only glimpse of the “ordinary” world Goodman Brown is moving away from on this night, as the double references to the pink ribbons in Faith’s bonnet make it clear that he is turning his back on virtue.  In no time he is within the woods, and wary of either Indians or the Devil himself.  Symbolism is again blatant in the form of the older gentleman Brown encounters, or rather in his staff, which is described as a seemingly twisting black snake. The allegory is further reinforced by the man’s resembling Brown, indicating a familial relationship and, once the conversation is in play, of a very dark kind.

As the story goes on, the allegory gains in power by following a single direction.  In each encounter Brown has, he is increasingly the sole embodiment of decency, just as he learns that sin is by no means confined to the woods.  He witnesses the old man interact with Goody Cloyse, as the reader understands what Brown refuses to believe; that the old man is indeed his grandfather.  Brown is mystified at the presence of whom he knows as a virtuous woman in this dark landscape, but he is already vulnerable; the old man has informed him of sin in his family, which astonishes him. The evidence of evil mounts; the old man rejoins Brown and kills leaves from a branch with his touch, and Brown overhears the voice of his esteemed Minister happily anticipating a ritual of satanic communion to occur soon, and one in which the best citizens from near and far will attend.  Brown is then blatantly in the midst of darkness here, but he tries to be resolute: “”‘With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!’” cried Goodman Brown.” Faith is now completely symbolic of goodness, and of the only goodness in which Brown may still believe.

The reader, of course, has reason to think otherwise, as the ritual centers on the communion of a young woman.  In a dream state that is no dream, Brown hears of evil committed by all who pretend to be virtuous, and the gathering of the newcomers into the state of sin that is held to be natural for humanity.  Brown’s “faith” is lost literally and figuratively, as his wife is inducted into the evil company.  By the story’s close, Hawthorne leaves it to the reader to determine if anything related did indeed happen, but the force of the allegory is too strong. In reality Brown lives out his life in misery, despite the appearances of normalcy in his village, because he cannot forget the wickedness he witnessed.  It is then real, because Brown has been introduced to the world beneath the world he believed in, and the morality then expressed by the entire allegory is in fact an utter absence of morality.  Sin is the natural landscape of humanity, and not an isolated wickedness within the woods.

Conclusion

One of the most remarkable aspects of “Young Goodman Brown” may be called its momentum; a virtuous hero consistently plunges more deeply into a world of vice, culminating in the loss of the only thing in which he believed. It is a relentless allegory, and one with an implacably dark message at its core.  Virtue is alone and cannot hope to prevail against a world of sin, the Devil is truly king, and morality may as well be a dream itself. Ultimately, Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Browne” is an allegory affirming, not necessarily a conflict of morality, but the overwhelming power of sin as the true landscape of humanity.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown.” The Literature Network. 2014. Web. 4 May 2014.  <http://www.online-literature.com/poe/158>