The Puritan Way Assignment, Essay Example

Within Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, the long night spent dreaming of a trip through the woods with the devil helps to illuminate the irony and hypocrisy of the puritan lifestyle for Goodman Brown.  The main character refuses to join forces with the devil and give in to his pleas, but the climactic scene near the end of the story suggests that every single puritan is actually working for Satan.  In a rather long oratory, the devil explains that the puritans gathered in the ritualistic event had all engaged in sinful behaviors, which is why he considered them his children or his converts.  While puritan societies were supposed to be clearly Christian and containing a life full of morals, Hawthorne suggests the irony of every puritan within Salem being a sinner.  He outright questions the legitimacy of the puritan way, and this visage from Brown’s dream haunts him for the rest of his days.

Many characters engaged in behaviors that were not following the puritan way.  For instance, the devil explains his close connection with Brown’s family at the beginning of their journey together through the forest.  He said, “I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitchpine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip’s war” (Hawthorne).  These familial characters had engaged in beating women and killing Indians through the use of sinful acts.  Neither circumstance followed the behaviors of puritans.  Even the good deacon and the minister worked on behalf of the devil during the ritual and grabbed Goodman Brown’s arms to pull him into the ritual gathering.  It is supposedly the case that no puritan would engage in behaviors that would work in favor of the devil, but Hawthorne suggests that no person is completely clean.  All individuals have sinned and this is against the puritan belief system, but is clearly shown through the hypocrisy of the multitude of sinful acts engaged within the short story.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne.” The Literature Network: Online classic literature, poems, and quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 09 Nov. 2009. <http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/158/>.