Young Goodman Brown: Literary Interpretation

Young Goodman Brown

“Evil is the nature of mankind.” This is the underlying theme in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” The main character, Goodman Brown, is struggling with evil, and the existence of evil within himself. His unabashed pride will not allow him to acknowledge that evil is part of human nature. He is curious about evil, and sets off on a journey to discover what it is and the nature of it. Along the way he discovers that everybody he knows, has some evil inside of them, even the people he thought to be “good Christians.” Instead of coming to the conclusion that evil must be part of human nature, he looks upon the Christians as hypocrites, but Hawthorne’s intent of this story is to show that Christians are seeking guidance from God to help them contain the evil and sin that reside in themselves. Another of his faults is he can only see good and evil in black and white. To him, things are either evil, or they are good, but they can’t be both. ...