This essay deals with the question of irony in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” where one man’s journey into the forest, late at night, and the sights he witnesses there, change his life forever. Seeing that all the people he thought devout, pious and morally upright, are actually devil worshippers, even his own wife Faith, Brown loses his own faith in humanity and becomes an estranged person.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” conveys an attack on the eccentric Puritan dogma, which utilized a strong moral concept, simultaneously brutally punishing all those who disobeyed. The irony of the story lies in the fact that all the people whom Goodman Brown praises as upright and morally righteous are in fact, devil worshippers whose town life is merely a façade for the dark life they are devoted to.
The Puritan village Goodman Brown dwells in is a settlement of pious people devoted to God. However, all of this appears to be a mere charade as Goodman Brown delves into the forest one night, abandoning his wife, aptly named Faith, because as he leaves his house, he leaves his faith as well, just like many others whom he will see in the forest, worshipping the devil. Even his wife, with her pink ribbons which symbolize purity and innocence, will eventually succumb to the devil’s influence, as Brown sees her pink ribbons fluttering down from the sky in the forest, in the middle of the night, he will know that his Faith and faith are not what they used to be.
Conveniently, this idea works on two levels, as Brown will be forced to re-evaluate his faith, after witnessing people whom he considered righteous and morally upright, to do the devil’s bidding. He will see the village minister and Deacon Gookin, members of clergy and important people in Salem, who are thought to be devout followers of God and are on earth to spread the word of the Lord, while in fact, this is merely a disguise as even members of clergy are human and susceptible to the dark side. During his talk with Brown, the Devil will praise himself on being able to turn even such seemingly godly men to evil, which eventually leads Brown to lose faith in religion, human kind and even himself.
In the end, Brown leaves the forest a changed man. Before he undertook his dark journey into the forest, and symbolically into the true nature of man, he was not aware of the corruptibility and evil that dwells within the human heart. Seeing this first hand, he realizes that every man has the potential for evil, even the most devout religious people, which is the irony Hawthorne portrayed ingeniously. Not being certain whether it was all a dream or cruel reality, Goodman Brown nonetheless becomes a changed man due to this revelation in the forest, alienated from the righteousness of God.
References:
Hawthorne, N. (1992). Young Goodman Brown and Other Stories. New York: Dover Thrift Editions.
