Understanding 'Good' in "Young Goodman Brown"

            I cannot say that I have ever been particularly thrilled by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works. Reading “The Scarlet Letter” in high school was absolute torture; I could not understand why the novel was so drawn out when the point was so simple. And the idea that a woman and child could be so ostracized because of one simple mistake was kind of appalling to me. This being said, I fully expected “Young Goodman Brown” to be absolutely boring and overdone. I was pleasantly surprised. After reading essays from Thoreau and Emerson, as well as an autobiography from Apess, I have to say that reading a cohesive piece of fiction was quite the break!

            Although the story still possessed Hawthorne’s writing style and an intense moral argument, the story was concise (partly because it was a short story and not a novel) and it left me pondering the final intent. Goodman Brown knows he is following the wrong path with the traveler in the woods, and yet he finds a reason to keep going. At one point, he even seems convinced that it may not be the wrong path at all when the traveler tells him, “Wickedness or not… I have a very general acquaintance here in New-England,” recognizing that many other ‘good’ people have gone down this path. Even when Goodman Brown makes the decision to stand fast against the devil, his resolve is broken when he believes Faith to be gone.

            Finally, at the devil’s gathering, Goodman Brown decides not to follow, but rather to “look up to heaven, and resist the Wicked One.” His final decision gives him peace and solitude at the time but when he returns to his village the next day, he is deeply suspicious of the people he knows. He feels this sentiment until the day he dies and even in death it seems there is no hope for Goodman Brown.

            I thought this ending was rather provocative and intriguing. While Goodman Brown’s eyes are opened to the sin that is all around him, he seems unable to live his life with any kind of good cheer and cannot truly appreciate his life at all. He sees the world only as a dark and dreary place where blasphemy lives on the doorstep of each citizen he knows, including his own family members. It seems to me that Hawthorne is pointing out the necessity for understanding that there will always be sin in the world, but to take that information as a guide and learn to live with hope for your life. If you live in constant gloom, people will only remember you for that gloom and your life will be constantly unhappy. You must learn to accept the fact that not all things are good so that you can truly be aware in your life of all the beauty that surrounds you.