Transformation In Young Goodman Brown

Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown tells the tale of Goodman Brown as he advances on a dreary path better left untraveled. On his way to his dubious destination, Brown encounters several odd characters and experiences unexplained events. These situations lead to an epiphany, conflict within himself, and finally transformation. As Brown’s dear Faith clings onto his sleeve in a desperate attempt to get him to stay home for the night, Brown dismisses her without much guilt. Though Brown understands how troubled Faith is, her pleas are not enough to deviate him from his plans. As the two finally part, Brown walks down the darkening street as his wife watches until his form vanishes all together, Brown’s mind cries out “What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand!” Though admitting

In contrast to taking the sights as a warning, Brown instead becomes suspicious of everyone he saw in that realm. Every smile, Brown saw as feigned. Even his beloved Faith, who had been ecstatic to see her husband return home safely, was roughly pushed away as Brown laid his eyes upon her. Understandable, Brown couldn’t shake the visions, so traumatized by them in fact, that he began applying them to real life. Until his final breath, Brown remained un-trusting of the world around him, and all those inhabiting it. What remained of Goodman Brown passed off, Faith following not long after. Yet, “…they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.” The tale of Goodman Brown is an unfortunate one, yet not enough to pity him. Brown declared that he would venture on the road that should’ve been left abandoned, an epiphany manifesting in Brown’s mind. Following after, came the arrival of Brown’s conflict with himself. As Brown encountered truly wicked things from the result of his doubt, in the end it changed Brown for the worst, as the world he saw in his nightmare was now his