Young Goodman Brown and Faith

Hey, it's Erin.

I thought what Mr. Lazarow said about faith not being true faith until it's tested was interesting. Goodman Brown's faith is tested in this story and ultimately fails, as he ends up believing in nothing and no one. However, Brown fully intended to come out of the temptation stronger in his faith. When he talks to himself after leaving Faith, he says "after this one night (his temptation) I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven." I thought the fact that he would be clinging to her skirt was symbolic of a kind of mother-son relationship or a relationship of dependence, where his faith was carrying him. Of course, his faith failed because he allowed it to, making this a Gothic horror story. In a way, Brown fulfilled the devil's words by himself ("by the sympathy of your human hearts for sin, ye shall scent out all the places... where crime has been committed"). When we learned about Puritanism, one of the major features of their society was doubt (about whether they were one of the elect, etc.), which is also present in the story, in the lack of faith that Goodman Brown has at the end. It's also interesting that we can doubt whether what Brown saw was true or not; but for him it was enough to alienate himself from those that he loved and respected.

I also thought it was weird that Goodman Brown asks himself in fear as he's walking through the forest, "what if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!" If he realized that he was going to be tempted, wouldn't he associate that with the devil? Or did he not know he was going to be tempted. I know that Goodman Brown never refers to his companion as the devil, but I thought he was. On page 2 of the story Brown travelling companion is referenced as "he of the serpent," which refers to his staff, but also could refer to the devil (who took the form of a serpent when he tempted Eve in the garden of Eden). I guess though that in that case the man was only "of the serpent," not the serpent himself.