One of the important key passages in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown is an exclamation that the main character makes while lost in the dark and mysterious forest. At the story’s beginning, the reader is introduced to Goodman Brown’s innocent and pretty wife, Faith. While her name does not sound uncommon for the reader, the main character refers to her specifically as “my love and my Faith” (Hawthorne, 2012, p. 24). Indeed, the sunrise setting in the farewell scene adds to the contrast between the wife’s godly character and the darkness of the main character’s upcoming journey. Leaving the wife for the gloomy forest with a suspicious unnamed companion, Goodman Brown regrets his decision, but the other man ensures that everything will be fine with his wife. After witnessing the deviltry of his companion’s conversation with a woman who used to teach Goodman Brown catechism, he is confused and hears a sound that resembles his wife’s voice.
The key passage that reveals the most important point of the plot is sourced in Goodman Brown’s desperate cry that his “Faith is gone” (Hawthorne, 2012, p. 30). In this passage, the reader finally becomes familiar with the fact that the main character’s wife, Faith, represents the main character’s religious beliefs and faith in Christianity. As a good Christian, Goodman Brown was afraid to leave his wife at home alone, meaning that he was afraid to put his religion under question. The reader gets familiar with the author’s main idea that Goodman’s journey represents an allegory of the Christian soul. At the moment where Goodman Brown is lost in the forest of confusion, he hears the voice of his wife being taken away, which represents the moment he lost his own faith. Without faith, Goodman Brown becomes distrustful, distances himself from his wife, and dies without hope.
Reference
Hawthorne, N. (2012). Young Goodman Brown and other short stories. Courier Corporation.