1. Hawthorne's
Young Goodman Brown

2. Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

3. The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne Author
Salem, Massachusetts, 1804
Hawthorne is most famously know for this novel, The Scarlet Letter
Related to John Hawthorne, a judge for the 1692 Salem Witch Trials
Hawthorne was enamored with his relative’s involvement in the trial and with Puritan culture as a whole
The Scarlet Letter
Author
Born
Works
Inspiration for Work

4. A majority of Hawthorne’s works focused on America’s Puritan forefathers
The Puritans were a group of religious zealots who came to America in the 1630s to practice their religious beliefs freely
Background Information: Puritan Culture

5. Background Information:
Puritan Culture
Puritans were supposed to be solely focused on their relationship with the Lord
Their people has little tolerance for ideas or any behavior that differed from what they considered the norm
Any behaviors that were not done with God in mind were considered amoral.

6. General Information General Information Young Goodman Brown
“Young Goodman Brown” is one of the greatest short stories in American literature.
The story was published in 1835.

7. General Information General Information
Young Goodman Brown
Story takes place in the second half of the seventeenth century in Salem, Massachusetts
Salem was a theocracy in which the Christian moral law ruled all

8. General Information General Information Young Goodman Brown
“Young Goodman Brown” takes place around the time of the Salem witch trials, held in the spring and autumn of 1692.
During these infamous trials, twenty innocent women and men were found guilty of witchcraft and executed. 

9. Literary Focus Transcendentalist Influence
Became a part of a highly intellectual group that included Ralph Waldo Emerson
Transcendentalists tried to become one with nature and abandon the evils of society
True happiness and feeling of self could only come through embracing their own individual thoughts and feelings
Transcendentalist Influence

10. Literary Focus Literary Focus Allegory
An allegory is the representation of ideas through symbolic characters, figures, or events in a story
YGB can be read as an allegory centering on the temptation everyone faces and on the human tendency to prejudge others.

11. Literary Focus Literary Focus Symbols The Forest as Eden
Goodman Brown appears to represent human beings confronted with temptation
The forest also represents  danger, confusion, the unknown, sin, and death

12. Literary Focus Literary Focus Faith Symbols, Continued
Goodman Brown's wife named Faith symbolizes Brown's spiritual faith.
When she is in danger he realizes he is in danger of losing not only his wife but also his spiritual faith

13. Themes and Focus Themes and Focus Female Purity
The Fear of the Wilderness
The Inevitable Loss of Innocence
The Weakness of Public Morality
Virtue vs. Sin
Corruption and Temptation
Suspicion and Distrust

14. Summary and Plot Overview
Goodman Brown leaves his home and Faith, his wife of three months, to meet with a mysterious figure deep in the forest.
It is hinted that Goodman Brown's traveling companion is, in fact, the Devil, and that the purpose of their journey is to join in an unspecified but obviously unholy ritual.

15. Summary and Plot Overview
As their journey continues Brown discovers others also proceeding to the meeting, many of them his townsfolk whom he had considered moral beacons.
He resolves to leave his mysterious partner and abandon the meeting, but his “faith” continues to waver

16. Character Analysis Character Analysis Goodman Brown: Faith:
Recently married Puritan who lives in Salem in the 1600's
He believes in the goodness of the townspeople, but has these beliefs tested
His name “Goodman” is not coincidence. He is representative of those people thought to be “good men.”
Faith:
Goodman Brown’s wife.
The Devil Figure:
Mysterious man who meets Goodman Brown in the forest
He accompanies him part way to a witches’ sabbath, where Brown is to be inducted into an evil brotherhood.