The Significance of the Names in “Young Goodman Brown”

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown,” a character by the name of Goodman Brown goes into the woods to test, or perhaps even find his faith, which happens to be the name of his wife. Nathaniel Hawthorne did not simply pick the names of the characters in this story out of thin air. There is a reason and a purpose why the characters have the names they do. In this short story there is …

…It is quite ironic that even though Goodman Brown had Faith (his wife); he still lacked faith (as was revealed by his journey to the woods). There is much symbolism in the names used in the story “Young Goodman Brown.” Many times it is not enough to simply read a story, one must look deeper and take a closer look to find more of the meaning that the author intended through the character’s names.