Symbolism in Young Goodman Brown

Symbolically Speaking: Symbolism in Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" Symbolism, something that figuratively represents something else, is prominent in many literary works. One piece of literature that stands out as a perfect example of symbolism is Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown." This story is completely symbolic, and provides a good example of an allegory, or a story in which concrete items or characters represent abstract ideas. Hawthorne uses both objects and people as symbols to better …

…is a story of the obvious. The theme of the story is that every man harbors his own secret sin within his heart, which itself is quite obvious. Hawthorne does a good job of supporting this theme with different symbols and allegorical interpretations throughout the story. Although some authors make it difficult to uncover the symbols in their stories, Hawthorne makes them easy to find, thus producing a story more enjoyable for the average reader.