The Faith of Young Goodman Brown

Timothy Wenk Bailey Engl. 1302 16 Feb. 2000 The Faith of Young Goodman Brown Faith, and the struggle to keep it, is the theme of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown." In this story, Hawthorne gives Goodman Brown's wife the name of Faith for the obvious symbolism and irony it creates. Throughout the story, Goodman Brown is constantly trying to keep his religious faith, which is lost, somewhat, when his wife, Faith, submits to evil. Goodman Brown's loss of …

…sentence clearly proves that Hawthorne is using the name Faith to represent the religious faith of Goodman Brown. Therefore, that cry not only means he lost his wife, but it also means that his beliefs were shattered. By interpreting Hawthorne's symbolic use of the word Faith to mean Goodman Brown's religious faith, one can easily find the symbolism to be synonymous with the theme of the story, which is Goodman Brown's struggle to keep Faith.