Ambiguity and deception play a major role when making a snap judgement on a community or society. What this means is that a society can look fine on the surface but there can be a whole other world when you take a close look and question aspects of said society. Throughout the short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The protagonist starts to realize things in his town aren’t what they seem. In one instance, Young Goodman Brown stumbled across the witch meeting where he had seen people from his town. Throughout the story the, Young Goodman Brown starts to question his beliefs about his townspeople after he met with the dark figure. There is also the presence of the “Dark figure” during the short story.
Throughout the story, Young Goodman Brown questions his beliefs about his townspeople after entering into the forest. When Brown was hiding in the bush from the minister and Deacon Gookin, he heard them talking about a meeting.’Of the two, reverend sir,’ said the voice like the deacon’s, ‘I had rather miss an ordination dinner than to-night’s meeting. They tell me that some of our community are to be here from Falmouth and beyond, and others from Connecticut and Rhode Island, besides several of the Indian powwows, who, after their fashion, know almost as much deviltry as the best of us. Moreover, there is a goodly young woman to be taken into communion.’ What this is saying is that this meeting seemed like an important one and one that shan’t be missed. It also gives a hint of what kind of a meeting this will be, “much deviltry as the best of us,” meaning that this will be some kind of witch meeting or a meeting involving some devil relation.
Brown always looked at the people of his town as good people especially the leaders and his wife Faith, never questioning that there might be something laying under the surface of these people. Another instance of Brown questioning his beliefs and the people that are close to him was mentioned in the short story stating that, “Often, waking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith; and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away.” This is after he experienced the meeting, coming back home into his town and doesn’t look at things the same anymore.
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Even his wife doesn’t get his trust. He realizes that the people in his town are doing this on the surface but they all have another side to them, a darker side. Richard Fogle mentions in “Ambiguity and Clarity in Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown,’” “The story could conceivably be read as intellectual satire, showing the pitfalls that lie in wait for a too-shallow and unquestioning faith. Tone and emphasis clearly show, however, a more tragic intention.” Meaning, that everything is not what it seems on the surface, people’s intentions sometimes cannot be based on their actions because they can act like a good person on the outside and act trustworthy but you can really not ever tell someone’s true intentions. Someone as close to Brown, such as his wife, he is still has questions about her faith and intentions.
The protagonist comes across a meeting involving the people of his town including his wife, Faith. This didn’t seem like an ordinary meeting, there was fire and people gathering in a way implying that this was a witch-meeting. Brown saw people in that witch-meeting that we key religious leaders in his town but clearly there was some sort of deception going on there. Richard H. Fogle interprets that, “First Goody Cloyse, “a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser,” is shown to have more than casual acquaintance with the Devil—to be, in fact, a witch.”
This is implying that someone who is pious and someone who Brown has known all his life could be deceiving him to this day. Another instance involving the witch meeting is a way was mentioned in the short story stating, “Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?” What this is saying is that the meeting never happened and it later states that even if this was a dream, “Be it so if you will; but, alas! it was a dream of evil omen for young Goodman Brown,” this “dream” might have happened because Brown experience something in the forest regarding the witch-meeting.
In the short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne “Young Goodman Brown,” the character Young Goodman Brown realizes that things and people in his town are not of what they seem on the surface. As you can see, the appearance of the Dark figure, the town’s folk including Faith, and the witch-meeting, play significantly into how this town is really seen. Brown always looked at the people of his town as good pious people and even his wife he isn’t able to trust anymore concluding that people’s intentions cannot be based on their actions or the surface of how they are.
Brown comes across a meeting in the forest involving people from this town that were religious leaders and someone who he didn’t expect to be there, his wife faith,. He even thought that this witch-meeting might have been a bad dream but there was still some deviltry involved causing him to have a dream of that aptitude. What this short story tells us is that we should be more careful as to who we trust throughout our lives.
