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"Young Goodman Brown" Analysis
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The people of the present day United States are very fortunate to be able to practice any religion they choose. It is a right given to every citizen and is protected under the Constitution. However, it has not always been that way. During the mid-to- late 1600’s in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, you could be imprisoned or even hanged for your religious beliefs. Through the short story “Young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorne attempts to exemplify this religious intolerance, violence, and corruptibility displayed by even the most devout Puritans during this time period.
When the Puritans arrived in what is now known as New England, they wanted to create a deeply religious community solely focused on Puritan beliefs. They instituted laws every Puritan had to follow or risk being banished from the settlement. They even acted out violently towards followers of other religions, mainly the Quakers. Hawthorne refers to these events when Young Goodman Brown is walking through the woods with the old man traveler who he also believes is the devil. The old man tells Goodman Brown, “I helped your Grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem.” (326) Hawthorne also touches on the Puritans’ treatment of the Indians when the old man says to Brown, “…and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village.”(326) After Brown is informed of his Father and Grandfather’s relat...
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