Hawthorne

Hawthorne Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” Hawthorne’s tales can be and have been interpreted in many different ways. However, one strong theme that most of his writings have drawn upon is the Puritan religion and the story of young Goodman Brown is no exception. In this story Hawthorne highlights the hypocrisy of the religion and shows a young man’s subsequent disillusionment with it. The most prevalent theme in the story is the hypocrisy of the Puritan religion. The status symbol for the Puritans was a good lineage. Being from a long line of upstanding, outwardly righteous citizens gave you good standing in the community. Neighbors saw you as from “good stock” and you were respected for the actions of your ancestors and relatives. The devil started his discourse with Goodman Brown by telling him the truth about his family. Goodman Brown began backing out of the deal and gave part of the reason as family pride. He came from a good line of men and his family members had never done anything evil or untoward in their lives. He was sure that he was betraying the ideals of his family by even goodman, hawthorne, religion, hypocrisy, devil, brown, story, faith, woman, saw, puritan, own, family, evil, been, man, himself, community, people, life, however, good, beliefs, actions, woods, upright, trials, through, thought, sin, religious, person, part, one, next