ON THE PATH

On The Path

Young Goodman Brown is a story that revolves around evil. Young Goodman Brown is faced with many challenges, and has an odd experience where he sees every good person he knows doing evil by worshipping Satan. This raises the question, is Goodman Brown a static or dynamic character? Based upon the order of the stories events and how Goodman Brown reacts, it is evident that he in fact is a dynamic character. There are a few key points in the story to prove it.

In the beginning of the story, Young Goodman Brown views everyone as pure who can do no wrong. One person who he absolutely trusts is his wife, Faith. A quote from the story to prove this is:  "My love and my Faith," replied young Goodman Brown, "of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married!" This is before Goodman Brown sets off on his journey through the forests around Salem. His wife is his love, and she is “aptly named Faith.” As Goodman Brown journeys deeper and deeper into the forest, he sees people he recognizes. For instance, Goody Cloyse, his Catechism teacher; and is his moral and spiritual advisor. Goodman Brown soon learns that she, in fact is far from holy - she is a witch! As he goes even deeper into the forest, Goodman Brown basically sees everybody he knows at one evil meeting. He even sees Faith! This leads him to have really twisted views on everything.

In the end, it mentions that “He found himself amid calm night and solitude, listening to a roar of the wind, which died heavily away through the forest. He staggered against the rock, and felt it chill and damp, while a hanging twig, that had been all on fire, besprinkled his cheek with the coldest dew.” This likely signifies that all he had seen, was just a dream. This definitely leaves the reader and Young Goodman Brown ultimately dazed. However, the evidence provided within the text signify that likely it was a nightmare conjured by evil. At this point, he sees everyone as crooked. Text evidence that support this includes: “When the minister spoke from the pulpit, with power and fervid eloquence, and with his hand on the open Bible, of the sacred truths of our religion, and of saint-like lives and triumphant deaths, and of future bliss or misery unutterable, then did Goodman Brown turn pale, dreading lest the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer and his hearers. Often, awaking 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.” Basically, Goodman Brown turned into a grumpy old man, who saw everyone as evil in some way.

Young Goodman Brown definitely changed, he went from happy - to depressed and angered. He even views his wife differently, his wife who he loved so much! When he finally dies, the story says: “When he had lived long, and was borne to his grave, a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grand-children, a goodly procession, besides neighbors, not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone; for his dying hour was gloom.” This basically says, people only went to his funeral because they had to, no one really wanted to be around Goodman Brown.