r and more traveled, therefore we can assume him to be more experienced in worldly matters than Brown. The staff given to Brown is representative of the knowledge and understanding the stranger has gathered over his travels. Not only does it hold the information about his lifestyle, but it also holds information to all the things the stranger has witnessed and done. At first, Brown is reluctant to take the staff, and assures the man that he does not need the assistance. After the pair encounter Goody Close, they continue walking until Brown sits down on a tree stump and refuses to continue on their journey. After he sits, the stranger makes a significant remark, “You will think better of this by and by.” Again, the stranger tries to assure Brown that his so-called “sin” of becoming homosexual is no greater than any other sin. The statement of the stranger represents the ego trying to accomidate the desires of the id, while processing the information from the superego. After he makes this remark to Brown, he throws the staff to Brown and walks off at a hurried pace. The passing on of the knowledge has taken place. At this point in the story, critics are divided as to the reality of the events that take place. Some will treat the rest of Brown’s journey through the woods as a dream, others will treat it as an actual chain of events. It is my belief that after Goodman Brown sat down on the tree stump to rest, he fell asleep. With this in mind, the rest of the journey may be analyzed as Goodman Brown’s dream.From this point in the story, Brown’s dream cast the stranger in the roll of the devil. Brown has created this role for the stranger by projecting his sinfulness onto the man. Michael Tritt states, “Through Brown’s experiences in the forest, he comes to know the duplicity of human nature. His more lurid revelations, however, involve the depths of his own corruption (1...
