“ my father never went into the woods……norhis father before him.”” Hawthorne described the forrest as ““ adreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest””and even jokes of the evil lurking there when he says ““there maybe a devilish Indian behind every tree”” and ““What if the devilhimself should be at my very elbow!”” Hawthorne even uses themain character as a symbol. His name, Young Goodman Brown makesreference to him as being young and a good person. Then Hawthornegives him such a common last name that it relates him to any andeverybody, just like he does in one of his other short stories,““Everyman””, when he uses this as a reference to all of society.Another symbol that is present in the story is the mysterious manin the forest. He symbolizes the devil or evil in the story andstrangely bears ““a considerable resemblance to [GoodmanBrown].”” The Devil had with him a staff that "bore the likenessof a great black snake". The staff, which looked like a snake,symbolizes the snake in the story of Adam and Eve. The snake ledAdam and Eve to their destruction by leading them to the Tree ofKnowledge, just as Brown is being led to unfathomed knowledge bythe devil, and in turn is being led to his destruction. Just likeAdam and Eve, when Brown finds the ““ fountain of all wickedarts”” his faith is exiled from him just as Adam and Eve werecast from the garden. The story as a whole symbolizes that thepotential for evil resides in everybody. The rest of Brown’’slife is destroyed because of his inability to face the truth ofsin and live with it. The story, which may have been a dream, andnot a real life event, planted the seed of doubt in Brown's mind,which him to lose his faith in his fellow man and leaves himalone and depressed. His life ends alone...
