to lay the mark of baptism upon their foreheads, that they might be partakers of the mysteries of sin, more conscious of the secret guilt of others, both in deed and thought, than they could now be of their own. The husband cast one look at his pale wife, and Faith at him. What polluted wretches would the next glance show them to each other, shuddering alike at what they disclosed and what they saw!"Like Dante who awakened in the dark wood so to does Goodman Brown wake up in the dark wood almost 25 years before, yet only one night after, his fateful meeting with his mature self. But this first night away from his wife's bed he had been baptized into a secret brotherhood of evil. As he staggers back into town Sunday morning his guilt for his wretched condition has to be more than he can bare. He takes comfort in knowing that these people are not fooling him for they are pious frauds. After all doesn't he know their secret deeds and thoughts? After all did he not see them all at the coven last night?'It is not wise to go out drinking in thy own neighborhood less the neighbors learn who and what you really are. If you are going to create havoc do it in someone else's backyard.' Hence Goodman Brown’s journey to Boston. Apparently Goodman Brown was aware of this wise advice. Coming home in the morning to a concerned and loving wife after a night of barhopping and cavorting with all kinds of vices one does not want to see the sweet smile of his wife's face. After all he is the man of the house and who is she to question him? It is her job to maintain outward appearances and to alibi him to the outside world if he is too sick to go to church or to work. Hawthorne could have picked no better archetypal setting for depicting the soul's descent into hell.The ends of Goodman Brown’s days were not as happily met as Dante's were. There is no doubt that Goodman Brown would go directly to the inferno that is the abode of his ...
