"... it is no delusion. There is an Unpardonable Sin!" , a quote by Ethan Brand
that is at the root of many stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthornes
gloomy, dark style of writing is an emphasis on his theme of evil at societies heart.
Writing about what he knew Hawthorne described the puritan society in different
periods of time and defined different characters but all connected through his style.
The stories that exemplify the diversity of Hawthornes writing are " Young Goodman
Brown" , " Ethan Brand" , and "The Birthmark" .
Having read these stories it is possible to become engrossed in the darkness
that is portrayed and none is better than " Young Goodman Brown" . Young Goodman
Brown, the character, is first introduced to us in the clearing of Salem village and
we learn that he has faith in the goodness of the village and Faith for his companion as
well. The people that we meet in Salem village in the first few paragraphs are just
Goodman and Faith. These two characters are very important to understand for their
surface characters or illusional characters. It is soon learned that Goodman Brown is
not such a good man and later Faith shows us just as much false character. Goodman
and Faith are not the only characters that are not all they seem to be. We come to
meet more characters in the short story that are superficial as is the village itself.
Goodman Brown leaves the bright, warm, goodness of his village to make a journey in
the woods to meet a stranger. A good place to meet a stranger would be these
surrounding woods of Salem for it is here that described by Nathaniel Hawthorne that
"He had taken a dreary road,darkened by all the gloomiest...