Communication is a critical part of any relationship, which can either enhance or destroy it. In the story ?Young Goodman Brown?, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Goodman Brown, a newly married man, never actually comes to understand the value of talking with his wife, Faith. Hawthorne displays through Goodman Brown and Faith the inevitable effects of their lack of trust and failure to open up to one another. Goodman Brown?s lack of communication with his wife, Faith, causes the destruction of their relationship.
Because he did not tell Faith the details of his journey into the woods, Goodman Brown feels overwhelmingly guilty. Since he knows he has done something wrong, he starts dwelling on how Faith would react if she knew the real purpose of the journey and concludes that ??t would kill her to think it? (288). Knowing that Faith?s opinion of him would probably change, Goodman Brown continues to put guilt on himself.
English: Title page for Mosses from an Old Manse b...
Fears & Goodman & Goossen-Brown_2
Fears & Goodman & Goossen-Brown_3He, in order to prevent worsening the guilt, decides to stop his journey and return home thinking ?what calm sleep would be his that very night, which was to have been spent so wickedly, but so purely and sweetly now, in the arms of Faith? (291). Goodman Brown has the chance to rectify the situation while he still can by leaving the woods and going home to explain to Faith the evil nature of his journey, but instead he continues. Goodman Brown lets his guilt eat away at him to the point that he ?deemed it advisable to conceal himself . . . conscious of the guilty purpose that had brought him? (291). He is so guilty by this time that when he hears the sounds of people in the forest, Goodman Brown hides himself from them because he cannot bear to be seen...