Goodman Brown’s internal conflict is based on whether to “keep the faith.” At first the struggle is literal: his wife begs him to remain at home and not head off into the woods Goodman Brown’s decision to leave behind Faith becomes a metaphor for his epiphany about religion, which he similarly abandons at the end of the story. Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith, is the embodiment of faith and purity, even in her actual name. By the end of his journey into the woods, Goodman Brown learns that even the purest outward display of faith can mask underlying sin. Goodman Brown’s loss of innocence happens during a vivid nightmare in which he ventures into a dark forest and sees all of the people he had considered faithful in his life gathered around a fire at a witches’ conversion ceremony with the devil presiding from on high. “Young Goodman Brown” is the story of how a young “good” man named Goodman Brown loses his innocent belief in religious faith.
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