The Adventure Through An Evil Mind Essay

The Adventure Through An Evil Mind Essay, Research Paper

A walk through the woods is most often a relaxing moment. Walks are a time to enjoy nature; however, Young Goodman Brown?s adventure through the forest was not an ordinary one. His walk was not a typical stroll down a path. Young Goodman Brown enters the woods in a very mysterious state of mind. Mysterious meaning, non predictable. One is not able to draw an initial conclusion as to why he is doing so. It appears as though he is unsure at this point. Because of the illusions of evil that he has, I believe Young Goodman Brown entered his own evil mind the moment he stepped foot into the dark forest. His adventure became a battle within himself.

Goodman Brown?s story began in a little village called Salem. From there he started a journey into the woods with a strange traveler. Right from the start, I noticed that their adventure was not going to be an ordinary one. The name of his hometown, Salem, symbolized a spooky image because this is where the witch trial was at. Even more so, Goodman Brown began his ?errand? at sunset. The descriptive details of Young Goodman Brown that Hawthorne included added to the mysterious tone of the story. For example, as Hawthorne stated, ?he had taken a dreary road darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be, and there [was] this peculiarity in such a solitude that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude (p 62).?

The descriptive opening puzzled me. I was anxious and curious to have the mysterious details of the reason Brown was going on this adventure revealed to me. I did not like how the tone was so unrevealing. I am impatient; I need to get to the point or plot right away. I was not expecting this adventure to turn into a battle with someone?s conscious. I thought Brown was going to run into some type of physical complication.

Not only is the setting of the adventure odd, but so is the name of his wife. The name Faith seemed to have more meaning behind it than being a simple name. I began to realize that the story was going to develop a lot around his relationship with his wife when Goodman Brown hesitated to leave on his ?errand?. This is when he glanced back momentarily and then continued on his way. The moment I realized the theme related to evil is when Hawthorne mentioned the devil for the first time. He said, ?there maybe a devilish Indian behind every tree. What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow (p 62)?? I saw this as a hint to the readers that the rest of the story was to portray that the devil was in Young Goodman Brown?s conscious. Before this point in the story, I was lost. I had no clue as to what was going on. I had originally thought that Goodman Brown fell asleep and he started to have a dream. But, I eventually realized that these were all random thoughts that were running through his head. He never fell asleep.

Another peculiar characteristic that sparked my interest was the old traveler. He seemed to have a definite mission on his adventure with Brown. He was focused on staying on track, and so this is a characteristic that made me realize this was going to be a subconscious situation. He was always eager to continue. He mentioned that he had once aided Young Goodman Brown?s grandfather and father in some evil deeds. These included setting fire to a village and the lashing of a Quaker woman. The traveler then stated that he walked the path with each of them, and each one of them returned in a happy state of mind. Through this, I gained an understanding that both his grandfather and father were questioning their faith. However, both his father and grandfather succeeded and remained loyal to their beliefs. Neither of them became caught up with evil, and they were able to continue with a positive outlook on life.

Other situations in the story include running into Young Goodman Brown?s catechism teacher, Goody Cloyse. This moment was mysterious because he could not figure out why she would be in the woods. The traveler seemed anxious to leave her behind. He seemed as if she was a distraction to his companion and strongly suggested that they move on. Through the words of Hawthorne, the old traveler mentioned that ?he was going to take a cut through the woods until they left this Christian women behind (p 64).? This was when Goodman Brown appeared to leave all his Christian background and morals behind him. Everything he was ever taught to live by was brushed aside. He no longer seemed to care about what used to have meaning in his life. At one point, he was tempted to stop following the traveler along the path and return to Faith. Just as he stopped to rest, he visualized more images and heard other sounds. This all symbolized his guilty conscious; however, he continued to walk onward despite of difficulty and opposition from his morals.

Now that Goodman Brown had drifted away from the true meaning of his life, he appeared to lose all control over the situations that he faced. An example of this is when he touched a branch and his fingers became withered and dried up. The tramping of horses was another example. I was not convinced that thes