Free Young Goodman Brown Essays: Did the Devil Lie? :: Young Goodman Brown YGB

Young Goodman Brown is an ordinary man who takes a ritualistic journey into the sins of mankind. Sin is a virtue of being human, which Brown has yet to realize. This is a story of the discovery of guilt and sin. But, the questions are: Did this journey really take place? And were the people who Brown encountered real or specters created by the devil? Regardless if the journey was a dream or a reality, "a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night of that fearful dream." Let's call it reality because Brown was so deeply affected by it. So, the first question is answered, now, was the reality created by the devil to convert Brown or were all the people Brown encountered really as evil and hypocritical as they appeared. After Brown left his wife, Faith, he started on a "dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest. . ." He was feeling not so alone, and thought that the devil himself could be at his back. At this very instant, Brown saw a figure leaning against a tree. The devil came as soon as Brown called him. Why was he so afraid he might meet the devil, when it seems to me he know he was going on an evil journey with the devil? The fellow traveler (let's just call him the devil) shared a resemblance to Brown. In fact, when goody Cloyse sees him she say he is "in the very image of my old gossip, goodman Brown,. . ." So, the devil contrived himself to look like Young Goodman Brown, so Brown would feel a sort of brotherhood, or fatherhood, to the devil. He made himself more like Brown so Brown would more easily be swayed. To me, if the devil can change his appearance, what would stop him from changing others appearances. Who's to say that it was actually goody Cloyse that Brown saw . Brown is so hurt that that the woman who taught him his catechism could actually be a witch. As would be anyone who's idea of what is right and wrong is shattered. But Brown wasn't so easily swayed as the devil had hoped, Brown still resisted. So, the devil thought he would shake Brown even more. He contrived the voices of the deacon Gookin and the minister.