Summary

The story  begins at sunset in Salem, Massachusetts, as young Goodman Brown leaves faith, his wife of three months, for an unknown errands in the forest. Faith pleads with her husband to stay with her but he insists the journey into the forest must be completed that night. In the forest he meets a man, dressed in a similar manner to himself and bearing a resemblance to himself. The man carries a black serpent-shaped staff. The two encounter Mistress Cloyse, who complain about the need to walk, and evidently friendly with the stranger, accept his serpent staff and
flies away to her destination.

Other towns people  inhabit the wood that night, traveling the same direction as Goodman Brown. When he hears his wife’s voice in the trees, he calls out to his faith, but is not answered. He then seems to fly through the forest, using a maple staff the stranger fashioned for him, arriving at a clearing midnight to find all the townspeople assembled. At the ceremony(which may be a witches’ sabbath) carried out at a flame-lit rocky altar, the newest converts are brought  forth—Goodman Brown and Faith. They are the only two of the towns people not yet initiated to the forest rite. Goodman Brown calls to heaven to resist and instantly  the scene vanishes.

 Arriving back at his home in Salem the next morning, Goodman Brown is uncertain whether the previous night’s events were real or a dream, but he is deeply shaken, with the belief he lived in Christian community distorted. He losses his faith in his wife Faith; he losses his faith in humanity. He lives his life  an embittered and suspicious cynical man, wary of everyone around him, including his wife Faith.