Symbols

Symbols

Faith’s pink ribbon

Faith( Goodman Brown’s wife)

Staff

The forest

Old man

    Descriptive names, color and objects are used to provide symbolism and details about the action and characters. The author names two of his main characters classic names that represent their nature: Goodman and Faith.

Faith's pink ribbon

The pink ribbon represent Faith’s purity and innocence. The author

mention the pink ribbon several times at the beginning of the story,

imbuing her character with youthfulness and happiness.  He

 reintroduces the ribbon when Goodman Brown is in the forest,

struggling with his doubts about the goodness of the people he knows.

When the pink ribbon flutters down from the sky, Goodman Brown

Perceives it is a sign that Faith has definitely fallen into the devil.

At the end of the story, when Faith greet Goodman Brown as he

return from the forest, she is wearing the pink ribbon again,

suggesting her return to the figure of innocence she presented at

the beginning of the story.

Staff

The devil’s staff , which is encircled by a serpent , draws from the biblical symbol of the serpent as an evil demon. In the book of Genesis, the serpent tempts Eve to the fruit from the forbidden tree, defying God’s will and bringing wrath upon the humanity. When the devil tells Goodman Brown to use the staff to travel faster, Goodman Brown takes him up on the offer and, like Eve, is ultimately condemned for his weakness by losing his innocence. Besides representing Eve’s temptation , the serpent represent her curiosity, which lead her into that temptation. Goodman Brown decision to come into the forest is motivated by curiosity, as Eve’s decision to eat the forbidden fruit . The staff makes clear that the old man is more demon than human and that Goodman Brown, when he takes the staff for himself, is on the path toward evil as well.

The Forest 

Quotes: “ There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree… What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!”

 Analysis: Forest symbolize evil and danger. They are  dark places where all manner of creatures lurk waiting to attack the unsuspecting and even Goodman Brown presents this idea when he says to himself as he is walking along, “ There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree… What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!”  Ironically, or maybe not so ironically, it is in this forest that Goodman Brown meets the man who turn out to be the Devil. Their walk into the forest symbolizes Goodman’s increasing involvement with the evil, and he gets deeper into the forest, so does it get darker.

All characters are symbols of Brown's personality:

Faith ( Goodman Brown’s wife)

 Symbolic character in the story, whose name also has an symbolic meaning. No only Goodman Brown’s wife but represent Goodman Brown’s religious faith, faith in life and faith in humanity.

Quotes:  “My love and my Faith”

Analysis:  The name of Faith indicates Goodman Brown clings to a faith of goodness in the world, which later lost as Goodman Brown encounters a figure in the wood.

            Quotes:  “Poor little Faith! …What a wretch am I, to leave her on such an errand!...She’s a blessed angel on earth and after this one night I’ll cling her skirts and follow her to Heaven.”

             Analysis:  His connection to Faith is also young and still being established. He does not yet completely cling to faith, which can be seen from the thought stated above. And when Goodman Brown starts out his journey, he has a faith. In fact he says that when he returns from his journey that he will “cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven”. At this point in the story, she is innocent as Goodman Brown.

             Quotes: “Faith kept me back a while”

             Analysis:  When Goodman Brown arrives to the forest, the Old man waiting there for him remarks that he is late, and Goodman Brown responds, “Faith kept me back a while”. This comment can be taken to mean that not only was he being held back by his wife, but that he was already having an inner struggle with his beliefs. And symbolically speaking, he is going into the dark forest while trying to leave his shield behind.

Quotes: “My Faith is gone!”

Analysis:  Goodman Brown hears his wife’s voice in the trees. He calls out to her, but cannot find her, only locating a pink ribbon that has fallen off of her hat. In despair, he cries out “My Faith is gone!”. From this it can be inferred that, not only has he lost track of his wife, but his beliefs have been shattered as well.

Old man

The old man or his companion on his journey takes him on a journey of discovery. Goodman Brown discover the knowledge of what the world is really like. His childhood innocence cannot bear up under the knowledge of life. The companion also shows Goodman Brown how what he perceived his neighbors to be, is not what they really are, and that we are all capable of doing evil, Meaning the old man in the story represent three things: devil, knowledge, and everyone’s ability to do evil.

Quotes:  “an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain. When the minister spoke from the pulpit, with the power and fervid eloquence, and triumphant deaths, and of future bliss or misery unutterable, then did Goodman Brown turn pale, t the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer and his hearers.”

Analysis: The devil is lurking around of the story, and even when Goodman Brown awakes the next morning and wonders if it was a dream, the devil has won. For the rest of his life Goodman is suspicious of all of the people in his town and unable to have a true social life with any of them because of his fear that they are evil doers. He is unable to participate in the church meeting, it is proven by the quotes stated above.  He believes that he was able to resist the devil, when he has in reality done just as the devil wanted and fallen from his faith in God, being able to even listen in the church because of his thought  that those preaching it are evil.

         Goody Cloyse

 She is Goodman Brown’s spiritual adviser during his younger days. And she represent Goodman Brown’s childhood and his childish perception of life. Once his childhood and childish perceptions (Goody Cloyse) met with the knowledge of everyone’s ability to do evil ( Old man/ companion), he lost his childish perceptions in the story.

Deacon Gookin and the minister

Deacon Gookin and the minister represent Goodman Brown’s religion itself.

Goodman Brown

                                

Goodman Brown could represent anyone. He is basically the everyman, and that’s what his names means: to make us think that this is a problem that everyone has to dealt with at some point or another.   

The word ‘Goodman’, has an obvious meaning and when taken apart, is ‘good man’ ,and brings to mind thought of a moral, responsible and good person. Goodman was given the last name Brown, which is denoting his ambiguous nature.