Special K

Meeting with the Devil

Oh look, it’s September. I have to start blogging about academic-related subjects and start making some sense. Darn.

“My Faith is gone!” Such a pivotal and important line in “Young Goodman Brown” that can easily be missed. Yet as Neha and Holly noted, the simple sentence does contain a lot of meaning and young Goodman Brown’s basic feelings.

“Faith” in this quotation has a double meaning. Due to capitalization, outright it appears that Brown is initially crying out for his beloved wife (with the pink ribbons, as mentioned over and over in the story). She has been taken into this ring of heathens and is leaving him.

However, “faith” also has another meaning, one that sums up Brown’s feelings for the rest of the story. His literal faith and beliefs are also gone after witnessing the meeting of the townspeople with the devil. Everything Brown has known has basically been a lie; everything he has based his faith on. “…the good shrank from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints.” Everyone, even surprising figures such as the minister and his own father, has evil in them. He is incredibly disillusioned now that he sees the true evil in his own world, in his own ideals. His faith in the goodness of others and his own beliefs in God have been shattered by this meeting. He carries this eschewed view of people and the world with him throughout his life. “…for his dying hour was gloom.” He lived his life unsure of the truth behind people and in fear of what he had seen.

Did Brown actually witness the meeting with the devil? Or was it merely a dream? As mentioned by Holly, the experience being a dream is probable since it can represent a coming of age scenario- a boy realizing that those he respects and loves are truly human and make mistakes just like everyone else. In the beginning of the story there are numerous references to dreams that suggest that it was a dream and not reality. Faith states, “…A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts…” while Brown mentions, “…She talks of dreams, too…as if a dream had warned her…” I suppose it doesn’t really matter either way if it was a dream or a real event. The experience still changed Brown and his views on life and others.