Brown tries to become a man who leanstoo far over the edge of a pit. Thus the heavens darken and the symbolic pinkribbon causes him to cry out in realization. He says “my Faith is gone!” (30),as he laughs in despair.
F. Walsh Jr. explains the storm in his soul and in theforest then rises and he stumbles “into the heart of the dark forest depthswhere there is symbolically represented the complete pervasion of all that he onceheld dear” (F. Walsh Jr. 1). As Richard Fogle says, all the externalmanifestations of his faith are turned upside down: “The Communion of Sin is,in fact, the faithful counterpart of a grave and pious ceremony at a Puritanmeeting house…
. Satan resembles some grave divine, and the initiation intosin takes the form of baptism” Hawthorne’s Fiction: The Light and the Dark,1952. As the external evidences of his religion are perverted, so is his veryFaith, which is symbolized by his discovering his wife in the unholy communion.Secondly, there is the journey into Brown’s soul whichis dark and twisted and paralleled by his journey into the darkness of theforest.
When he enters the forest, the readers are told: “He had taken a drearyroad, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stoodaside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. Itwas all as lonely as could be (…)” (25). This act is symbolic because of thefact that he is plunging into the road which leads to despair and the immediateclosing of the trees symbolizes the shutting of his escape. He is alone and cutoff from humanity but with one companion; that being the Devil (F. Walsh Jr.
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1). The Devil’s mass is an opportunityfor the reassertion of the natural impulses Brown must keep hidden in theshadow. It gives him a chance to experience not only his other self but alsothe free energies of nature for which his religious has no ordering. D.J.Moores argues that while Brown is lifting his hands in order to pray, he hearsFaith’s voice.
He calls out for her and she answers with a scream. Faith isabout to enter a meeting and so he then decides to attend as well because allgood is destroyed at this point in the story. He reaches a clearing with acrude altar surrounded by the saints and sinners of Salem (Wilson 1). While theDevil`s congregation sings an evil hymn rejoicing in sin while Brown awaitslooking for his wife Faith. At a call for the new members he steps forward, andFaith is led forward by two women where he sees a dark figure speaks of sin(Moores 1). He commands Brown and Faith to look at each other and then declaresthat they now know virtue is but a dream and evil is the nature of mankind.Goodman Brown cries out to Faith to resist this evil.
Brown does not find outwhether or not he dreamed about the forest altercations and the experiencestill has a profound effect on him. After that night, he becomes a man filled withgrief and sadness for the rest of his life. He rejects his wife and the faithhe once had in his religion. He has lived a life of gloom filled with sinnerseverywhere (Moores 1). At the beginning ofthe story Young Goodman Brown, a puritan man, leaves his wife Faith, who is an obviousallegorical figure to meet Satan in the deep gloomy woods. Moores argues thatone may ask why a good puritan man with a spotless wife would be driven toundertake such an evil journey.
The answer lies within the Jungian perspectivein that Goodman Brown is in fact seeking himself his lost and unwanted parts.The Jungian theory and shadow refers to the “unconscious piece of a personalityin which the ego does not identify itself” (Moores 1). Carl Jung states thatthe Jungian theory is the shadow of the unknown dark side of one’s personality.Jung believed that the human psyche was fundamentally contradictory. Within everyperson’s soul, there are “tendencies, feelings, characteristics, and complexesthat do not conform to ego consciousness” (Moores 1). This so called “otherself” is the double, the alter ego, the dark self, or as Jung put it, theshadow. Jung believed the shadow is the first archetype to be encountered whenone engages the contents of the unconscious.
Goodman Brown leaves the safety ofhis hearth, his home, and his Faith to undertake a journey he knows is not inkeeping with who he thinks he is a good Christian husband: “What a wretcham I to leave her on such an errand,” he says, chiding himself (Hawthorne 65).Yet, he is compelled to go nevertheless, as if he knows that inner work is tobe completed on this evening deep inside the forest. Jungian theory recognizestwo centers of the psyche ego which includes the persona and consciousawareness. Unwanted parts of the Self residing in shadow can and do compel theego, often against its wishes to engage in activities and express feelings notin keeping with one’s conscious belief system. Goodman Brown, who is a pure, unstained,wholly good Christian, embarks on the journey, crossing the threshold almostagainst his will, but he also knows he is about to embark on journey tocomplete devilish work (Moores 1).
Hejustifies his evil purpose with the notion that after this dark evening he will”cling to Faith’s skirts and follow her to
