سید شهاب الدین ساداتی

Literary Fiction

Conflicts: mental, emotional, moral

Climax: looking up toward heaven, page 309

Ending: sad ending

Point of View: third person limited

Character List

Goodman Brown: male protagonist, round, dynamic

Faith: female protagonist, flat, static: the embodiment of virtue

The Old Man/Devil: flat, static

Goody Cloyse: flat, static. A citizen of Salem Village who reveals herself to be a witch. Goody Cloyse is a Christian woman who helps young people learn the Bible, but in secret she performs magic ceremonies and attends witch meetings in the forest

The Minister: flat, static. The minister of Salem. The minister, a respectable pillar of the community, appears to be a follower of the devil

Deacon Gookin: flat, static. A member of the clergy in Salem who appears to be a follower of the devil. The deacon is an important man in the church of Salem, and Goodman Brown thinks of him as very religious 

Themes

The Weakness of Public Morality: Hawthorne reveals what he sees as the corruptibility that results from Puritan society’s emphasis on public morality, which often weakens private religious faith

The Inevitable Loss of Innocence: Each person may lose his/her innocence because of his/her inherent corruptibility

The Fear of the Wilderness: The forest as a place where no good is possible, the forest is characterized as devilish, frightening, and dark, and Goodman Brown is comfortable in it only after he has given in to evil

Symbols

The Staff: The devil’s staff, which is encircled by a carved serpent, draws from the biblical symbol of the serpent as an evil demon 

Faith’s Pink Ribbons: The pink ribbons that Faith puts in her cap represent her purity. The color pink is associated with innocence and gaiety, and ribbons themselves are a modest, innocent decoration 

Allegory: The whole story as a religious allegory, page 282. Allegory of the story of Adam & Eve's Fall

Irony of Situation: at the end of the story, when we see the sad and suspicious Brown