Response 8

When reading Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne there are many gothic themes throughout the text like isolation, good versus evil, doubt and morality. These themes are used throughout the text to show the struggles Goodman Brown faces on his spiritual journey. One can argue that his experience in the woods was merely a dream sequence that forced him to see into his subconscious about the evil in the world. When he first meets the traveler there is an obvious resemblance to himself which makes him question his own morality. Then the traveler speaks of going on the same journey with his father and grandfather. This deminisones the image of innocence he has for his father. Being that they are puritans he believes that they are against evil but learns that they have hidden secrets. Once he sees the  women of his faith it makes him question the church’s purity. Then finally he sees his wife being taken towards the darkness and this is the moment where all his hope is lost in faith. The traveler or the devil succeeded in making Goodman fear the evil in the word enough to question his own faith. Once he left the woods or woke up from his dream he no longer saw the innocence of the world and people around him. His own wife became a mystery and he couldn’t go back to the person that he once was. The holy man that used to be Goodman Brown was gone and couldn’t be brought back.