Good and Evil in Young Goodman BrownIn "Young Goodman Brown". Nathaniel Hawthorne considers the question of good and evil, suggesting that true evil consists of judging and condemning others for their sins without looking at one's own sin. It examines the idea that sin is a part of being human and there is no escaping it. Of the many symbols he uses in this story, each one has a deep meaning. They represent good and evil in the constant struggle of an innocent young man whose faith is tested. As the story begins, young Goodman Brown bids farewell to his young wife "Faith, as [she] was aptly named" (211). When she "... throws her pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap", we associate the purity of "Faith" and the "pink ribbons" as a sign of innocence and of the goodness of the city he leaves (211). As he continues “his present evil design,” he leaves at sunset to enter the forest (212). A place “darkened by all the darkest trees,” an unknown territory, and a place where “there may be an evil Indian behind every tree,” we know that the forest represents evil and sin (212). His decision to enter the forest and leave his “Faith” behind is the first decision, among many, between good and evil that he must make. After entering the forest, he meets a traveler who he later discovers is the devil. He carries a staff representing evil, "which resembled a great black serpent, so curiously wrought, that one could almost see it twisting and writhing, like a living snake" (213). When the traveler offers his staff to young Goodman Brown, he resists by responding: "Having respected my covenant by meeting you here, my intention is to return where I came from... middle of paper... the forest. eventually makes him believe that he is better than everyone and he dissociates himself from everyone in the town because he judges them as sinners. He becomes “severe, sad, darkly meditative, suspicious, even desperate.” man..." after his journey when he commits the ultimate sin of judging and condemning others without looking at his own sin. In the end "they carved no hopeful verse on his tombstone; because his hour of death was dark (221).Works cited and consultedBenoit, Raymond. "'Young Goodman Brown': The Second Time." The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 19 (Spring 1993): 18-21. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Complete Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1989. Wagenknecht, Edward. Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Man, His Tales and Romances. New York: Continuum Publishing Co..., 1989.