Gloom of Puritan Calvinism of "Young Goodman Brown"

The Puritan religion had a huge part in the shaping of early America and thus greatly affected many of the authors who wrote during this time, Nathaniel Hawthorne among them. One of Hawthorne’s greatest works is “Young Goodman Brown”—a story in which Hawthorne integrates history and religion to exemplify mankind’s battle with sin. Though most critics agree that “Young Goodman Brown” is one of Hawthorne’s best tales, there is less certainty as to its meaning as there have been many themes proposed: “the reality of sin, the pervasiveness of evil, the secret sin and hypocrisy of all persons, the hypocrisy of Puritanism...or the demoralizing effects of the discovery that all men are sinners and hypocrites” (McKeithan). All of these interpretations are credible, and a great argument may be given for each, but the interpretation that will be focused on is “Young Goodman Brown” as a religious allegory and ultimately a criticism of Puritan Calvinism. This is evident when one approaches the story with a combination of its symbolism and an understanding of the Puritan religion, along with Hawthorne’s background and religious views.

“Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory and it is not necessary to choose between a interpreting the story as a dream or literally, for Hawthorne left this ambiguous. Critic D. M. McKeithan says that an allegory is a fictitious story designed to teach an abstract truth through symbolism. To understand Hawthorne’s theme(s) of “Young Goodman Brown” as an allegorical story, one must first have an understanding of the story’s prominent symbols. The name of Young Goodman Brown is symbolic as it represents the protagonist’s youth, innocence, and good nature. Critic Thomas Connolly in his piece “Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown’: An Attack on Puritan Calvinism” says that Brown represents the dynamics of the Puritans’ religious culture and is a staunch Calvinist, “convinced he is of the elect...confident he is going to heaven." This is evident when Brown says, “...after this one night I’ll cling to [Faith’s] skirts and follow her to heaven. Brown’s wife with a pink ribbon, named Faith, is symbolic as well, representing Brown’s religious faith and his faith in all that is good. Brown’s recent marriage to Faith is symbolic as well. Connolly says, “the marriage...must be looked upon as the moment of conversion to grace in which [Brown] became fairly sure of his election to heaven.” Also significant to the allegory’s symbolism is its setting in Salem in the midst of the religious frenzy that led up to the infamous Salem witch trials. In addition to this physical setting, as critic Michael McCabe says, “Hawthorne sets ‘Young Goodman Brown’ into a context of Puritan rigidity and self-doubt to allow his contemporary readers to see the consequences of such a system of belief.” Another important aspect is that Brown sees his father and grandfather as symbols of “honest men and good Christians," but with the devil’s correction, they become symbols of the hypocrisy that Brown later thinks he has always been surrounded by. More people that Brown finds to symbolize evil and further confirm the hypocrisy are his Sunday school teacher, the minister, and a deacon. Finally, important to the allegory’s symbolism is when “out of the black cloud of doubt...the pink ribbon of his Faith falls... [to which] Brown cries in agony, ‘My Faith is gone!’” and Brown thus loses his religious faith and faith in humans as good. To understand the allegory and properly apply the countless incidents of symbolism one must understand the basic beliefs of the Puritans.

The Puritans believed there was a constant struggle between good and evil. The doctrine of the Puritans, according to McCabe, taught that “all men are totally depraved and require constant self-examination to see that they are sinners and unworthy of God’s grace. Because man had broken the Covenant of Works when Adam [sinned] ...God offered a new covenant to Abraham’s people which held that election was merely a possibility." Only those predetermined to go to heaven would go, while all others were doomed to hell. This depressing doctrine was originally proposed by John Calvin which eventually became known as Calvinism. Calvinism teaches that “[man] can do nothing to merit salvation. He is saved only by the whim of God who selects some, through no deserving on their part, for heaven while the great mass of mankind is destined for hell” (Connolly). The idea of predestination often gave men a license to sin—either they could sin because they were confident as part of the elect, or because all was already lost with no hope of salvation. Brown struggles with this doctrine; when his faith is gone, it no longer matters for he is damned either way: “There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil! for to thee is this world given.” Hawthorne negatively conveys this gloomy doctrine, “lest the reader miss the ultimate implication of the doctrine of predestination... [when the devil says,] ‘Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again, my children, to the communion of your race!’” (Connolly). Mrs. Q. D. Leavis says in her piece “Hawthorne as a Poet” that “Hawthorne imaginatively recreated for the reader that Calvinist sense of sin, that theory which did in actuality shape the early social and spiritual history of New England."

Finally, to understand Hawthorne’s implications of the symbols in his story as related to the Puritans’ Calvinistic religion it is important to understand what is known of Hawthorne’s personal views and convictions. In growing up, “Hawthorne could not escape the influence of Puritan society...from residing with his father’s devout Puritan family as a child, [and] also due to Hawthorne’s study of his own family history”—realizing his family had been closely involved with the Salem witch trials (McCabe). Hawthorne enjoyed studying history, and in studying the history of Salem and of early Puritan society, Hawthorne was able to discern and discuss the merits and consequences of such zeal of which he incorporates into “Young Goodman Brown” (McCabe). Though there is much “made of the influence of Puritanism on the writings of Hawthorne, he must also be seen as a critic of the teachings of Puritanism” (Connolly). Through combining his knowledge of the historical background of Puritanism with his personal experience of Puritanism in his early life, Hawthorne came to the conclusion that a system (whether true or false) in which people cannot trust themselves, their neighbors, or even their ministers is not a good state of being, which is what he masterfully portrays in “Young Goodman Brown” (McCabe). Hawthorne certainly did not swallow Puritanism as a whole in his youth, though some Puritan beliefs remained with him throughout his life. Barriss Mills says in his piece “Hawthorne and Puritanism,” “[Hawthorne’s Puritan] belief in universal depravity was colored by an un-Puritan sympathy for the sinner...The greatest deterrent of human pride, Hawthorne believed, is the brotherhood of mankind in sin." Hawthorne incorporates this into his allegory when Brown feels a “loathful brotherhood, by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart.” Hawthorne does not believe this brotherhood of sin to be a pleasant thing, but a fact of life for, as author Larzar Ziff puts it, “if guilt itself was escapable, brotherhood with the guilty was not.” “Young Goodman Brown” may have seemed to be a clear-cut religious allegory of good and evil, sin and redemption, and hypocrisy and innocence, but it is so much more ambiguous for one to make such clear-cut interpretations. This is because Hawthorne “had a dual-outlook [that] caused him to constantly try to see both sides of situations, and subsequent doubt increased his skepticism” (McCabe). Though Hawthorne criticizes the Puritan Calvinistic view of predestination and the inborn evil nature of mankind through exposing the gloom of it, he does not spell out his intentions of the truth or falseness of this view, and Hawthorne himself may not have decided on an answer. Scott Donaldson and Ann Massa in their book on American Literature say that Hawthorne assumed a lifelong “philosophy of uncertainty both in his private life and in his fiction.” Hawthorne, as Puritans, viewed sin as an absolute entity, yet this was softened by his feeling of the brotherhood of sinners, but went beyond the Puritans in his detestation of sins of the intellect above sins of the flesh; he did not completely accept the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, nor did he emphasize the supreme sovereignty of God which was the driving force of Calvinism. Thus, Hawthorne “escapes being labeled because he was an artist more than a philosopher...a symbolist of moods and inner struggles, a poet of human hearts and souls” (Mills).

In this religious allegory, Hawthorne is indeed criticizing the Puritan Calvinist beliefs and doctrine of predestination by exposing the gloom of it, not arguing it as true or false. “Young Goodman Brown” demonstrates the inherent inclination of man to sin through a journey in which yielding to an innate evil is, in the end, inescapable: “He had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought.” The mentally and emotionally detrimental effects of the Puritan Calvinist belief in predestination in which Hawthorne exposes are not to be interpreted as an endorsement of the rejecting of faith, but as an admonition of the hazards of religion and of religious institutions. Hawthorne shows the sin nature in man and brings a greater understanding to readers of the overly religious zeal that may bring about mental and spiritual detriment as with Goodman Brown, or cause events like the Salem witch trials to happen. Hawthorne in no way denies the church or God, but merely recognizes the dangers of strict Puritan Calvinist doctrine. Connolly points out that when Brown recognizes Goody Cloyse and says, “‘That old woman taught me my catechism,’ and the narrator [adds], ‘and there was a world of meaning in this simple comment,’ the reader at this point should be fairly well aware of Hawthorne’s criticism of Calvinism.” Goodman Brown not only lost his faith, but discovered the full and frightening significance of the Puritan Calvinist faith. Brown’s rejecting of Faith—his spiritual faith and faith in people—and his resulting detestation and distrust of people demonstrates Hawthorne’s condemnation of certain Puritan Calvinist doctrines; for Brown is sure he is part of the elect and certain of salvation but learns through his night’s venture into evil the solemnity of the Puritan Calvinist doctrine—man is innately, universally depraved with “an instinct that guides mortal man to evil...maddened with despair.” This thus shows “that the consequence for the mistrust and self-doubt that is inherent in Puritan education and doctrine...only creates further confusion” (McCabe). Also, by showing the failures of Puritan society and past consequences of excess Puritan zeal, Hawthorne spoke to the people of his own time of the possible consequences of the Second Great Awakening if people focus on religion rather than true relationship with God.

The religious allegory of “Young Goodman Brown” is thus Hawthorne’s criticism of the teachings of the Puritan Calvinism. His implication is that the doctrine of the elect and damned is not merely a faith which carries some heavenward, but instead a belief which condemns most to hell, bad and good indiscriminately alike. For all intents and purposes men may have, so few escape damnation as to make one man’s chance of salvation almost disappear. This is the gloom Hawthorne wanted to expose, and it is the realization of the full solemnity of this doctrine that causes Goodman Brown’s dying hour to be gloom.