Contrasted against the overall sense of darkness in the woods, the Black Mass is characterized by the blaze of a glaring red light. The imagery of the light bridges the gap between Puritanism and Satanism because it mimics the candles at an evening church service. The red blaze symbolizes the Puritanical image of hell.

Faith’s pink ribbon takes on several meanings throughout the story. Initially, the pink represented a sense of playfulness and joviality. However, now that Goodman Brown has witnessed his wife take part in the devil’s ceremony, it comes to represent a loss in innocence as it flutters into the sky.

Hawthorne casts doubt on the reliability of the dream-like narration of the story through the use of light imagery. In the woods, the light is dim, hazy, and dark. Since the woods are cloaked in shadows, the reader can never be entirely certain if what Goodman Brown sees is real.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” does not end on an uplifting note. Since he never spoke to Faith about his time in the forest, Goodman Brown has failed to recover and learn from his experience. This perpetuates the hypocritical and harmful traditions of Puritanism that led to his fall in the first place. These final words suggest that Goodman Brown’s “goodly” children and grandchildren will all suffer the same fate. This serves as a capstone on the theme of hypocrisy in the tale: those who cannot honestly look at and reflect on their own behaviors or speak realistically about temptation and sin will not be able to find inner peace and happiness.

Readers may have wondered if Goodman Brown’s experience was simply a dream. However, even sinful dreams and thoughts count as sinful behavior in Puritanism. This means that Goodman Brown, in order to maintain appearances, cannot discuss this event with anyone because doing so could result in his being exiled from the community. He is therefore forced to live out his life in hypocrisy, infected by the knowledge that whether he sinned or dreamed he sinned, he suffers the same end—making his story a truly tragic one.

Goodman Brown may have left the devil and the forest, but he has been infected with a cynical, miserly outlook on his peers and his community. Faith’s actions in this passage suggest that either she isn’t bothered by the encounter in the woods, that she didn’t know about it, or that she wasn’t actually there—which raises the question of what Goodman Brown actually experienced and saw. Regardless, Goodman Brown does not speak of his time in the forest to his wife. By not openly discussing these events, he continues the cycle of unspoken Puritanical repression that his family has passed on to him, leaving him alone and without support.

Goodman Brown finally finds the strength to try and resist the devil when he sees Faith standing by the evil figure. However, Hawthorne’s word choice reveals this to be a hollow action. Instead of writing “cried Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne uses “the husband.” This separates Goodman Brown’s individuality from his position, suggesting that by begging Faith to “resist the wicked one,” Brown is merely acting out a perfunctory role as husband. This suggests that Goodman Brown’s time in the forest has upended his faith and cast a dark shadow over how he views his role in society.

Since the Puritan faith provides a binary worldview in which things are either good or evil with no middle ground, the devil uses this to his advantage. He claims that “Evil is the nature of mankind.” Notice though how he also criticizes Puritanism’s focus on appearances and external representations of faith. He states that since the Puritans “depend[ed] upon one another’s hearts,” they were unable to learn how to create a personal relationship with their morality that could give them the strength to understand that someone may commit sinful acts but not be entirely evil.

Having placed so much of his faith in his wife, the climax of the story begins when Goodman Brown confronts his greatest fear: that his Faith (in both senses of the word) is corrupt. Also of note here is the atmosphere: Goodman Brown sees his Faith through the light of “hell-kindled torches.” This suggests that the light is not only evil but also supernatural. What Goodman Brown actually sees, therefore, may not necessarily be accurate. Instead of seeing a nuanced, complicated person capable of a mixture of good and evil, Brown can only see through his binary Puritan lens, which casts everything that is not completely righteous in a hellish light.

Based on context, the expression “widows’ weeds” likely refers to the mourning clothes worn after the death of a woman’s husband. The devil continues to emphasize how many people have performed sinful deeds when not in the public eye.

The devil’s words in this passage serve as a direct statement about the hypocritical nature of the Puritan faith. To paraphrase, he points out that what people claim to be true is not actually the case and that those who appear good and righteous are actually living in sin. The visual display of the congregation gives the devil an opportunity to reveal to Goodman Brown the hypocrisy of his Puritan community. Since Brown’s faith has been modeled on the behavior of others, rather than his own convictions, this provides the devil an easy challenge to Goodman Brown’s worldview.

Martha Ingalls Carrier was one of the first women named as a witch by the Salem Girls during the 1692 Salem witch trials.

Since Goodman Brown’s notions of faith and morality come from external sources, he is paralyzed in this moment of confusion. For him, being moral means preserving the reputation and appearances of his family. However, the images of his father and mother give him conflicting commands regarding his path forward. Even though he no longer believes his family are moral people, he cannot bring himself to disown his family heritage in order to make his own choices. Since he cannot make his own choices, he is doomed to repeat the same mistakes, continuing a tradition of harmful hypocrisy.

The noun “convert” is generally used as a religious term for someone who accepts a new faith. Here, the meaning is twisted as the converts are not accepting Christianity; they are turning to the devil.

Since Hawthorne has revealed the forest to be a place full of sin, the presence of a “congregation” in the “heart of the solitary woods” reveals the pervasiveness of evil. A “congregation” typically refers to a group of people who gather for a church service, giving this word religious and moral connotations. While Puritan congregations try to cleave away their evil tendencies by appearing good to one another, this congregation in the dark woods further supports the idea that evil is an indelible part of human nature that will always find its place.

Although Goodman Brown has just claimed that he should be feared as a sinful being, Hawthorne’s statement here suggests something more about the nature of good and evil: an external and internal nature. Goodman Brown considers evil as a supernatural, external idea found in the work of witches and devils. However, Hawthorne makes a point here that the more terrible “fiend” is the one that rages inside of us—a natural, human capacity for wickedness.

Since Goodman Brown’s Puritan faith conveys a world of good versus evil without room for nuance or error, he decides to embrace evil after he realizes that he is a sinner. He cries out this famous quote to the wind, indicating that sin no longer strikes fear in him as it once did. Because he is a sinner, he figures he ought to be just as feared as other evil things. However, this extreme reaction suggests that he hasn’t learned how to cope with sin. He still functions through a Puritan lens of the world, which says that if he sins at all, then he is condemned to hell.

Hawthorne has used the forest as a symbol for sin throughout “Young Goodman Brown.” Here, by saying that the road has grown “wilder and drearier,” Hawthorne conveys a lack of order, or a promotion of discord. That the road falls into disarray and eventually vanishes completely reflects what has happened to Goodman Brown’s faith. Where once the road could take him safely back to Salem, now he has no clear path forward: Goodman Brown is a sinner.

When Goodman Brown claims that “There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name,” this statement supports how extreme his beliefs are. For him, the world consists of black and white, good and evil. Since his Faith (and his faith) are “gone,” he states that the world is inherently evil and that sin is the natural state of things. From a non-Puritan perspective, this logic makes little sense, but given the repressed nature of his society, Goodman Brown has no experience dealing with nuance nor understanding his own personal relationship between good and sinful behavior.

Earlier, Goodman Brown resisted the devil by believing that Faith is still pure and moral. Here, having lost his faith in his wife Faith, he has also lost faith in the world and in his own sense of morality. By claiming that his “Faith is gone,” he emphasizes the relationship between his wife and his Puritan faith. Goodman Brown’s beliefs rely on appearances and the behavior of his peers, creating an extreme ideology that doesn’t allow for nuance.

This is another example of Goodman Brown deciding to “conceal himself” from the eyes of others, a result of the Puritanical drive to appear good and to prevent the spread of rumors and suspicion. He thinks that if he can avoid being seen in the forest, then he can return to Salem and live a virtuous life. However, he fails to consider that walking into the forest and speaking with the devil could harm his soul. Another point here is to recall how Goodman Brown saw the forest when he first entered it:

not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.

Now, readers see the hypocrisy in this statement as Goodman Brown himself lurks among the evils of the forest, ignorant of his own behavior.

The verb “to spur up” means to increase speed. It comes from the practice of using spurs to prick a horse in order to make it go faster.

The noun “powwow” is rooted in North American Indian culture and tradition. It can refer to a religious or magical ceremony. It also can refer to a council or conference of Native Americans. Regardless of the nature of the meeting, the Puritans viewed powwows as a kind of non-Christian, or pagan, behavior.

In a religious context, the noun “ordination” refers to the ceremony in which an individual takes vows to become a preacher or priest.

While the devil has revealed all the hypocrisy of Goodman Brown’s family, community, and his own ideas, Goodman Brown maintains a trust that his wife, Faith, is free of evil. It is this trust that keeps him from falling into sin. However, he still looks to another person rather than to his God or personal convictions. His actions reflect the Puritan tendency to seek external ideas of faith, particularly in the appearance of goodness, rather than pursuing personal, virtuous relationships between the self and a higher power.

This is an allusion to the biblical book of Exodus, in which sorcerers in the Egyptian Pharaoh's court turned their staves into serpents to intimidate Moses. Moses and his brother Aaron also had staves capable of magic, but that power was believed to have come from God rather than the devil.

The noun “twinkling” means the time required for a wink—which is instantaneous for the purposes of this expression. Another similar expression is to say “be there in a flash.” The idea that witches could travel in supernatural ways was a popular superstition among the Puritans.

Since witches and sorcerers were associated with evil behavior, Hawthorne includes this detail. Witches were commonly believed to kill infants and young children for their fat, a prized ingredient. This belief is one of the reasons why many people suspected caregivers of witchcraft. Because the infant mortality rate was high and disease was not well understood, many believed evil forces conspired against their children.

The list of items here are all associated with sorcery and witchcraft: “smallage” and “cinquefoil” are herbs, and wolf's bane is toxic if consumed, making it a kind of poison.

The name “Cory” is a possible reference to Martha Corey, who was one of the women accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. She was a respectable community member who was eventually hanged for witchcraft, despite Hawthorne’s saying that she is “unhanged.” Martha Corey’s story is also told in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible.

Goodman Brown’s statement here shows how much value Puritans placed on appearances. Since he thinks this woman is a good Christian, he wants to avoid her seeing him with a stranger. This avoidance gives us insight into Goodman Brown and the Puritan faith: he’s more scared about being seen with a sinner by a member of his community than he is about actually walking in the forest and talking with the devil, that latter of which could affect the condition of his soul. Goodman Brown sees his own good behavior only through the eyes of others. Notice how this self-deception is also deepened by his immediate assumption that this respectable-looking woman is a good Christian.

The title of “deacon” refers to a minister or officer in the Christian church. Typically deacons perform administrative functions at the church and distribute the elements at communion during the Sabbath.

The name “Goody” is a shortened form for Goodwife and is used as a title before a woman’s last name. In the case of Goodman, it is the masculine form of Goodwife. These titles are archaic forms now often replaced with “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” or “Ms.”

A “catechism” refers to a series of set religious questions and answers based around a book of instruction in the principles of the Christian faith. Puritans like Goodman Brown would have learned a series of questions and answers to confirm their faith and then use during church services.

The devil’s purpose in telling Goodman Brown all of these “state secrets” is to emphasize the depths of his influence in Goodman Brown’s world. Since Goodman Brown considers certain people and places completely free of sin, the devil makes these claims to undermine his faith. However, the devil’s claims serve another purpose. The devil makes it clear that nothing is free of sinful influence or the potential for it. The Puritan worldview cannot accept such things, which forces them to hypocritically believe themselves and their institutions free from this influence. By maintaining a worldview that is cut and dry, there is no room for moral ambiguity and even less for forgiveness and tolerance.

Since the Puritans were Christian, the “Sabbath” refers to Sunday, a day of rest observed by Christians in prayer and service. The “lecture day” here possibly refers to a mid-week church meeting.

This is an early name for the state legislature of Massachusetts. Now known as the Massachusetts General Court, the name Great and General Court was used until 1780 when the state of Massachusetts adopted a new constitution.

At Christian masses or services, one of the acts that believers participate in is called “communion,” a custom which emphasizes the personal sacrifice of Jesus Christ and his relationship to Christians. Wine is the drink often used to symbolize the significance of Christ's death on the cross, although some denominations use grape juice or non-alcoholic substitutes.

Goodman Brown’s surprise that his family “never spoke of these matters” reveals an issue with the repressive nature of his faith. Because the Puritans judged one’s moral character on one’s outward appearance, to talk about morally ambiguous issues or individual failings was taboo. So, Goodman Brown has no experiences with moral nuance to draw on in this situation, forcing him to continue deluding himself by applying his all-too simplistic logic.

New England in the 17th century saw one of the deadliest conflicts between the Native American tribes of the area and the Dutch and English colonists. King Philip was the adopted English name of Metacomb (or Metacomet), a Wampanoag chief, whose father enjoyed friendly relations with the Mayflower Pilgrims. However, the continued influx of colonists and treaties created tensions between the groups, resulting in war. The devil delights in telling Goodman Brown how he helped Brown’s father participate in this conflict.

A “knot” is usually a combining of parts of one or more ropes, strips of cloth, or anything flexible enough to bind. The compound adjective “pitch-pine” refers to the “pitch,” or sap, from a “pine,” a type of evergreen tree. A pitch-pine knot then is likely highly flammable, and such a thing could be thrown into a village and cause a fire—exactly like what the devil says Goodman Brown’s father did.

A Quaker is a member of a religious movement founded by Christian preacher George Fox in the mid 17th century. This group emphasizes a direct relationship between the individual and the divine. Notably, Quakers were not viewed fondly by the Puritans in North America and were subjects of persecution. That the devil delights in the Puritans’ persecution of Quakers is also shown in Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker,” in which the devil says that he amuses himself by watching the persecution of the Quakers and Anabaptists.

Puritans are a branch of English Protestants from the late 16th and 17th centuries who removed themselves from the Anglican Church of England, stating that the reformation under Elizabeth I was incomplete. Some sailed west across the Pacific ocean, including the Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock and settled both Boston and Plymouth. Their Christian beliefs were notoriously strict; for example, Puritans believed that thinking about a sinful or evil action had the same effect on the soul as actually committing the action.

Notice how the examples the devil chooses to share with Goodman Brown are particularly human. That is, crime and punishment as well as war are considered pervasive aspects of humanity. In a way, this normalizes the devil for Goodman Brown, as Puritans consider the devil to be a supernatural evil in order to make the difference between goodness and sin as clear as possible. Religion often justified such aspects of humanity as war and religious persecution, but that justification does not make them less evil—something the devil makes clear here by claiming his influence on those events.

This man, identified as the devil, seeks to manipulate Goodman Brown by claiming he knows Brown’s family well. If Goodman Brown believes that his family have always been good Puritans, then the revelation that they have all made deals with the devil undermines what Goodman Brown has thought to be true much of his life. Since Goodman Brown looks to others for spiritual guidance rather than evaluate behavior for himself, this manipulation begins to work, corrupting his prior certainties.

The serpent staff alludes to the biblical story of the Garden of Eden. This tale helps inform readers as to the man’s purpose. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve lived in a natural paradise. However, the devil, in the form of a serpent, tempted them with knowledge, eventually coaxing them into sin. The man and his staff not only draw a connection between Goodman Brown’s temptation and that of Adam and Eve but also blend evil with nature. The complexity of this association encourages readers to consider how the human capacity for sin and evil take root in the natural world.

Readers ought to pause and consider the nature of this man. He may be plainly dressed, but the presence of a staff that looks like a large, black snake helps reveal his true nature. Snakes are associated with evil in the Christian biblical tradition, as the devil presents himself to Adam and Eve in the form of a serpent in the book of Genesis. The man’s clothes may allow him to pass as a member of a Puritan community, but the staff reveals him for who he really is: the devil.

The noun “covenant” refers to an agreement, in particular one that is solemn and binding. The word has been historically associated with making a covenant with God to be a Christian. Because Goodman Brown had previously vowed to journey into the woods to meet the devil, his covenant is an inversion of his Puritan faith.

This is a reference to William III, also known as William of Orange, who ruled as king of England from 1689–1702, the time in which “Young Goodman Brown” is set.

Goodman Brown’s reply here strongly supports the idea that Hawthorne intended Faith’s name to serve a double meaning. When Goodman Brown says that Faith “kept [him] back awhile,” he means that his wife literally made him late and also that his Puritan faith caused him to doubt his decision to enter and continue journeying into the woods.

Thus far, the woods are depicted as dangerous and scary as Goodman Brown ventures further into a place that he believes to be sinful. However, this man, whose nature will shortly be revealed, claims that he has recently come through Boston. Given his nature, this statement suggests that evil and sin are not limited to the wilderness but can also exist in settled communities, foreshadowing one of the lessons Goodman Brown will learn before the end of the tale.

Goodman Brown’s attitude toward Native Americans represents that of most Puritans at the time, who believed that the Native American tribes, since they weren’t Christian, were the children of Satan, or the devil. At the very least, the Puritans regarded the Native Americans as pagans.

The “peculiarity in such solitude” and the lack of visibility characterize the forest as a dark and unsafe place. This suggests that a traveller may believe himself alone but actually be watched by an “unseen multitude.” This description creates an oppressive and apprehensive tone in the text and foreshadows the multitude to come.

Goodman Brown’s claim that Faith is so incapable of even thinking sinful thoughts that it would kill her reveals his worldview to be black and white, that people are either saints or sinners without any middle ground. However, he fails to look at his own actions. He thinks that he can endure one night of sin and then return to Salem and be good and faithful for the rest of his life. This lack of self-awareness creates conflict within Goodman Brown which will prove disastrous for him later in the story.

Goodman Brown briefly considers the idea that Faith could know about his purpose for journeying into the woods, but he quickly dismisses the notion, stating that she is simply too good and pure to suspect him of any kind of evil intent. However, the repetition in “no, no” shows a small amount of suspicion on Goodman Brown’s part, as if he has to persuade himself that Faith couldn’t think such things. This is the first indication of the suspicion he has for his Puritan community and faith.

Faith’s claim that she is “troubled with such dreams and such thoughts” is significant. For Puritans, one’s thoughts and dreams pose a real danger to one’s spiritual well-being because sin is not limited to physical actions. This claim suggests that Faith herself is not as innocent and pure as Goodman Brown believes her to be.

Hawthorne establishes the moral conflict at the beginning of the story: Goodman Brown can stay with his wife Faith, as she pleads for him to do, or he can journey into the woods. This conflict is especially notable because of his wife’s name: Goodman Brown has a conflict with “Faith,” which literally refers to his wife but can also serve as a symbol of his religious faith. By establishing this conflict early, Hawthorne shows readers that Goodman Brown’s journey has high moral stakes: in leaving Salem, he is potentially leaving his wife and his faith.

This can be read as a possible foreshadowing of what Goodman Brown is walking to right now.

Her description, the fact that she is muttering a "prayer," and the mention of a broom are all allusions to the image of a witch.

The choice of words here, "dream" specifically, suggests that the rest of the story may follow in a dream-like fashion. The look on her face may foreshadow what is to come.

The language used here exaggerates the childlike purity that Faith represents.

Perhaps Hawthorne alludes to the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness, during which time Satan tried to tempt him with earthly power to abandon God.

Brown's belief system, Puritanism, has disappeared along with Faith, his wife.  With this cry of desperation, Brown casts aside his doubts and races toward the devil's communion.

Hawthorne skillfully injects some doubt in the reader's mind as to whether Brown is hearing his wife, Faith, protest loudly or protest in form only—as if she is not quite sure if what she is doing is an evil thing.

Hawthorne makes good use of the limited third-person point of view: because he is not omniscient—that is, all seeing, all knowing—he can never be certain about what he sees.  The devil's staff may or may not look like a serpent, and when the devil leaves Brown, it looks "as if" he has vanished, leaving the reader in uncertainty as to what, exactly, is going on in this narrative.

In another example of double entendre (double meaning), Goodman Brown refers both to Faith, his wife, and his faith, his Puritan belief system.

This would have been a serious breach of etiquette in Puritan society, but it does indicate that, whatever has happened to Goodman Brown, Faith has not shared the experience.  

One of the casualties of Brown's experience (whether a dream or something else) is Faith.  After Brown returns home, his gloom becomes hers as well.  The ruin of a woman's life by an obsessed man is a theme repeated in several of Hawthorne's short stories and novels including "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Birthmark," and The Scarlet Letter.

An "ecclesiastical council" refers to a meeting in which church administration or religious matters are discussed.

Hawthorne is cleverly playing with his readers: Did Goodman Brown experience the events or did he have a horrible dream vision?  Puritans believe that either alternative is possible, but modern readers generally reject the notion that Brown actually experiences these events.  Whether real or a dream, this experience fundamentally changes Brown's life.

Brown's attempt to save Faith is a good sign because it indicates his belief that she can still make the decision to reject Satan.  Brown may consider himself lost, but his attempt to save Faith signals that a vestige of faith still exists within him.

One of the strongest beliefs of the Puritan faith is the innate depravity of mankind—in other words, men and women are born with sin and are inclined to be sinners.  Only God's grace, not their own efforts, will save them from their sin.

From a Puritan's perspective, there could be no sin quite as bad as blasphemy.  Goodman Brown's gestures and speech indicate that his mind has slipped its mooring.  Just as he has lost his faith, he has lost his mind, a sure sign of Satan's control.

Here is a terrible irony: Goodman Brown, after finally losing his faith, becomes the scariest thing in the forest and hurries to join his wife in their new life as devil worshippers.  His loss of faith is complete at this point because the one he trusts the most, Faith, has betrayed his trust.

Here is the final destruction of Goodman Brown's world: the ribbon provides proof that his faithful wife Faith has joined the devil's ranks.

This foreshadows the presence of Faith at Satan's convocation in the forest.

This is meant to convince Goodman Brown that Satan's followers are not isolated to his village but come from all over New England.  That this speech comes from someone he believes is a strong Puritan is enough to convince Brown that Satan's worshippers are at every level of his society.

The scene with Goody Cloyse is very important.  By showing Goody Cloyse to be a witch, Satan is turning Goodman Brown's world upside down.  If Goody Cloyse, who represents to Brown a strong woman of faith, is indeed allied with Satan, what is Brown to think about all the other people he believes are good Puritans?

Again, Hawthorne is creating ambiguity by not definitely telling the reader what the staff looks like.  Ambiguity is one of the primary techniques Hawthorne uses to describe Goodman Brown's journey.

This refers to one of the worst atrocities committed by Puritans against Indians.  A group of Puritan men from Massachusetts attacked an Indian village near Mystic, Connecticut, killing men, women, children, and animals by burning them to death.  Hawthorne, a descendant of Puritans, was horrified by their behavior.

Throughout this paragraph, Satan explains to Goodman Brown how he assisted Brown's father and grandfather in committing atrocities against Indians and Quakers (a religious sect).  Hawthorne's view of Puritans as cruel and self-righteous is very clear in this passage.

A clever use of the limited narrator point of view. Because the narrator is never quite sure of what he observes, the reader is also never sure—perhaps it's a snake, perhaps it's not. The limited point of view creates tension between what is and what might be throughout the story.

This is Hawthorne's way of telling his readers that Goodman Brown and the old man may be related, not just look-a-likes.

An example of what literary critics call double entendre, or "double meaning," because Goodman Brown is referring both to Faith, his wife, and his own Puritan faith.

Goodman Brown should realize immediately that he is meeting a supernatural being. Boston is at least a day's journey from Salem, but the man has just told Brown that he was in Boston fifteen minutes ago.

Goodman Brown's journey into the forest is all the more puzzling because the forest represents true physical danger. No Puritan villager, under normal circumstances, would voluntarily enter the forest alone and at night—too many dangers, including Native Americans, lurked in the forest.

This may indicate that Goodman Brown's journey is taking place on All Hallow's Eve (Halloween), a time when the veil between living and dead is thin. Puritans believe that, of all nights in the year, this is a night during which Satan can be very dangerous.

Puritans believed that Satan could attack them in the form of dreams, so when Faith pleads with Brown to stay with her, she is genuinely afraid of what may happen to her while asleep.

Faith's ribbons are a symbol of purity that becomes crucial to the unfolding of Goodman Brown's journey into the forest.

Located in the state of Massachusetts, the city of Salem gained infamous renown due to its 1692 witchcraft trials during which many people were accused of practicing witchcraft and subsequently executed.