Good and Evil in Young Goodman BrownIn "Young Goodman Brown." Nathaniel Hawthorne considers the question of good and evil, suggesting that true evil is judging and condemning others for sin without looking at one's own sinfulness. It examines the idea that sin is part of being human and there is no escape from it. Of the many symbols he uses in this story, each one has a profound meaning. They represent good and evil in the constant struggle of an innocent young man whose faith is tested. As the story opens, young Goodman Brown bids farewell to his young wife "Faith, as [she] was aptly called" (211). When she "...throws her beautiful little 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 the innocence and goodness of the city that he is leaving behind (211). As he continues “in his present evil purpose,” he sets out at sunset to enter the forest (212). A place “overshadowed by all the darkest trees,” an unknown territory, and a place where “there may be an evil Indian behind every tree,” with this 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 had the shape of a great black serpent, so curiously wrought, that one could almost see it twisting and wriggling, like a living serpent" (213). When the traveler offers his staff to the young good man Brown, he resists by replying, "having kept my bargain in meeting you here, my purpose is to return from whence I came... middle of paper... the forest at last makes him believe of being better than everyone else and dissociates himself from everyone in the city because he judges them to be sinners. He becomes "a severe, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man..." after his journey when he commits the ultimate sin of judging and condemning others without looking at one's own sinfulness. In the end they "carved no verse of hope on his tombstone; for the hour of his death was gloomy (221). Works cited and consulted Benoit, 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 stories and his love stories. New York: Continuum Publishing Co., 1989.