The Dual Identities of Evil in "Young Goodman Brown"

In"Young Goodman Brown," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, evil is a large theme. However, the true identity of evil is questioned through a reversal of evil's identity during the story. At first, when Young Goodman Brown is going through the forest, evil is presented as anything that is non-Christian in that it goes against Christian teachings. Young Goodman Brown explains to his guide that he comes from a family with repeated generations of good moral Christian men and fathers. By the time Young Goodman Brown is running through the forest toward the demonic congregation, that he is not evil is seriously being questioned by the reader. He carelessly runs through the forest screaming taunts at the evil sounds around him. While that in itself is not evil, Hawthorne describes him at the time as (the following are not exact quotes, but are citings of the wording used in the story at different places) "the most frightful figure throughout the haunted forest." He also calls Young Goodman Brown a "demoniac" and says that his actions are a result of "the fiend raging in the breast of a man." At the end of the story, he is not described as evil (like he was when he was running through the forest), but as "A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful" man. He does not have any friendly interactions with people and he always seems to be suspicious that the evil of the devil is present among the townspeople. Overall, he has changed from a normal, friendly moral Christian to a Christian who is extreme in his beliefs about the presence of evil among everyday townspeople (he became a "demoniac" in between). He is a Christian throughout the story, but his Christian morality demonstrated through his kindness fades away at the end. Through this, Hawthorne is likely trying to say that Christianity can cause immorality in a person as well as morality. This trend is also seen in the contrasting views Hawthorne has of the townspeople. They are revealed to be sinful at the evil congregation in the forest, but Hawthorne describes many of them, especially Goody Cloyse, as good Christians throughout the story. (Hawthorne uses verbal and situational irony when he continues to describe the townspeople as good Christians even when they are seen as members of the evil congregation).