In the book Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Goodman Brown
wife's name is important to the story because Goodman Brown loses his faith
but his wife Faith keeps her faith.
The story takes place in a puritan town
in Salem back when there believed to be witches. Goodman Browns grandfather
and relatives took part in killing and beating the witches in town. The
story starts out on a cold night on a special day of the year.
That night Goodman Brown took a trip into the forest and told his wife
Faith that he had to do business. Faith did not want Goodman Brown to leave
but he had to leave and left here there sad.
As Goodman Brown left he
thought to himself, "Well; she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this
one night, I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven." (Pg. 134)
This is where he begins to second-guess himself about going on this trip.But he carries on and gets to the meeting place where the devil comes out
and asks Goodman Brown what took him so long to get there and he replies
"Faith kept me back awhile.
" (p.g134) This quote is important because
Goodman Brown is stating that he was thinking about his faith and whether
he should go against his faith or keep his faith and decides to go against
his faith. Goodman Brown loses his faith when in the forest on his way to
the black mass. Goodman Brown hears the voice of his wife faith crying and
screaming through the forest. And all of a sudden "something came fluttered
lightly down though the air, and caught on the branch of a tree.
The young
man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon." (Pg. 140) This is the part in the
story where Goodman Brown has lost his faith because the pink ribbons
represent his faith. When Goodman Brown returns to the town he now longer
has any faith therefore he doesn't trust anyone and ends up living a
miserable life.
In the story the name for Goodman Brown's wife suits her well because she
never losses her Faith and shows the true meaning of the word. "And Faith,
as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street,
letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap, while she called to
Goodman Brown." (Pg. 133) In the story Faith strays into the woods but when
she is asked to join the devil she doesn't and goes back home. And when she
gets back home she once again has the pink ribbons in her hair like she did
in the beginning of the story.
She still goes to church and is happy and
merry like she was at the beginning of the story.
What does is mean to lose your faith? In the dictionary the word faith
mean, a confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a
person, idea, or thing. So that means that if you lose your faith you lose
your whole belief system and all you trust in everyone. In life you need
faith in order to be happy because faith helps you decide whether something
you are doing is wrong or right. If you did not have faith you would not
live a happy life because you would have no one to talk to because you
would have trust no one and you would end up being unhappy like Goodman
Brown and dying without anything on your grave.
In order to live a happy life you need faith because you need something to
believe in.
But unlike Goodman Brown he lost and his faith and his wife
Faith kept her faith and lived a happy life.
