When I was in high school I read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gable. As in both of those novels, the Puritan religions plays a crucial role.
Young Goodman Brown’s wife Faith did not want him to leave her at home alone that night. She was frightened of something, though could not say of what. He left her anyway for some “important business.”
“Poor little Faith!” thought he, for his heart smote him. “What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand! She talks of dreams, too. Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight. But no, no; ‘t would kill her to think it.”
He meets up with a strange man and together they proceed to walk through the forest on their “devil’s errand”. As they get near to their destination, they meet up with other’s from the town, including Goodman Browns wife, Faith.
What Brown witnessed at this meeting is really hard to say, except that it’s was a statement on Puritan religion and sin. It was written as a dream like sequence and Brown isn’t sure himself, if it was real or a dream.
I think Hawthorne, in all of his literature that I have read is trying to say that nothing is cut and dried and to be judged too harshly. Those who practiced the puritan religion, like other organized religions judge others harshly. Is it sin to believe in something different? You can read the story here.
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