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Evil in Young Goodman Brown Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, presents to us a young Puritan named Goodman Brown, who experiences the influences of evil in a journey through the woods. Evil is personified into a man who accompanies Goodman along the woods. Filled with symbolism and ambiguity Hawthorne accounts how an essentially good person can be susceptible to the forces of evil. However Goodman's loss of innocence can also be interpreted as a loss of …

…disillusioned by Puritan society and the individuals in it. Goodman Brown eventually discovers the ills of the society which he is a part of. He lives miserably the rest of his life as the evil which engulfed his Puritan companions now takes control of how he views life around him. His attitude after the walk through the woods demonstrates Brown's fall from innocence into the cold harsh reality of the society which he lives in.