Question: Young Goodman Brown Guiding question: How does Hawthorne use allegorical symbols and other figurative devices to teach a lesson in Young Goodman Brown? Three-Part Oration Three part/paragraph oration: In the Exordium establish your Ethos on the subject, then develop one logic body paragraph based on this quote, and develop your argument. Finally, you will need to rephrase your main ideas in your exordium and offer a call to action in your Peroration(conclusion). Allegorical choices: Faith Young Goodman Brown

Hawthorne uses both young Goodman Brown and his wife, Faith, as allegorical symbols in this story.  Goodman Brown has a fairly generic surname—Brown—and his title, Goodman, is a very common one in Brown's Puritan community, referring to a man of a lower social rank than Mister.  Taken literally, however, we are left to wonder if Brown is really a "good man": he is a Christian, but is he truly one of the faithful?  He, then, is symbolic of a sort of "everyman" Christian character.
His wife, Faith, symbolizes Goodman Brown's Christian faith.  Though Goodman Brown claims to be devout, he quite literally leaves his faith/Faith behind when he goes into the woods on his "evil purpose."  He thinks to himself, "after this one night, I"ll cling to [Faith's] skirts and follow her to Heaven."  In other words, he vows to be good from now on, and he will resume his faithful/Faithful life after this one night.  Moreover, the idea that he will ride Faith's skirts to Heaven makes it clear that Brown does not realize that this should be work, a belief in God necessitates that he try to live a good life and do good works.  He thinks his faith alone will be enough to get him into Heaven.
However, this is not really how faith works.  A Christian cannot simply pick up his faith and put it down again when it suits him.  Either one is faithful and does his/her best at all times to abide by God's laws, or one does not.  In choosing to leave his faith (and Faith) behind, Goodman Brown makes himself even more vulnerable to the Devil's temptations.  The fact that he sees his wife, Faith, at the witches' Sabbath indicates that faith itself is lost to him.  He will no longer be able to look at his wife or consider his faith in the same way again.
Then, when Brown returns home the next day, we cannot be sure whether what he saw in the woods really happened or not.  Perhaps he had "fallen asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting"? Despite the uncertainty, Brown becomes a "stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man."  He can no longer listen to the psalms sung by his congregation because "an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear, and drowned all the blessed strain."  Further, he "shrank from the bosom of Faith" and no longer took any comfort in his wife; symbolically, his faith is no longer a comfort to him because he has lost it.