The Consequences of Puritan Depravity and Distrustas Historical Context for Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"

by Michael E. McCabe

Puritan doctrine taught that all men are totally depraved and require constant self-examination to see

that they are sinners and unworthy of God's Grace. Because man had broken the Covenant of Works

when Adam had eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, God offered a new covenant toAbraham's people

which held that election to Heaven was merely a possibility. In the Puritan religion, believers dutifullyrecognized the negative aspects of their humanity rather than the gifts they possessed. This shadow ofdistrust would have a direct influence on early American NewEngland and on many of its historians

and writers, one of which wasNathaniel Hawthorne.

The influence of Puritan religiorq culture and education along with the setting of his hometown ofSalem, Massachusetts, is a common topic in Nathaniel Hawthorne's works. In particular, Hawthorne's

"Young Goodman Brown" allows the writer to examine and perhaps provide commentary on not onlythe Salem of his own time but also the Salem of his ancestors. Growing up Hawthorne could notescape the influence of Puritan society, not only from residing with his father's devout Puritan family as

a child but also due to Hawthorne's study of his own family history. The first of his ancestors, MlliamHathorne, is described in Hawthorne's "The Custom House" as arriving with the Massachusetts BayColony in 1630 "with his Bible and his sword" (26). Afurther connection can also be seen in his morenotable ancestor John Hathorne, who exemplified the level of zealousness in Puritanism with his role as

persecutor in the Salem Witch Trials. The study of his own family from the establishment of the BayColony to the Second Great Awakening of his own time parallels the issues brought forth ia "YoungGoodrnan Brown." In looking into the history of Salem and especially early Puritan society Hawthorneis able to discuss the merits and consequences of such zeal, especially the zeal ofthe HalflWayCovenant of 1662, the Puritan Catechism of John Cotto& and the repercussions of The Salem Witchtrials. Hawthorne sets "Young Goodman Brown" into a context of Puritan rigidity and self-doubt toallow his contemporary readers to see the consequences of such a system of belief.

Hawthorne's tale places the newly wed Puritan Brown upon the road to what may or may not be a trueconversion experience. The conversion experience - a sudden realization brought about by divineintervention, a vision, or perhaps a dream - easily translates into the dream allegory ofHawthorne'swork and allows the author to use Puritan doctrine and the history of Salem to argue the merits andconsequences of such a belief Major issues and themes of Puritanism must have been researched and

delicately placed into Hawthorne's discussion of not only past consequences ofPuritan zeal but also onthe contemporary religious issue of his own time, the Second GreatAwakening. Much like thenighttime witches Sabbath that awaits Goodman Browrq the tent revivals of the 1820's and 1830's

could be seen by the questioning Hawthorne as another attempt by the church to sway its membershiptowards total obedience and faith. The importance placed on this event by Goodman Brown shows theimportance placed on the conversion experience itself It can be argued that the Half-Way Covenant -itself a means by which Puritanism attempted to hold onto its congregation - as an antagonist cast

further doubt onto the later generations of Puritan society.

As the second generation ofPuritans were born in America they lacked the zealousness of the first.Waning membership within the congregation made what would come to be known as the Half-WayCovenant an attempt by the church to solve this problem. The Covenant allowed the children of churchmembers to be baptized and become part of the congregation, thus bolstering membership. But inorderto be a fulI member and rec.eive communion the conversion experience was $ill necessary. Muchlike the'Journey'' in which Brown placed so much significance, the fact that further doubt was now

placed upon new members ofthe church would cause later problems in Puritan society and Salem

itself.

In a further attempt to deal with lack of zeal within the church, church hierarchy controlled not only thecongregation's culture and laws, but also its education. In order to stress the consequences of such an

education - one that would teach a child that man was not only suspect but also guilty ofdepravity -Hawthorne would have most likely relied on Puritan educational history as a setting for the newlymarried Brown's self-examination. In the setting of the tale, Brown would fall under the Half-WayCovenant, and his education under Goody Cloyse in part fosters the need within Brown to enter theforest at night and seek the true conversion experience that would allow him full membership. AsBenjamin Franklin V states in "Goodman Brown and the Puritan Catechisnr," Hawthorne used John

Cotton's.l.filkfor Babes as the education source of Goodman Brown. It was the Puritan belief that man

must be instructed to realize his own depravity, and therefore at childhood the education began. Inorder to understand Brown's own background as it pertains to his duty as a Puritarq Franklin returns toCotton's original Catechism:

What hah GOD doneforyou?God hath made me, He keqeth me, and he can sarre me.

WhoisMGod is a Spirit of himsel{ and for himself.How mmy Ms be tlwre?There is but one God ia three Persons, the Fatheq the Soq and theHoly Ghost.

Q: How did M makc you?A: In my frst Parents holy and rigtrteous.

Q: Are ym then born holy wd righteoas?A: Nq my first Father sinned, and I in him.Q: Are yoa then barn a Sinner?A: I was conceived in sirq and born in iniquiryQ: What is your Birth-sin?A: Adams sin imputed to me, and a comrpt nature dwelling in me.

Q: W'hat is yo*r comtpt nature?A: My comrpt nature is empty of Grace, bent unto sin, and onely unto sirq

and that continually.Q: Wat is sin?A: Sin is the transgression of the Law [the Ten Commandments]. (70)

If the conversion experience is the ultimate sign of faith and election, this catechism of mistrust anddoubt would only make the possibility of such an experience doubtful as well. Can a child thatbelieves tobe "corrupt" and*'bdnt unto Sin" tnrly believe that *God will save me" (70)? Ilawthorne'sBrown is an example of how difficult it must have been to believe this. As Robert C. Grayson explainsio "Curdled Mlk for Babes: The Role of the Catechism iu Young Goodman Brown" children werechatechized in such a way that religious zeal could cloud realrty. Grayson states that

John Cotton's CatechismMilkfor Babes, by its emphasis ontotal depravity, soured the milkof human kindness. Consequently persons instructed in the catechism from their youthcould consider a person of good works and character to be a witch merely on the basis ofspectral evidence in spite of the witch's quite orthodox relationto the community'sapproved doctrinal authority. (1)

Q:A:Q:A:Q:A:

While changes to the Catechism would have occurred from the l7th to Hawthorne's own lfth centurythe idea that his father's family had wished a proper Pudtan education for Hawthorne is an importantissue. To accept as a child that you have in no way sinned but are completely sinful by nature is butone way in which "Young Goodman Brown" speaks out against Puritanism. As Young Goodman

Brown witnesses the exchange between the "devil" - in the guise of Brown's own father - and GoodyCloyse he can not accept that such a good Puritan is in fact in league with the devil. His remark that*That old woman taught me my catechism" creates a further shadow of doubt upon the young Puritanand is noted by Hawthorne that'lhere was a world of meaning in this simple commont" {2132).

Tension within the congregations concerning the conversion experience would grow in the late 17thcentury and the culmination of this tension would be the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Once again adeep knowledge of the historical background of Salem would allow Hawthorne to reconsider thequestion posed to the Salem congregation in the late 1600's - what counts as a true conversionexperience and what could be seen as evidence. If the experience could be a dream or a vision, whatwould facilitate it? Just as the Protestants of his own time sought to regain enthusiasm through theunorthodox tent revivals of the Second Great Awakening, Hawthorne creates the possible dreamjourney of Brown deep into the forest to the Witches Sabbath. Spectral evidence * such as the devilchanging into the shape of Brown's deceased father - to the nighttime bonfires and finally to thedramatic invitation of the devil for Brown to enter into communion all are offered as part of a possibleconversion experience. Hawthorne shows that the consequence for the mistrust and selldoubt that isinherent in Puritan education and doctrine does not create faith and peaffi. It creates only furtherconfusion. Just like the msn who condemned and executed the alleged witches of Salem, the confusedand searching Goodman Brown is unable to see whether his experience is real or a dream.

Hawthorne's claim is that this confusion is the only possible result ofPuritan doctrine. To mistrustyourself, your neighbor, your teacher, and your very mind can not create faith. After his experience inthe woods the aged and bitter Goodman Brown may be an example ofthe hardened persecutors ofSalem. Left with no evidence and a seyere mistrust of oneself and others, any evidence may be used.Hearsay, as when Brown "could have sworn . . . that he recognized the voices of the minister andDeacon Gookirq" or spectral evidence such as when the devils serpentine staff "perhaps . . . assumedlife." But such testimony is not even valid due to the fact that Brown "could not take cognizance. Hehad cast up his eyes in astonishment, and looking down again beheld neither Goody Cloyse nor theserpentine staff' Ql32). And while Brown would live the rest of his days miserable, at least hiscondemnation of these people was kept to himself, unlike the congregation of Salem during the Trials.Cotton Mather himself preached a sernon in 1689 that furthered this mistrust and acceptance of non-evidence. His sermon told of how the supposed witches "do make craftily of theAir, the Figures andColors of things that can never be truly crafted by them" (97). Mather also deals with the lack ofevidence of witchcraft by simply stating that people who do not believe in witches are of "small wit"and the excuse "that they never saw any Witches, therefore there are none" is dismissible (97). Thestatement that Hawthorne creates for "Young Goodman Brown" is that in a distrustful and depravedsociety personal evidence such as a dream or vision grows into allegations and belief. The distrustfulsociety that Puritans created themselves for a prosperous congregation would only return to harm them.

By showing the failures of Puritan society in dealing with the problem of church membership andspecifically the conversion experience, Hawthorne spoke to his own time about the possibleconsequences of the Second Great Awakening. Such specific historical evidence is used to question thevalidity of Puritan doctrine. For example, the "devil" in Young Goodman Brown is seen by manycritics not only as an apparition of Goodman Brown's due to his lack of a conversion experience andthe psychological effects of catechism but also may be seen as the Evangelist at a revival meeting.Both taught of the evil that lurked in man's soul and the self-examination that was required to see it.

Frank Shuffelton's work "Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Revival Movement" states that:

To accept one's almost solipsistic isolation from humanity . . . . Goodman Brown turns his

back on Salem village in order to venture into dark nature and his darker self . . . rejea(ing)the society which has nurtured him from the self-willed terrors of the imagination Thisperception is for Hawthorne the central truth of the story and it is simultaneously the o1d

error toward which Puritanism tended and the mistake of the contemporary revivalists.(3le)

As a Puritan Young Goodman Brown sought a true conversion experience. Whether or not the meetingin the woods existed as reality or a dream does not matter. The point is that Puritanism required theirfollowers to doubt themselves and their community so much that a reality in which one could achieveGrace did not exist. It taught that one could not trust anyone. In the Witch Trials men turned on theiraccused wives just as Goodman Brown himself has lost both his spiritual faith and his wife Faithbecause of something that may not have happened at all.

Hawthorne's knowledge of the historical background ofPuritanism combined with the personal

experience of his early life and the history of his own family merge into the statement that "YoungGoodman Brown" makes. A system in which individuals can not trust themselves, their neighbors,their instructors or even their ministers can not create an atmosphere where faith exists. Hawthornemay be going even further than this, to show that Goodman Brown's experience, the alleged Witches ofSalenU and the tent revivals of his own time are the direct result ofPuritan doctrine. By placing so

much importance on the conversion experience and evidence for election to heaven while grantingneither the self-trust nor the self-worth to its congregatiorq Puritanism can only be seen as an unendingcycle of misery in which man is the most depraved and most unworthy * exactly what the good Puritanshould see themself as.

Works Cited

Franklia Benjamin V. "Goodman Brown and the Puritan Catechism." ESO 40 (Fir$t Quarter 1994):67-88.

Grayso4 Robert C. "Curdled Milk for Babes: The Role of the Catwhism in 'Young GoodmanBrovrn."' Ihe Natluniel Hawthorne Review 16 (Spring 1990): 1-5.

Hawthorne, Nathaaiel. 'Young Goodman Brown.' 1835. The Heath Antholog,t of American Literature.Ed. Paul Lauter et al. 2nd d. Vol. 1. Lexington: Heat[ 1944.2129-38.

Levin, David. What happened in Solem? Znd ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World [nc,1967.

Mather, Cotton. "ADiscourse onWitchcraft," Levin 96-105:

Murfin, Ross C. *Introduction: The Biographical and Historical Background." Case Studies inContemporary Criticism: Nothsniel Hcwthorne, "The Scwlet Lettu" Boston: St. Martin's Press,1991. 3-18.

Shuffelto4 Frank. "Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Revival Movement." The American Tronscendental

Quarterly 44(Fall 1979): 311-321.