Modern Americans are not alike their predecessors, the Puritans, who came here some four hundred years ago. The ecclesiastical identity of the Puritans put emphasis on the importance of community, family, and religious hierarchy. These values ruled American ideals until the early nineteenth century when the influence of the British Romantic movement traveled over the Atlantic to American shores. Romanticism took hold in a time when people were looking West to untamed wilderness and a new way of life, starting this shift in American identity. People no longer valued community the way they used to and some were more than willing to uproot their lives and families. This new way of thinking differed slightly from the European version, with embracement of democracy as well as stressing the importance of nature, emotion, and the individual. American authors ushered in this era of rebellion against religious tradition, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote the classical novel The Scarlet Letter and the short story Young Goodman Brown. The latter tells the story of Young Goodman Brown, a Puritan who is seemingly tempted by the devil. It is thought to be an allegory of the fall of man, with Brown being compared to Eve in the Book of Genesis. Although it does function in this sense, it can be argued that the short story is also meant to symbolize this radical time in American literary history. Young Goodman Brown physically, metaphorically, and emotionally highlights the transition of the American identity from being characterized as ecclesiastical to Romantic.

Physically, from the very beginning of the story, we see the title character, Young Goodman Brown, move from the Puritan New England village of Salem, Massachusetts to the wild and savage wilderness. Hawthorne tells us that Brown “had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overheard; so that, with lonely footsteps, he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude”. The description of the natural landscape is characteristic of the Romantic movement, which is even further accentuated by the gothic and gloomy details of the forest, packing emotion into the narrative. This scene can be symbolic of the American West, as it literally depicts the American wilderness, one filled with unknown danger but also unknown promise. Most importantly, Brown physically walks from a place of value and community, meaning the ecclesiastical identity, to this new and treacherous terrain, calling attention to this drastic change. Hawthorne is making it clear that Americans are moving toward a new national identity.

In the forest, Brown finds the intermingling of commoners with the clergical elite, acting as a metaphor for the embracement of democracy. In this scene, as told by Hawthorne, “these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes. It was strange to see that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints.” All of the townspeople, regardless of social and religious statuses, are conversing with one another, glad to be a part of the impending ceremony. This gathering sharply contrasts the high moral and religious conviction of the Puritans, their society based on these values. Status was incredibly crucial and depended on a strong standing in the church and a mighty, moral reputation. In the forest, in this new, emotion filled landscape, this status is not only frivolous, but completely irrelevant. It is away from Salem, in the heart of the forest, within this new age of Romanticism, that the dissolution of religious hierarchy into a more democratic community, one where there is more equality between individuals, occurs. Again, there is this shift where ecclesiastical ideals are rejected and the Romantic identity is being adopted.

Lastly, the emotional internal conflict Brown has between good and evil not only drives the plot of the story, but is also characteristic of Romantic tales. The emotional plot climaxes when Hawthorne explains that “[i]n truth, all through the haunted forest, there could be nothing more frightful than the figure of Goodman Brown. On he flew, among the black pines, brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures, now giving vent to an inspiration of horrid blasphemy, and now shouting forth such laughter, as set all the echoes of the forest laughing like demons around him.” After giving into temptation, Brown lets his developing madness take him further away from Salem. His emotional and psychological torment makes him question his surroundings, which is an indicative literary strategy of Romantics like Nathaniel Hawthorne. This amount of emotion and ability to wonder differs from the ecclesiastical mindset, which stresses structure and containment.

At the end of the story, Brown has changed. Whether the witch meeting in the forest actually occurred or whether it was all a dream is up in the air (apparently, so is Faith). But it is clear that Young Goodman Brown has gone down a road of self-discovery, one where he was tormented by his exacerbated emotions, one that is far away from the town and values he has always known. He comes back beside himself, watching the citizens of Salem go about their business under a seemingly false identity. By Brown seeing the hypocrisy in the townspeople, Hawthorne is pointing to the drastic difference between Ecclesiastical values, those that embodied the original American identity, and Romantic values, those that embody the new national identity. Ecclesiastical values were not completely erased, with a mighty, moral reputation still admired in society today, but they have been transformed, making manifest destiny socially acceptable. The American people are no longer confined to their cottages, but are rather able to go into the savage wilds, risking the possibility of being tempted by the devil, of course. Go West, young man!