This passage from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” illustrates the climax of the story, with the epiphany that Goodman Brown is the chief horror in a forest full of horrors. This passage features a play on words that symbolizes human nature with physical nature, which demonstrates human nature to be inherently evil. This passage uses literary devices to amplify the effect of the epiphany on the reader, and to tie this passage and its message to the overall story. The imagery in this scene is described in a way that amplifies the horrific conclusion to the passage. The imagery described includes “the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians; while, sometimes, the wind tolled like a distant church-bell” (611). This imagery is important because the final line of this…show more content… This staff was described near the beginning of the story as snake-like, which has obvious connotations of diabolism. The use of the figurative language of flying among the trees accompanied with the diabolic staff suggests the idea of a witch flying on her broom. The staff is a symbolic representation of the devil’s influence. Faith, Brown’s wife, and the loss of her in the woods is also symbolic. Faith symbolizes Brown’s faith, either in God or in the inherent goodness of humanity. It is the loss of Faith, his wife, that sends Brown spiraling into the depths of the forest, but this can also be read as the figurative loss of his faith in humanity that leads him into the “heart of the dark wilderness” (611). Which leads into the dark heart of the forest as another symbol. This physically represents the innermost part of the forest, but figuratively, it could be referring to the darkest and most diabolic part of human nature, another play on words considering wilderness is another term for
