The Theme of Hypocrisy in "Young Goodman Brown" In "Young Goodman Brown", the theme is hypocrisy. Hawthorne writes in detail how hypocrisy can change a person for the worse. In the first pages of the story you can see how hypocrisy is already beginning to change Goodman Brown for the worse. As he begins his run, Goodman Brown decides to walk as Hawthorne says: "A dreary road, obscured by all the darkest trees of the forest, which scarcely parted to let the narrow path pass and were closing. right behind." (141). The forest is an important symbol in this story. The forest symbolizes evil and it symbolizes evil because of the darkness of the forest. As Goodman Brown and his companion continue their journey through the dark forest, Goodman Brown begins to realize that this “run” he is doing is not ordinary Goodman Brown knows that he is doing something that is looked down upon by Puritan beliefs as he states the following: “My. father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs And shall I be the first of the name of Brown to have. never took this path and kept it (141) So basically what he's saying in this quote is that he knows what he's doing is wrong, but he doesn't care. . Goodman Brown struggles to convince that his family and the Puritans in general are not as righteous and pure as he thinks. The companion continually tries to convince Goodman Brown that his own family is not as "pure." as it seems. The traveler tells Goodman some stories of his own family doing dirty things, such as setting fire to an Indian village and whipping a Quaker woman. However, Goodman still doesn't believe anything the traveler says. Continuing the path, Brown and his companion come across Deacon Gookin and his Goody Cloyse and Goodman is surprised because he never thought that the good wife would be so far away in the forest so late at night. Seeing the good wife in the forest at that time of night, Goodman does not want to continue. As he sits on a stump, Goodman shouts, “My friend, my mind is made up. I don't want to move anymore in this race. What if a miserable old woman chose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven! Is there any reason why I should leave my dear Faith and pursue her? » (143) Basically, he abandons his race because he feels that what his companion told him was to eat at his house. In other words, hypocrisy begins to enter his soul and he tries to prevent it by stopping the trip. Another example of what Hawthorne says about hypocrisy in the story is the part where Goodman hears what the deacon is saying as he passes in the car. Goodman is surprised by the words he hears coming from the car. Brown is also amazed that the deacon has traveled this far into the dark and dreary forest. As Hawthorne says, “young Goodman Brown grabbed hold of a tree for support, ready to sink to the ground, fainting and overwhelmed by the heavy disease of his heart. He looked up at the sky, doubting whether there really was a sky above him. » (144) Deep down, Goodman cannot believe what he has just heard from the leaders of the Puritan religion; he is amazed that impurity resides in the most religious people of the Puritans. This makes him believe what his companion told him about purity. Seeing all this makes him say that if no one else wants to stay true to the Puritans' beliefs, not even the deacon himself, then he will be the one to do it. Furthermore, by witnessing all of this, Goodman finally understands that purity is not.