“Young Goodman Brown” – the themeClarice Swisher in “Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography” states: “When Hawthorne called his stories 'romances,' he meant that they belonged to the romantic movement which. . . . emphasize imagination and personal freedom” (18). The purpose of this essay is to interpret the theme of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and determine where this "personal freedom" leads. Edmund Fuller and B. Jo Kinnick in "Stories Derived from New England Living" state: "'Young Goodman Brown uses the context of witchcraft to explore the uncertainties of belief that trouble a man's heart and mind' ( 31). It is on this night of the year when the witches gather their assembly deep in the woods that the young plowman, Goodman Brown, takes leave of his wife, Faith: “YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN went out at sunset, into the street in the village of Salem, but he put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a goodbye kiss with his young wife. The reader receives a premonition of the impending evil intrigue with Faith's statement about her disturbing and disturbing dreams: "Dearest heart," she whispered softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, "I Please postpone your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed tonight. A lonely woman is troubled by such dreams and thoughts that she is sometimes afraid of herself. Pray, stay with me this night, dear husband, of all the nights of the year! "As for the theme, the clues multiply when Goodman, having left his wife Faith alone and melancholy, enters the woods and meets a sinister guy with whom he has previously made an appointment for this particular evening: As much as we can discern, the second traveler He had the indescribable air of someone who knew the world and who would not have felt embarrassed at the governor's dinner table or at the court of King William. it was possible that his business called him there, but the only thing about him that could be considered remarkable was his staff, which looked like a large black snake, so curiously worked, that one could almost see it writhing and twisting. squirming like a living snake This, of course, must have been an eye trick, aided by the uncertain light. The evil nature of this individual is made manifest, and thus evil enters the story in a significant way...