A Formal Analysis of Young Goodman Brown "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an interesting short story that creatively tells two stories at once. One story is about a man leaving his wife one night and venturing into the woods, and the other is about his struggle with his religious faith. When reading this story, it is beneficial to view it from a formalist perspective. Formal analysis leads the reader to closely examine the way a story is written to understand its deeper meaning. Hawthorne takes advantage of careful choice of words and images to create a picture of one man's journey that can easily parallel our own. The choice of words in each story plays a key role in understanding the story. In “Young Goodman Brown,” almost every word contains a special meaning. The title which Hawthorne gives to his story is simple and instructive; this immediately tells the reader that the center of the story is a young man. The use of the name Brown is also significant. The name is universal and can therefore be identified by everyone (discussion in Rhetoric 102L class, January 15, 2001). The fact that his title is Goodman, instead of Mister, suggests that this occurred during the colonial era. His wife's name, Faith, is a clue contained in the first paragraph of the text that gives the reader an idea of ​​what the story is about. Although in the story Goodman Brown utters phrases such as "Faith held me for a while", which at first glance seem to be talking about his wife; however, just beneath the surface, he talks about how his faith in God kept him from heading toward the Devil. (HCAL 376). Caref...... middle of paper ...... odman Brown va is also significant. The Puritans believed that witches and even the devil lived in the woods, which may be a clue to what Goodman Brown will find in the forest. “Young Goodman Brown” is full of carefully chosen words. Every place, item, and name described is important to the story. The word faith has two functions, a name and a belief. Images such as the pink ribbons and the staff are useful beyond their daily function. Hawthorne knows the power of words and chooses wisely, creating a story that, when looked beyond the surface, has a completely new meaning.- (Guerin, Wilfered; Labor, Earle; Morgan, Lee; Reesman, Jeanne; Willingham, John, A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, New York, Oxford University Press, 1999.)