Young Goodman Brown: A Critique of PuritanismGiven Nathaniel Hawthorne's background, it is not a stretch of the imagination to say that Young Goodman Brown is a criticism of puritanism. Hawthorne lived in the deeply scarred region of New England, separated from Puritanism by a single generation. His grandfather had been one of the judges who presided over the Salem witch trials. Some of the main motifs that run through Hawthorne's works are hidden sin, the supernatural, and the influence of evil. Ironically, Puritanism is also part of these narratives. What then is the moral/philosophical significance of young Goodman Brown? This suggests, in an allegorical sense, that Puritanism is a deceptive religion that creates a false reality; one that is not right to belong to. In an allegorical sense, we can say that faith is a representation of puritanism. When Goodman Brown abandons his “faith” to “hasten toward his present evil design (Guérin, 375),” we tend to consider his “faith” as virtuous, in the sense that it contrasts with his “evil design.” But let's look at it ...