Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hawthorne’s Puritanism and his black vision of man:
　　1. Puritanism—it is the religious belief of the Puritans, who had intended to purify and simplify the religious ritual of the church of England.
　　2. his black vision of man—by the Calvinistic concept of original sin, he believed that human being are evil natured and sinful, and this sin is ever present in human heart and will pass one generation to another.
　　3. Young Goodman Brown—it shows that everyone has some evil secrets. The innocent and naive Brown is confronted with the vision of human evil in one terrible night, and then he becomes distrustful and doubtful. Brown stands for everyone ,who is born pure and has no contact with the real world ,and the prominent people of the village and church. They cover their secrets during daily lives, and under some circumstances such as the witch’s Sabbath, they become what they are. Even his closed wife, Faith, is no exception. So Brown is aged in that night.