on than to-nightÆs meetingö (Hawthorne 4).
As he begins to discover more individuals he felt were pious and good taking part in the Satanic practices in the woods, Young Goodman Brown begins to become unhinged at the revelation that those who appeared pious and good on the surface are actually the vilest of sinners. This shock and breakdown reaches a peak when he recognizes his own beloved wife Faith. As this point Young Goodman BrownÆs faith is demolished and he accepts that there is no good and only evil in the world of human beings. As he exclaims, ôMy Faith is gone! There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil, for to thee is this world givenö (Hawthorne 5).
Though initially he had declared his intention of standing firm against the Devil, Young Goodman BrownÆs faith is so shattered that he now becomes one with the sinning crowd in the woods. We are told there is nothing so frightful in the woods as the image of Young Goodman Brown as He ôflew among the black pines, brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures, not giving vent to an inspiration of horrid blasphemy, and now shouting forth such laughter as set all the echoes of the forest laughing like demons around himö (Hawthorne 6). As the evil rituals that occur in the woods continue, Goodman Brown even believes he sees his father and mother beckoning to him. The Devil tells the crowd that those they see participating in the rituals were those ôYe deemed holier than yourselves, and shrank from your own sin, contrasting it with their lives of righteousness and prayerful aspirations heavenwardö (Hawthorne 7).
When the morning comes and Young Goodman Brown returns to the community, he can no longer believe in his wife, his faith, or in the good people he used to believe so pious. When holy psalms are sung on the Sabbath, he cannot hear them ôbecause an anthem of sin rushed loudly
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