Question

1. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne reveals what he sees as the corruptibility that results from Puritan society’s emphasis on public morality, which often weakens private religious faith. Although Goodman Brown has decided to come into the forest and meet with the devil, he still hides when he sees Goody Cloyse and hears the minister and Deacon Gookin. He seems more concerned with how his faith appears to other people than with the fact that he has decided to meet with the devil. Write an essay in which you discuss the theme of inherent corruptibility* and the weakness of public morality*. Use adequate and sufficient details from the story.

Answer 1

Answer:

INHERENT CORRUPTIBILITY AND THE WEAKNESS OF PUBLIC MORALITY

As humans, we are to some large extents corruptible which bears credence to the saying, "every man has a price". This price can be anything from money, power, women, the desire to do good, etc and which can be exploited fully by someone that wants to "find out your price".

Public morality has to do with how other people view your morality and such morality is quite actually the choice to do right or wrong.

Therefore, public morality has its weakness by making man to attempt to hide his inherent corruptibility without actually attempting to limit his corrupt nature.

The whole point of public morality is to dissuade people from making wrong choices and decisions as they would be tried and found guilty by the public.

We can see from the story that although Goodman Brown came to the forest to meet with the devil, he still hides when he sees Goody Cloyse and hears Deacon Gookin. This shows the weakness of public morality as Goodman Brown only hides so as not to face public morality but it does not really make him change his decision to meet with the devil.