Like his great novel, "The Scarlet Letter," Hawthorne uses "Young Goodman Brown" to illustrate the hypocrisy of the Puritans. This likely stems from the guilt he felt over having an ancestor who served as a judge for the Salem witch trials.
Notice as Brown enters into the wilderness how all of the people he once thought pure and dear to him, Goody Cloyse, Deacon Gookin, and the minister, as well as his own father and grandfather, seem to have an evil and dark side to them. Yet, back in Salem, these same people are the most pious and righteous. Notice too how the devil is able to bring all of the people, regardless of race, social standing, religious beliefs, and past reputations, in the area together at the dark mass, where they are welcomed to the communion of their race. The point is clear, the Puritans used religion as a means to segregate their society. Only through the human propensity for sin can the devil bring them all together without fighting or bickering or ridiculing one another. At the black mass the devil urges them to look upon each other and know they are equals in their sin. Everyone is guilty. Throughout his story, Hawthorne illustrates the hypocrisy evident in the Puritan society that was responsible for the Salem witch trials.
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