Goodman Brown leaves his wife, Faith, and Salem village in the daytime to keep his appointment with the devil, and he ventures into the forest without his "faith." This is a moment of irrationality because he leaves his wife, home, and security to take a dangerous and unknown path. He doesn't want Faith to find out the evil intention of his errand because he says, "she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven"(Hawthorne 311). Brown believes that he can depend on his wife's "faith" to save him, so it won't matter if he leaves his own at home because it will be waiting for him. Brown meets the devil along a crooked path, and the devil asks why he is late; Brown replies, "Faith kept me back awhile"(311). The "faith" Brown has left behind is not just his wife, but also his literal faith to satisfy his burning human curiosity. Brown shows his desire to break loose from his normal life by meeting Satan, the spawn of all rebellion, in the forest. Brown tries to fight the evil inside of him to tell the devil he must go back to his faith, and the devil convinces him that they will walk the crooked path and reason as they go. The devil says, "and if I convince thee not thou shalt turn back. We are but little in the forest yet"(312). As they venture further into the forest the devil tries to strip Brown of his faith, but he realizes this and stops to exclaim, "Too far! Too far!"(312). Brown argues the good Christian background of his father and grandfather would never walk upon this crooked path with the devil by their side. The path that Brown is on causes him to gamble with his soul under the promptings of the devil, and he knows he must choose to either roll the dice or turn around and go home. The devil is prepared for such resistance and refutes Brown's declaration of his ancestors by saying, "They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. I would fain be friends with you for their sake"(312). The devil is telling Brown that all men have a basic evil and an attraction to devil worship, even the so- called "virtuous" people he knows. Brown makes the choice to follow his virtuous thoughts and stop his agreement with the devil. He tells the devil the reason he can't is because of faith "[i]t would break her dear little heart and I'd rather break my own"(313). Brown will literally break his faith if he continues on the path of understanding the evils of the human condition. The devil tries to make him see that evil is the apparent nature of his kin and human kind as a whole. Brown doesn't see clearly because without "faith" all human kind is blind to acts of evil.

Brown stops running once he spies an open field "hemmed in by the dark wall of the forest, arose a rock, bearing some rude, natural resemblance either to an altar or a pulpit, and surrounded by four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems u

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2009
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)