At the very moment these warm thoughts are reinforcing his decision to
return to Salem, he overhears a conversation between the
aforementioned men, wherein they give testimony to their wicked connection with
the devil. Once again,
Hawthorne heaves evidence toward an interpretation onto the back
of the reader; only to force him or her to forever carry
that baggage by never allowing them to use it. In the end, young Goodman Brown’s
journey changes him into “a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful,
if not a desperate man….”
(Hawthorne/p.945). It was a journey into the ambiguous realm of good and evil; moreover, it
was a journey into the heart of humankind, wherein the
ambiguity of good and evil was explored.