In the short story Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, symbolism plays a vital role in the audience's interpretation of the events of the story. In a work that is seemingly never what it seems, drawing on these symbols for clarity helps provide audiences with additional depth to Goodman Brown's perceived deception. One night, while going on an errand in the forest, Goodman Brown encounters the devil disguised as a man, which is the beginning of his demonic encounters. The meeting symbolizes the beginning of his descent into losing the faith of those around him and even his own religious beliefs. He goes through the dark and chilling forest only to end up alone in the middle of it, which represents his journey through life after his revelation about the people in his community that night. His new beliefs cause a projection of his inner evil feelings onto his new wife's faith. A woman he once adored and had complete trust in just like his name, now becomes very distant and hardly recognizes. Its distance is due...