If we examine the end of
this excellent story, we can see that Goodman Brown's values and ideas about life have undergone
a massive shift. Gone is the carefree and loving young man who was entranced by his wife.
Instead, his experiences in the woods and what he saw, suggesting truth of universal sin
corrupting even the most saintly of individuals, has made him distrustful of life in general.
Consider the following description we are given of how he changes:
A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he
become from the night of that fearful dream.
Note the
complete change suggested by the list of negative adjectives that is used to suggest what a dark
character he becomes. His values are clearly indicated by his inability to listen to the
minister preach and also the way that he even shrinks "from the bosom of Faith," his
wife, who of course acts allegorically in this tale. He has become far more pessimistic and
distrusting.
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