Deceitful above All Things: Condemnation of Human Nature in “Young Goodman Brown” and "The Mysterious Stranger"

The works of both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mark Twain critique the moral conventions of not only historical societies, but that of their contemporaries. Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” and Twain’s unfinished novella “The Mysterious Stranger,” for example, make grim judgments on innate characteristics of human nature. Although their individual aspects differ, both works demonstrate humanity as naturally depraved, hereditarily corrupted, and without any hope of breaking this futile cycle of sin and hypocrisy. Despite the differences between the works, therefore, they communicate a common message about the status of human “civilization” throughout history. 

In “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Mysterious Stranger,” an ignorant young human comes into contact with a devil-figure and experience supernatural incidents. The protagonists are naïve in their preconceptions of humanity’s moral and social uprightness, while the devil-figures show the protagonists the diabolic character traits in human nature. Through interactions with these supernatural entities, both Hawthorne and Twain illustrate how humanity is so corrupt, even the devil himself “in his own shape is less hideous, than when he rages in the breast of man.”

Aside from similar characters, there are three main points that both Hawthorne and Twain make in these stories. The first point is that humanity’s nature is inherently corrupt. The second point is that human nature is hereditary, and its corrupting effects inescapable. And thirdly, that despite this natural corruption, civilized society attempts to hide this through hypocritical pretenses to virtue. All of these factors appear in both “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Mysterious Stranger,” and each one illustrates an individual detail of human nature.

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“Young Goodman Brown” is about one man’s revelation that, along with all the other individuals he has known and trusted throughout his life, he is prone more to evil than righteousness. The titular character is a young New Englander who leaves his new wife, Faith, to journey into the wilderness around Salem. That this journey is an ominous one is soon apparent, but the specific purpose is not disclosed to the reader—the ambiguity only lends to the feeling of unease. Brown himself is young, naïve, conscientious about the moral expectations of his betters and peers, and ultimately unprepared for the trial he endures in the forest, nor the things he discovers about the truth of human nature.  

Guided by a traveler—who is later recognized as the devil—Brown realizes that those he looked up to as moral mentors—his family, church congregation, community, and even his wife—are hypocritical blasphemers and devil-worshipers. With this discovery he abandons all pretenses of piety, joining them in a satanic communion where Brown kneels before the unholy altar to join the rest of humanity, only to resist succumbing at the last moment. 

Awakening in a forest, Brown returns to Salem, his Faith and his community. It is never learned whether the ordeal in the forest was real, or whether he had dreamed it. Nevertheless, this disillusioning experience alters his perception of human nature for the rest of his life.

 

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Although written much later than “Young Goodman Brown,” Twain’s “The Mysterious Stranger” is thematically very similar, illustrating the inherent wickedness of human nature. The narrative begins in 1590 and centers around three Austrian boys who befriend a stranger in the mountains who claims to be an angel. Not only that, but this mysterious stranger is allegedly the nephew of the devil, and is named “Satan” after him.

           

The protagonist of the tale, Theodor, is simultaneously repulsed and drawn to Satan’s unearthly presence. Satan views humans as inferior not only to himself, but to earthly animals, particularly because humanity possesses “Moral Sense.” Moral Sense, Satan argues, is what inclines humans to delude themselves into thinking they are righteous while they are really the wickedest of creatures.

 

Because of Satan’s supernatural abilities, Theodor is able to experience a series of unnatural things, including altering the future and choosing who will live or die. Through these experiences Theodor comes to the realization that humanity’s very moral center is depraved. Humans have Moral Sense which gives them the knowledge between right and wrong, but Satan points out that when a human being is given the choice between the two, “nine cases out of ten he prefers the wrong.”

The next characteristic of human nature illustrated in these works is that it is hereditary. This is evidenced in “Young Goodman Brown” by the idea that both Brown’s father and his grandfather made similar journeys into the forest with the devil-traveler. Brown discovers this when he attempts to rebuff the old traveler’s invitation into the forest by saying that “shall I be the first of the name of Brown, that ever took this path.” The traveler responds that, on the contrary, Brown’s father and grandfather “were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. I would fain be friends with you, for their sake.” The very fact that Brown must go into the woods implies that this journey is a rite of passage that all of his family—and perhaps the entire community—have been required to endure.

           

Human nature is not only a common journey that every individual must face, but it is also a shared combination of character flaws that have been passed down from one generation to the next. In “The Mysterious Stranger,” humanity’s greatest failing is what it claims as its greatest strength: Moral Sense. Satan enlightens Theodor of this, saying that instead of humanity being characterized by virtuousness, “the first man was a hypocrite and a coward, qualities which have not yet failed in his line; it is the foundation upon which all civilizations have been built.”

 

Although human nature has inherited corruption, both Hawthorne and Twain’s stories show that humanity has attempted to conceal this fact. In “Young Goodman Brown,” the leader of the devil’s communion points out that humans harbor the hope that true virtue exists, because then they have the hope of attaining it, stating “Depending upon one another’s hearts, ye had still hoped, that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye are undeceived!” Only when humanity realizes that this hope is unfounded is it finally aware of reality.

Theodor from “The Mysterious Stranger” slowly comes to the realization that humanity’s supposed virtue is in actuality a façade, and that Satan is correct when he says that the human race “lived a life of continuous and uninterrupted self-deception. It duped itself from cradle to grave with shams and delusions which it mistook for realities, and this made its entire life a sham.” The story calls everything into question—the value of life, whether death is a tragedy or a blessing, and even concludes with the nature of reality being seemingly revealed as a façade. Its message to the reader is that, until humanity realizes that virtue is an illusion, its perspective of reality as a whole is clouded.

           

Virtue is not only a problem on an individual level, but it is a collective lie created by society. Satan says that human hypocrisy—pretending to be virtuous—results from “the individual’s distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for safety’s or comfort’s sake, to stand well in your neighbor’s eye.” Even though humans may be aware of their individual failings, it is the fear that these failings will be made known to everyone else that motivates them to hypocrisy. 

In “The Mysterious Stranger,” hypocrisy is caused by the existence of Moral Sense in a universe where virtue is an illusion. This illusion is caused, according to Satan, by humanity’s

“always claiming virtues which it hasn’t got, always denying them to the higher animals, which alone possess them.  No brute [animal] ever does a cruel thing—that is the monopoly of those with the Moral Sense. When a brute inflicts pain he does it innocently; it is not wrong; for him there is no such thing as wrong. And he does not inflict pain for the pleasure of inflicting it—only man does that.” Moral Sense, then, is not a positive force but rather a false standard that every human individual ostensibly honors while in actuality disregarding it.  

What Mark Twain uses the character of Satan to expose of human delusions in lengthy detail, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s climax of “Young Goodman Brown” puts more succinctly, asserting “Evil is the nature of mankind.” Human nature is in reality inherently corrupt, hypocritical, and had passed from one generation to another since the dawn of civilization. It is an inescapable and undeniable truth that, if not acknowledged, skews the human perspective of reality.