"Could this be the end my friend. Satan's coming 'round the bend" Black Sabbath - Sorry couldn't resist the lyric quote. Poor young Goodman Brown. Did he put himself in harms way to see if he could resist temptation? He talks about his wife having a bad dream as "if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight." and he makes 'haste on his present evil purpose'. Whatever his errand was he knew it was not good. When Goodman Brown is greeted in the forest he is not surprised to see his fellow-traveller. He is even told that he is late so this must have been a pre-arranged meeting. Did he already know it was the devil? I liked the way Goodman is slowly broken down by being shown how the people he thought were pious are not. The final straw being symbolic as after he cries out for his wife a pink ribbon flutters down from the sky and catches on a tree. His wife, Faith, had been wearing a cap with pink ribbons when he left her. Beleiving his Faith is not the woman he thought he loses it. At this point the devil must feel he has him. If indeed the devil was trying to tempt him and turn him 'to the dark side' then he makes a mistake for when Goodman sees his wife at the ritual he cries to her to "look up to the heaven and resist the wicked one." He suddenly finds himself alone, no ritual, no devil and no 'Faith'. Although he was able to resist, the experience has left him with doubts. The things he was shown affect him for the rest of his life. Is it himself that he questions or those around him?