Extremism Revealed in Young Goodman Brown Hawthorne depicts a 17th-century Puritan attempting to achieve the justification required by Brown's faith. After completing his journey, however, Brown failed to face the terrors of evil in his heart and chose to reject all of society. Puritan justification was a subject that Hawthorne was aware of as a necessary trip to hell for a moral man. Having called the heart of man a hell, the Puritans find themselves in the midst of Satan and his multitude of devils as he establishes his kingdom in the heart of man. This was a terrible revelation that made Brown bitter and distrustful. Puritan communities, secured by their orthodox faith, faced the unholy wilderness that surrounded them. Set in Salem during the early days of witchcraft at the time, young Goodman Brown's experience in the dark and evil forest was related to and would be recognized by Puritans as a symbol of mistrust in their own hearts and corrupt faculties. Just as man could not trust the shadows and figures he saw hidden in the forest, he could not trust his own desires. Those desires were to be put to the test during his journey into the forest. Those evil spirits constantly tortured the Puritan, constantly reminding him of his sin and the battle in his heart. Hawthorne utilized the presence of this demon in “Young Goodman Brown” demonstrating, through Brown, the Puritan journey to justification. The crossing of the forest towards Justification was marked by the disappearance of the self. In place of the self there was the awareness of helplessness and the illusion of sin. This awareness would then help the moral man to no longer depend on material things or people, but to place his faith solely in God. Hawthorne's knowledge of the historical context of Puritanism combined with the personal experience of his early life and his own family history come together in the statement made by “Young Goodman Brown.” A system in which individuals cannot trust themselves, their neighbors, their instructors, or even their ministers cannot create an atmosphere in which faith exists. Hawthorne's tale places newlywed Puritan Brown on the path to what may or may not be a true conversion experience. The conversion experience, a sudden realization brought about by divine intervention, a vision, or perhaps a dream, translates easily into the dream of Hawthorne's work and allows the author to use Puritan doctrine and the Salem story to make his argument the merits and consequences of such a belief.