Evil is the Nature of Mankind

In "Young Goodman Brown," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Goodman's guide says "Evil is the nature of mankind." Throughout the story, the story itself agrees with this assertion and illustrates the statement well. In the story, "Faith" and "faith" in god and good, kept evil away from Brown. But as he ventured deeper into the forest to the altar, he sees people of the town residing with evil, which in turn causes Brown to lose all faith because those people were suppose to be "good" people. The potential for evil resides in everybody, even in people most important to Goodman Brown as he experiences and begins to see this towards the end of the story. He is too proud to acknowledge his own faults. Brown despises these people that are important to him because he sees that same trait of evil in himself. The guide's statement is very well said and Brown can't seem to face this truth and live with it, which leads to him being lonely and depressed until his death.