Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered a Didactic writer. That is, his stories are meant to teach a lesson. What lesson are we supposed to get from “Young Goodman Brown”?
Near the end of “Young Goodman Brown,” the narrator stops and addresses a question directly to us, the reader. The narrator asks, “Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?” We don’t get the answer because the next paragraph the narrator says, “Be it so, if you will….” That statement is leaving the answer to the question up to us, the reader.
What do you think? Are we to take this as a literal event or as a dream?