Related excerpts from Dr. Rita K. Gollin's lecture "Figurations of Salem in `Young Goodman Brown' and 'The Custom-House.' "
Dr. Rita K. Gollin of SUNY Geneseo discusses Hawthorne's use of Salem and family history in "Young Goodman Brown" in excerpts from a lecture given at The House of the Seven Gables Historic Site, September 23, 2000. (Used with author's permission)

Excerpt from lecture, "Figurations of Salem in 'Young Goodman Brown' and 'The Custom-House,'" by Rita K. Gollin, delivered at Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum on September 23, 2000.
In this passage Rita Gollin emphasizes the way in which Hawthorne had internalized the shameful events of Salem's history in which his ancestors played critical roles. For her, Young Goodman Brown's journey into the dark forest serves as a metaphor for Hawthorne's own dark introspections.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Truth of Dreams (1979), Rita K. Gollin offers insights on reading "Young Goodman Brown" and other Hawthorne stories as dream allegories. (courtesy of Louisiana State University Press)
Nancy Bunge in Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Study of the Short Fiction (1993) comments on the theme of "Young Goodman Brown". (courtesy of Twayne Publishers)
In Margaret B. Moore's The Salem World of Nathaniel Hawthorne, she discusses Hawthorne's connections with witches.(courtesy of University of Missouri Press)
Excerpt from The Salem World of Nathaniel Hawthorne by Margaret Moore (courtesy of University of Missouri Press)
"In 'Young Goodman Brown' the young protagonist talks of his ancestor who commanded the constable to lash 'the Quaker woman so smartly though the streets of Salem.' Hawthorne had read this detail of the whipping of Ann Coleman in William Sewel's The History of the People Called Quaker, which said that Major Hathorne had once opposed 'compulsion for conscience' but that his 'firm warrant' for whipping had almost cost Coleman's life" (32).

Page citation: http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/page/11404/