In Nathaniel Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown," how do specific tenets of Puritan theology and/or belief shape Goodman Browns experience in...

Puritan
theology is relevant to s story in a number of different places and ways, including the
following:

• Near the very beginning of the
  story, Brown, like many Puritans, has a strong conviction that he is one of God's elect and that
  his salvation is therefore predetermined. He seems to assume that he can go into the forest
  without needing to worry about his ultimate spiritual fate:

"after
this one night I'll cling to [Faiths] skirts and follow her to heaven."

• Like many Puritans (at least according to their opponents), Brown seems to exhibit
  spiritual pride, not only in himself but also in his ancestors. He assumes that his forbears
  were among the elect (those predestined for divine salvation) and that they would therefore
  never have sinned. Thus he says to the stranger he meets in the forest,

"My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before
him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the...

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