Young Goodman Brown 9

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…one possible outcome of a strict Puritan standard which does not allow for a middle ground. Hawthorne seems to say that good and evil as absolute circumstances are neither preferable nor realistic. His use of this character, who is unable to function within an absolute version of changing concepts, is more about the effects that exist in between these two circumstances, than it is about a statement on outlining a definition of "proper" human behavior.