Everyone has the tendency to doubt and to question things. We are not perfect beings. That’s the reason why we see goodness in men and why it’s easy for us to doubt. Since we are imperfect beings, we know that there is always a tendency to turn to evil. But we expect each one of us not to. Why? Because we have the church to make sure that we are well-guided. But church teachings sometimes are not enough. When our expectations are not met, our frustrations lead us to the other side of the road. This happened to Goodman Brown. He expected the priests and other religious men and women that serve the church to stay true to the church. But when he found them at a cult gathering, he began to question and to doubt them. Since he believed that evil cannot turn the people he believed to be pure and good, his experience in the forest greatly disappointed and frustrated him.
The story also emphasizes that we, as humans, can make our own decisions. And because of this, we tend to firmly stand for what we believe in. The problem is when you encounter an event that can shake this belief, that we are in control. Then, we will find a problem for everything.