A Second Side
As Goodman Brown left, Faith started her trek home. Though she is deeply saddened by the fact that her husband is leaving, she must carry on. When Faith finally reaches their home, she starts to make dinner. Rummaging through the cupboards she finds the food she needs and cooks. By the time dinner was through, she had no idea what to do. So, she went out to her friend Mary's house. As they talked and things went through the night, Faith became less and less worried about Goodman Brown.
Suddenly, the dark side of Faith was coming out. She went around town flirting with all the men in hopes to sleep with them. Even though she is just three months married, she knew that wouldn't stop her. One man, desperate eventually went with her.
"What's your name?" Faith asked.
"Henry, and yours?" questioned the man.
"Faith" she said as they reached their home. It was until she saw the pictures of Goodman Brown that she was going to go through with it. She knew that this was not the right thing to do, but felt awful for having this man, Henry, over for no reason at all. She found out that Henry was actually very poor. Feeling bad, Faith gave him food and money. Apologizing for flirting with him, she sent him home.
Now Faith was beginning to become worried about Goodman Brown again. She was debating whether or not to go into the forest to try and find him, or to listen to his advice and stay back. After thinking about it for a while, she decided that it would be best to stay back. Nearing bedtime, she went up to her bedroom. She went through all of her routine. But, this time was a little bit different. When she prayed, she prayed for Goodman. Normally she only said Hail Mary. She felt as though if she prayed for Goodman, then he would end his journey safely and she would have helped.
Done with her routine, Faith got in her bed and started her knitting. She cried in hopes that Goodman would be okay, even though she knew he would. That was when she finally fell asleep.
When Faith finally woke up, Goodman Brown still wasn't at home. She wanted to make sure that he would be happy when he got home, so she got breakfast prepared for the both of them. She cleaned the house up and got it tidy for the long awaited return of Goodman.
Goodman Brown finally came home. Faith, extremely excited, ran to him and hugged him. Goodman just shrugged off the hug, and Faith was extremely upset again.
"What's wrong?" she questioned.
He ignored her and didn't respond. It wasn't until later that evening when he said the first words since his journey back. He told her that he saw her out on his journey, and that she had let the evil take ahold of her. He said that he couldn't deal with someone who lets the devil take the better side of them. Finally, he stated that he was going to leave her.
Faith was devastated. She knew that she had not been out that night to see him even though she had pondered whether or not she should have. She thought to herself that she should have gone. Upon hearing the news of Goodman wanted to leave her, she lashed out at him. Telling him that she was not out there that night. But no matter how hard she tried to tell him, he would not believe her. She continued to talk about how going on the journey was a horrible idea and that she was right to tell him he shouldn't have gone.
Goodman swore to his word that he had seen her, and continued his path of leaving her. He packed up his things as quickly as possible, and went to stay at a different house that night. Faith was devastated, and had no idea what to do. She knew that she had not been out there so she went over to her friend Mary.
Begging Mary to go talk to Goodman and tell him that she had not been out in the forest that night, she agreed to go. They reached the house they knew Goodman was at and knocked. Faith stepped to the side because she knew that no one would answer if she were there.
Goodman Brown opened the door and Mary began to tell him that Faith hadn't been out in the forest, rather she had been to Mary's house. Goodman refused to believe this. He continued to shout out that Faith was a devil worshipper, and that the same goes for many other members of the town, including Deacon Gookin and Goody Cloyse.
The members of the town were infatuated. One man said Goodman had taken it too far. He called for the death of Goodman. News spread quick that someone was wanted dead. Soon, a couple people were calling for the death. Eventually most of the town, even the people who didn't know Goodman Brown was in on it.
Faith was incredibly sad, but knew that she had lost her husband to this journey. She ended up avoiding him for the next week, going about her life. Goodman then came up to Faith saying that he was wrong. He had not seen her, and he needed her help to end everything that was going on. Moved by this, Faith decided to show a little mercy. She told him that she would talk to the townspeople and say that he had changed. Goodman quickly thanked her and left. Faith decided that although she had said she would help, she wasn't going to. Instead she knew now that she wanted him dead.
She thought to herself, how dare he come and plead for help after he called her a devil worshipper. She went to her room upstairs and grabbed her knife. She waited for night to fall and made her way into town. Sneaking her way across, she finally reached the house Goodman Brown was staying at. Knowing that the front door would be locked, she snuck in through the back. Quietly making her way upstairs, she found the room that Goodman had been sleeping in.
Faith kneeled beside the bed and prayed. Except this time she prayed for forgiveness. She pushed Goodman, waking him up.
"I love you," she whispered into his ear, followed by a knife through throat of Goodman.
"Now you can't go around telling people about how I am a devil worshipper." Faith said finally.