This essay will demonstrate the types of characters present in Nathaniel Hawthorne's “Young Goodman Brown,” whether static or dynamic, flat or round, and whether portrayed through performance or narrative. RWB Lewis in “The Return into Rime: Hawthorne” states, “…there is always more to the world in which Hawthorne's characters move than any of them can see at first glance” (77). This is especially true with flat or two-dimensional characters like those typically found in “Young Goodman Brown.” These type characters are built on a “single idea or quality” and are presented without many “individualized details” (Abrams 33). Faith, of course, represents or symbolizes the theological virtue of faith; Goody Cloyse, as a catechism teacher, represents “goodness”; the nameless traveling companion in the woods is the symbol of "evil". Q. D. Leavis explains this symbolic use of characters: “The first group of works I have specified [including 'Young Goodman Brown'] is essentially dramatic, its use of language is poetic, and it is symbolic, and richly, as the poet dramatic. . . . Where the "symbol" is the thing itself, without paraphrasable meaning separable as in an allegory: the language is directly evocative (27). The flat character Fede is not as developed as her husband; his dialogue is limited to the first few paragraphs. She utters only four sentences in the whole story: "Dearest heart," she whispered, softly and rather sadly, when his lips were close to her ear, "please postpone your journey until dawn and sleep in your bed ." tonight A lonely woman is troubled by such dreams and such thoughts, that she sometimes feels sure of herself, please stay with me this night, dear husband... middle of paper... ng Goodman Brown." 1835. http ://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/goodman/goodmantext.htmlKaul, AN “Introduction.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by AN Kaul Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc ., 1966. Leavis, Q. D. “Hawthorne as Poet.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A. N. Kaul Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Lewis, R. W. B. “Back in Time: Hawthorne ” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A. N. Kaul Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Swisher, Clarice “Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography.” Swisher San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Wagenknecht, Edward Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Man, His Stories, and His Novels New York: Continuum Publishing Co., 1989.