The setting of a work can be the most powerful literary tool an author uses in their work. Setting refers to a place or time in which a work is set. The setting has a wide range of possibilities. The setting of a work can be as simple as a single room or it can be as complex as the psychological state of mind of the author or character. Authors can use setting to enhance the theme of their works. One author in particular is Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown” in 1835. His time period influenced the theme of his work. The theme chosen by Hawthorne was the weakness of public morality. In “Young Goodman Brown” Hawthorne shows this theme through the perspective of a Puritan man, Goodman Brown. In the story Hawthorne shows that Goodman Brown's religious beliefs are rooted in his belief that those around him are also religious. This type of faith, which depends so much on the opinions of others, is easily weakened. Hawthorne suggests that faith is weak when people copy the beliefs of other people around them. Hawthorne shows this in the story with the downfall of Goodman Brown, who was pure and pious in the beginning. To further illustrate this, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the setting of his time period and that of his predecessors to reinforce the theme of the weakness of public morality in his work “Young Goodman Brown”. Nathaniel Hawthorne used his own personal setting in life to help write his short stories. Most of Hawthorne's stories are dark and grim, as is his family's history. The Hawthorne family had deep roots in New England. Hawthorne had an imaginative connection with his father's side of his family. This connection to his father's family inspired most of Nathaniel's literary work. Nathaniel's great-great-grandfather...... middle of paper......literary biographies lesson, Retrospective Supplement 1. Ed. A. Walton Litz and Molly Weigel. New York: Sons of Charles Scribner, 1998. Scribner Writers Series. Network. November 27, 2011. Liebman, Sheldon W. "The Reader in 'Young Goodman Brown'." The Nathaniel Hawthorne Journal 1975. CE Ed. Frazer Clark, Jr. Microcard Editions Books, 1975. 156-169. Rpt. In the criticism of short stories. Ed. Anna J. Fogli. vol. 29. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Network. November 29, 2011. Walsh, Thomas F., Jr. “The Bedeviling of Young Goodman Brown.” Modern Language Quarterly 19.4 (December 1958): 331-336. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna J. Fogli. vol. 29. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Network. November 29, 2011.Wilson, George. ""Young Goodman Brown""Literature and its times. By Joyce Moss. vol. 1. Gale Cengage, 1997. 420-26. Press.