Goodman Brown then loses all of his inhibitions and begins to laugh insanely. He takes hold of the staff which causes him to "fly along the forest path". Hawthorne at this point remarks about "the instinct that guides mortal man to evil". This is a direct statement from the author that he believes that man's natural inclination is to lean to evil than good. Goodman Brown had at this point lost his faith in God, therefore there was nothing restraining his instincts from moving towards evil because his marvelous image of society was shattered. At this point, Goodman Brown goes mad and challenges evil. He feels that he will be the downfall of evil and that he is strong enough to overcome it all. He believes that he is better than everyone else in that he alone can destroy evil.
Finally, Brown comes upon the ceremony which is setup like a perverted Puritan temple. The altar was a rock in the middle of the congregation and there were four trees surrounding the congregation with their tops ablaze, like candles. A red light rose and fell over the congregation which cast a veil of evil over the congregation, the devil worshippers. He takes notice of all the faces that he sees in the service and he recognizes them all, but he then realizes that he does not see Faith and "hope came into his heart".
The ceremony then begins with a cry to "Bring forth the converts!" Surprisingly Goodman Brown steps forward. "He had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought…". Goodman Brown at this point seems to be in a trance and loses control of his body as he unconsciously enters this service of converts to the devil. The leader of the service addresses the crowd of converts in a disturbing manner. He informs them that all the members of the congregation are the righteous, honest, and incorruptible of the community. After his sermon, the leader informs them to look upon each other and Goodman Brown finds himself face to face with Faith. The leader begins again, declaring that "Evil is the nature of mankind" and he welcomes the converts to "communion of your race". (The "communion of your race" statement reflects to the irony of Brown's earlier statement that he comes from "a race of honest men and good Christians.") The leader then dips his hand in the rock to draw a liquid from it and "to lay the mark of baptism upon their foreheads". Brown then snaps out from his trance and yells "Faith! Faith! Look up to Heaven and resist the wicked one!" At this point, the ceremony ends and Brown finds himself alone. It is unclear to Brown if his frantic plea, begging her to resist the Devil, was successful. Nonetheless he is alone. Alone in the forest and alone in his faith.
"Young Goodman Brown" ends with Brown returning to Salem at early dawn and looking around like a "bewildered man." He cannot believe that he is in the same place he had just been the night before. He felt like an outsider in a world of Devil worshippers. He comes back to the town "projecting his guilt onto those around him." He is unable to accept the world in which he lives, after witnessing the ceremony. He now sees the evil in everyone and expresses his discomfort with his community, even his loving wife Faith. This anger is exemplified when he sees Faith. She is overwhelmed with excitement to see him, but he looks "sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting." Brown cannot even stand to look at his wife with whom he was at the convert service with. He feels that even though he was at the Devil's service, he is still better than everyone else because of his excessive pride.
Goodman Brown was devastated by the discovery that the potential for evil resides in everybody. The rest of his life is destroyed because of his inability to face this truth and live with it. He is stricken with doubt and his faith is lost. He lives in fear for the rest of his days. What Brown witnessed in the forest may have been a dream, a hallucination, or not, but nevertheless it planted the seed of doubt in his mind which consequently cut him off from his fellow man and left him alone and depressed. His life ends alone and miserable because somewhere in that forest he left his faith behind, unable to overcome the terrible consequences of his journey and thus losing all hope.
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