As I read “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I couldn’t help but feel a constant, overwhelming sense of dread. The root of this could come from the story's dark setting within a "haunted forest" or Brown's mysterious "Devil"-style companion. As I read, another story came to mind; the story of “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe. In Poe's tale one can feel the same heart-pounding emotion as he describes the reunion of two friends in the "House of Usher." With the “eye-shaped windows” and the “painful impression” of the manor, Poe wastes no time in creating the Gothic atmosphere. Through their distinct writing styles, Hawthorne and Poe establish a common Gothic theme in their stories. In Hawthorne's story “Young Goodman Brown” the setting takes place deep in a forest. As Brown travels through the forest, he takes "a dreary road, darkened by all the darkest trees of the forest," this description begins to paint a picture in the reader's mind of the place Brown is travelling. Brown continues to discuss the peculiarities of the forest by saying, “It was all as lonely as it could be; and there is this peculiarity in such solitude, that the traveler knows not who might be hidden by the innumerable trunks and thick branches above his head...” This is not the kind of forest you would see in a children's book, it is a dark forest. place that makes you feel cut off from the rest of the world. Hawthorne makes sure his setting gives the story a dark feeling to foreshadow the darker events to come. The characters in “Young Goodman Brown” also contribute to the gothic theme of the story. The first character that stands out is Brown's wife, Faith. Before Brown leaves for the forest, she tells him, “please postpone your journey until dawn and… middle of the paper… bending of himself just as Faith might also be seen as such. He shares his face and is Rodrick's biggest burden. Although these two stories were written by two different authors, they give the reader the same chilling feeling. Poe and Hawthorne's characters almost mirror each other in each story. Brown was a decent man and when he entered the depths of the forest he was forced into a period of mania. The narrator of Poe's tale was a sane man who also experienced a period of mania after spending time at the Usher estate. Through their characters, symbolism, and settings, Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne establish a similar theme in both of their stories. Shmoop editorial team cited. "The Fall of the House of Usher Summary." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., November 11, 2008. Web. February 27, 2014. Poe, Edgar Allan. Eight tales of terror. New York: Scholastic, 1978. Print.