What does the devil represent in "Young Gooman Brown"? What effect does Hawthornes background have on the interpretion of the devil?

The devil has
been around in life and literature for a long time.  Sometimes his appearance is frightening
("The Divine Comedy" or "Paradise Lost") and sometimes his appearance is
much more suave and subtle, perhaps representing the multiple ways that we are confronted with
temptation in life.  The devil in "" tends to fall into the more casual.  He is not
presented as a frightening threat, but more as the casual friend of many of the town's leading
citizens, including members of Brown's own family.  Even at the key moment in the story, the
"Black Mass" in the forest, he does not present anything that is
particuarly...