Financial Analysis of banking sector of India - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1367 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Financial Analysis of banking sector of India: Special Reference to Private Sector Banks Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Financial Analysis of banking sector of India" essay for you Create order Financial statements are those statements which provide information about profitability and financial position of a business. It includes two statements, i.e., profit loss a/c or income statement and balance sheet or position statement. The income statement presents the summary of the income earned and the expenses incurred during a financial year. Position statement presents the financial position of the business at the end of the year. This paper is try to present all the components of balance sheet and profit and loss account in common size and analyze the individual item in Balance Sheet Profit Loss A/c as compare to total liabilities/Assets/Income/Expenditure. Objectives To compare the financial position with the help of Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account To compare the financial performance through a common-size financial statement. Introduction After preparation of the financial statements, one may be interested in knowing the position of an enterprise from different points of view. This can be done by analyzing the financial statement with the help of different tools of analysis such as Common size statement analysis, funds flow analysis, cash flow analysis, Common size/ comparative statement analysis, etc. Here I have done financial analysis by Common size financial statement analysis. Common size financial statement analysis, also called vertical analysis, is just one technique that financial managers use to analyze their financial statements. It is not another type of income statement. It is just a tool that is used to analyze the income statement and position statement. With the use of this method of common-size financial statements, the comparisons between the financial statements of different companies become easy. In this method, each of figures in the financial statements are reported in the form of percentage. Thi s percentage is the figure of one frequent base figure. This base figure determines the percentile of all the figures in the common-size financial statements. By using this method, it is easy to compare the financial statements of the same company from different periods or comparing the companies of different size. Due to this method, the bias between the company sizes is removed, and investor can effectively compare the financial statements. The selection of base figure depends on the financial statements head. In income statements, the revenue can be selected as the base figure and all the incomes and expenses can be measured against it. Moreover, in the balance sheet of the company, all the related items are divided by the total of their items. For example, if the investor wants to find out the percentage of the inventory in balance sheet, he or she will have to divide the figure of inventory with the total assets. Methodology For the purpose of this study individual item of balance sheet converted into common size i.e.in 100 for this purpose an individual item in balance sheet divided by total assets/total liabilities and converted into 100.This is also to profit and loss account i.e. individual item in profit and loss account divided by total income/total expenditure and converted into100.For this analysis three years Balance Sheet and Profit and loss account of top three private banks viz.ICICI bank,HDFC bank and Axis bank was analyzed. Balance Sheets as on 31st March 2011 Capital and Liabilities Axis(Rs.000) HDFC(Rs.000) ICICI(Rs.000) Capital 4,105,458 0.169 4,652,257 0.167 11521129 0.283 Reserves and Surplus 185,882,797 7.658 249140426 8.982 539,388,244 13.277 Deposits 1,892,378,010 77.967 2,085,864,054 75.206 2,256,021,077 55.535 Borrowings 262,678,824 10.822 143,940,610 5.189 1,095,542,771 26.968 Other Liabilities and Provisions 82,088,627 3.382 289,928,565 10.453 159,863,467 3.935 Total 2,427,133,716 100 2,773,525,912 100 4,062,336,688 100 Assets Cash and Balance with RBI 138,861,630 5.721 251,008,158 9.050 209,069,703 5.146 Balance with Banks and Money at call and Short Notice 75,224,929 3.099 45,680,191 1.647 131,831,128 3.245 Investments 719,916,208 29.661 709,293,656 25.573 1,346,859,630 33.154 Advances 1,424,078,286 58.673 1,599,826,654 57.682 2,163,659,014 53.26 Fixed Assets 22,731,456 0.936 21,706,480 0.782 47,442,551 1.167 Other Assets 46,321,207 1.908 146,010,773 5.264 163,474,662 4.024 Total 2,427,133,716 100 2,773,525,912 100 4,062,336,688 100 Axis(Rs.000) HDFC(Rs.000) ICICI(Rs.000) Income Interest Earned 151,548,058 76.589 199,282,122 82.13 259,740,528 79.62 Other Income 46,321,338 23.410 43,351,527 17.87 66,478,925 20.38 Total 197,869,396 100 242,633,649 100 326,219,453 100 Expenditure Interest Expended 85,918,230 52.394 93,850,839 46.15 169,571,515 61.728 Operating Expenses 47,794,281 29.145 71,529,141 35.171 66,172,492 24.088 Provision and Contingencies 30,271,979 18.460 37,989,660 18.680 38,961,684 14.183 Total 163,984,490 100 203,369,640 100 274,705,691 100 Profit Loss Account for the year ended 31st March 2011 Balance Sheets as on 31st March 2012 Capital and Liabilities Axis(Rs.000) HDFC(Rs.000) ICICI(Rs.000) Capital 4,132,039 0.144 4,693,377 0.138 11551537 0.243 Reserves and Surplus 223,953,384 7.840 294,553378 8.716 592,500,885 12.509 Deposits 2,201,043,033 77.059 2,467,064,459 73.00 2,554,999,561 53.94 Borrowings 340,716,721 11.928 238,465,086 7.057 1,401,649,073 29.592 Other Liabilities and Provisions 86,432,757 3.026 374,318,690 11.077 175,769,846 3.710 Total 2,856,277,934 100 3,379,094,990 100 4,736,470,902 100 Assets Cash and Balance with RBI 107,029,214 3.747 149,910,945 4.436 204,612,935 4.319 Balance with Banks and Money at call and Short Notice 32,309,943 1.131 59,466,318 1.759 157,680,199 3.329 Investments 931,920,859 32.627 974,829,094 28.848 1,595,600,430 33.687 Advances 1,697,595,386 59.433 1,954,200,292 57.83 2,537,276,579 53.568 Fixed Assets 22,593,250 0.791 23,471,940 0.694 46,146,870 0.974 Other Assets 64,829,282 2.269 217,216,401 6.428 195,153,889 4.120 Total 2,856,277,934 100 3,379,094,990 100 4,736,470,902 100 Profit Loss Account for the year ended 31st March 2012 Axis(Rs.000) HDFC(Rs.000) ICICI(Rs.000) Income Interest Earned 219,946,474 80.228 272,863,517 83.880 335,426,522 81.720 Other Income 54,202,163 19.771 52,436,949 16.12 75,027,598 18.279 Total 274,148,637 100 325,300,466 100 410,454,120 100 Expenditure Interest Expended 139,769,024 60.316 149,895,780 54.78 228,084,964 65.958 Operating Expenses 60,070,995 25.923 85,900,571 31.393 78,504,433 22.702 Provision and Contingencies 31,886,564 13.760 37,833,208 13.826 39,212,151 11.339 Total 231,726,583 100 273,629,559 100 345,801,548 100 Balance Sheets as on 31st March 2013 Capital and Liabilities Axis(Rs.000) HDFC(Rs.000) ICICI(Rs.000) Capital 4,679,545 0.137 4,758,838 0.117 11581197 0.216 Reserves and Surplus 326,399,054 9.584 363881809 8.925 655,478,392 12.211 Deposits 2,526,135,881 74.176 2,960,917,699 72.621 2,926,136,257 54.511 Borrowings 439,510,984 12.906 394,966,127 9.687 1,453,414,944 27.076 Other Liabilities and Provisions 108,881,120 3.197 352,705,377 8.651 321,336,021 5.986 Total 3,405,606,584 100 4,077,229,850 100 5,367,946,811 100 Assets Cash and Balance with RBI 147,920,883 4.343 146,308,790 3.588 190,527,309 3.549 Balance with Banks and Money at call and Short Notice 56,428,716 1.656 129,002,845 3.164 223,647,879 4.166 Investments 1,137,375,370 33.397 1,109,604,124 27.214 1,713,935,993 31.929 Advances 1,969,659,574 57.835 2,472,451,151 60.640 2,902,494,351 54.07 Fixed Assets 23,556,420 0.691 27,733,162 0.680 46,470,587 0.865 Other Assets 70,665,621 2.074 192,129,778 4.712 290,870,692 5.418 Total 3,405,606,584 100 4,077,229,850 100 5,367,946,811 100 Profit Loss Account for the year ended 31st March 2013 Axis(Rs.000) HDFC(Rs.000) ICICI(Rs.000) Income Interest Earned 271,825,744 80.579 358,610,213 83.409 400,755,969 82.764 Other Income 65,511,063 19.420 71,329,645 16.590 83,457,012 17.235 Total 337,336,807 100 429,939,858 100 484,212,981 100 Expenditure Interest Expended 175,163,111 61.343 196,954,474 54.567 262,091,848 65.366 Operating Expenses 69,142,375 24.214 115,518,963 32.005 90,128,837 22.478 Provision and Contingencies 41,236,992 14.441 48,463,621 13.427 48,737,569 12.155 Total 285,542,478 100 360,937,058 100 400,958,254 100 Capital to Total Liabilities Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 0.16 0.16 0.28 2011-12 0.14 0.13 0.24 2012-13 0.13 0.11 0.21 Interpretation Capital Common size statement of ICICI Bank was more than Axis Bank HDFC Bank in these three years. It is also seen that in all these three years Capital Common size statement of these banks were decreased consistently. Reserve and surplus to Total Liabilities Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 7.68 8.98 13.27 2011-12 7.84 8.71 12.50 2012-13 9.58 8.92 12.21 Interpretation Common size statement of Accumulated Reserve and Surplus of ICICI Bank was more than Axis Bank HDFC Bank, but this Common size statement consistently decreases. This Common size statement of Axis bank consistently increases. Deposits to Total Liabilities Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 77.96 75.20 55.53 2011-12 77.05 73.00 53.94 2012-13 74.17 72.62 54.51 Interpretation Deposit Common size statement Axis bank was more than HDFC ICICI bank; however this Common size statement of Axis bank and HDFC bank consistently decreases. Borrowings to Total Liabilities Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 10.82 5.18 26.96 2011-12 11.92 7.05 29.59 2012-13 12.90 9.68 27.07 Interpretation As regards to borrowings, ICICI bank has more borrowings than Axis bank and HDFC bank, it is also depicts that borrowings of Axis bank and HDFC bank consistently increases. Other liabilities Provisions to Total Liabilities Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 3.38 10.45 3.93 2011-12 3.02 11.07 3.71 2012-13 3.19 8.65 5.98 Interpretation Other liabilities and provisions of HDFC bank was more than Axis bank and ICICI bank and it is upto10% on an average, however the axis bank ICICI bank maintains this Common size statement upto 3% on an average. Cash Balances with RBI to Total Assets Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 5.72 9.05 5.14 2011-12 3.74 4.43 4.31 2012-13 4.34 3.58 3.54 Interpretation Cash balance of HDFC bank in year 2010-11 was in highest Common size statement. Cash balance of HDFC bank and ICICI bank continuously decreases. Balance with Banks and Money at call and Short Notice to Total Assets Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 3.09 1.64 3.24 2011-12 1.13 1.79 3.32 2012-13 1.65 3.16 4.16 Interpretation Bank balance and money at call and short notice of ICICI bank in highest proportion.The proportion of HDFDC bank shows increased trend. Investment to Total Assets Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 29.66 25.57 33.15 2011-12 32.62 28.84 33.68 2012-13 33.39 27.21 31.92 Interpretation Investment of HDFC bank in these three years was less than Axis bank and ICICI bank. It is also seen that Investment of Axis bank consistently increases but this is not so to HDFC bank and ICICI bank. Advances to Total Assets Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 58.67 57.68 53.26 2011-12 59.43 57.83 53.56 2012-13 57.83 60.64 54.07 Interpretation Advances given by the ICICI bank was less than Axis bank and HDFC bank. Advances given by HDFC bank and ICICI bank clearly shows increased trend but this is not so as to Axis bank. Fixed Assets to Total Assets Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 0.99 0.78 1.167 2011-12 0.79 0.69 0.97 2012-13 0.69 0.68 0.86 Interpretation Fixed Assets of ICICI bank was more than Axis bank and HDFC bank, however fixed assets of these banks decreased consistently. Other Assets to Total Assets Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 1.90 5.26 4.02 2011-12 2.26 6.42 4.12 2012-13 2.07 4.71 5.41 Interpretation Other Assets of HDFC bank in higher proportion in first two years but this is decreased in last year. Other Assets of ICICI bank continuously increases Interest Earned to Total Income Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 76.58 82.13 79.62 2011-12 80.22 83.88 81.72 2012-13 80.57 83.40 82.76 Interpretation Interest income of HDFC bank was more than Axis bank and ICICI bank, however Interest income of Axis bank and ICICI bank shows increased trend. Other Income to Total Income Year Name of Bank Axis HDFC ICICI 2010-11 23.41 17.87 20.38 2011-12 19.77 16.12 18.27 2012-13 19.42 16.59 17.23

Causes anf Results of Communism in Eastern and Central Europe

Communism was one of the political theories founded by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx in the end of the 19th century . Both of these philosophers had the same point of view concerning the economic and political principles. Also, Communism brought up many changes to International Relations , and the body of the essay will describe the causes and results of Communism in Eastern and central Europe. In 1844 Engel and Marx started to discover interesting facts about Communism and no longer in 1848 they decided to write and publish ‘ Communism Manifesco’ , which was thought to be one of the best and influential political books ever. Under ‘Communism Manifesco’ all people were thought to be equal. The main idea for everyone was not to be†¦show more content†¦A lot of countries were influenced by the Communism. Among them are: Eastern German and Poland, The Communism in Poland lasted for forty years that brought a new and specific changes in the g overnment at the end of the Second World War. Poland had a really complicated situation because of Iosef Stalin and his Communist Party. He described his points of view in a very clear way, ‘Imposing Communism on Poland was as absurd as putting a saddle on a cow’. Moreover ,everything was under control of the Polish Government of Stalin, including a lot of spheres as culture, social aspects of life and economy. As government had all the power in their hands, people were absolutely deprived of power. That kind of period was strongly disliked by people and brought a lot of strikes, protections and even attacks. As the result, the Communism system had a bad influence on the development of Poland. Eastern German was also under the Communism regime. The historic German capital of Berlin, although in the East was a special case. Berlin itself was split into 4 sectors after the war. West Berlin was part of West Germany despite being completely surrounded by East Germany. The Eastern part of German was absolutely poor in all its aspects. The lack of food, transport and all the necessary goods lead to the panic. To prevent bad causes of that situation, German government

Australian Taxation Law Tax Casebook

Question: Discuss about the Australian Taxation Law for Tax Casebook. Answer: 1. Hilary, a well- known mountain climber has received an offer from a daily terror newspaper to write a story about her mountain climber journey. For this, the newspaper has offered a value of $10,000 along with all the respective copyrights. Hilary accepted the offer without any further conditions. After some time, when the written work of the story was completed, Hilary provided the book with the copyrights to the newspaper and received $10,000. She had provided the manuscript of the story and expedition photographs to the Mitchell Library in $5,000 and $2,000 respectively. The issue is to determine the nature of the income received, whether the received income would be coming from personal exertion. The law states that to determine the tax implications on received income, the best possible way is to examine the nature of the received receipts. If the received income is capital in nature, then these receipts would not be taxed under tax law. However, in capital receipts case, a different method is followed to determine the tax treatment i.e. Capital Gains Tax (CGT) as per the Section 10-5 (Barkoczy, 2015). If the nature of the received receipts is revenue receipts, then the tax treatment is applied according to the ordinary income as per the Section of 6-5. Any income coming from personal exertion would be considered as revenue receipts, because it is coming from either business activity or employment (Gilders et. al, 2015). The central question that arises in this case, is to determine whether the copyrights would be considered as capital asset or receipts from personal exertion. For clarity on this issue, the Brent v. Federal Commissioner of Taxation(1971) 125 CLR 418 case is taken into consideration. In this particular case, Mrs Briggs who was a wife of a famous robber had made an agreement with some of the journalist to narrate them, the story about the relationship with her husband. Fourfive days were consumed in the procedure of story narration to the journalist. The newspaper did not make the full payment offered to Mrs Briggs. However, this resulted in a dispute with the tax authorities with regards to the nature of income and hence the case came before the court (Gupta, 2009). The central objective of the case became to find the nature of the received income. The court provided the judgement, that the nature of the received income would be treated as capital income, because the concerned taxpayer had revealed the facts to the various journalists about her relation with her husband, who was basically involved in a famous robbery. To make this story authorised, she had also mentioned her signature on every page of the story written by the journalist. The real asset possessed by Mrs. Briggs was the secret information which acted as made a legal consideration between Mrs Briggs and journalist. Further, the secret information was termed as the capital asset and hence held not liable for taxation. However, the same would be levied capital gains (CCH, 2012). Now taking the reference of the above case, it can be assumed that the primary asset for the newspaper was the information about her personal life, which would be considered as a capital asset. In this case, Hilary had shared these facts and experiences in the written format with the journalist and also she had authorized the terror newspaper to take the copyrights for the same, also the amount received by providing the manuscript and photographs would also be termed as capital asset. These are all incidental to the information provided and the neither photography nor writing is the main profession of Hilary. Thus, the compensation has actually been made for the information only and hence amounts to only realisation of the capital asset. Thus, all the income i.e. $ 17,000 would be termed as capital receipts and would only be subject to the aegis of Capital Gains Tax. In the given case, even if Hilary would have written the story driven by solely personal satisfaction, then also there would be no difference in the stance as the intent to profit is not pivotal in this case. This is because there is essentially a transfer of capital asset which is already present and need not be earned through indulging in any activity (Woellner, 2013). 2. In this particular case, the taxpayer had provided a lump sum amount of $40,000 to her son in order to resolve the financial crisis. Her son had made a promise that he would pay this amount within five years. In this case, no agreement was enacted between the mother and the son and mother had no intent of receiving any interest on the principal extended. The lump sum amount of $ 40,000 was returned by his son in two years, along with the interest amount of two years i.e. $4,000. Therefore, the aim is to ascertain the tax implications of the incremental $ 4,000 received by the mother over and above $ 40,000. Ideally, interest received on securities, bank accounts and money lending business falls within the purview of ordinary income as defined in Section 6(5). It is not an imperative condition that interest payment should be regular and interest could be paid with the principal amount in a single transaction at the end. This would not result in escaping of tax liability (Barkoczy, 2013). It is apparent that the concerned taxpayer did not run any business activity of money trading and the amount of $40,000 was given to her son without the enactment of the routine legal documentation and collateral demands that are characteristic of lending transactions. Further, the lack of intention on mothers part to earn interest indicates that this was not a commercial transaction but arose out of benefaction. The payment of incremental $ 4,000 to the mother was a gift from the son in accordance with the tax ruling TR 2005/13 (ATO, 2013). This is because there was ownership transfer of money from the son to the mother, which was essentially voluntary and driven by benefaction and not for deriving any significant or insignificant future favours. Hence, out of total sum of $ 44,000 received, $ 40,000 would be exempt from tax on account of being capital receipts while the remaining $ 4,000 would not attract any tax burden as it is a gift. 3. With regards to computation of capital gains that are taxable, two options are available for an individual taxpayer (Woellner, 2013). Discount method which offers a 50% discount on the long term capital gains Indexation method which makes asset cost base adjustments in line with inflation figures to decrease the CGT (Capital Gains Tax) liability. Part a) As per the information provided, Sale proceeds from property (Land + House) = $ 800,000 But the land component was acquired before September 20, 1985 and thus would not attract any CGT liability. The tax burden would be limited only to the house component which can be derived as shown below (Gilders et. al., 2015). Total cost of property at the time of construction = 90000(Land) + 60000(House) Hence, percentage contribution of house to the property = (60000/150000)*100 = 40% Thus, only 40% of the total sales proceeds of the property would attract CGT Selling price of property (CGT applicable) = (40/100)* 800000 = $ 320,000 Realisable capital gains = Selling price Cost base = 320000 60000 = $ 240,000 Taxable capital gains after 50% discount in accordance with the discount method of computation = 0.5*240,000 = $ 120,000 The computation as per the indexation method is shown below (Woellner, 2013). The CPI (Consumer Price Index) has increased from 43.2 in 1986 to 68.72 in 1999. As a result, indexation factor can be computed as 68.72/43.2 = 1.59 Construction cost adjusted for indexation = 60000*1.59 = $ 95,400 Net capital gains subject to CGT = 320000 95400 = $ 224,600 The above computation of net taxable capital gains using both stated method clearly suggest that Scott as a rational taxpayer would choose the discount method since it would lead to lesser burden of tax in the form of CGT. Part b) The given situation considers that Scott has sold the property to her daughter at a price of $ 200,000. Due to underlying relationship of benefaction between buyer and seller, for computation of capital gains, Section 116-30(2), ITAA 1997 needs to be applied. In accordance with this section, the capital gains must be computed taking into consideration the higher of the given two values i.e. the actual selling price and the existing market value of asset (Austlii, 2016). In the given case, this amounts to taking the higher of $ 200,000 and $ 800,000. As a result, the capital gains in this case also would tend to remain the same as in previous case. Part c) In this case, the property owner instead of being an individual taxpayer now is a company. The discount method for taxable capital gains computation is not available for companies and hence now, the indexation method needs to be adopted (Woellner, 2013). In accordance with the indexation method, the net capital gains subject to CGT is $ 224,000 as computed in part (a). References ATO 2013, Taxation Ruling:TR 2005/13, Australian Taxation Office, Available online from https://www.ato.gov.au/law/view/document?DocID=TXR/TR200513/NAT/ATO/00001 (Accessed on August 22, 2016) Austlii 2016, INCOME TAX ASSESSMENT ACT 1997 - SECT 116.30, Austlii Website, Available online from https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/itaa1997240/s116.30.html (Accessed on August 22, 2016) Barkoczy, S. 2015. Australian tax casebook. CCH Publications, Sydney CCH 2012, Australian Master Tax Guide 2012, 50th eds., Wolters Kluwer , Sydney Gilders, F, Taylor, J, Walpole, M, Burton, M. Ciro, T 2015, Understanding taxation law 2015, 8th eds., LexisNexis/Butterworths. Gupta, R. 2009. Receipts from Personal Exertion: Mere Gifts or Gross Income?, Auckland University o Technology, Available online from https://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10292/735/GuptaR.pdf?sequence=5 (Accessed on August 22, 2016) Woellner, R 2013, Australian taxation law 2012, 6th eds., CCH Australia, North Ryde

“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay Example For Students

â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† by Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† by Nathaniel Hawthorne contains much symbolism. The symbols take many forms from the setting to the characters. The symbols can be viewed as just part of the story line, but apon further thought they represent many different things. Faith, Brown’s wife, is a symbol herself. When he says, â€Å"My love and my Faith,† he is using his wife as a symbol and is really referring to his love and faith in God. He goes on to say â€Å"this one night I must tarry away from thee. He means that he must part from his faith in God to carry on with his journey. He also says to the devil, â€Å" Faith kept me back awhile† and is making reference to a higher being that is trying to keep him from making his journey by delaying it. When Brown finds the pink ribbon that his wife was wearing lying in the forest he says, â€Å"my Faith is gone† and is referring to himself as losing his faith in God. Also, Goodman Brown’s â€Å"errand† symbolizes the Puritan voyage where they were to find the plan that God has set for them and let faith be their guidance. As Goodman Brown continues his â€Å"errand† and thing begin to go array he grows weak and falls to the ground. He begins to doubt whether there really was a Heaven above him and this is a key point when Goodman Browns faith begins to wain. Goodman Brown in panic declares that With Heaven above, and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil! This is similar to a Puritan putting his faith in God and following â€Å"God’ Plan. † The forest that Goodman Brown ventures to in itself is a symbol. In the Puritan days the townspeople were barred from going into the forest because that is where evil lurked and even says â€Å" my father never went into the woods†¦nor his father before him. † Hawthorne described the forrest as â€Å" a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest† and even jokes of the evil lurking there when he says â€Å"there may be a devilish Indian behind every tree† and â€Å"What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow! † Hawthorne even uses the main character as a symbol. His name, Young Goodman Brown makes reference to him as being young and a good person. Then Hawthorne gives him such a common last name that it relates him to any and everybody, just like he does in one of his other short stories, â€Å"Everyman†, when he uses this as a reference to all of society. Another symbol that is present in the story is the mysterious man in the forest. He symbolizes the devil or evil in the story and strangely bears â€Å"a considerable resemblance to . † The Devil had with him a staff that bore the likeness of a great black snake. The staff, which looked like a snake, symbolizes the snake in the story of Adam and Eve. The snake led Adam and Eve to their destruction by leading them to the Tree of Knowledge, just as Brown is being led to unfathomed knowledge by the devil, and in turn is being led to his destruction. Just like Adam and Eve, when Brown finds the â€Å" fountain of all wicked arts† his faith is exiled from him just as Adam and Eve were cast from the garden. The story as a whole symbolizes that the potential for evil resides in everybody. The rest of Brown’s life is destroyed because of his inability to face the truth of sin and live with it. The story, which may have been a dream, and not a real life event, planted the seed of doubt in Browns mind, which him to lose his faith in his fellow man and leaves him alone and depressed. His life ends alone and miserable because he was never able to look at himself and realize that what he believed were everyone elses faults were his as well, and this led to his isolation from the community. Brown was buried with no hopeful verse upon his tombstone; for his dying hour was gloom.