We don't know. Hawthorne makes it ambiguous and leaves it up to the reader to decide. There is no real concrete evidence that Goodman Brown had been in the forest. The point is that he lost his innocence and purity and could never view the world the same as before.
daylight
The narrator in Young Goodman Brown is a limited omniscient third-person. The narrator is only allowed to read the thoughts and feelings of the novel's protagonist Goodman Brown.
the concrete conflict in Young Goodman Brown is weather or not to participate in the ceremony
The Devil and all his followers - which includes his young wife faith.
It is ambiguous whether the events in "Young Goodman Brown" were all a dream or actually happened. The story is open to interpretation, with some readers believing that it was a dream or a hallucination experienced by the protagonist.
It is left ambiguous in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" whether Brown's experience with evil in the forest is real or a dream. The story purposefully blurs the line between reality and imagination, leaving interpretation open to readers.
During the early Puritan settlement of Massachusetts, some time after 1630.
Goodman Brown meets the Devil, who appears in the forest as a mysterious man resembling an older version of himself. The Devil tempts Goodman Brown and leads him to question the morality and faith of the people in his community.
It was published in 1835.
In "Young Goodman Brown," the allegorical meaning of Faith's pink ribbons is her innocence, her sweetness, and her virtue.
Young Goodman Brown was the eponymous character in a much-anthologized short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Presumably, he was called "Young Goodman Brown" in the story (rather than "Old Goodman Brown") because, as he was portrayed in the story, he was simply young rather than old. It is interesting to note that "young" is merely an adjective here, so one would expect that in the natural course of events "Young Goodman Brown" would eventually become "Old Goodman Brown."On the other hand, "Goodman" is his Christian name (or as it is now called, his first name, or forename). Goodman is the sort of name sometimes called an aptronym, that is, a name suited to its bearer---or perhaps a name which Goodman Brown's parents hoped would eventually describe him. Hawthorne set his story in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s, and as we know, the Puritans were much given to aptronyms for their children, sometime (for example) naming their children after virtues, such as Chastity, Charity Prudence and Patience.Of course, there is the possibility that "Young" is used here in the same way we would use "Junior" today. In that case, Young Goodman Brown's father would have been (presumably) Old Goodman Brown.
It ruins his hope for salvation and his good attitude about everyone in general.