Does the author intend for us to believe that what the devil says is true?Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"

As in so many of Hawthorne's works, there is an
intentional ambiguity on the author's part in "Young Goodman Brown." And, it may be that
this ambiguity is created so that the readers will become involved in an analysis
themselves of what constitutes sin. One interpretation of the devil, for instance, is
that he represents the darker side of Goodman Brown himself.  For, he resembles Goodman
and he claims to know Goodman's grandfather.  In their dialogue, Goodman declares his
virtue, while the old man laughs, suggesting the scoffing of a darker nature at the
hypocritical efforts of piety. 

Within Puritanism there is
the Calvanistic concept of Total Depravity.  That is, the heart, emotions, will, mind,
and body are all afflicted with sin.  This concept is expostulated by the devil when he
says,

By the
sympathy of your human hearts for sin ye shall scent out all the places—whether in
church, bedchamber, street, field, or forest—where crime has been committed, and shall
exult to behold the whole earth one stain of guilt, one mighty blood spot. Far more than
this. It shall be yours to penetrate, in every bosom, the deep mystery of sin, the
fountain of all wicked arts, and which inexhaustibly supplies more evil impulses than
human power—than my power at its utmost—can make manifest in deeds. And now, my
children, look upon each
other.”

Earlier Goodman Brown
has stepped out of the woods in which he has hidden and approached the congregation
"with whom he felt a loathful brotherhood by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his
heart." Now, he is part of those to whom the devil addresses himself since he recognizes
the "shape" of his own father in the devil.

Then, when
Faith's pink ribbons fly into the air, the symbolism of these ribbons suggests her loss
of innocence.  But, Goodman is not certain of the events that follow when he seems to
awaken from a dream.  However, because he has lost his faith--having become "part of
those to whom the devil addresses himself," it is a gloomy and distrustful Goodman Brown
who emerges from the forest.  He has passed from naivete to the recognition of the
depravity and evil of man's nature.