In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, what are the symbolic implications of Young Goodman Brown's journey into the dark forest?

Your word implications is an interesting choice. For, the suggested meanings of the journey into the forest are ambiguous since, as the previous response so aptly states, the reader does not know if Goodman Brown actually has gone into the forest. Perhaps, then, what is implicated, or inferred, is that the forest is the dark region of the heart, the flawed part of everyman's heart that entertains the idea of evil and sin. In order to assure himself of his perceptions of his wife and others, Goodman Brown must face this dark side. When he enters the forest, or darkness of his own heart, he emerges as one who has lost his faith in goodness, since he, like Kurtz in Joseph Conrad''s "Heart of Darkness" has seen "the horror!" as love and sin seek possession of his soul.