The reality presented by the author means that the character does not know if what he is experiencing is a dream or not. The reader also has this doubt, which ends up creating the mystery of the work.
Explanation:
"Young Goodman Brown" is set in Salem at the time of the witch hunt in the region. In this story, Goodman Brown leaves his family for a mysterious mission in the forest. In this mission, the author exposes the discrepancy between the goodness and the badness of the human being, portraying a complex, fragmented and symbolic reality, which makes Goodman Brown unable to know whether he is dreaming or not. This mystery is so wide open that it infects even the reader.