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Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote Young Goodman Brown at his thirties and his age has a great influence on writing the story. It is a bout a young man whose name is Goodman Brown. He has just married three months with Faith. Youth can be described as rush minded and lack of judgment and that is Goodman Brown case. So this paper will basically analyze psychologically Goodman Brown according to Freud theory and paranoid complex.
Samuel Freud's theory which divided the psyche into three parts; id, ego and superego plays a big part in studying Brown's actions. Through the story, Brown is suffering from a struggle between his id which represents desires and his superego which represents perfection. Brown at the beginning of the story decides to leave his wife to go to the forest at night. His journey leads him to leave the village which is a place of light and security to the forest which is a place of darkness, dangerous and unknown destination. Brown's first step in the forest considers as a victory to the id over the superego.
Brown's meeting with the old man who is the devil himself shows Brown's confusion; weather to believe the old man or not. The devil shocked Brown, when he told him that his father and his grandfather were a servant to the devil; he meant by that that is Brown's destiny too. Brown's believe that they are''…a race of honest men and good Christians… "has faded (Guerin, 303). The devil deceived Brown to continue his journey in the wood, when Brown decides to return back. The devil said "sit here and rest yourself a while; and when you feel like moving again, there is my staff to help you along.", then he vanished (Guerin, 307) (139-41).
Moreover, Brown lost his trust in his people and the resource of social control became weaker in Brown's psyche ("Nathaniel"). In the writer view that is true; Brown has always thought that Goody Cloyse, the minister and Deacon Cookin were religious and...