Mental illness has always been analyzed in one way or another. Psychological analysis of human beings had become more elaborate once theories were applied. One of the best known theories of the psychological mind came from Sigmund Freud, who believed in only two types of minds that came from human beings, conscious and unconscious. An elaborate analogy to this particular subject matter would be "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. A story that touches on the issue of mental illness by telling the tale of a man by the name of Goodman Brown that encounters and balances both innocence and corruptibility. Goodman Brown leaves his village to go onto a journey in the forest. He leaves behind his wife Faith, in a classified symbolism; his wife Faith represents the innocence in Goodman Brown and he says his farewells as he goes on into the forest. The forest itself has a corrupt symbolism to it, as Goodman heads there with an idea of the darkness hidden in the forest is indication that even the most innocent is competent of entering it's own concrete reality. On this journey into the forest, Goodman encounters the devil himself that happens to obtain a strange resemblance and is offered the …show more content…
The irony of his own wife being corrupt is an indicator of the evil that lives inside Goodman brown. Evil lives inside even the most purest hearts just as much as innocence does, it is what you act on that defines your morals. The tale itself focuses on the hypocrisy of puritan society, and what lies beneath the mask of lies. Goodman continues on back to his village but with a different mindset and belief of humanity. Goodman's naive mindset in the beginning of the tale to the pessimist view at the end of the tale, generates Goodman into the isolated bitter old man he becomes is one of the many allegory's this tale
This example reflects the change in environment for Goodman Brown after he left the positive world of the village. He felt he was passing through an unseen multitude since he could not know if there was someone concealed by the trees. This situation makes him question: "What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow" (p. 62). Goodman Brown, who wasn't aware of the existence of an evil side to the world, is being introduced to it through the natural objects in the woods, which provided a warning sign of the evil to come.
When he goes into the forest, he believes he is talking to the devil and looks much like his grandfather. The devil is feeding him bad thoughts about everyone he knows, even his own father and his wife, Faith. Next, I believe that Goodman Brown has had a rough past and in order for him to overcome this within himself, he must search for attention. This attention may not be needed from his wife or community members, I believe it is needed from him. He is feeling overwhelmed with obligations from his wife and peers, and he has no time to decide whether this type of life is right for him.
Before Brown leaves the house, Faith begs him to stay saying, "...put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed to-night" (Hawthorne 298), but of course, Brown ignores her plea and continues his journey anyhow. In the forest, he meets a man with a staff "which bore the likeness of a great black snake" (Hawthorne 299), an ultimate representation of evil. Surely, Goodman Brown knows that the witch meeting appears to be his destination. Walking through the forest, he pays close attention to every tree and every rock. As he proceeds his journey, Brown sights Faith and his moral and spiritual adviser, along with Deacon Gookin and the minister. He then notices Goody Cloyse, an old "Christian woman" (Hawthorne 300), rushing through the woods. Surely Brown's suspicion begins to take over, now curious about...
...loses control of his whole body, when he enters to convert to the devil.The dark figure declares "Evil is the nature of mankind" (314). Which mean that evil consists in everyone. Suddenly, Goodman Brown regains his consciousness and starts to call his wife, "Faith! Faith! Look up to Heaven and resist the wicked one!" (314). He wants her to regain consciousness. After that, Goodman Brown finds himself in the woods, “amid calm night and solitude, listening to a roar of the wind, which died heavily away through the forest” (314).
The names of the characters Young Goodman Brown and his wife Faith are both symbolic. “Young" infers the title character is naive and new at life. Brown’s youth suggests that he is an uncorrupted and innocent young man. Moreover, "Goodman" suggests his self-righteousness thinking he is a good man. Furthermore, "Brown" indicates he is a commoner. Thus, the full name implies he is the average naive and self-righteous Puritan. Faith’s name in the story represents his need to cling to faith. She symbolizes everything that is good and Christian to Goodman Brown. Brown’s marriage to Faith is symbolic of how he clings to faith in good in the world.
...en he reaches the final destination where whole community is there to participate in satanic acts, a little faith he has to the community and himself are completely destroyed. The devil has apparently infested all of the Puritan's souls with sin at least to the eyes of Goodman Brown. While he tries to help his wife Faith from the devil, he wakes up from imagination or dream in the forest wondering what has happened in the previous night. Whether the scenes he witnessed were real or his imagination, Goodman believes what he remembers and trusts no one in the village when he returns, not even his wife. Goodman seems to live the rest of his life with misery and distrust.
The biggest symbol in Young Goodman Brown is the idea of faith. Before he goes on his “errand,” he is talking to his wife, promising he will come back, but in actuality he is talking to his faith, as in religion. He subconsciously knows he is going against his faith on this errand, but will return. “My love and my Faith,” replied young Goodman Brown, “of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again…” When Brown says later in the story “I am losing my Faith”, he is not only about his wife, (which is shown through her pink ribbon in the tree), but more about his religion, which is flashing before his eyes. This errand was a test of Goodman Brown’s faith. When Brown hears people singing hymns in swears, it is a symbol of the corruption of the church. The name Goodman Brown I think is very ironic. Is he a good man after this errand?
In both stories, the devil manipulates the characters and lures them in making the wrong decision. In “Young Goodman Brown”, the stranger, also the devil in this case, approaches Brown and tries to be his guardian when he says “[Brown’s parents] were [his] good friends ... merrily after midnight” (Hawthorne 3). Thus, Brown is finally convinced to make a wrong decision and continues on the journey with the stranger. His intense desire to know what he would find in the forest is greater than his feeling insecure to follow the devil. Unexpectedly, in the darkness of the forest, he meets almost every Puritan citizens of his town who he believed to be honorable and pious such as Goody Cloyse, the minister of the church and Deacon Gookin. He also sees some who seem to be the unwelcomed guests of the “celebration” - the sinners and criminals. Brown 's family is also believed to be in the woods as Hawthorne describes: “As nearly as could be discerned, the second traveller was about fifty years old, apparently in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to him, though perhaps more in expression than features. Still they might have been taken for father and son” (2). Everything soon goes from
Young Goodman Brown is about a young, newly wedded man who leaves his wife, Faith, and to go on a journey into the forest one night. Young Goodman Brown has an innocent and maybe even naïve soul and was looked upon by townspeople as a “silly fellow” (Hawthorne 83). He is accompanied by a mysterious, older man who is later on revealed to be the devil. As they are walking, Young Goodman Brown tries to turn back several times and at one point succeeds in getting rid of the devil. However, when he sees that even his wife has surrendered to the same evil path that he was on, he stops resisting and continues into the forest. He ends up at a witches’ sabbath where he sees familiar faces of people whom he previously looked up to for spiritual guidance; he also finds Faith there and becomes devastated. In the end, he cries out to resist the devil and then wakes up to find himself alone in the forest.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” manifests a duality of conflict – both an external conflict and an internal conflict. It is the purpose of this essay to explore both types of conflict as manifested in the story.
Taking this path that closes behind him represents Young Goodman’s decent into the unconscious and his loss of innocence. On this journey he soon meets a man who is a condensation of several different factors. The man represents the devil, as well as Brown unconscious
Regarding the theme, the clues increase when Goodman, having left his wife, Faith, all alone and melancholy, enters the woods and encounters a sinister type with whom he has previously made an appointment for this particular evening:
...Brown, like all humans, sees that everyone can be corrupt and immoral, that it is possible for people to make mistakes. This is extremely disappointing to brown and ruins him. Brown felt that he made the right decision and did not follow the devil, but everyone else around him did. Even his own wife follows the devil. She is supposed to represent holiness and faith, and she is just as corrupt as everyone else. This portrays how even the church, which is supposed to be holy, can be corrupt. The story symbolizes that everyone in society is flawed and no one is perfect. However this idea drives Goodman brown to become insane. He dwells on this fact and loses his ability to see the good in people as well as the bad. Brown couldn't realize that even if people are evil at times, they can still be good people. This is what caused brown to change so drastically.
Goodman Brown embarks on his journey into the forest with the fervent belief that his potent dedication is indomitably ironclad, and thus will be able to overcome even the most tempting persuasions of the devil. As Goodman and the devil continue sauntering along the serpentine path, they encounter Goodman’s old catechism teacher, Goody Cloyse, and it is eventually revealed that she is heading to the satanic occult meeting at the core of the forest. Goodman is absolutely confounded at the sight of her, as he had always considered Cloyse as a moral and spiritual guide in his life. Goody Cloyse’s appearance is the first moment where Goodman begins to question his faith. Brown's illusions about the purity of his society are finally obliterated when he discovers that many of his fellow townspeople, including religious leaders and his wife (aptly named Faith), are attending a Black Mass or “witch-meeting”. At the end of the story, it is not clear whether Brown's experience was a nightmare or biting reality, but the results are nonetheless the same. Brown is unable to forgive the possibility of evil in his loved ones, and as a result spends the rest of his life in desperate loneliness and gloom.
Although this short story -- one of the greatest in American Literature -- was published almost a century before Sigmund Freud, a renowned psychologist and psychoanalyst, published his works, Young Goodman Brown almost explicitly illustrates how Freudian psychology works. A lot of aspects of psychology are depicted in this short story.