Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “young Goodman Brown”: Ego, Super-Ego & Id

Chanel Arias

WIS I

Marlene Clark

September 25th 2017

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”: Ego, Super-ego & Id

 Young Goodman Brown and Faith are a recently married, young puritan couple.  One day Brown tells Faith he needs to go on a journey.  Once in the woods, he meets an old man who takes him to an unholy congregation, where his people of Salem will also attend. Young Goodman Brown falls unconscious, leaving him confused of whether it was all a dream or reality. Nevertheless, he was forever changed. In this essay, I will argue that Young Goodman Brown’s journey represents Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis theory of the ego, superego and id.

Freud’s theory defines the ego as one’s conscious which is ruled by reality.  Young Goodman Brown tries to follow the social structure of the puritan town that has been a central part of his life. An example of this is when his ego represses his urge to join in the unholy congregation. He tells the old man, “…my mind is made up. Not one step further I will budge on this errand.” Young Goodman believed that by being righteous it will lead him to greater rewards.  Brown lost all faith in himself, every person, and everything around him. 

The superego is a person’s moral conscience.  Faith, both his wife and religious beliefs, defines Goodman Brown’s superego.  He is aware of the evil sin that is stirring in his path with the old man, who we later label as the Devil.  While on their journey Goodman Brown states, “Well, then, to end the matter at once, there is my wife Faith. It would break her dear little heart; and I’d rather break my own.” Each time Goodman utters something about his faith, the Devil tries to persuade Goodman to follow him further along in the dark of the woods, “Be it so. Betake you to the woods, and let me keep my path.” Trying to dissuade the Devil from continuing their walk, Goodman uses his faith to help him, an act of the superego repressing the id.

The id is the unconscious; it is the dark, inaccessible part of our minds.  The symbolism of evil is evident as Brown proceeds toward the unknown. Nathaniel Hawthorne described the woods as, “a dreary road, darkened by the gloomiest trees of the forest.” The woods, being dark and gloomy, serve as the place of id. In the woods is where meets the old man, the Devil, who is taking him to a congregation where the people of Salem revel in sin. Young Goodman Brown is helpless and surrounded by doom and despair.