al desires and psychic energy. The id operates on the pleasure principal, demanding immediate satisfaction. The ego is the rational and logical part of the mind. It operates as a balance or regulator to the id. The final part is the superego, an internal censor that allows people to make moral judgments in light of social pressures. (150-151)Between the id, ego, and superego, exists an ever-changing balance is created. When the ego cannot meet the needs of the id and superego, a neurosis is created: “It is these unresolved conflicts (i.e. neurosis) that Freud seeks to resolve so the patient can return to normalcy.” (Bressler 153) Using this tripartite model is an important element for dream interpretation, which is the basis for my criticism of “Young Goodman Brown”A psychoanalytic criticism of “Young Goodman Brown” will view the entire story as a single dream of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s. Freud believed that dreams stored hidden repressed sexual desires, anger, rage, guilt, and emotions from the unconscious. Therefore, our psyche recreates these repressed feeling and emotions through our dreams. When the critic analyzes the literature as a dream, he then unlocks the hidden messages, repressed desires, and underlying motivations of the author.Central to the story of Goodman Brown is his curious journey with the stranger. Although the reader is never directly told why Brown meets with the stranger, a psychoanalytic criticism lends a different and unique perspective to his travels. On the surface of the story, the meeting of the two men may be simply seen as chance encounter; however, their characters and actions represent far more. Hawthorne’s writing is very closely related to his conflicts with religion during his life. Central to his struggle in “Young Goodman Brown” is the conflict with gay and lesbian relationships versus the Puritan church. Hawthorne uses his c...
