Abstract
This paper investigates socio-psychological alienation in Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman Brown”. It focuses on Brown’s psychological motivations that lead him to leave his village, Salem, on a journey to be taken literally and allegorically along with the inner conflicts thereof. Eventually, the result is a short-lived schism in his psyche. In fact, what urges Brown to step farther into the dark wood is an insistence to discover the whole truth so as to put an end to any vacillation between threatening possibilities suggested by the devil about the Puritan society to which he belongs. Thus, Brown turns into a rejectionist of all the teachings of his Puritan culture. In the end not only does he liberate himself from these cultural shackles, but he also seems to rise above them. So, while he lives among his countrymen he is not one of them. Brown’s new psychological state never allows him to accept the evil nature and the hypocrisy of his ancestry. Moreover, the psychological confusion in Brown’s psyche reaches its peak in a state of depression that we notice at the end of the story, which eventually puts him among those who have come to be called the “dark” romantics of the period, along with Poe, Melville, and Dickinson.
Highlights
The theme of alienation is widespread and has been tackled in several fields, like sociology and psychology
In an attempt to define „alienation‟, Feuer write explains that Alienation lies in every direction of human experience where basic emotional desire is frustrated, every direction in which the person may be compelled by social situations to do violence to his nature. “„Alienation‟ is used to convey the emotional tone that accompanies any behavior in which the person is compelled to act self-destructively; that is the most general definition of alienation, and its dimensions will be as varied as human desire and need” (Feuer, 1969)
Hawthorne uses this concept of being from a good background and still going astray to criticize the way in which society at the times put so much emphasis on a person‟s background to determine that person‟s significance in society
Summary
The theme of alienation is widespread and has been tackled in several fields, like sociology and psychology. People can be alienated from others, from society and culture, and, more importantly, from themselves It was introduced into social science generally via Marx (Israel, 1971). Writers like Marx, Rousseau and Hegel tackled the theme of alienation in their works. In an attempt to define „alienation‟, Feuer write explains that Alienation lies in every direction of human experience where basic emotional desire is frustrated, every direction in which the person may be compelled by social situations to do violence to his nature. “„Alienation‟ is used to convey the emotional tone that accompanies any behavior in which the person is compelled to act self-destructively; that is the most general definition of alienation, and its dimensions will be as varied as human desire and need” (Feuer, 1969). The resulting effect of all this in is a dejected person but a completely new one
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