Abstract of Greg Zacharias s Essay: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Turn of the Screw

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1 1 Marissa Kleckner Dr. Pennington Engl A Literary Theory & Writing Abstract & Keyword Search Original (Rough Draft) 10/08/14 Abstract of Greg Zacharias s Essay: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Turn of the Screw Greg Zacharias uses Lacan s perspective to psychoanalyze the character of the governess in the Turn of the Screw and relates Lacanian concepts, theories, and terms to explain the relationship between the Big and Little Other. He goes on to explain how this relationship is connected to how and why she sees the ghost, the way she responds to her fantasy like situation, and explains why the governess is confessing to the Big Other. Near the end Zacharias explains that it is difficult to discern what is real and what is fantasy in the story, but Zacharias think this is the reason why the Turn of the Screw is such a good story and why people continue to read and discuss it and it s ambiguity. Keyword Search of Greg Zacharias s Essay: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Turn of the Screw Zacharias, Greg. "A Psychoanalytic Perspective." The Turn of the Screw. 3rd ed. Boston: Palgrave Macmillan, Print. Subjects: The Turn of the Screw, Psychoanalytic Theory, objet petit a, Jacques Lacan, language, unconscious, fantasy, reality, confession, authority, Big Other, Little Other, anxiety, symbol, symbolic relationship, rules, governess, jouissance, psychic wholeness, desire, mise-en-scene, pleasure, superego imperative, release of anxiety, apparition, self-doubt, Lacanian fantasy, desperation, Foucauldian Confession

2 2 Marissa Kleckner Dr. Pennington Engl A Literary Theory & Writing Psychoanalytical Essay Original (Rough Draft) 10/07/14 Analyzing Young Goodman Brown & His Loss of Faith A large part of Freudian psychoanalysis is about conception of the mind and how the unconsciousness attempts to break through the repression barrier and enter consciousness (Pennington & Cordell, 52). In the Ego and the Id (1923) Freud theorizes that the mind contains the id, the ego, and the superego and discusses each in more depth. This way of viewing and theorizing about the mind containing these three distinct concepts connect to the story Young Goodman Brown, written by Nathanial Hawthorne. According to Freud, the superego is the moral code that reflects a variety of sources of authority social, parental, and religious (Pennington & Cordell, 52). The Puritan community s morals and faith and Brown s Puritan faith represent his superego. According to Freud, the ego is the I that seeks to balance the opposing of the id and the superego (Pennington & Cordell, 52). In the story, Young Goodman Brown himself is the person that is trying to balance these two opposing forces. According to Freud, the id is the it of life force for humans the center of our instinct, our libido, and our desires (Pennington & Cordell, 52). In the story both temptation and sin are represented by the Devil with the snake-coiled staff. In this way the snake and devil represent Brown s id in that they lure and persuade him to question and eventually completely lose his faith. Goodman Brown s journey through the woods with the Devil serves to represent the curiosity and questioning of his faith. It also serves as a mental struggle between

3 3 balancing his id and superego. Toward the end of the short story, Brown completely loses his balance between his id and superego and by choosing to side with his id and continue his journey through the woods, eventually led to his downfall. Using Freudian Psychoanalytic theory, I am going to analyze the decline of Goodman Brown and his loss of faith by examining his superego, ego, and id. First, I will examine Goodman Brown s superego to analyze his loss of faith and his eventual decline using the Freudian Psychoanalytic theory. As mentioned previously, the superego is the moral code that is affected by social, parental, and religious authority. In this short story, the role of the social and religious authorities played the most important role with Goodman Brown s superego. The Puritan community s morals and faith and Brown s Puritan faith represent Brown s superego. In this way, the role of the social and religious authorities seemed to intertwine, but not necessarily in a positive way. The social authority that influenced Goodman Brown was the Puritan community and their morals. But since the society he lived in was very strict and religious, the social and religious parts of Brown s life overlapped and this seemed to cause problems for Brown. The religious authority that influenced Goodman Brown was his own religious belief, which was mainly based off of the Puritan community s morals and faith. This claim is evident in the fact that he seems to only be able to express his faith by the faith of other people. In the beginning the story Brown mentions his wife Faith and how faithful she is when he says; Poor little Faith! What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand! She talks of dreams, too. Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done to-night. But no, no; t would kill her to think it. Well, she s a blessed angel on earth, and after this one night I ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven (Hawthorne, 3).

4 4 But Young Goodman Brown eventually finds out that Faith might not be such a holy and faithful angel herself. When talking with the devil, Brown talks about how proud of his family he and mentions their good reputations they had in the Puritan community. Goodman Brown exclaimed to the Devil while unconsciously resuming his walk that he s gone, Too far, too far! My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs; and shall I be the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path and kept (Hawthorne, 4). Brown looks up to his family with respect and is proud of their past. But he seems to be blind to the fact that even his family may not have the cleanest past and may not always been the holiest of Puritans. With each person that he originally perceived as holy and faithful to God that he sees or hears on his journey to the Devil s evil forest ceremony, his own faith in God begins to falter. Next, I will examine Goodman Brown s ego to analyze his loss of faith and his eventual decline using the Freudian Psychoanalytic theory. As previously stated, the ego is the part of the mind that seeks to balance the id and the superego, which are opposing forces. In the story, Young Goodman Brown himself is the person that is trying to balance these two opposing forces. When he decides to enter the forest and meet with the mysterious stranger is when he begins to lose the balance between his id and superego. The figurative balance begins to teeter back and forth between his id and his superego during his journey to the forest and continues to waver throughout his hike through the forest with the mysterious stranger who turns out to be the Devil. On the pathway into the forest and while walking with the Devil, is when Goodman Brown really begins to question himself and his faith. At this point, he can t seem to make up his mind about whether to keep going with the Devil or turn around and go back. This is when he begins to reason with himself and the Devil. Brown tells the Devil that he wants to stop and turn back and says Well, then to end the matter at once there is my wife, Faith. It

5 5 would break her dear little heart; and I d rather break my own (Hawthorne, 5) Here, Brown is saying that it would break his wife s heart if he decided to continue to walk on with the Devil, but doesn t really mention his own faith, but instead mentions how his loss of faith would effect his reputation and how it would effect other people. Though Goodman Brown himself is the person that is trying to balance the opposing forces of his id and superego and does make his own choices, he is greatly influenced by many people throughout his journey and this in turn effects his faith in God and his choice to continue on into the forest. Each person he encounters on his journey through the forest influences him. He had originally perceived each of the people he sees as holy, pure, and faithful, until he hears or sees that they are also in the forest and on their way to the Devil s evil forest ceremony. He is shocked and mortified by this and not only loses his trust and faith in each of the people that he thought he knew, but with each person begins to lose faith in God. When he hears the voices of his minster and deacon he is again surprised with shock. In response Young Goodman Brown caught hold of a tree for support, being ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened with the heavy sickness of his heart. He looked up to the sky, doubting whether there really was a heaven above him (Hawthorne, 8). Here he again gains the knowledge of what people are really like behind their holy Puritan façade. He also loses his innocence and not only losses his faith in other people, but begins to lose faith in God. But it s also important to note that Brown s questioning of and loss of his faith would not have been possible without the catalysts of the snake and the devil. Lastly, I will examine Goodman Brown s id to analyze his loss of faith and his eventual decline using the Freudian Psychoanalytic theory. As previously mentioned the id is the center of our instinct, our libido, and our desires. In the story, both temptation and sin are represented by the Devil with the snake-coiled staff. In this way the devil with his powerful, magical snake-coiled staff represent Brown s id in that they lure and

6 6 persuade him to question and eventually completely lose his faith. At first it is hard to tell who the man that Brown meets in the forest actually is and whether or not he is the Devil. One can infer that the man who carries the staff with the snake coiled around it is in fact supposed to represent the Devil. This is not only apparent by the fact that his staff seems to have magical powers, but by the fact that there is a snake wrapped around it, which is a Biblical reference and is used often to symbolize evil and sin. The snake representing evil and sin is a well-known image to someone who is religious or who has read or studied the Bible at one point in their life. The image of the snake appears in the story of Adam and Eve and is also a story related to the theme of evil and sin. The story of Adam and Eve in the Bible attempts to explain how evil and sin entered the world. According to the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis, before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, everything was good and there was no evil. But then the talking snake persuaded Eve to commit the sin of disobeying God by eating the forbidden fruit off of the tree of knowledge. The snake lured her into disobeying God by questioning her about what God asked of her and replies that You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3: 4-6) Then Eve persuades Adam to eat the fruit with her. After eating the fruit they both lose their innocence and gain knowledge and understanding of good and evil. In the end, Eve is blamed for bringing evil and sin into the world and why they both exist. But since Adam also ate the fruit with her, God puts a curse on Adam, Eve, and their future generations. Going back to the story of Young Goodman Brown, although Brown eventually leaves the physical location of the forest, mentally he stays there for the rest of his life. If you think about it, this also connects to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. Just like Adam and Eve in a way loss their innocence and gained knowledge, so to did Goodman Brown. The only difference is that Brown is cursed with the knowledge that

7 7 the Puritans in his community aren t as holy and faithful as he originally perceived and now they are evil in his eyes. The complete loss of his faith and his decline into distrustfulness and depression happens when he hears his wife Faith in the forest on her way to the ceremony and see s her at the Devil s mass. This is because in the beginning Brown originally looked up to his wife, Faith, and was inspired by her pureness, holiness, and faith in God. But when he sees her in the forest and at the Devil worship ceremony his perception of her completely changes and he can no longer look at her the same. It is evident that seeing Faith in the forest is the tipping and falling point of Brown s own faith by the way he reacts to the sight of Faith and her pink hair ribbon. He shouts Faith name but got not response. But something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon. My Faith is gone! cried he after one stupefied moment. There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given (Hawthorne, 9). After this climax of the story, Brown without a faith or anyone to trust and believe in, he begins to panic and freak out. This is where he gains knowledge about what his town people and his wife are actually hiding behind their Puritan reputation and he losses his innocence. Here he declares that there is no good on earth and invites the Devil to join him again and picks up his magical staff. The downfall of the character of Goodman Brown into a life full of distrustfulness and depression is apparent by the conclusion of the story where the narrator writes that Brown became a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grandchildren, a good procession, besides

8 8 neighbors not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom (Hawthorne 13). The forest is the place where Brown explores his doubts and opposing desires, and represents his personal hell. Goodman Brown was trying to repress and hide his curiosity and questioning of his Puritan faith from everyone including himself. The Puritan community s morals and faith and Brown s Puritan faith represent Brown s superego. In the story, Goodman Brown himself is the person that is trying to balance these two opposing forces. In the story both temptation and sin are represented by the Devil with the snake-coiled staff. In this way the snake and devil represent Brown s id in that they lure and persuade him to question and eventually completely lose his faith. Goodman Brown s journey through the woods with the Devil serves to represent the curiosity and questioning of his faith. His journey also serves as a mental struggle between balancing his id and superego. Toward the end of the short story, Brown completely loses his balance between his id and superego and by choosing to side with his id and continue his journey through the woods, eventually led to his downfall.

9 9 Web Cited Attridge, Harold W., Wayne A. Meeks, Jouette M. Bassler, Werner E. Lemke, Susan Niditch, and Eileen M. Schuller. The HarperCollins Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version, including the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books with Concordance. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, Print. Cordell, Ryan. "Chapter 3 Writing about Character and Motivation: Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism." Writing about Literature through Theory. By John Pennington. Washington, DC: Flat World Knowledge, Print. Gardner, Janet E. "Young Goodman Brown." Literature: A Portable Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, Print.