Tritt’s View of Young Goodman Brown :: Young Goodman Brown YGB

Tritts View of Young Goodman embr birth In the article, Young Goodman Brown and the Psychology of Projection, Michael Tritt critically analyzes Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown to construct the process of how Hawthorne regards Goodman Browns behavior. Tritt examines the phenomenon of projection in psychology and believes that Browns compulsive condemnation of opposites, along with his consistent denial of his own culpability, illustrates a classically defined case of projection (116). He defines projection as an unconscious process when a person projects their own traits or desires onto other people, thus representing a sham perception on whom the projection is made. Tritt perceives Goodman Browns withdrawal is from the persuasion that he has not fallen in with his evil community, thus Goodman Brown projects his guilt to them in an attempt to escape a guilty subconscious. While Goodman Brown is in the forest, he locates his anxieties upon the community that he lives in. T he love in the forest actually depicts Goodman Browns own evils. Tritt refers to Goodman Brown snatching away a child being catechized by Goody Cloyse If Brown actually conceives of himself as fallen, why would he snatch the child from one fiend to yield yet another, namely himself? Brown must believe himself untainted, or at least less tainted than various members of his community. (115) Michael Tritt believes that Browns anxieties inevitably stick within his subconscious forever. The anxieties suggest a psychological design with aspects of misperception and false perception to reveal a projection process. Tritt asserts that Goodman Browns evil is located in others, and Brown believes himself to be without guilt although his desires are still in his subconscious. It is a vice-like grip with which such process is paralyzing, indeed terrifying (Tritt 116). Undoubtedly, Michael Tritt uses a psychological strategy to critically analyze Young Goodman Brown. He guardedly constructs hi s criticism through quotes from other critics and the short story. Sigmund Freud is also quoted because he theorized the projection process.