Judgment In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Human nature is an unstoppable force that is the source of all human instincts. The root of our behaviors in life are derived from human nature, and one of these common behaviors is judgement. While some judgement may be admirable, it most commonly takes the form of criticism. A philosophy established by swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung states that, “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” Jung believes that these judgements of others can lead to a deeper understanding of our personal nature, allowing us to possibly change for the better. However, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes stories that suggest otherwise. Two of Hawthorne’s stories disprove Jung's statement seeing that Goodman Brown of “Young Goodman

A journey through the woods symbolizes sin, but while Goodman brown takes his own journey, he is judgmental of others he meets along the way. When he comes upon a lady he knows, he exclaims in disbelief, "That old woman taught me my catechism!”. Despite being in the woods, representing his own indulgence in sin, Goodman brown does not stop his judgements of the woman who he once regarded as pure. Similarly, Goodman Brown’s judgement of the baptism in the woods exemplifies another situation in which his hypocrisy does not lead to a better self understanding. Although the people in the woods “might be partakers of the mystery of sin, more conscious of the secret guilt of others,” Goodman does not understand that he is as guilty of sinning as they are. He too is more aware of the “secret guilt” that others possess. Goodman Brown does not learn from the experience, but instead returns home with a new view of the people around him. Unlike before, he now “...turn[s] away” from those that he used to share a life with. Knowing that they have committed acts of wrongdoing, he believes himself to be superior to those around him, showing that he does not accept his own sinful actions. Goodman Brown's failure to better understand himself after judging others contradicts Carl Jung’s statement, thus disproving

Becoming consumed by his hatred of Georgiana's birthmark, Aylmer attempts to use his science to remove the flaw. Though believing that he is an accomplished scientist, Aylmer’s “most splendid successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed.” But despite surmounting his capabilities, Aylmer sought to achieve these lofty goals anyway. Aylmer’s ignorance pushes him to experiment on his wife in hopes of changing her, however, it only leads to her somber demise. Had Aylmer learned to accept Georgiana's birthmark, and face that he was too ambitious with his science, than she would have lived a long life. Sadly, his obsession caused him to continued until Georgiana was “...without the semblance of a flaw.” To disprove Carl Jung's statement, Aylmer did not change or better understand himself after seeing what irritates him about others, but instead allowed his obsession to lead to the greatest failure of