“Young Goodman Brown”
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
1. Explain the significance of the
names of the title character and his
wife.
• last name “Brown” generic, could be
anyone
• No first name for main character – generic
• Faith represents Goodman Brown’s faith,
lost through his experience in the forest.
2. Explain who the figure that
Goodman Brown meets in the forest
is, and characterize him
• The Devil
• Laughs at GB’s piety (p. 113)
• About 50 y.o., same rank as GB, looks like
he could be GB’s father (p. 112)
• Knows world and townspeople (p. 112)
3. What does the forest symbolize?
• Puritans believed the forest represented:
– chaos,
– darkness,
– secrets and
– evil
4. At what precise moment does
GB lose his faith?
• P. 116 when the pink ribbon falls through
the air (whose is it??)
5. How does BG react to his wife
and others upon returning to
Salem? Why? Is he justified?
• Doesn’t greet people (p. 120)
• Turns pale during sermons in fear of
punishment (p. 120)
• Shrinks from Faith (p. 121)
• Scowls, mutters to self (p. 121)
6. What are two of the story’s main
themes?
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People are both good and evil.
People may not be what they seem.
All have sinned, despite appearances.
People can’t live in perpetual innocence.
Foreshadowing
• P. 111 – Faith’s fear & ribbons
• P. 111 “must needs be done twixt now and
sunrise” “present evil purpose”
• P. 112 “he may yet be passing through an
unseen multitude” “What if the Devil
himself should be at my very elbow?”
• P. 113 “I have been as well acquainted
with your family as ever a one among the
Puritans
Foreshadowing (cont.)
• P. 114 “there is a young man to be taken
into communion tonight”
• P. 115 “is that any reason I should quit my
dear Faith?”
• P. 116 “there is a goodly young woman to
be taken into communion”
Dream or reality?
Romantic Story Analysis
Chart
Fantasy and Imagination
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Devil
Witches
Flying staff
Possibly a dream
Boston to Salem in 15 min. (about 20 mi.)
Love of Nature
• Forest setting
Intense Emotion
• Loss of faith
• Disillusionment
Sympathetic interest in the past,
medieval
• Puritan time period of setting (story written
in 1846; Puritans were prominent in
1600s)
Exotic Places
• Forest
• Possible dream
Legends and Myths
• Witchcraft
• Devil
Death
• Brown dies at end
• Brown’s faith dies
Morbid melancholy; insanity
• Loss of faith
• Reaction of despair after forest scene
The Supernatural
• Devil
Failed Love
• Faith
Mysticism (spiritual intuition beyond ordinary
understanding)
• Brown knows everyone is a sinner; they
seem oblivious
Rural Life and the Common
Man
• Salem village
• Common people