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Study Guide Questions for “The Ambitious Guest” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
1. What is the setting for the story? What is the place called? Where is it located?
When does the story occur?
2. How does the str anger (Ambitious Guest”) arrive at the location of the story?
Explain the role of the building that the family lives in.
3. Why is the wind so strong in the setting of the story?
4. On page 80, Hawthorne describes the secret of the young man’s character. What is that secret?
5. What is the name of the river that runs in the valley between the mountains?
6. Describe the father’s own ambitious dream for himself and his family.
What does this cause the children to do once they are in bed?
7. What did the small boy say he would like the whole family to do? How did the father miss an opportunity to accomplish this by not responding to the knock at the door?
8. On page 84, there are at least two examples of foreshadowing. Identify them and what you think they predict.
9. What is the significance of the ending and the survival of the cottage?
10. What is Hawthorne saying about the significance of life, ambition, home and hearth, wandering, and Fate in the ending of “The Ambitious Guest?”
Do you agree or disagree with him?