1. Discuss the following questions.
1) What is the significance of Goodman Brown’s name? Is he a “good man”? Explain.
2) Make a list of the tentative words that Hawthorne uses to suggest things may or may not be happening (e.g. seem, appear, fancied, as it were, as if, perhaps). How do those words influence your response to the story?
3) What do you think causes Goodman Brown to make the night journey into the deep woods?
4) What do you think is the theme of this story?
5) Who accompanies Goodman Brown?
6) Who do the two men meet in the dark forest?
7) How does the revelation of Goody Cloyse being a witch influence Goodman Brown?
8) What does the mysterious man try to convince Goodman Brown of?
9) Do you think Goodman Brown will eventually lose faith and yield to the devil’s will?
10) What might happen to the young couple after this unusual experience with the devil?
2. Fill in the blanks to complete the summary of the text.
Goodman Brown says goodbye to his wife, 1) , outside of his house in 2) Village. Faith, wearing pink ribbons in her cap, asks him to stay with her. Goodman Brown tells her that he must travel for the night and reminds her to say her 3) and go to bed early. He takes final leave of Faith, thinking to himself that she might have guessed the 4) purpose of his trip and promising to be a better person after this one night. Goodman Brown sets off on a road through agloomy 5) . He looks around, afraid of what might be behind each tree, thinking that there might be Indians or the 6) himself lurking there. He soon comes upon a man in the road who looks normal except for a walking stick which features a carved 7) . The man offers Goodman Brown the staff, saying that it might help him walk faster, but Goodman Brown refuses. Goodman Brown tells the man that his family members have been 8) and good people for generations and that he feels ashamed to associate with him. Then the two come upon an old woman Goody Cloyse who Goodman Brown knows to be a pious, 9) woman from the village. He hides, and the man taps her on the shoulder. She identifies him as the devil and reveals herself to be a 10) . Despite this revelation, Goodman Brown tells the man that he still intends to turn back, for Faith’s sake. Before disappearing, the man gives Goodman Brown his staff, telling him that he can use it for transport to the ceremony if he changes his mind.