Discussion Question # 1 Discuss the following quote from Young Goodman Brown :
How does this relate to Hawthorne’s own life?
How does this information further the reader’s understanding of the the plot?
What does this foreshadow in the story?

I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that’s no trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem. And it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip’s War. They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. I would fain be friends with you, for their sake.
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Discussion Question #2 : What is the significance of the title; Young Goodman Brown ? What may have been Hawthorne’s motive in naming his protagonist Young Goodman Brown, rather than, say, John Parker? What is the significance of his wife’s name?
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Discussion Question # 3 :Hawthorne alludes to Goodman waking on the path after his journey into the forest and alludes to the possibility that the events Goodman witnessed were simply part of a dream. What do you think? Was everything Brown witnessed a figment of his own imagination, something conjured by evil, or a dream? How does this affect your reading? Does the story lose any meaning if it truly were a dream? Support your answer with passages from the text (quote lines).

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