LITERARY ANALYSIS WORKSHEET

Title of selection: Young Goodman Brown

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Genre: Short Story

Setting: Forest & Church

Historical context:
The historical context of this short story is about the Religion and Beliefs of people in that time.
The Puritans believed in a very strict biblical life that if you did something wrong you were punishing
severely. Moreover, their social lives were driven by the church or their fellow churchmen.
The author wrote this piece to: (author’s purpose)
The author wrote this piece to tackle that not all who show goodness to you has no sinful act.
The main idea of this piece is:
The main idea of this piece we cannot trust everyone in this world. Maybe they are just
pretending to be a friend or good to the eyes of everyone but they have hidden character that they are
not showing to many.
The message (or theme) of this selection which the author would like us to “take away” is:
Temptation and sins of man - The weakness of morality because even the public figures like
the minister and blasphemer can be sinful. Also, how we look at evil in other people. Believing that
each of us are good side and bad side.
Characters: (Major)
Protagonist(s): Young Goodman Brown
Antagonist(s): Witch
Static characters: Minister, Blasphemer & Hearers
Dynamic characters: Not mentioned
Did the author use any special literary devices in this selection such as: personification,
metaphor, simile, foreshadowing, suspense, flashback, imagery, irony, humor, poetic
sound devices such as rhyme, etc… List and give specific examples:
1. Alas! -Irony
2. Saint like- Simile
3. Goodman Brown turn pale, dreading lest the roof should thunder down upon-
Foreshadowing (there is a storm coming)
What was the author’s “tone” toward the subject/person/idea he/she wrote about?
The author’s tone towards the subject /person he wrote about is Confusion about reality
and Fear. He shows that Goodman Brown being confuse and remembering about his wild dream in
the forest and he was afraid while worshipping.

What “point of view” was this piece told from? List word clues that indicate this.
The point of view of this piece being told was on the third person point of view.
 He became from the night of that fearful dream – uses “he”

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 List the conflicts in this selection (internal and/or external):
“A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate, man did he become from
the night of that fearful dream. On the Sabbath day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm,
he could not listen, because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed
strain.”
The narrator explains here about Goodman Brown could see his neighbors as Devil
worshippers. He no longer believes that anyone is good and they’re just hiding their true nature.

If this was a fiction/non-fiction or dramatic work, list the most important parts of the
PLOT:

Exposition:
Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting.
Rising action:
Goodman Brown remembering a dream of evil omen. He realized how desperate he become
from that night of that fearful dream.
Climax:
The climax in the short part of the story was when the minister spoke from the pulpit with
power and persuasion about the scared truth of religion, (Gospel during mass) and of saint-like and
triumphant deaths.

Falling action:

The falling action in the story was when Goodman Brown turn pale and a thunder down
upon the gray Blasphemer means that he saw an image that the minister is worshipping the devil.
Resolution:

Goodman Brown imagination about the minister worshipping the devil.

Notes:
I've noticed that Young Goodman Brown's short story discusses a person's morality in this
section. When the time comes, we will have to decide between doing what is good or what is bad. We
must decide whether our acts in life are also influenced by our religious convictions. We must come to
accept the reality that even those who act morally before others might nevertheless be sinne

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