Quotation Response 9/30

Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Young Goodman Brown" p. 67

1. "What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven: is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after her?"

The old woman is a witch and chooses hell over heaven. She chooses a menacing and evil life, though she taught Goodman Brown his catechism. Young Goodman Brown thinks if he should leave his wife, Faith, and a life of doing good to follow the old woman and take a different path. This seems plausible because of the mysterious journey that Goodman is on, accompanied by the devil.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Young Goodman Brown" p. 71

2. "But he had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought, when the minister and good old Deacon Gookin seized his arms and led him to the blazing rock."

This quote is powerful and mysterious in that Goodman Brown is being forced to this strange ritual in the middle of the woods. Strangely enough, the townspeople of Salem village, where the Salem witch trials took place, are there. All of the people who were involved in his religious life are there at the ritual. Now, he is to see what will become of it and the seemingly supernatural aura about it.