Q 01/05

In Young Goodman Brown, the word 'Goodman' is not a first name but which kind of Puritan-era label?

A) A church office

B) A polite title

C) A family surname

D) A militia rank

Answer · why

B) A polite title

A polite title, Goodman was used where 'Mister' would be today, though for a man of slightly lower social rank.

Q 02/05

Which horror novelist wrote 'The Man in the Black Suit' as a homage to Young Goodman Brown?

A) Ray Bradbury

B) Peter Straub

C) Stephen King

D) Dean Koontz

Answer · why

C) Stephen King

Stephen King has called Hawthorne's tale one of the ten best stories written by an American. His homage won an O. Henry Award.

Q 03/05

What role did an ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne play in the Salem witch trials of 1692?

A) An accuser

B) A juror

C) A jailer

D) A judge

Answer · why

D) A judge

A judge, and unlike fellow judge Samuel Sewall he is not known to have repented, which left his novelist descendant deeply ashamed.

Q 04/05

What did Nathaniel Hawthorne add to his surname, probably to set himself apart from his forebears?

A) The letter e

B) The letter w

C) The letter r

D) The letter n

Answer · why

B) The letter w

The letter w turned Hathorne into Hawthorne in his early twenties, soon after college, separating him from two notoriously harsh ancestors.

Q 05/05

What does the narrator of Young Goodman Brown suggest the witch meeting in the forest may have been?

A) Only a dream

B) A fever vision

C) A village prank

D) A drunken fancy

Answer · why

A) Only a dream

Only a dream, perhaps: the narrator asks whether Brown simply fell asleep in the forest, then adds 'Be it so if you will' and never settles it.