1. A) The old man that Brown meets on the road is really the devil. The devil appears on the road because it is a path of sin. His staff is a writhing snake that cannot be determined to be alive or not. B) The words used to describe the devil said that he is an older man about the age of Goodman Brown. Both the devil and Brown have the same general appearance. This signifies that the devil and Brown are not too far off from each other in their ways.
2. A) The staff that the devil carries represents the sins of the people. The wriggling of the staff is the peoples’ hidden sins just itching to be let loose. It is hard for the people to hide their sins all the time and it creates restlessness in them, which is shown in the mysterious movements of the staff. B) It is the staff that leads Brown onward on his journey. The mysteriousness of it pulls at the curiosity of Brown and leads him deeper into the forest. Brown wants to find what the town is hiding from society, and the staff holds part of the key.
3. A) If Brown had not ventured into the forest, he would have not found the hidden sins that surround the Puritan village and would have lived that rest of his life in question. He wanted to find what was in the dark, and did not end his forest stroll until he found the answer. However, what he found ruined the rest of his life for him. B) If Brown had stayed home with Faith, he would have remained in question of his Puritan friends. He would not have been able to fully trust anyone in the village. After Brown found the truth about his society, though, he never trusted anyone again.
4. Everything that Brown witnessed was part of a dream because after that night, everyone in the town was back to their normal self. Brown was the only one who was suspicious and seemed to be the only one that knew of all the sins that were in the Puritan society. Because of his dream, Brown saw the hidden side of the Puritans and it haunted him till