“They abandoned all and pushed farther westward –“ Since they’re pushing farther west, you can assume that this takes place in the 1800s, due to all the new world exploration.
What in the text would not fit in a different time period?
“There was no physician within miles, no neighbor; nor was she in a condition to be left, to summon help.” Usually, even in remote parts of the USA we have neighbors half a mile away, so clearly they’re speaking of time where many regions were not settled.
What in the text indicates the beliefs and values of the author?
“But God forbid I should say that!”
What in the text concerns women or marriage?
“A young woman in all ways worthy of his honest devotion”
What in the text indicates the writer is male or female?
“Tradition is silent and the doubter is at liberty to entertain his doubt; but God forbid that I should share it!”
What in the text indicates assumptions about women and female roles in society?
In that eastern country whence he came he had married, as was the fashion, a young woman in all ways worthy of his honest devotion, who shared the dangers and privations of his lot with a willing spirit and light heart.
What in the text explains what the main character is thinking?
“He was terrified beyond the power to cry out or move.”
What in the text might be symbolic of underlying feelings or thoughts?
“Grief is an artist of powers as various as the instruments upon which he plays his dirges for the dead, evoking from some the sharpest, shrillest notes, from others the low, grave chords that throb recurrent like the slow beating of a distant drum.”
What in the text depends on irrational fears or beliefs?
“ -and ran away to avoid the ghost which every well-informed boy thereabout knew haunted the spot."