Young Goodman Brown Memory and the Past Quotes

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Quote #4

"Ah, forsooth, and is it your worship indeed?" cried the good dame. "Yea, truly is it, and in the very image of my old gossip, Goodman Brown, the grandfather of the silly fellow that now is. But—would your worship believe it?—my broomstick hath strangely disappeared, stolen, as I suspect, by that unhanged witch, goody Cory, and that, too, when I was all anointed with the juice of smallage, and cinquefoil, and wolf's bane." (29-32)

Brain snack: "silly" used to mean "foolish" and possibly not the sharpest crayon in the box, if you know what we mean. So, basically, Goody Cloyse here is calling Goodman Brown a nincompoop for not understanding his past.

Quote #5

Once, the listener fancied that he could distinguish the accents of town's-people of his own, men and women, both pious and ungodly, many of whom he had met at the communion-table, and had seen others rioting at the tavern. (47)

Young Goodman Brown uses his memories of Salem life to make sense of otherwise disorienting experiences. And notice the word "fancy": it's still not clear if any of this is actually happening.

Quote #6

At the word, Goodman Brown stept forth from the shadow of the trees, and approached the congregation, with whom he felt a loathful brotherhood, by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart. He could have well nigh sworn, that the shape of his own dead father beckoned him to advance, looking downward from a smoke-wreath. (61)

Talk about the past coming back to haunt you: here, all of Goodman Brown's male ancestors are coming out of the smoke to draw him into a life of evil. (Or so it seems.)