Structure of “Young Goodman Brown”“Almost all literary theorists since Aristotle have underlined the importance of structure, conceived in different ways, in the analysis of a 'literary work' (Abrams 300) . This essay will explore some interesting points in the structure of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown", considering the time frame, foreshadowing, suspenseful incidents, climax, and denouement (Axelrod 337). The narrative in this tale is simple until the narrator, late in the story, asks the reader, "Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a meeting of witches?" This question gives the reader the chance to believe that the story is mostly a dream. The story covers a period of time from sunset, when the young Puritan Goodman Brown leaves his wife on the doorstep, until the next morning, when he returns. to the village of Salem after spending the night in the woods. As Brown leaves the house at the beginning of the story, his wife Faith foreshadows future events with her reference to dreams: "Dearest heart," she whispered, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, "you I pray, postpone your journey until dawn, and sleep in your bed tonight. A lonely woman is tormented by such dreams and such thoughts, that she is sometimes afraid of herself. Please, stay with me this night, dear husband , of all the nights of the year! perhaps a dream; in other words, most of the narrative might just be a dream. The devil also introduces the... middle of the paper... with Goodman until his death : “And when he lived long, and was borne to his grave, a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an old woman, and children and grandchildren, a beautiful procession, besides the neighbors, not a few, carved no verse of hope upon the his tombstone; because the hour of his death was sad." In this essay we have seen some interesting points in the structure of “Young Goodman Brown,” including the time structure, use of foreshadowing, suspenseful incidents, climax, and denouement. WORKS CITED Brams, MH A Glossary of Literary Terms, 7th ed. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999.Axelrod, Rise B. St. Martin's Guide to Writing, 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988.Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." 1835. http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/goodman/goodmantext.html