Is it significant that most of the storys action takes place at ...

[NClaborn]

Is it significant that most of the storys action takes place at night and inthe woods?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

As Brown and the stranger proceed deeper into the woods, what doesBrown find out that troubles him? When the pink ribbon flutters to the ground, as though fallen from something airborne (par. 49), what does Brown assume? What effect does this event have upon his determination to resist the devil?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[IAPPLET]

Answer to Question 1

The tale draws a clear contrast in terms of time, place, and action: on the one hand we have the light of day and the village, where everything is open, honest, and disciplined, where sweet elderly ladies give religious instruction to innocent little children; on the other hand there are the darkness and the forest, where all is covert, corrupt, and uninhibited, where depraved animal nature flaunts itself and the very same old ladies indulge in obscene Satanic rituals. The journey Brown undertakes is one from piety and community into the feral heart of darkness and evil

Answer to Question 2

The air is filled with a sound of confused but familiar voices, including one entreating voice that Brown seems to recognize as that of his wife; then a womans scream is followed by distant fading laughter, after which Faiths lost pink ribbon flutters to the ground, prompting Brown to conclude that Faith too is a witch who let fall her ribbon while riding on a broomstick to the midnight Sabbath. (Many students, unless you help them, will miss this suggestion.) Sure enough, when Brown arrives, Faith is there too. The ribbon, earlier suggesting youthful beauty and innocence, becomes an ironic sign of monstrous evil and duplicity. This terrible realization causes Brown to decide to follow the devil after alleven though, presumably, the fluttering ribbon was another diabolical trick. When Brown meets the real Faith once more, she is still all beribboned, as if she hasnt lost anything.