1. Whom does Goodman Brown meet on the path? What is their relationship? What mystery surrounds their meeting?

2. What is Goodman Brown's wife's name? What is its significance?

3. In "Because I Could not Stop for Death," what attributes does Dickinson grant to death? Why is immortality going along for the ride?

4. If Milton's poem is not about blindness, what might it be about?

5. What tendency in Christians is Wordsworth criticizing?

6. What are the reactions of Ivan's colleagues to his death? What is implied by Tolstoy calling them 'near acquaintances' rather than friends?

7. Do you think the story would have been better had the events been placed in chronological order? What would be lost if the first scene had been placed last?

8. What is memorable in the character of Ivan's schoolboy son? Why is he crucial to the story?

9. What is the moral of the fable, "The Appointment in Samara"? What similarities do you see between "The Appointment in Samara" and Dickinson's "Because I Could not Stop for Death"?