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Great American Short Stories

Book cover of Great American Short Stories
Great American Short StoriesAmbrose Bierce, Bret Harte, Conrad Aiken, Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, Eudora Welty, Hamlin Garland, Henry James, Herman Melville, Hortense Calisher, James Thurber, John O'Hara, John Steinbeck, Katherine Anne Porter, Mark Twain, Mary (editor) Stegner, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, Mary Stegner, Nathaniel Hawthorne, O. Henry, Paul Horgan, Sherwood Anderson, Stephen Crane, Wallace Stegner, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Washington Irving, Wilbur Daniel Steele, William Faulkner, William March

Characters in Great American Short Stories

6 characters, main characters first.

Main characters

  • Rip Van Winkle

    A good-natured but lazy villager who falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains and wakes up twenty years later to a changed world.

  • Roderick Usher

    The last male heir of the Usher family, suffering from a mysterious illness that heightens his senses and leads to his mental and physical decline.

  • Goodman Brown

    A young Puritan man who ventures into the forest at night and encounters a satanic ritual, leading to a loss of faith and a lifetime of suspicion.

Supporting characters

  • Lady Madeline Usher

    Roderick Usher's twin sister, who suffers from catalepsy and is seemingly buried alive, contributing to the gothic horror of the tale.

  • Faith Brown

    Goodman Brown's innocent wife, whose pink ribbons symbolize his initial faith and purity.

  • Goody Cloyse

    An elderly, seemingly pious woman from Goodman Brown's village who is revealed to be a witch.

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