24 pages • 48-minute read
The Hollow of the Three Hills
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Themes
The Destructiveness of Guilt and Shame
The Destructiveness of Guilt and Shame is a theme that appears in many of Hawthorne’s works. Hawthorne was intimately acquainted with guilt and shame due to his family’s Puritan background and involvement in the Salem witch trials, and he wrote with a personal perspective on this topic. This theme is prominently seen in “The Hollow of the Three Hills” through the character of the lady.
Going against safety and prudence, the lady seeks out the old woman to help her. It is never directly stated that the old woman is a witch, but the lady is the one who has requested a meeting because of the old woman’s supernatural reputation. The lady is hoping that the meeting will bring her peace and that she will see that the family that she left behind is fine. Her desire for absolution from her guilt is so great that the lady is willing to meet with someone who is known to be involved with the supernatural—her shame leads her to be reckless with her safety. The old woman demurs and claims that she cannot provide these visions but that if the lady is “bold” (Paragraph 5) she will get what she came for. The lady is so anxious for relief from the guilt that she carries that she is willing to agree to anything the old woman says, even agreeing to her own death if necessary. Her guilt opens a pathway for the old woman to take advantage of the lady by showing the lady only sad visions of her family for the old woman’s own amusement.
When the lady is shown a vision of her parents, she hears that “their words were all of sorrow” (Paragraph 11). Seeing their sorrow and the shame that they feel over her desertion compounds her grief. Instead of feeling the absolution that she was seeking, the lady is left feeling worse than before she saw the vision. When she realizes that the old woman can see the visions as well, she is horrified, “a sense of humiliation triumphing over her agony and fear” (Paragraph 13).
Good Versus Evil
Good Versus Evil is a prominent theme explored in “The Hollow of the Three Hills.” On the surface, the story initially presents the Puritanical “lady” as a foil to the witch-like old woman. The old woman’s supernatural abilities and relative “unattractiveness” put her in the traditional place of an antagonist, particularly when placed up against a younger, female main character. This setup mimics a fairy tale or parable-like story.
Per the origins and common tropes in Dark Romanticism, this simple concept is turned on its head when the lady’s past actions come to light. This character is no longer black and white, but rather occupies a moral gray area left up to reader analysis.
In her abandonment of her family and child, the internal and external complexities plaguing the mother become layered and emotional. Though she was responsible for this severance, she also cannot comfortably live in her new state of being. It is thus possible to empathize with the woman despite her abandonment of her child. In the final vision of the child’s funeral, the lady is described by the mourners as “the mother who had sinned against natural affection, and left her child to die” (Paragraph 21). In response to the vision, the lady starts to shake as she hears the funeral bell. The lady has been anticipating this event and now that it has come to pass, she is overwhelmed with emotion. The shaking could be a result of fear, grief, guilt, shame, or a combination of emotions. Regardless of the exact emotions that the lady is feeling, the event is so overwhelming that she has a visceral reaction. Sometime during the vision, the lady dies. The pain of learning of her child’s death, her own guilt and shame, and her illness, in some combination, ultimately kill her. Not being wholly “good” resulted in her death, but also gave her character depth and roundness that a flat, fairy tale protagonist may lack.
The old woman is an ambiguous character who primarily embodies an “evil” archetype. As the lady’s depth expands in the narration, the woman gives only malicious responses indicating that she is enjoying the lady’s pain. Her motives and distinct personality are never supplied, in contrast to the lady.
The Danger of Strict Religious Belief
During the time that Nathaniel Hawthorne was writing “The Hollow of the Three Hills,” America was going through the Second Great Awakening. This was a time when many Americans were negating the Puritan idea that man was inherently evil and instead emphasizing that humans had free will and could choose their own path. Hawthorne was undoubtedly influenced by this religious movement while concurrently adhering to the Dark Romantic belief that humans gravitated toward sin and self-destruction. Both schools of thought are shown in “The Hollow of the Three Hills” through the theme of The Danger of Strict Religious Beliefs.
The lady in the story comes from a Puritan background and her husband is a Puritan minister. Since Puritans were very rigid in their belief systems, the lady’s desertion of her family would not be seen in a sympathetic light. Instead of trying to find and help the lady, her family and neighbors condemn her. When speaking of the church, the lady says, “there is mirth within its walls, but misery, misery without” (Paragraph 17). Even within the walls of the church, the lady is condemned and scorned. Her husband preaches about “woman’s perfidy” (Paragraph 15) and “of a home and heart made desolate” (paragraph 15). Instead of showing sympathy for his wife during her time of greatest grief, the husband chooses to hold her to an impossible standard of holiness and publicly castigate her for succumbing to her grief. This standard of holiness had been set by the Puritan church, who insisted that everyone in the church strive for perfection. She is shown to not be perfect by deserting her family, and the young woman is ostracized from her community even in her absence. Even if the young woman wishes to return to her family, she knows that she cannot because of the strict religious code that her community follows. Once she shows imperfection, she can never be allowed to rejoin the community.
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