Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Hollow of the Three Hills, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Guilt and Shame
Women and Social Expectation
The Triumph of Evil
Summary
Analysis
In a long-gone era, two people meet at sunset in the hollow between three hills. The first is a beautiful but troubled young woman, who has been “smitten with an untimely blight in what should have been the fullest bloom of her years.” The second is an ancient and “meanly dressed” old crone, who has far outlived any ordinary human.
In this opening scene, the story immediately establishes a narrative divide between the forces of good and evil, represented by its starkly contrasting main characters. The description of the beautiful young woman as being in the “fullest bloom of her years” symbolically links her to nature, which according to transcendentalist views of the era would have highlighted her as a force of goodness. The old crone, on the other hand, with her “mean” attire and implied supernatural abilities, is instead evocative of the archetypal evil witch character found in folklore. However, Hawthorne notes that the young woman is suffering with an “untimely blight,” suggesting that she is perhaps less pure than her outward appearance would imply.
Themes
Though the hills are abundant with trees, the hollow itself contains nothing but the dying brown grass of October, several decaying tree stumps, and a stagnant green pond. According to hearsay, the hollow was once home to a powerful force of evil and his subjects, who would gather at midnight to perform an “impious baptismal rite” in the pool’s rancid waters.
Despite its natural environment, which transcendentalist narratives would interpret as a symbol of goodness, Hawthorne instead paints the location as an unambiguous source of evil, describing an “impious” cult using the hollow’s waters in order to induct new members. Given the young woman’s previously established connection to nature, the abundance of dead foliage within the hollow heavily foreshadows her eventual fate.
Themes
The old crone asks that the young woman speak quickly, as their meeting may only last an hour. Though the young woman briefly considers fleeing the hollow, she finds herself unable to do so. She professes that she is new to this place but that it does not matter where she originally came from. She reveals that she has left behind her loved ones, and is now “cut off forever.” The young woman is heavily weighed down by her actions, and she reveals that she has simply come to see how her family is faring without her.
The young woman reveals her true motives for having come to the hollow, and in doing so introduces the story’s core theme of guilt and shame. Though it would at first appear that she has approached the hollow voluntarily, she explicitly wishes to leave, and her dialogue suggests that in truth she may have little choice in the matter, the statement “cut off forever” implying that she has been exiled by external forces.
Themes
The crone mockingly tells the young woman that she does not have the information she seeks, but that she will nevertheless have her wish granted before the sun sets. In desperation, the young woman agrees to do the crone’s bidding, though she knows that doing so will kill her. The old crone sits upon a stump and beckons the young woman to lay her head on the crone’s lap. Though hesitant and burning with anxiety, the young woman obliges. As she kneels at the crone’s feet, the hem of her dress dips into the fetid green pool. The crone draws her cloak over the young woman’s head, shrouding her in darkness, and begins a prayer.
The young woman readily offers her life in exchange for knowledge of her family, despite the fact that the old crone did not demand it of her. This highlights both the young woman’s self-sacrificial nature, and the extreme (and perhaps unnecessary) lengths a person will go to when suffering with guilt. She then proceeds to kneel at the crone’s feet in a twisted act of prayer, and the hem of her dress dips into the pool once used to baptize the unholy cult members. This directly contradicts the transcendentalist belief that returning to nature brings individuals closer to God: the young woman’s journey to the hollow has not instilled her with faith, but instead lead her to become tainted with evil by a false prophet.
Themes
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The young woman is initially startled by the prayer and expresses her desire to run and hide, but she composes herself when she hears hushed yet familiar voices mingling with the crone’s incantation. As the young woman listens, these voices—along with the sounds of a ticking clock and a roaring fire—become stronger, until at last she can hear a distinct scene. Two people, a man and a woman, sit by a fire and speak sorrowfully of their missing daughter, who “bear[s] dishonor along with her” and has left them with nothing but “shame and affliction.” They begin to speak of another, more recent tragedy, but their voices suddenly fade in the wind amid the rustling leaves.
The young woman’s parents do not mention the ways in which they miss their daughter, but instead lament the “dishonor” and “shame” she has brought upon the family by leaving. This implies that the young woman’s parents find their tarnished reputation far more damaging than the loss of a loved one, and it is the story’s first suggestion that the young woman’s family did not value her for her merits as an individual, but for her ability to adhere to social expectations.
Themes
The old crone smiles and notes that the old couple appear to be having a difficult time. The revelation that the crone can also hear these scenes humiliates the young woman. However, there is no time to spare; the crone states that there is more to hear, and she draws her cloak back around the young woman’s head. Again, the crone begins her prayer.
The vision clearly amuses the old crone, and she deliberately provokes the young woman further by commenting on the difficulties her parents are facing. The personal joy the crone derives from the young woman’s suffering hints towards her sadistic motives and raises the question of whether her visions are truly trustworthy, or if they are simply a means of tormenting her victim.
Themes
Once more, new voices begin to intermingle with the crone’s words. This time, however, it is a discordant mess of shrieks, screams, love songs, and funeral hymns. In the midst of this cacophony, the voice of a single man emerges: he speaks in a frenzy to anyone who will listen about his wife, the woman who has “broken her holiest of vows” and left “a home and heart […] desolate.” At once, the screeching and laughter around him swells, and the voices fade in the wind.
Again, the young woman’s husband does not appear to miss her based upon individual merits, but instead complains of her failure to perform her duties as a wife. His grievance that she has left their “home […] desolate” is evocative of the philosophical concept of the separate spheres, a theory that suggested men belonged at work in the “public” sphere, and women at home in the “domestic” sphere. In abandoning her assigned sphere, the woman has thrown her home into chaos.
Themes
The old crone asks the young woman if she knew there could be so much merriment in a madhouse. The woman concedes that this is partially true, but that there is misery also. The crone tells her that there is one final voice, if she wishes to hear it. As the sun sets further still, and the darkness of the hollow threatens to “overspread the world,” the young woman lays her head down once more.
Once more the old crone appears to mock the young woman with her commentary, and the growing darkness in the hollow reflects the young woman’s increasing hopelessness. As the story approaches its conclusion, the young woman’s guilt, much like the shadow of the hollow, threatens to “overspread” her.
Themes
As the crone recites her spell, a death bell begins to toll, “bearing tidings of mortality and woe […] that all might weep for the doom appointed to them in turn.” Eventually, the bell makes way for the steady footsteps of mourners carrying a coffin, led by a priest reading burial rites. Though the mourners do not speak aloud, there are whispers and suggestions among the crowd. They tell of a woman who has abandoned her family, who has betrayed the trust of her husband, and who has “sinned against natural affection” by leaving her child to die.
In this third and final vision, the story once more alludes to the notion of the separate spheres, with the crowd of mourners stating that in failing to perform her God-given duties as a mother, the young woman has committed an unnatural and sinful act worthy of condemnation. However, the narrator notes that the crowd does not actually speak these thoughts aloud. This may imply that the mourner’s whisperings are not the result of the crone’s visions, but instead a product of the young woman’s own guilty conscience. The tolling of the death bell which bears “tidings of mortality and woe” raises the suspense of the scene, and forecasts the story’s upcoming tragic conclusion.
Themes
For the final time, the voices fade in the wind, and the old crone attempts to rouse the young woman. However, the young woman does not lift her head. The old crone laughs and declares the woman’s ordeal to have been a “sweet hour’s sport!”
The old crone’s reference to “sport” once more suggests that her visions were not accurate prophetic readings, but instead a deliberate attempt to toy with the young woman for no other reason than sadistic glee. In this final scene, Hawthorne suggests that despite the young woman’s wrongdoing, her condemnation was not necessarily deserved, and that her guilt has merely lead to the ultimate victory of evil forces.
Themes
