In “The Hollow of the Three Hills,” the protagonist, an unnamed young woman, feels immense guilt over abandoning her family and faces harsh criticism from others for her inability to perform her duties as a daughter, wife, and mother. This story of a woman punished for her failure to act the way society demands is reflective of 19th-century attitudes towards women and in particular addresses the concept of the “separate spheres.” A patriarchal ideology that rose to prominence during the Industrial Revolution, the theory of the separate spheres claimed that in an ideal world, men should hold power over the “public” sphere (which entailed paid labor, law, and politics), while women should concern themselves with the “domestic” sphere (which included housework and childcare). The young woman’s failure to uphold the standards of her gender and her subsequent exile acts as a representation of the era’s judgmental attitudes towards women who attempted to break free of their assigned “sphere.”
Throughout the story, Hawthorne suggests that society does not judge people (and in particular women) based upon their own personal merits, but instead values them exclusively for the gendered roles they are expected to perform. The narrative demonstrates this point through the characters’ names—or, more specifically, the distinct lack thereof. In choosing to leave the story’s cast unnamed, Hawthorne strips his characters of personal identity and consequently reduces them to the roles they perform. This is most evident in the unnamed protagonist, whom the narrator and other characters refer to as “young woman,” “daughter,” “wife,” and “mother”—all implicitly gendered terms which define the woman not by her traits, but by her femininity and expected functions within the domestic sphere. In stripping the young woman of any real identity beyond her gender, Hawthorne suggests that in the eyes of 19th-century America, this is all that matters: like a proper name, the woman’s character beyond this is just an irrelevant detail that need not be included.
Having emphasized the prevalence of strict gender roles in American culture, Hawthorne then goes on to suggest that Western society looks down upon and punishes those who reject the responsibilities of their assigned “sphere,” considering these people to be guilty of a moral failing. During the old crone’s third and final vision, in which the young woman witnesses the funeral of her own child, the gathered mourners explicitly state this, whispering among themselves that the young woman has “sinned against natural affection, and left her child to die.” This reference to sin affirms the 19th-century stance that those who challenge their biological role are committing a crime against their own nature and are thus deserving of punishment. Furthermore, the woman implies that her community has exiled her for her infraction. While it is true that she initially abandoned her family of her own volition, she states that she has now been “cut off forever” from her loved ones, despite wishing to see them once more. This would suggest that the woman’s banishment to the hollow is not entirely self-imposed, and that it is indicative of the way in which society casts aside women who fail to perform their duties.
However, “The Hollow of the Three Hills” is not unequivocally critical of the separate spheres. The story’s ultimate stance on the issue comes into question primarily due to its protagonist. Though the young woman often appears in a favorable light, assuming that the old crone's visions are true, the woman's betrayal did indeed tear her family apart, resulting in her husband’s confinement to a madhouse and the her own child’s death. This suggests that there is some truth to the notion that when a woman fails to perform her duties, the “home and heart [is] made desolate,” and it throws the domestic sphere into chaos. However, Hawthorne does appear sympathetic towards the woman, and he treats her death as a tragic victory for the evil old crone nonetheless. Additionally, the woman never reveals the true motivations underpinning her departure. These facts combined would suggest that the young woman is an intentionally ambiguous character, and that Hawthorne expects his readers to decide for themselves whether the woman is truly deserving of her fate, or if she has been unfairly and prematurely judged by a biased social system.
Ultimately, “The Hollow of the Three Hills” is a reflection of the era’s attitudes towards gender, especially relating to the depersonalization of women under the theory of the separate spheres. In his depiction of a morally ambiguous female protagonist who has caused chaos by abandoning her family—but who is sympathetic nevertheless—Hawthorne invites his readers to consider the immense social pressure placed upon women to fulfill a specific role, and he suggests that while this role may be integral to the fabric of society, people should not condemn those who cannot perform their duties, but instead offer them sympathy.
Related Themes from Other Texts
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Women and Social Expectation Quotes in The Hollow of the Three Hills
By a melancholy hearth sat these two old people, the man calmly despondent, the woman querulous and tearful, and their words were all of sorrow. They spoke of a daughter, a wanderer they knew not where, bearing dishonour along with her, and leaving shame and affliction to bring their gray heads to the grave.
In each member of that frenzied company, whose own burning thoughts had become their exclusive world, he sought an auditor for the story of his individual wrong, and interpreted their laughter and tears as his reward of scorn or pity. He spoke of woman’s perfidy, of a wife who had broken her holiest vows, of a home and heart made desolate.
And though no voice but his was heard to speak aloud, still there were revilings and anathemas, whispered but distinct, from women and from men, breathed against the daughter who had wrung the aged hearts of her parents, - the wife who had betrayed the trusting fondness of her husband, - the mother who had sinned against natural affection, and left her child to die.
