Nathaniel Hawthorne

Egotism or, The Bosom Serpent Nathaniel Hawthorne

The young sculptor George Herkimer and his cousin Rosina Elliston pay a visit to Roderick Elliston, Rosina's husband. The couple has been separated for four years. Roderick used to be a brilliant man, now he is a wretched thing, moving and hissing like snake whom he believes to have in his breast. First Roderick's marriage deteriorated, then his social connections, finally he has estranged himself from all companionship. After learning from his servant that he is being talked about, Roderick's behaviour swung to the other extreme. He craved for notoriety and presented his snake (the symbol of his monstrous egotism) to the faces of passers-by. He also sought brotherhood with similarly affected people, finding his own disease in every breast. He created his own system of describing people's snakes in which each vice had a snake of its own. Because of his hanging around and showing the ugliest truth of people, Roderick was removed to a mental asylum. There he was communicating with his serpent, loving and loathing him at the same time. He sat the whole day in front of a mirror with his mouth open, waiting to catch a glimpse of the snake and to kill him. He was reported to have succeed and was released home.. The moral of the story is that although the Egotism is the greatest enemy that ever has occupied a man's heart, the heart can be still purified. Then the serpent is just a dark fantasy and should be thought of as a mere anecdote in our Eternity.