The Hollow of the Three Hills

許絲媛

The setting of the environment set the tone of this story. The place is sort of hidden from the outside world, just like the lady herself. The lady's family does not know where she is. Therefore, no one she loves would know where the lady because she died in a basin where remain in dark forever. Three little hills represent the lady's family respectively. The author emphasize the hollowness of the hills to suggest the crumbled status of the lady's family. Although it seems like that the author describes the woods is decaying, it actually forecasts the ending. The season, autumn, symbolizes death and sorrow in the story.

陳品洋 霍恩蕎 黃凱祈

The author use many natural phenomena metaphor to depict the the circumstance of real life. The use of a "decaying" and desolate setting contributes to the mystery: as "no mortal could observe them" in this place. Hawthorne creates an ominous mood through the use of negative metaphors and images referring to death. "Brown grass" and a hollow devoid of growth not only contribute to this mood but foreshadow events to come. Therefore, the dark and desolate mood not only accentuate the mystery but through the foreshadowing of the setting itself, its significance creates suspense.

張昱 杜杰穎

The three hills may be representing the three parts of the lady's family, which are parents, husband, and her child. The hollow my be inferring the sadness or misery that they have been suffering after the absence of the lady.

陳姮伉 門欣瑜 黃韻茹

•The scene that the lady and the old woman met in a place and time they assigned, echoing the scene that the three hills get close to each other. In the nature, the hills always stand side by side.

•“One of these masses of decaying wood, formerly a majestic oak, rested close beside a pool of green and sluggish water at the bottom of the basin.”→an impious baptismal rite

“The golden skirts of day were yet lingering upon the hills, but deep shades obscured the hollow and the pool”→the darken that covered the world

“Like a clang that had travelled far over valley and rising ground, and was just ready to die in the air.”→knolling of a bell

“the tone of a death bell”→doom

“thin vapor”→The sweeping sound of the funeral train

(Comparison)

• In the story, the man mentioned about the unfaithfulness of the woman, and also mentioned that she broke her oaths, when he wanted to continue his speech, the variety of sound became into “uneven sound of the wind”（30). and it had fight between the pine trees. In the nature, wind supposed to be tender and smooth, but in the story the wind was depicted as aggressive.

蔡一澈

I think this short story uses nature as a metaphor to death— the fallen trunk, the mourned wind, the pool obscured by shades, and so on. I don’t exactly know

林紘毅

In terms of nature,the story of The Hollow of the Three Hills features a gloomy and dark depiction of it. In addition,the story contains supernatural elements like witchcraft,which is contrary to nature.

林珍金，劉有福

In this short Story, the nature represent symbols such as the three hills. It represents three scene of the young woman’s memories. The first scene is showing the woman’s parents. The second one is showing her husband which she broke her vow to, and the last one is showing her child which she left to die. We assume that in that time, there are connections where if you want to set your self free (of burden) you need to erase all the bonds with the family.

Next the setting of the story is on October (autumn) which represents reaping. The young woman reap what she sow (broke her vow to her husband, leave her child to die).

Lastly, the fallen tree. It represents the woman’s family tree that ends at her. “No green successor from its roots” is a metaphor saying that the woman no longer have family nor children that can carry the bloodline.