The ambitious guest by nathaniel hawthorne. The Ambitious Guest by Nathaniel Hawthorne Analysis 2022-10-28
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The Ambitious Guest, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835, is a short story that tells the tale of a mysterious stranger who comes to stay with a family living in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The stranger, who introduces himself as "the ambitious guest," is a young man with a burning desire to achieve greatness and become famous. He tells the family that he has come to the White Mountains in search of adventure and to make his mark on the world.
The family, who are simple folk, are initially taken aback by the stranger's grandiose plans and ambitious nature. However, they quickly come to admire and respect him, and they offer him a place to stay for the night. Despite their kindness, the ambitious guest remains aloof and distant, focusing solely on his own goals and aspirations.
As the evening wears on, the family begins to share their own dreams and aspirations with the ambitious guest. The father, a humble farmer, tells the stranger of his wish to one day own a piece of land that he can call his own. The mother, a quiet and reserved woman, admits that she has always wanted to visit the ocean and see the wide expanse of the sea. The daughter, a young and vivacious girl, tells the ambitious guest that she wants to travel the world and see all the sights and wonders it has to offer.
Despite the family's good intentions, the ambitious guest remains uninterested in their dreams and focuses solely on his own. He tells them of his desire to become a great scientist, a renowned philosopher, or a famous poet, and he brags about the many accomplishments he plans to achieve in his lifetime.
As the night wears on, the family becomes increasingly worried about the stranger, fearing that his ambitious nature may lead him down a dangerous path. They try to caution him about the perils of overreaching and the importance of moderation, but the ambitious guest pays no heed to their warnings.
As dawn breaks, the family bids the ambitious guest farewell, hoping that he will find his way in the world and achieve his dreams. However, as they watch him walk away, they can't shake the feeling that something sinister is lurking just beyond the horizon.
In the end, the ambitious guest's fate is left to the reader's imagination, but the message of the story is clear: while ambition and drive are important qualities to have, they must be balanced with caution and a sense of humility. Without these things, even the most ambitious person may find themselves in danger.
The Ambitious Guest
Which idea is best demonstrated by some element in the text? Ambition bears no fruit, the author seems to tell us. The stage-coach always drew up before the door of the cottage. Young and old exchanged one wild glance, and remained an instant, pale, affrighted, without utterance, or power to move. He could have borne to live an undistinguished life, but not to be forgotten in the grave. The stranger asked what she had been thinking of. Hawthorne is honored in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans as an author and editor.
But I was wishing we had a good farm in Bartlett or Bethlehem or Littleton, or some other township round the White Mountains, but not where they could tumble on our heads. The visitor acknowledges that he is young and has no accomplishments of note, but hopes he will have "achieved my destiny" before he dies and then "I shall have built my monument! With quick sensibility of the ludicrous, he blushed at the ardor into which he had been betrayed. Young and old exchanged one wild look. His name and person utterly unknown; his history, his way of life, his plans, a mystery never to be solved, his death and his existence equally a doubt! The father of the house had hoped to live in a small town and be a practicing lawyer. His face at first wore the melancholy expression, almost despondency, of one who travels a wild and bleak road, at nightfall and alone, but soon brightened up when he saw the kindly warmth of his reception. When the footsteps were heard, therefore, between the outer door and the inner one, the whole family rose up, grandmother, children, and all, as if about to welcome someone who belonged to them, and whose fate was linked with theirs. If they had stayed in the cottage, they would have survived.
Some people thought that a stranger had been with the family on that terrible night. The story's final irony occurs when the group attempts to avoid fate by fleeing to a nearby shelter. But the good man doubted whether they had really called him, and was unwilling to show himself too solicitous of gain by inviting people to patronize his house. There were the little faces of the children, peeping from their bed apart, and here the father's frame of strength, the mother's subdued and careful mien, the high-browed youth, the budding girl, and the good old grandam, still knitting in the warmest place. She doesn't care about fame. They all sat calmly within the embrace of the firelight, a humble family, and an ambitious guest.
I shall have built my monument! The simplest words must intimate, but not portray, the unutterable horror of the catastrophe. The house and all within it trembled; the foundations of the earth seemed to be shaken, as if this awful sound were the peal of the last trump. He tells the group that he has a secret ambition: he wants to be sure he is remembered when he dies. There will be no future and no monument for them; their fate, like that of all creatures, is largely out of their control. Lawrence, on the other. Young and old exchanged one wild glance, and remained an instant, pale, affrighted, without utterance, or power to move. Lawrence, on the other.
The Ambitious Guest by Nathaniel Hawthorne: Characters & Character Analysis
Down came the whole side of the mountain, in a cataract of ruin. They don't know his name, and some say there isn't enough evidence to prove any other person was even there. But this evening a prophetic sympathy impelled the refined and educated youth to pour out his heart before the simple mountaineers, and constrained them to answer him with the same free confidence. The light hovered about them fondly, and caressed them all. Hawthorne anonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. Here is Harry Monroe with our story.
They are: the stranger, the father, the eldest daughter and the grandmother. They lived in a dangerous spot, yet they felt safe and happy. For I know what to think when a young girl shivers by a warm hearth, and complains of lonesomeness at her mother's side. Were I to vanish from the earth tomorrow, none would know so much of me as you: that a nameless youth came up at nightfall from the valley of the Saco, and opened his heart to you in the evening, and passed through the Notch by sunrise, and was seen no more. The family's home is located in a rather dangerous spot below the mountain. But just as the others' dreams are being revealed, the earth trembles and a landslide begins.
Their bodies were never found. Sample Provided, please rubric. Other question types—remember passages can be Informational Nonfiction or Literary Fiction. His face at first wore the melancholy expression, almost despondency, of one who travels a wild and bleak road at nightfall and alone, but soon brightened up when he saw the kindly warmth of his reception. I would have been respected by all our neighbors. Their lives and demise became well known across the mountains, and poems have been written of their sorry fate. The young man's secret was that he was ambitious.
The Ambitious Guest by Nathaniel Hawthorne Point of View
The mountain kept its agreement with the family, their house remained intact. He felt that his destiny was to be glorified in the future, even if he was not alive by the time that occurred. They live in a valley that is a high risk area for landslides. All this was said apart. Assignment: think about the ideas is the two texts and then write as informational or explanatory essay in your own words, explaining your take on the information presented in the informational texts you read. Their cozy cottage was unharmed, while the ''safer spot'' is destroyed in the rock fall. Everyone in the cottage runs to the emergency shelter the family has built for such an event.
