The Hollow of the Three Hills

Diction refers to the author’s intentional choice of words in a narrative. The diction used in the story contributes to the story’s ominous mood. The narrator states that “gray tradition tells” (Paragraph 1) that the area where the two women are meeting was once used for Satanic rituals. The term “gray tradition” refers to stories that are on the outskirts of traditional lore. Unlike Biblical moralistic stories, the story of the Satanic rituals is murky and shrouded in mystery, lending an ominous air to the story. The story is set in a time “when fantastic dreams and madmen’s reveries were realized among the actual circumstances of life” (Paragraph 1). This word choice prepares the reader for the mysterious events that will occur. Since the narrator establishes that dreams and reveries (daydreams) are able to come true in this story, the reader will be able to accept that the old woman can show the lady visions.

Foreshadowing occurs when an event or detail in a story reveals future events or the possibility of future events that later come to fruition. Throughout the story, Hawthorne foreshadows the lady’s death. The lady is described as being “smitten with an untimely blight in what should have been the fullest bloom of her years” (Paragraph 1). A blight is an old-fashioned word for an illness. Although the untimely blight is never named, her illness foreshadows that she will die by the end of the story. The old woman and the lady are meeting at a place where “no mortal could observe them” (Paragraph 1). The unusual choice of the word “mortal” to refer to other people foreshadows a supernatural element in the character of the old woman. The word mortal also hints at the lady’s death. The foreshadowing in this story contributes to the overall mood and sense of tension, preparing the reader for something ominous that is going to happen.