Egotism, Or, The Bosom Serpent
Lewis Pearson

            In "Egotism, or, the Bosom Serpent," Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of a man who is unambiguously redeemed from a harbored misery. While the causes of this misery are uncertain, its effects are starkly apparent, and through a lengthy tale of woe resolved with an abrupt revelation, Hawthorne provides a very powerful insight into the self-obsession known as egotism.

            "It gnaws me! It gnaws me!" is the refrain of Roderick Elliston that continually breaks the narrative. After a diagnosis from a quack doctor, Elliston, along with the rest of the town, comes to refer to his affliction as a serpent in his stomach. Whether the snake itself is real or figurative, the disease which it causes is explicitly understood to be egotism. "All persons chronically diseased are egotists, whether the disease be of the mind or body; whether it be sin, sorrow, or merely the more tolerable calamity of some endless pain, or mischief among the cords of mortal life" (175). By unequivocally defining the symbols of the story for the reader, Hawthorne emphasizes the fact that this is not a mystery whose plot and symbols are to be solved, but a treatise on the nature of sinful self-interest. To get to the heart of the matter, to make certain that the reader especially understands "the disease" personally and subjectively, Hawthorne not only provides direct commentary, but also gives an example of the disease manifested in Elliston.

            The evaluation of egotism continues: "Such [chronically diseased] individuals are made acutely conscious of a self, by the torture in which it dwells. Self, therefore, grows to be so prominent an object with them that they cannot but present it to the face of every casual passer-by" (175). The inception process of egotism is clearly presented. Its remarkable features are that it comes out of commonly experienced conditions which can be as mild as noticeable discomfort, and its procession is a logical one. These features make the understanding of egotism very accessible, and thus show how dangerously infectious it is.

            Elliston is analyzed: ". . . he prided and gloried himself on being marked out from the ordinary experience of mankind, by the possession of a double nature, and a life within a life. . . Thus he drew his misery around him like a regal mantle. . . " (176). Elliston becomes the archetype of the egotist, and ultimately, of anyone in the human condition. Elliston’s pride may not at first appear to be the sin from which all other sins are derived, but such is the case. All actions swell out of the self from desires. A desire is a wish for a condition which differs somehow from the present condition. In other words, desire arises from and is defined by dissatisfaction with the present state of affairs. Depending upon degree, this dissatisfaction, which is proportional to its engendering desire, may cause more or less misery. Misery, then, exists between the appearance and satisfaction of desire. One can see how a chronic desire will create a destructive cycle. So, desirous lives of lust, greed, and the like, may be correctly understood to be forms of pride. They are all forms of selfishness, selfishness being the act of placing one’s desires before all other things.

            The bosom serpent is well aware of the universality of egotism, and it is given tribute by Elliston in his quests for its brothers in the hearts and minds of others.

With cankered ingenuity, he sought out his own disease in every breast. Whether insane or not, he showed so keen a perception of frailty, error, and vice that many persons gave him credit for being possessed not merely with a serpent, but with an actual fiend, who imparted this evil faculty of recognizing whatever was ugliest in man’s heart. (176)

            Elliston, pest of the city, strikes the mark in the hearts of others so many times that he is eventually sent to an insane asylum. "It was not to be tolerated that Roderick Elliston should break through the tacit compact by which the world has done its best to secure repose without relinquishing evil. . . the city could not bear this new apostle" (179).

            Egotism expressed in its purest form far transcends its diluted shades. For example, when one has an egotism of a material nature, such as lust or greed, the cycle of desire and satisfaction begins and ends (and begins again) with the attainment of a tangible condition. Thus, the cycle is slowed by the necessity of its expression in the world. When egotism has not such tangible object, however, the frequency of the cycle’s repetition is increased to an inordinate degree. The ambition of pride, which is to be above all things and entities, is subject to itself. This means that the misery to which one is subject while one desires is actually the thing which is desired. To desire is to escape from dissatisfaction to satisfaction. Yet when dissatisfaction is desired, as is the convoluted case in prideful ambition, misery and desire are intertwined and compounded in a confusing and vicious loop.

Singular as it may appear, the sufferer had now contracted a sort of affection for his tormentor, mingled, however, with the intensest loathing and horror. Nor were such discordant emotions incompatible. Each, on the contrary, imparted strength and poignancy to its opposite. Horrible love – horrible antipathy – embracing one another in his bosom, and both concentrating themselves upon a being that had crept into his vitals or had been engendered there, and which was nourished with his food, and lived upon his life, and was as intimate with him as his own heart, and yet was the foulest of all created things! (180)

            Elliston, due to the self-aware nature of his affliction, perfectly knows the cure, yet at the same time is rendered helpless by his affliction in enacting the cure: "Could I for one instant forget myself, the serpent might not abide within me. It is my diseased self-contemplation that has engendered and nourished him" (183).

            Hawthorne provides the means for the cure. Rosina, Elliston’s separated wife, appears, and gives him someone on whom he can concentrate his thoughts. "‘Then forget yourself, my husband,’ said a gentle voice above him, ‘forget yourself in the idea of another!’" (183)

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Egotism, or, the Bosom Serpent." In Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories . New York: Signet Classic. 1980. 171-184.