The Story of David Swan by Nathaniel Hawthorne | Summary, Analysis

The Story of David Swan by Nathaniel Hawthorne | Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer who took birth in 1804 and died in 1864. His first short story collection was Twice Told Tales whose first volume was published in 1837. All the stories of this collection were already published in annuals and magazines and hence, Hawthorne chose the title ‘Twice Told Tales.’

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a romanticist and his work predominantly belongs to the genre of dark romanticism. Dark romanticism reflects an intense fascination with melancholia, insanity, crime, and a shady atmosphere, with the options of ghosts and ghouls, the grotesque, and the irrational. Italian critic Mario Praz first mentioned Dark Romanticism as a unique genre of literature in 1930. Dark romanticism focuses on human fallibility, self-destruction, judgment, and punishment, as well as the psychological effects of guilt and sin.

David Swan or The Story of David Swan is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne which was published in Twice Told Tales. The story depicts the binary opposite forces that govern human perception. Whether a thing is good, or bad, lucky, or unlucky, The story further presents a unique balance of chance and choice that carve our life. While all the good or bad chances are aware of us, we may remain ignorant about most of them while these chances continue to wait for our response, if we do take, reject or ignore them, let alone not notice them.

Summary of The Story of David Swan:

David Swan is a 20-year-old young boy from New Hampshire. He belongs to a poor but respectable family and has attained ordinary school education. He is going to Boston to his uncle who is a small dealer in the grocery line in hope of finding a job. He has been traveling on foot for a long on a summer day and thus he is tired. He quenches his thirst from a spring in the trees and then he decides to wait under the maple shade for the stagecoach to Boston. Being too tired, he falls asleep. Being the main road, many passers cross him on the road. Some were traveling on foot, some on horses, and some on other vehicles. Most of them ignore him while some people scorned him. He is young and handsome. A middle ages widow woman sees him and thinks that he is very charming. A preacher passes through him and thinks of him as a dead drunkard while chiding him. David Swan, however, is unaware of these praises and scorns. The criticism, praise, merriment, scorn, and indifference of the passers observing him don’t affect David Swan while he is asleep.

Soon a carriage going to Boston halts in front of the shade where David was sleeping. The back linchpin of the carriage had fallen out and one of the wheels had slid off. The driver starts mending the linchpin and fixing the wheel while the lady and her husband decide to get down under the shade. They notice David Swan sleeping in the shelter. The lady and the gentleman had lost their son and they had no heir. They had taken care of a distant nephew but he too passed away due to a disease. As the lady observes David Swan, he reminds her of her departed nephew. Her husband notices her feelings and says that the boy is sleeping soundly and which shows that he is healthy and well-built. The lady says that she wishes to wake the boy up and adopt her as her son. But her husband stops her and says that they know nothing of the boy’s character. The lady argues that he looks so innocent, he must be of good character. The man also starts feeling fatherly love for David Swan and thinks of waking him up and adopting him, declaring him the heir of all his wealth. However, the coach has been mended by then, the driver whistles and the couple leave the shade in haste with no time to decide. Unaware of their feelings, David Swan continues to enjoy his little nap.

The next visitor is a young beautiful girl going to Boston. As she sees the shade, she decides to take some rest and tidy up her dress. As she sees a young boy already sleeping in the shade, she thinks of going away but as she steps back, she sees a dangerous bee entering the shade and hovering above the head of the sleeping boy. The monstrous bee settles on David Swan’s eyelid while he is asleep. The girl sees this and worries that the bee will harm the sleeping boy and thus, she uses her handkerchief and rushes the bee away. As she does so, she had a glimpse of David Swan’s beautiful face and she blushes at seeing him. She thinks he is so handsome and appears a perfect man. She wishes to wake him up and propose to him for marriage but then a bus arrives at the stop and before she could decide anything, she goes away while David Swan continues to sleep. The girl was the only daughter of a wealthy country merchant who is looking for a good suitor for her daughter. Had Swan waken up and had he made acquaintance with the girl, her father might have offered a clerical job to him and he might have gained the hand of the beautiful girl in marriage. But he kept sleeping.

Within a few moments, both wealth and love had just passed by David Swam while he remained unaware of those changes. He could have been the only heir of the rich lady and her husband, or he could have married that young beautiful girl who genuinely fell in love with him. But he was asleep.

As the girl goes away, two crooks pass through the maple shade. As they observe a young boy sleeping alone, they enter the shade and observe the bulging bundle on which Swan’s head was placed. They think that the bundle must have some valuables, or at least it must have a bottle of brandy. The crooks were notorious thieves who used to rob or embezzle others. They see that the young lad is no match to them and decide to check the pockets of his pants and the bundle of luggage under his head. One of them worries what if he wakes up? The other answers that if he wakes up, they will kill him. Just as they decide to check his pockets, a dog enters the maple shade in hope of some water to drink. The crooks get alarmed. They fear that the owner of the dog must be somewhere near and decide to run away. David Swan was just touched by death as the crooks were ready to kill him if he makes a noise, but he kept sleeping and remained safe. An hour had passed by then and the stagecoach bus approaches the maple shade. David Swan gets awake by the sound of the stagecoach. He asks the driver for a seat and the driver said that he may travel while sitting on the top of the stagecoach. David Swan, unaware of the fortunes and misfortunes that just touched him from so near, climbs up the coach and goes away. He had no idea of how near he was to being adopted by the rich couple who were thinking of making him the only heir of all their wealth. He remained oblivious to the sensuous feel of that beautiful girl whose rich father might have offered him a much better job than he hopes to get in Boston. He certainly was unaware of the fact that he was so near to death at the hands of those crooks. All of these possibilities were unexpected that was about to happen randomly. Nathaniel Hawthorne ends the story with the line, ‘Unexpected things thrust themselves across our paths still there is regularity’.

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