On the Dog's Chasing His Own Tail in “Ethan Brand”

Extract

In Hawthorne's “Ethan Brand,” the incident in which the old dog suddenly begins to chase his own tail occupies only a few lines, but a close reading of this brief passage in conjunction with its original in The American Notebooks throws considerable light on the story as a whole and on Hawthorne's creative processes: it shows his keen perception of the exact effect he wished to produce in this tale as well as the painstaking artistry with which he adapted his Notebooks material to that end.