What is ironic about the ending of The Ambitious Guest?

What is ironic about the ending of The Ambitious Guest?

To her misfortune, everyone she informs of her wants, dies with her and none of their bodies are ever recovered. Her final wishes will never be fulfilled. The most ironic event of the story is the fate of the stranger.

What is The Ambitious Guest by Nathaniel Hawthorne about?

The Ambitious guest is a story about a young traveler who stops for the night and spends some time with a family that lived next to a mountain. As he gets talking with the family, he expresses his wishes to leave a mark on the world before he dies.

How does the short story The Ambitious Guest end?

Though with ”the ambitious guest” yapping about his desire to achieve his destiny and ultimately build a monument to himself, the family loses sight of the simple blessings they have already achieved. In the end, which comes like a thief in the night, the mountain produces another rock slide, and they are all killed.

What is the purpose of The Ambitious Guest?

Hawthorne’s story’s purpose is to show the futility of ambition. The ambitious guest who arrives as the cottage plans to leave his mark on the world so that he will be remembered after he has died. The cottage family is content to live a humble and obscure, but happy, existence.

What is the guest’s secret ambition?

He tells the group that he has a secret ambition: he wants to be sure he is remembered when he dies. The young man admits that he has not yet done anything noteworthy, but once he has reached his destiny he will be ready for death.

Who dies in The Ambitious Guest?

They scream in fear of “The Slide!” and bolt outside for their safe place. But they are all caught up in the rock slide and killed, while the house is completely undamaged. Their bodies are swept away and never found. Locals mourn the loss of the family but are unaware of their ambitious guest.

What is the climax of The Ambitious Guest?

The climax of the “Ambitious Guest” occurs after the family and Guest have disclosed all their “fancies” and the roaring sound of the Slide is upon them. They rush from the safety of their cottage to death.

What was the image of the eldest daughter in The Ambitious Guest?

The faces of the father and mother had a sober gladness, the children laughed, the eldest daughter was the image of Happiness at seventeen, and the aged grandmother was the image of happiness grown old.

How does the family react to the little boy’s idea the ambitious guest?

How does the family react to the arrival of the young man in “The Ambitious Guest”? The family welcomes the arrival of the young man and treats him with the upmost kindness in “The Ambitious Guest.” The young man feels like he is a member of the family and his arrival leads to a conversation about dreams and legacy.

What happens to the family and their guest at the end of the story in The Ambitious Guest?

Instead of finding safe shelter, Hawthorne reveals that the family has actually run into the arms of death. Their cozy cottage was unharmed, while the ”safer spot” is destroyed in the rock fall. He tells readers, ”Their bodies were never found.

How does the family react to the little boy’s idea The Ambitious Guest?

Is the Ambitious Guest based on a true story?

“The Ambitious Guest” was inspired by a real life incident at the Willey House, New Hampshire in 1826. The basis of the story is the Willey tragedy of Crawford Notch, New Hampshire.

Who is the guest in the Ambitious Guest?

The guest himself is portrayed as having “a high and abstracted ambition.” A solitary wanderer, his dreams of making his mark are just that—dreams, reveries removed from the concreteness of domestic life as it is evoked at the beginning of the story.

What was the noise at midnight in the Ambitious Guest?

The noise of stones tumbling down the mountain has often startled the family at midnight. Throughout the story, a contrast is made between the cozy harmony within and the stormy conditions of nature outside.

What does Hawthorne say about the Ambitious Guest?

Hawthorne intentionally withholds his name, which suggests there will be a deeper meaning attached to this character and his fate. He doesn’t tell us the names of the family, either, but it’s taken to mean that it’s the Willey family. On his way over the mountain range, the man, or “Ambitious Guest,” stops at a cabin.