Nathaniel Hawthorne is well-known for the metaphors on morality and life that can be found in his stories. "The Wedding Knell" is no different. It contains none of the blood or terror one may expect from a horror short story, yet its dramatic ending places the story firmly in the horror genre.
In the story we have a worldly bride marrying a non-worldly man. When her foot touches the grounds of the church, its bell rings its deepest knell. Then the groom appears and Hawthorne gives us one of most Gothic wedding scenes in literature:
What and slowly diverged, till, in the centre, appeared a form, that had been worthily ushered in with all this gloomy pomp, the death-knell, and the funeral. It was the bridegroom in his shroud!
No garb but that of the grave could have befitted such a death-like aspect; the eyes, indeed, had the wild gleam of a sepulchral lamp; all else was fixed in the stern calmness which old men wear in the coffin.
The corpse stood motionless, but addressed the widow in accents that seemed to melt into the clang of the bell, which fell heavily on the air while he spoke.
No garb but that of the grave could have befitted such a death-like aspect; the eyes, indeed, had the wild gleam of a sepulchral lamp; all else was fixed in the stern calmness which old men wear in the coffin.
The corpse stood motionless, but addressed the widow in accents that seemed to melt into the clang of the bell, which fell heavily on the air while he spoke.
'Come, my bride!' said those pale lips, 'The hearse is ready. The sexton stands waiting for us at the door of the tomb. Let us be married; and then to our coffins!'
This text alone is enough to place this tale among the Top 40 horror short stories from 1900-1849. Edgar Allan Poe in his "Twice-Told Tales: A Review" published in Graham's Magazine, May 1842 has this to say about the story:
"The Wedding Knell" is full of the boldest imagination--an imagination fully controlled by taste. The most captious critic could find no flaw in this production.
My only deviation from Poe is the lack of Hawthorne's building of suspense, which, for the purposes of this countdown, pushes "The Wedding Knell" high in the order.
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