“The Wedding-Knell” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This is another of the several stories Hawthorne collected in the first volume of Twice-Told Tales, published in 1837.

The story is of a wedding between an older couple who had been young lovers but the woman had broken off their relationship and married another. Hawthorne doesn’t explain why, saying only: “Compelled to relinquish her first engagement….” That man died leaving her a “splendid fortune.” She married a second time, unhappily, to a Southern man who took her to live in Charleston where eventually he also died. Now, twice widowed, the woman, named only Mrs. Dabney, ho first names are given, has returned to New York city to reunite with her first lover, Mr. Ellenwood, and be married to him.

The rest of the story takes place at the church on the wedding day. Mrs. Dabney arrives first. As she crosses the threshold of the church the solemn church bell reserved for announcing a funeral begins to ring. It continues to ring as Mrs. Dabney takes her place with her attendants and speaks to the Rector. The wedding guests are disturbed. Hawthorne doesn’t tell whether the bell is tolled by human or spectral hands.

At last Mr. Ellenwood arrives, dressed not as a groom, but as a corpse, and attended by companions dressed as mourners. When he arrives at the altar he condemns Mrs. Dabney for her refusal to marry him when they were young. He has wasted his life in aimless, worthless, pursuits, while she gave her youthful years to other men. Now they should be married, but married only for the purpose of eternity in death, not in life. Mrs. Dabney agrees. They marry. At the end the still pealing wedding knell begins to be drowned out in a triumphant anthem played by the organ.