Roger Malvin’s Burial

“Roger Malvin’s Burial” is a psychological short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1832. Set in colonial New England after the Lovell’s Fight expedition, the narrative follows Reuben Bourne, a wounded survivor who abandons his dying companion, Roger Malvin, in the wilderness after being persuaded to save himself. What begins as an act of practical survival slowly transforms into a lifelong moral burden. Reuben returns to civilization, marries Malvin’s daughter Dorcas, and builds a new life—but the unresolved guilt of his broken vow becomes a psychological curse that silently corrodes his mind, relationships, and fortune. Years later, the story resolves in a tragic and symbolic confrontation in the forest, where Reuben unknowingly fulfills the buried consequences of his earlier choice. Hawthorne turns a frontier survival tale into a meditation on guilt, moral responsibility, and the inescapability of conscience.