The Great Carbuncle & The Prophetic Pictures

The Great Carbuncle & The Prophetic Pictures brings together two allegorical tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explore desire, illusion, and the moral consequences of human ambition. In The Great Carbuncle, a group of mountain seekers each pursue a legendary glowing gem in the White Mountains, but their motivations differ sharply - scientific curiosity, greed, vanity, artistic obsession, and simple domestic hope. As they ascend toward the mysterious light, their inner flaws are exposed, and the “treasure” ultimately reveals itself as a test of perception rather than a reward. Only the simple-minded lovers, who abandon the obsession for the gem, find peace and clarity. In The Prophetic Pictures, a painter with an uncanny ability to reveal inner truth through portraiture paints a young couple. His art begins to reflect not just appearance but possible destiny, and the portraits gradually become psychological foreshadowings of tragedy. As the subjects change, the boundary between art and fate collapses, leading to a near-disastrous climax driven by suggestion, emotion, and interpretation.