Feathertop

"Feathertop" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1852.

Plot summary

In seventeenth century New England, the witch Mother Rigby builds a scarecrow to protect her garden. She is so taken with her own handiwork that she whimsically decides to bring the scarecrow to life and send it into town to woo Polly Gookin, the daughter of Judge Gookin, with whom Mother Rigby had unspecified prior dealings. Once the stuffed man does come alive, Mother Rigby gives him the appearance of a normal human being - and a pipe, on which the Scarecrow must puff to keep himself alive.

Judge Gookin meets the Scarecrow, whom Mother Rigby has named Feathertop. Feathertop is introduced to Polly, and the two begin to fall in love. But when Polly and Feathertop gaze into a bewitched mirror, they see Feathertop reflected as a scarecrow, not as a man. Polly faints, and the now-terrified and anguished Scarecrow rushes back to Mother Rigby, where, knowing himself for what he really is, he deliberately throws away his pipe and collapses in a lifeless heap. Mother Rigby reflects, "There are thousands upon thousands of coxcombs and charlatans in the world, made up of just such a jumble of wornout, forgotten, and good-for-nothing trash as he was! Yet they live in fair repute, and never see themselves for what they are," and decides that her "son" is better off as merely a scarecrow.

Publication history

Hawthorne first offered the tale to John Sullivan Dwight, who had asked for a contribution to Sartain's Union Magazine in November 1851. He demanded $100 for it.^[1] He admitted to John Sartain that the fee was a high one and noted, "I myself would not pay it, were I in the chair editorial".^[2] Instead, "Feathertop: A Moralized Legend" was published in two parts in The International Magazine, edited by Rufus Wilmot Griswold, in February and March 1852.^[3] It was the last new adult tale Hawthorne wrote.^[2]

The story was later collected in 1854 as part of Mosses from an Old Manse.

In other media

• The story, much embellished, was first dramatized in 1908 as The Scarecrow, a full-length, four-act romantic melodrama by American poet-playwright Percy MacKaye. Most of the characters were renamed, Mother Rigby (renamed Goody Rickby) was given a definite reason to hate the Judge, Polly (now known as Rachel) was given a fianceé who is constantly jealous of the Scarecrow, and the story was given a more poignant and sentimental ending. And although The Devil never actually appears in "Feathertop", he is one of the major characters in The Scarecrow.
• The play was adapted as a silent film in 1923 under the title Puritan Passions.^[4]
• The play was also presented on television in 1972, again as 'The Scarecrow', with a cast headed by Gene Wilder and Blythe Danner, and featuring Pete Duel, Norman Lloyd, Will Geer and Nina Foch in support.^[5]

Jane Powell in the 1961 musical presentation.

MacKaye's play has also been made into an opera, also called The Scarecrow, on two occasions -

• once in 1945, by Normand and Dorothy Lockwood,
• and again more recently, with music by Joseph Turrin and libretto by Bernard Stambler.

Feathertop itself was adapted twice into a silent film:

• First in 1912,^[6]
• And in 1916^[7]

And twice for television:

• The first television version was presented in 1955 as part of the General Electric Theater, with a cast that included Natalie Wood, Carleton Carpenter, Dick Elliott, and Emory Parnell.^[8]
• The second television version was presented in 1961 by ABC-TV as a musical special, starring Hugh O'Brian and Jane Powell, with Cathleen Nesbitt and Hans Conried.^[9]

"Feathertop" also inspired the 1967 Columbia University Varsity Show of the same name, the last such production before the annual revue entered an 11-year interregnum.

"Feathertop" is mentioned in Bill Willingham's comic book series Fables.

• He makes a brief appearance in the prose story "A Wolf in the Fold" from the Fables trade paperback, where he accompanies Snow White on her trip to Carpathia to convince the Big Bad Wolf to join their community.

• "False Young Man!" in the collection Dark Mondays is a variation on "Feathertop."

References

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Feathertop

• "Feathertop" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, online at: OnlineLiterature.com

See Also

The Little Mermaid