The Great Stone Face by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Quick answer: The Great Stone Face by Hawthorne: full summary with the ending, Ernest and the prophecy, the four false candidates, themes, and the story's patient craft.
High on a mountainside above a New England valley, nature has arranged the cliffs into the likeness of a vast, benign human face, and an old prophecy promises that one day a child of the valley will grow up to resemble it. Hawthorne published The Great Stone Face in 1850, and it has been a school staple ever since, the rare parable gentle enough for children and sly enough for adults.
The story follows one quiet man, Ernest, through an entire lifetime of waiting for the prophecy's fulfilment, while the valley cheers a succession of celebrated frauds. Students want the summary and the moral; writers should study its rhythm, the same test run four times with rising stakes, and an ending that keeps the door open one inch, which is the whole art of it.
The story in brief
Ernest hears the legend of the Great Stone Face as a boy at his mother's knee: someday a native of the valley, the noblest person of his time, will bear its likeness. The thought shapes his life. He grows up poor, works with his hands, and spends his evenings gazing at the mountain, which becomes teacher and companion; without schooling, he ripens into a man of unusual wisdom and kindness whose neighbours never notice he is remarkable. Four times the valley believes the prophecy fulfilled. First comes Mr Gathergold, a native son returned as a fabulously rich merchant; the crowd sees the Face in him until his money evaporates and he dies a pauper. Next, the old soldier Blood-and-Thunder, a famous general, is feted; Ernest sees will and energy in his weathered features, but no wisdom and no love. Then Old Stony Phiz, a statesman of magnificent eloquence running for the presidency, so gifted that his tongue could make wrong sound like right; again the crowds shout the likeness, and again Ernest, looking, finds something wanting, a face like grand architecture with no light in the windows.
Years pass; Ernest's hair whitens, and unnoticed by himself he has become known beyond the valley, sought out by scholars and statesmen for the simple depth of his talk. A celebrated poet, whose verses Ernest loves, comes to visit him, hoping half secretly that this good man might be the likeness; and the poet, in turn, confesses that his own life has not matched his songs, so he cannot be. At sunset the two walk to the open-air spot where Ernest habitually speaks to his neighbours. As Ernest talks, his face catches the light, and the poet, seeing the man and the mountain together, throws up his arms and cries that Ernest himself is the likeness of the Great Stone Face. The people all see it. But Ernest, finishing his talk, walks slowly home, still hoping that some better and wiser man than himself will by and by appear, bearing a resemblance to the Great Stone Face. That unbroken humility is the ending, and the point.
The characters and what they want
Ernest wants to see the prophecy fulfilled, never suspecting he is fulfilling it; his complete freedom from that suspicion is precisely the qualification. The four candidates want what their names advertise, gold, glory, office and fame, and each embodies one counterfeit of greatness that a crowd reliably mistakes for the real thing. The valley crowd wants a hero and will manufacture one from whatever material arrives with sufficient noise. The poet stands apart: gifted enough to recognise truth and honest enough to disqualify himself, he is the story's instrument of recognition, the one witness whose verdict carries.
Themes and meaning
For exams: character is formed by what we contemplate, the story's stated engine, since a lifetime of looking at nobility makes Ernest noble. True greatness against its counterfeits structures the plot, wealth, military force, political eloquence and even art each failing the likeness test, and humility is the crown: the moment Ernest accepted the resemblance he would lose it. The mountain face works as a symbol of the ideal, patient, public and ignored, visible to everyone and formative only for the one who keeps looking.
The sharper observation is about the poet's self-disqualification, the story's most modern scene. He fails not because art is lesser but because his life and his words diverge, and Hawthorne, a writer, is quietly indicting his own trade: eloquence about goodness is one more counterfeit unless lived. Note too that the crowd is wrong four times and right the fifth, but right only because the poet points; Hawthorne trusts recognition to the trained eye, not the popular voice, an unfashionable and bracing position.
The craft: how the story works
The structure is a refrain with escalation: a candidate arrives, the crowd acclaims, Ernest looks, the likeness fails, and life goes on. Each round rises a step in the hierarchy of worldly power, money, arms, office, art, so the repetitions build an argument rather than mark time. The craft lesson is in what varies inside the pattern: Ernest's age advances, his sadness deepens, his own unnoticed growth continues in the gaps, so the story's real action happens quietly between its loud scenes. The ending is a model of the withheld coronation: the recognition arrives in public, the crowd sees it, and the last sentence hands the crown back, keeping the prophecy alive precisely by leaving it, in Ernest's own eyes, unfulfilled.
The technique worth stealing is the recurring test as clock. If your story's premise sets one question, resist inventing subplots; run the question again with new material and let the protagonist age against it. Repetition with variation reads as destiny. And when your hero must be exalted, exalt him through a witness and let him decline the honour; a character who reaches for the crown loses the reader the moment he touches it.
A parable that names names
Nineteenth-century readers played the identification game freely: Old Stony Phiz has long been read as a portrait of Daniel Webster, the era's most spellbinding orator, and Gathergold and Blood-and-Thunder as types of the merchant princes and celebrated generals of the day. The story does not need the keys, but they explain its edge, since Hawthorne was measuring the loudest reputations of his own moment against a mountainside and finding them small. Every generation can restock the four pedestals from its own headlines, which is why a tale this openly moral has refused to date.
What poets can take from this
- For exams, state the engine in one line: we grow to resemble what we habitually contemplate.
- List the four counterfeits in order, wealth, war, politics, art, and note the ascending nobility of each failure.
- Stress the last sentence: Ernest still hopes for a better man, and his humility is the proof of the likeness.
- Writers: structure a story as one test repeated with escalating candidates; vary the hero's age and hopes between rounds.
- Let recognition come from a qualified witness, never from the protagonist's own mouth.
- Steal the poet's self-disqualification when you need a scene that separates talent from character.
Try it yourself
Write a story about a community waiting for a prophesied figure, told across one ordinary person's lifetime as a series of celebrated false arrivals. Let a perceptive outsider finally recognise the truth the community missed, and end with the true figure declining to believe it.
Questions
What happens at the end of The Great Stone Face?
The visiting poet, watching Ernest speak to his neighbours at sunset, cries out that Ernest himself is the likeness of the Great Stone Face, and the people see it. Ernest simply finishes his talk and walks home, still hoping some better and wiser man will one day fulfil the prophecy.
What is the moral of The Great Stone Face?
Character is shaped by what we steadily contemplate and quietly practise. Ernest becomes the prophecy's fulfilment through a lifetime of humble attention to an ideal, while wealth, military glory, political eloquence and fame each fail the test of true greatness.
Who do the four candidates represent?
Gathergold embodies wealth, General Blood-and-Thunder military glory, Old Stony Phiz, often read as a sketch of Daniel Webster, political power and oratory, and the poet represents art. Each is a counterfeit of greatness the crowd mistakes for the real thing.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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