Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent
E225225
"Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explores psychological torment and obsessive self-absorption through the symbol of a serpent dwelling in a man's chest.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2021542 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent Context triple: [Twice-Told Tales, containsWork, Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent]
-
A.
Idols of the Theatre
Idols of the Theatre are one of Francis Bacon’s categories of systematic human error, referring to false philosophical systems and dogmas that distort our understanding of nature like staged illusions.
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B.
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a 2009 independent film written and directed by John Krasinski, adapted from David Foster Wallace’s short story collection of the same name, exploring modern masculinity through a series of darkly comic interviews.
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C.
De voluptate
De voluptate is a 15th-century philosophical dialogue by Lorenzo Valla that critiques medieval scholasticism and defends an Epicurean-influenced view of pleasure as central to the good life.
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D.
The Man Who Cheated Himself
The Man Who Cheated Himself is a 1950 film noir crime drama starring Lee J. Cobb and Jane Wyatt, known for its tale of a veteran homicide detective who becomes entangled in a murder cover-up.
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E.
The Confidence-Man
The Confidence-Man is an 1857 satirical novel by Herman Melville that unfolds aboard a Mississippi riverboat, exploring themes of deception, trust, and American identity through a series of enigmatic encounters.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent Target entity description: "Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explores psychological torment and obsessive self-absorption through the symbol of a serpent dwelling in a man's chest.
-
A.
Idols of the Theatre
Idols of the Theatre are one of Francis Bacon’s categories of systematic human error, referring to false philosophical systems and dogmas that distort our understanding of nature like staged illusions.
-
B.
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a 2009 independent film written and directed by John Krasinski, adapted from David Foster Wallace’s short story collection of the same name, exploring modern masculinity through a series of darkly comic interviews.
-
C.
De voluptate
De voluptate is a 15th-century philosophical dialogue by Lorenzo Valla that critiques medieval scholasticism and defends an Epicurean-influenced view of pleasure as central to the good life.
-
D.
The Man Who Cheated Himself
The Man Who Cheated Himself is a 1950 film noir crime drama starring Lee J. Cobb and Jane Wyatt, known for its tale of a veteran homicide detective who becomes entangled in a murder cover-up.
-
E.
The Confidence-Man
The Confidence-Man is an 1857 satirical novel by Herman Melville that unfolds aboard a Mississippi riverboat, exploring themes of deception, trust, and American identity through a series of enigmatic encounters.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (30)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
literary work
ⓘ
short story ⓘ |
| author | Nathaniel Hawthorne ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| explores |
obsessive self-absorption
ⓘ
the destructive nature of egotism ⓘ the relationship between body and mind ⓘ |
| form | prose ⓘ |
| genre |
Gothic fiction
ⓘ
psychological fiction ⓘ |
| hasTitle | Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent self-link ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | American Romanticism ⓘ |
| literaryTechnique |
allegory
ⓘ
psychological realism ⓘ symbolism ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Roderick Elliston ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person narration ⓘ |
| partOf | Nathaniel Hawthorne's short fiction corpus ⓘ |
| settingPeriod | 19th century ⓘ |
| symbol | serpent ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
consuming egotism
ⓘ
inner torment ⓘ moral corruption ⓘ |
| theme |
alienation
ⓘ
egotism ⓘ guilt ⓘ psychological torment ⓘ redemption ⓘ self-absorption ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent Description of subject: "Egotism; or, The Bosom-Serpent" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that explores psychological torment and obsessive self-absorption through the symbol of a serpent dwelling in a man's chest.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.