- description
- # Escalation of family's campaign and narrator's philosophical reflection on their persistence
## Overview
This segment, titled "Escalation of family's campaign and narrator's philosophical reflection on their persistence," is part of the short story "[I and My Chimney](arke:01KG8AJ72QDX8N8STJ3550X2NW)". It is extracted from the file "[i_and_my_chimney.txt](arke:01KG89J1H4TA19251AXAPE3ZWC)" and belongs to the collection "[Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW)". The segment covers lines 683 to 703 of the original text.
## Context
This segment follows the narrator's initial resistance to the idea of removing his chimney, as detailed in the preceding segment, "[Narrator's initial resistance to Mr. Scribe and family's immediate pressure](arke:01KG8AJN5HZ5GNCK20ND91DT1A)". The narrator's wife and daughters are persistently urging him to proceed with the chimney's demolition. The narrator reflects on their unified insistence, comparing them to bells that ring in harmony, with his wife as the key-clapper. He acknowledges the pleasantness of their voices but notes how, in this instance, their persistence has become a "dismal toll."
## Contents
The text depicts the narrator's internal struggle as his family escalates their campaign to have the chimney removed. He uses a metaphor of bells to describe his wife and daughters' persistent appeals, highlighting their unified front. The narrator reflects philosophically on their "strange relapse of opposition" and their "dirge-like, melancholy tolling" over the subject, indicating his growing weariness with their insistence. This segment sets the stage for the wife's eventual ultimatum, described in the following segment, "[Wife's ultimatum and narrator's feigned concession with his pipe](arke:01KG8AJN5HBWBR7ETY778MQJDZ)".
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:01.327Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Escalation of family's campaign and narrator's philosophical reflection on their persistence
- end_line
- 703
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:36.358Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 683
- text
- Next morning it began again.
“You remember the chimney,” said my wife. “Wife,” said I, “it is never
out of my house and never out of my mind.”
“But when is Mr. Scribe to begin to pull it down?” asked Anna.
“Not to-day, Anna,” said I.
“_When_, then?” demanded Julia, in alarm.
Now, if this chimney of mine was, for size, a sort of belfry, for
ding-donging at me about it, my wife and daughters were a sort of
bells, always chiming together, or taking up each other’s melodies at
every pause, my wife the key-clapper of all. A very sweet ringing, and
pealing, and chiming, I confess; but then, the most silvery of bells
may, sometimes, dismally toll, as well as merrily play. And as touching
the subject in question, it became so now. Perceiving a strange relapse
of opposition in me, wife and daughters began a soft and dirge-like,
melancholy tolling over it.
- title
- Escalation of family's campaign and narrator's philosophical reflection on their persistence