Theme: The Individual vs Social Conformity (Scottish Highers English): Revision Notes
Theme: The Individual vs Social Conformity
Introduction to the theme
Smith's story explores the conflict that arises when an individual rejects the expectations of their community. In "The Existence of the Hermit," the tension between individuality and social conformity drives the entire narrative. The village represents a society where conformity means working on the land, participating in community life, and following unwritten rules about how people should live. The hermit's presence challenges all of these assumptions simply by existing outside them.
This theme matters because it reveals how communities respond when someone chooses a different path. The story is not about open rebellion or dramatic conflict. Instead, it shows how a quiet refusal to participate can be more unsettling than direct opposition.
The hermit's challenge is particularly powerful because it is passive rather than active. He doesn't argue against the village's way of life; he simply demonstrates an alternative through his own existence.
The hermit's challenge to conformity
The hermit rejects village norms through his lifestyle choices. His way of living stands in direct opposition to what the village considers normal or acceptable. Several aspects of his existence demonstrate this:
His independence is complete. He lives alone, builds his own shelter, and requires no help from others. This self-sufficiency removes him from the network of mutual obligation that holds the village together. In a community where people depend on each other, his ability to survive without assistance is quietly revolutionary.
His avoidance of social contact is deliberate. He does not simply prefer solitude; he actively avoids interaction with villagers. This withdrawal suggests that he has consciously chosen separation rather than accidentally drifted into it.
His living conditions reject material comfort. The hermit's hut contains minimal possessions: one chair, a table, a stove. He is not neat, clean, or tidy by village standards. This spareness indicates that he has different priorities from the villagers, who measure success and respectability partly through material standards.
By rejecting these norms, the hermit makes himself free from the village's unwritten rules. His freedom is not theoretical; it is embodied in every aspect of how he lives. This practical demonstration of an alternative makes him far more threatening than if he simply talked about wanting to be different.
The villagers' experience of threat
The narrator openly acknowledges the tension when he states that "the very fact of his existence was a kind of insult to us all." This quotation reveals several layers of meaning. The word "insult" suggests that the villagers experience the hermit's lifestyle as a personal offence, even though he has done nothing to them. The phrase "very fact of his existence" indicates that he does not need to act or speak against the village; simply being himself is enough to cause disturbance.
What makes this quotation powerful is that it exposes the villagers' defensiveness. The hermit does not criticise the village or attempt to change it. He does not preach about freedom or condemn conformity. Yet his refusal to participate reveals how fragile the village's social system actually is.
The villagers' shared routines and expectations only work when everyone participates. His independence is experienced not as neutrality but as provocation.
The hermit's presence becomes a constant psychological burden. The narrator admits that "in the long winter nights, in the long summer days, we knew that he was there." This awareness persists across all seasons and times. The repetition of "long" emphasises how this knowledge weighs on the villagers continuously. They cannot forget about him or ignore his existence.
The hermit becomes a silent comparison point against which the villagers measure their own lives. His presence forces them to confront an uncomfortable possibility: that conformity is not inevitable but chosen. If he can live differently, then their own conformity is a choice they make, not a necessity. This realisation threatens their sense that their way of life is natural or inevitable.
The villagers' defensive response
In response to this threat, the villagers attempt to neutralise the hermit by creating explanations for his behaviour. They invent stories about failed love affairs or secret occupations in his past. These narratives serve a protective function for the community.
If the hermit's isolation results from damage or trauma, the villagers can maintain their belief that his lifestyle is not a genuine choice. They can tell themselves that he is running away from something rather than choosing something different. It becomes easier for the community to believe that he is hiding from life than to accept that he may be content living differently.
This psychological strategy is a common defence mechanism in conformist societies. By pathologising those who live differently, communities can avoid questioning whether their own way of life is the only valid option.
These explanatory stories allow the villagers to preserve their worldview. They can categorise the hermit as damaged or obsessed rather than as someone who has made a valid alternative choice. This psychological strategy protects them from having to question their own conformity.
The three men and their responses
Three characters in particular illustrate why individualism fails in this conformist society. Their different responses to the hermit reveal the various ways that the village's social structure prevents people from living independently.
The old man yearns for freedom and tries to emulate the hermit's lifestyle. However, he cannot survive the physical and emotional discomfort of isolation. His failure demonstrates that the desire for independence is not enough; living independently requires practical resilience and emotional strength that a lifetime of conformity has not developed in him.
The schoolmaster represents intellectual conformity. He cannot tolerate a way of life that resists explanation, learning, or productivity. For someone whose identity is built on understanding and teaching, the hermit's inexplicable contentment becomes intolerable. The schoolmaster needs life to make rational sense and to serve clear purposes; the hermit's existence offers neither.
The bachelor provides the most tragic example. He imitates isolation itself without possessing the inner resources to sustain it. His independence collapses into madness because he has copied the external form of the hermit's life without the internal strength that makes it sustainable.
The Bachelor's Breakdown: A Case Study in Failed Imitation
The bachelor's repeated cry, "It is impossible to live like that," can be read in two ways:
Surface reading: It appears to be a verdict on the hermit's lifestyle - a declaration that his way of living is unsustainable and inherently flawed.
Deeper reading: It becomes a verdict on the villagers themselves. It is impossible for them to live like the hermit because conformity has made them dependent. They lack the self-sufficiency and inner resilience that independent living requires.
The bachelor's breakdown reveals that the village's social structure has not prepared people to stand alone. His tragedy demonstrates the cost of a lifetime spent conforming rather than developing individual strength.
The hermit's endurance
The hermit, by contrast, never breaks down, never seeks reassurance, and never asks for help. His quiet endurance throughout the story proves that individuality is possible, but only for those who possess certain qualities. His strength suggests that genuine independence requires self-sufficiency that the villagers admire but cannot sustain.
The hermit's silence is itself meaningful. He does not need to justify himself, explain his choices, or seek approval. This complete absence of need for external validation demonstrates a level of self-possession that the villagers find both attractive and disturbing.
The hermit's strength lies not in opposing the village, but in his complete indifference to its approval or disapproval. This self-containment is what makes him truly independent.
Conformity reasserts itself in the village not through open conflict but through fear and rejection. The villagers cannot defeat the hermit's example through argument, so they respond by excluding him psychologically and eventually erasing evidence of his existence.
The resolution and its meaning
When the hermit leaves, the villagers feel relief. This response is revealing: they do not feel relief because he has harmed them, but because the challenge he represents has disappeared. His departure removes the uncomfortable reminder that another way of living is possible.
By pulling down his hut, the villagers remove both the physical reminder of his existence and the uncomfortable idea he embodied. This act of destruction is symbolic. They erase the evidence that someone lived differently and survived. Social conformity is preserved, but the cost is high: the village maintains its unity by suppressing individuality rather than understanding it.
The Story's Final Implication
The story reveals that societies often defend conformity not through argument or force, but through exclusion, forgetting, and the quiet erasure of those who live differently. The hermit is not defeated; he is simply removed and forgotten. This method of defending conformity is more insidious than open oppression because it makes alternative ways of living literally invisible.
Key Themes and Takeaways
Key Points to Remember:
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The hermit challenges village norms simply by existing outside them, not through open rebellion or criticism.
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The quotation "the very fact of his existence was a kind of insult to us all" reveals that the villagers experience his independence as a personal threat, even though he does nothing to them.
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The three men who try to understand or imitate the hermit all fail because conformity has not prepared them for independent living.
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The bachelor's cry "It is impossible to live like that" is really a verdict on the villagers themselves, not on the hermit.
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The story shows how societies defend conformity through exclusion and erasure rather than through open conflict, making alternative ways of living invisible.