Seven men have married the ropemaker's daughter (metaphor of the gallows)

The youth finds a man in the road who seems to be interested on the 50 dollars that constitute all his fortune, and as he knew that recently there had been an execution and seven criminals have been hanged, he takes him to pass the night to the big tree where seven men have married the ropemaker´s daughter (this is a metaphor of the gallows).

In the old days, the executions were public. It was consider that public executions were the best remedy for avoiding delinquency. At the same time, the hanged criminals didn’t get to be buried; their bodies were left, days and more days, displayed to everyone’s views, so it could serve of reminder to future criminals.

Possibly, the image of the tree from where the seven dead bodies were hanging, swinging backwards and forwards, constitutes the most frightening moment of this hypertext. However, the youth didn’t feel any shudder, and inexplicably, decided to take them down so they could get hotter. Then, something happens that we can consider “funny”. The fire sets, because of the wind, the clothes of the dead bodies and they start to burn. The boy, angry, decides to hang them up again in the tree. This gives us an upright idea about the youth, he really isn’t aware of what shudder is!