the house of
the seven
gables
Nathaniel Hawthorne
technical director Maxwell Krohn
editorial director Justin Kestler
managing editor Ben Florman
series editors Boomie Aglietti, Justin Kestler
production Christian Lorentzen
writer Jason Clarke
editor Thomas Connors
Copyright © 2002 by SparkNotes llc
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher.
sparknotes is a registered trademark of SparkNotes llc.
This edition published by Spark Publishing
Spark Publishing
A Division of SparkNotes llc
120 Fifth Avenue, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10011
02 03 04 05 sn 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Please send all comments and questions or report errors to
[email protected].
Library of Congress information available upon request
rrd-c
isbn 1401405746
Introduction:
stopping to
buy sparknotes
on a snowy
evening
Whose words these are you think you know.
Your paper’s due tomorrow, though;
We’re glad to see you stopping here
To get some help before you go.
Lost your course? You’ll find it here.
Face tests and essays without fear.
Between the words, good grades at stake:
Get great results throughout the year.
Once school bells caused your heart to quake
As teachers circled each mistake.
Use SparkNotes and no longer weep,
Ace every single test you take.
Yes, books are lovely, dark, and deep,
But only what you grasp you keep,
With hours to go before you sleep,
With hours to go before you sleep.
iii
Contents
context
1
plot overview
3
character list
7
analysis of major characters
hepzibah pyncheon
clifford pyncheon
judge pyncheon
holgrave
phoebe pyncheon
11
11
11
12
12
13
themes, motifs & symbols
the sins of one generation
are visited on the next
class status in new england
the deceptiveness of appearances
mesmerism
decay
the judge’s smile
the house
the portrait of colonel pyncheon
the chickens
15
summary & analysis
preface
chapters 1–2
chapters 3–4
chapters 5–6
chapters 7–8
chapters 9–10
21
21
22
25
27
30
34
iv
15
16
16
17
18
18
19
19
20
chapters
chapters
chapters
chapters
chapters
11–12
13–14
15–16
17–18
19–21
37
40
44
47
50
important quotations explained
55
key facts
61
study questions & essay topics
63
review & resources
quiz
suggestions for further reading
67
67
72
v
Context
1
con t e xt
N
athaniel hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804,
in Salem, Massachusetts, to a family that had been
prominent in the area since colonial times. Hawthorne’s father died when he was only four years
old. At the age of fourteen, Hawthorne moved with
his mother to a lonely farm in Maine. He later attended Bowdoin
College, graduating in 1825. Hawthorne spent several years after
college writing, eventually self-publishing his first novel, Fanshawe,
anonymously in 1828. The novel was a failure, and by the late
1830s Hawthorne was forced to support himself by working at the
Boston customhouse. Nevertheless, by the mid-1830s Hawthorne
had managed to become part of New England’s literary scene,
spending much of his time with the leaders of the influential Transcendentalist movement. His circle of friends included Transcendentalist pioneer Ralph Waldo Emerson and Herman Melville.
Hawthorne lived at a time of restlessness and transition, and his
writing reflects American society on the move. The House of the
Seven Gables is filled with predictions of sweeping change, particularly of a world made more mobile by trains and the telegraph. A
few of the characters even state that they see their world shifting
toward a more connected, mobile age.
In 1842 Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody, a friend of Emerson and other Transcendentalist writers, and the newlyweds settled
in Concord, Massachusetts, where Hawthorne resumed writing. In
1850 he published The Scarlet Letter, which enjoyed critical
acclaim and became an instant commercial success. The House of
the Seven Gables appeared the following year and fared even better—its initial sales exceeded even those of The Scarlet Letter. Ultimately, however, The House of the Seven Gables proved less
popular with both readers and critics. Nonetheless, the two books
together made Hawthorne a wealthy man.
The Transcendentalists were nonconformists who placed great
faith in the capacity of human thought. They believed spirituality
existed most profoundly in nature and reason. The Scarlet Letter is
considered one of the leading literary works of the Transcendentalist age. Yet Hawthorne was not a devoted follower of Transcendentalism, and he had difficulties with the movement’s optimism and
con t e xt
2
H
nathaniel hawthorne
idealism. Compared with Melville’s Moby-Dick and Henry David
Thoreau’s Walden, one of the works that defined Transcendentalism, Hawthorne’s work seems closer to the American Gothic movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
The Gothic genre preoccupied itself primarily with dark brooding themes of romance, passion, and human fallibility. A mildly cynical and pessimistic view of human nature pervades Hawthorne’s
novels, and he frequently explores human flaws like hypocrisy and
immorality. The Scarlet Letter, for example, has an adulterous
preacher as one of its main characters, and the Pyncheon family at
the center of The House of the Seven Gables holds many dark,
deadly secrets, despite their social prominence. The novel also
boldly blends realism and fantasy. Hawthorne himself called The
House of the Seven Gables a romance, arguing that romances were
not bound by the ordinary course of human experience.
Plot Overview
3
p l ot ove rvi ew
T
he house of the seven gables begins with a preface
that identifies the work as a romance, not a novel. As
such, Hawthorne prepares readers for the fluid mixture
of realism and fantasy that the romance genre allows.
The preface also conveys the major theme of the book,
which Hawthorne refers to as a moral: “the wrong-doing of one
generation lives into the successive ones, and . . . becomes a pure and
uncontrollable mischief.”
A battered house with seven gables stands in a small New
England town. (Gables are the triangular structures formed by two
intersecting points of a roof.) The house, which belongs to the Pyncheon family, has a long and controversial history. In the mid1600s, a local farmer named Matthew Maule builds a house on
fertile land near a pleasant spring. In the late 1600s, the surrounding neighborhood has become fashionable, and the wealthy Colonel Pyncheon covets Maule’s land. Several years later, Maule is
hanged for witchcraft, and rumors abound that Pyncheon was
behind Maule’s conviction. Maule curses Colonel Pyncheon from
the scaffold, but the Colonel is unfazed; he even hires Maule’s own
son to build him a new mansion with seven gables on the property.
At a party held to inaugurate his new mansion, the Colonel is
found dead in his study, his beard covered in blood. The Colonel
has left a will ordering that his portrait not be taken down, but one
of his important documents—the deed for a giant land claim in
Maine—is missing. The deed is never found, and generations of
Pyncheons search for it in vain. From then on, the Pyncheon house
continues to bring bad luck, culminating with young Clifford Pyncheon’s alleged murder of his uncle.
Many years later, the old maid who resides in the Pyncheon mansion, a nearsighted, scowling woman named Hepzibah, is forced to
open a small store in her home to keep from starving. Hepzibah considers the store a source of great shame, despite the comforting
words of Uncle Venner, a neighborhood character, and of Holgrave, Hepzibah’s rebellious young lodger, who practices an early
form of photography known as daguerreotypy. Hepzibah remains
pessimistic, and though she tries her best, her scowling face continues to frighten customers. The very day that she opens her shop,
plot ove rvie w
4
H
nathaniel hawthorne
Hepzibah receives a visit from Phoebe, a young girl who is Hepzibah’s cousin through an extended branch of the Pyncheon family.
At first, Hepzibah worries that Phoebe’s presence will upset Hepzibah’s brother, Clifford, who is returning home from prison.
Phoebe’s charm and diligence prevail, however, and she finally convinces Hepzibah to let her stay. When Clifford returns, battered and
almost imbecilic from his time in prison, he is quite impressed by
Phoebe. Contrary to Hepzibah’s fears, Clifford is more bothered by
their poverty than by her tending to a store.
Even Phoebe’s presence cannot free Clifford and Hepzibah from
the terror inspired by a visit from their cousin, Judge Pyncheon. The
Judge has a very charismatic smile. He greets Hepzibah warmly and
offers her financial support, but she furiously blocks the Judge’s
way into the house, while, from inside, Clifford begs him to go
away. Even the normally unflappable Phoebe experiences a moment
of revulsion when the Judge greets her. Less terrible but equally
strange is Holgrave, the house’s only lodger. He and Phoebe spend
much time together, tending the garden and feeding the house chickens, a once-mighty breed whose former glory is compared to that of
the Pyncheons. Holgrave explains his radical politics, which revolve
around the principle that each generation should tear down the
work of those before it, and asks Phoebe constantly about Clifford
and his past.
Holgrave also tells Phoebe the story of Alice Pyncheon. A hundred years before, Alice’s father, Gervayse Pyncheon, summoned
the young grandson of the older Matthew Maule, a carpenter also
named Matthew Maule. Gervayse believed that since the younger
Matthew Maule’s father built the Pyncheon house, the young man
might know where to find the missing deed to the Pyncheon land.
The younger Matthew Maule, although bitter at the Pyncheons’
mistreatment of his family, agrees to help in exchange for the house
of the seven gables and the land on which it stands. He summons the
spirits of his father, grandfather, and old Colonel Pyncheon by hypnotizing Gervayse’s young daughter, Alice. The two Maule spirits
prevent Colonel Pyncheon’s ghost from telling Gervayse and the
younger Matthew where the deed is, so the carpenter cancels the
deal. He is elated to find that Alice has remained under his spell, and
torments her in cruel and petty ways. On his wedding night, the
young Maule forces Alice to serve his new bride. When Alice awakens from her trance, she rushes home through the snow, catches
pneumonia, and dies. Maule is devastated by what he has done.
the house of the seven gables
H
5
p l ot ove rvi ew
As Holgrave finishes his story, he realizes he has hypnotized
Phoebe, but his integrity prevents him from abusing his power, and
he wakes her from her trance. While Phoebe is making a visit to her
home in the country, Judge Pyncheon returns to the house of the
seven gables and forces Hepzibah to fetch Clifford, saying he will
put Clifford in an asylum if Hepzibah does not retrieve him. The
Judge explains that Clifford knows the location of their late uncle’s
inheritance. Hepzibah cannot find Clifford in his room, but when
she comes back downstairs she finds her brother pointing gleefully
to the slumped figure of Judge Pyncheon. Worried that Clifford will
be blamed for the murder, the brother and sister flee. When Phoebe
returns, only Holgrave is home. He excitedly shows her a daguerreotype of the dead Judge and tells her that the curse has been lifted.
Holgrave also tells Phoebe he loves her, and she admits to loving
him in return. Although the neighbors become suspicious, Hepzibah and Clifford return before the body is discovered. Clifford is
not suspected in the Judge’s death, and it is rumored that the Judge
himself framed Clifford for the crime for which he served thirty
years in prison. News arrives that the Judge’s estranged son has died
in Europe, so the Judge’s inheritance goes to Clifford. Clifford,
Hepzibah, Phoebe, Holgrave, and Uncle Venner all move to the
Judge’s country estate, leaving the house of the seven gables to continue rotting away.
Character List
Clifford Pyncheon Once a beautiful young man, Clifford is
broken by the thirty years he spends in prison for
allegedly murdering his uncle, old Jaffrey Pyncheon.
Clifford returns more idiot than man, but Hebzibah
and Phoebe’s care gradually brings him back to his
wits. Clifford hates his cousin, Judge Jaffrey
Pyncheon, who may have framed him for the
murder of their uncle.
Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon The wealthy, popular cousin of
Hepzibah and Clifford, Judge Pyncheon is the closest
to their stern ancestor, Colonel Pyncheon. With his
brilliant smile, he is viewed, by himself and by others,
as a pillar of the community, but his is in fact a dark
and greedy nature. Most likely the true culprit in the
death of old Jaffrey Pyncheon, the Judge is resolved to
acquire the rest of the dead man’s missing property.
Holgrave A young lodger in Hepzibah’s home, Holgrave earns
his living by making an early kind of photograph
known as a daguerreotype. Holgrave’s politics are very
liberal and revolutionary, but he is kind despite the
strange and lawless company he keeps. No one knows
that Holgrave is actually a descendant of the first
Matthew Maule. This link has given him hypnotic
powers, but does not prevent him from falling in love
with Phoebe Pyncheon.
7
character li s t
Hepzibah Pyncheon The current occupant of the house with
seven gables, Hepzibah is Clifford’s sister and a cousin
to Judge Pyncheon and Phoebe. With her face locked in
a permanent scowl due to nearsightedness, Hepzibah
scares customers away from her small store, but she has
a good heart and takes good care of her brother.
8
H
nathaniel hawthorne
character l is t
Phoebe Pyncheon Although she lacks the aristocratic upbringing
of her cousins Hepzibah and Clifford, Phoebe
Pyncheon is a young, vibrant, and beautiful young
woman who brings a note of cheer to the gloomy
Pyncheon house. The only person capable of consoling
Clifford, Phoebe’s presence brightens the whole
mansion. Her good nature runs deep and conceals
great wisdom and strength.
Colonel Pyncheon A bastion of the town’s Puritan community
two centuries before the action of the novel unfolds.
Colonel Pyncheon’s greed and heartlessness are
responsible for the Pyncheon curse. The Colonel, who
is the first member of his family to die of apoplexy, a
sudden kind of brain hemorrhage, comes to symbolize
all that is wrong with the Pyncheons. His portrait
looms over the future inhabitants of his home.
Matthew Maule (the elder) A simple farmer in the 1600s, Maule
is hanged for witchcraft, most likely at the instigation
of Colonel Pyncheon. His stolen land serves as the site
of the Pyncheon house. Maule’s curse on the
Pyncheons is said to continue to haunt them.
Matthew Maule (the younger) The grandson of the original
Matthew Maule and the son of Thomas Maule, who
built the house of the seven gables, the young Matthew
Maule nurses a powerful grudge against the Pyncheon
family. The young Maule’s imprudence with his
hypnotic powers unintentionally causes the death of
young Alice Pyncheon.
Alice Pyncheon The daughter of Gervayse Pyncheon, Alice’s life
is destroyed after she falls under the hypnotic spell of
the younger Matthew Maule. The sounds of her
harpsichord are said to still haunt the house of the
seven gables.
the house of the seven gables
H
9
Gervayse Pyncheon The grandson of Colonel Pyncheon and
father of Alice, Gervayse’s attempts to retrieve his
family’s deed to a tract of land in Maine cost his
daughter her life.
Old Jaffrey Pyncheon The uncle of Clifford and the Judge, old
Jaffrey Pyncheon dies of an apoplectic fit after finding
young Jaffrey rummaging through his notes.
Thomas Maule The carpenter who builds the house of the seven
gables on land stolen from his own family. It is believed
that he steals the Pyncheons’ deed to the Maine land
and hides it somewhere within the house.
Two workmen The two workmen, who unintentionally mortify
Hepzibah with their open discussion of her shop’s
prospects, depict the New England working class.
The organ-grinder A traveling musician whose act includes a
monkey and a moving diorama.
Judge Pyncheon’s son (unnamed) Judge Pyncheon’s estranged
son, whose timely death from cholera leaves the Judge’s
inheritance to Clifford.
An old gentleman An old gentleman who strikes up conversation
with Clifford and Hepzibah on a train, and is repulsed
by Clifford’s newly revolutionary sentiments.
character li s t
Uncle Venner A colorful figure in the village, Uncle Venner
preaches a philosophy of undaunted optimism
in spite of his poverty. He provides friendship to the
lonely Clifford and Hepzibah, as well as to Phoebe
and Holgrave.
Analysis of Major
Characters
HEPZIBAH PYNCHEON
CLIFFORD PYNCHEON
Clifford is a complex character whose extended undeserved prison
time makes him both unlikable and pitiable. His frequent bouts of
weeping and his pitiable cries when the Judge approaches make him
seem like a wounded or feeble animal. Clifford is a “sybarite,”
someone who relishes natural beauty, luxury, and pleasure, which
makes his incarceration seem all the more cruel and unbearable.
Hawthorne makes luxuries seem more important to Clifford than
food. He is also temperamental and brash, and despite his nearly
imbecilic state, he still manages to be cruel to his adoring sister, even
11
character analys i s
Hepzibah Pyncheon is the last in a long line of Pyncheon aristocrats.
Hepzibah personifies the pitfalls of this aristocracy, both financially, as evidenced by her having to open and tend a shop, and spiritually, as shown by the permanent scowl on her face. Her extreme
passivity makes it difficult to sympathize with her: the melodramatic way in which she mourns having to open her shop is treated
with great disdain by the narrator, and her neighbors seem eager to
see her fail. Hepzibah has good intentions and a good heart; she
manages to convey only goodwill toward the children and customers who frequent her shop. The townspeople’s failure to recognize
her beneficence stands as a rather searing commentary on the shallowness of New England society. Hepzibah is strongly devoted to
her brother, Clifford, even though he is absent for thirty years and
refuses even to look at her when he returns. By the end of the novel,
Clifford comes to trust Hepzibah. He allows her to care for him.
Clifford’s trust and dependence on Hepzibah serves as a sort of
redemption for her. Clifford has come to recognize and appreciate
Hepzibah’s kindness and devotion, and his trust elevates her to new
heights of happiness and purpose. She even begins giving pocket
money to her most loyal customer, little Ned Higgins.
12
H
nathaniel hawthorne
character analysis
after three decades of separation. In the end, however, Clifford’s
weaknesses convey the extent of his degradation. Prison has ruined
him. A formerly beautiful, confident, and life-loving person, Clifford has become like a broken beast, cringing in fear as his persecutor passes. Hawthorne doesn’t make a martyr out of Clifford
(someone who sacrifices himself for a cause greater than his own
life), but he does not create a monster either. Instead, Hawthorne
presents Clifford as a tragic victim of fate by balancing what Clifford has become against what he was before forces beyond his control led him to confinement and despair.
JUDGE PYNCHEON
Judge Pyncheon is the novel’s most visible antagonist. An antagonist is a character or impediment that opposes the protagonist and
creates conflict in a literary work. Judge Pyncheon provides a living
example of the cruelty and ambition that have brought the Pyncheon family such misfortune. His most noteworthy feature is his
deceiving smile, which is so alluring that it almost has a personality
of its own. Despite his welcoming countenance, the Judge’s true
nature is overwhelmingly greedy. The Judge appears to agree with
the popular perception that he is innocent and righteous, but these
perceptions differ sharply from what Hawthorne suggests to us.
The Judge’s ties to the dubious Pyncheon past are unmistakable,
most clearly revealed by his resemblance to Colonel Pyncheon’s
portrait and by his death from apoplexy, a sudden hemorrhage,
which killed both the Colonel and the Judge’s Uncle Jaffrey. In the
public’s perception, the Judge is a model of austerity and morality,
and Hawthorne devotes much of the novel to unveiling the dark
truths that such popular perceptions hide. Only the truly good characters—such as Phoebe, Clifford, and Hepzibah—recognize that
the Judge’s alluring smile hides a cruel soul. The Judge’s death seems
to put an end to the Pyncheon legacy of misfortune.
HOLGRAVE
Though only twenty-two, Holgrave is the product of passion, hard
work, and travel. He is a man of great integrity, as we learn when he
does not take advantage of the hypnotized Phoebe and when he supports and comforts the despondent Hepzibah. Although Hepzibah
views Holgrave’s friends as disreputable, the young man’s politics
the house of the seven gables
H
13
PHOEBE PYNCHEON
The name Phoebe derives from the Greek word “phoibos,” which
means “shining.” Phoebe is therefore an appropriate name for a
character who brings the only rays of light into the somber Pyncheon home. At times, Phoebe literally brings a breath of fresh air
into the house, throwing open her windows, rearranging her room,
and coaxing the garden back to health and beauty from its state of
decay and disarray. Phoebe’s good nature is bolstered by a strong
sense of moral judgment and wisdom. Within the novel’s morally
ambiguous maelstrom, Phoebe emerges as a voice of reason. Holgrave makes the mistake of thinking he can read her like a book and
is subsequently forced to retract this condescending view. Phoebe
continues to surprise us by showing great strength and moral fortitude, unlike many of the other corruptible and malicious characters
who pervade the novel. After the Judge’s death, for example,
Phoebe enters the eerie confines of the house, and later argues that
witnesses should be called, despite Holgrave’s feverish protest.
Phoebe has the courage to resist her own heart and to endure being
dismayed by Holgrave’s first proposal—she forces the man she
loves to change rather than changing herself to suit him.
character analys i s
come across as boldly exciting, rich with vitality and possibility.
Holgrave is not without a dark side and foibles, and the familiar
Maule bitterness toward the Pyncheon family infects him as well.
This sense of bitterness and rancor shows how Holgrave continues
the Maule legacy of revenge and faulty judgment. His politics, once
so inspiring, end up seeming rather flimsy; they crumble almost
overnight once he has won Phoebe’s love and seen the Judge dead.
Moreover, he has a tendency to underestimate others, brashly
assuming that he can read Phoebe like a book. Overall, though,
Holgrave emerges as a sympathetic figure, and his decision not to
abuse his family powers of hypnosis helps to diminish some of the
family stigma he bears.
Themes, Motifs &
Symbols
THEMES
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored
in a literary work.
The Sins of One Generation
Are Visited on the Next
15
themes
This theme is the “moral” of The House of the Seven Gables, as
Hawthorne states in the Preface, and he takes many opportunities to
link the misdeeds of Colonel Pyncheon to the subsequent misfortunes of the Pyncheon family. The Colonel’s portrait looms ominously over the action of the story, and the apoplectic deaths of
three separate Pyncheons clearly fulfill Matthew Maule’s curse on
the Colonel: “God will give him blood to drink.” Old Jaffrey Pyncheon and his nephew, Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, are both found dead
with blood coating their shirts and beards, linking their deaths to
that of the Colonel. Aware that the notion of an inherited curse is
fantastic and perhaps inappropriate for an otherwise realistic novel,
Hawthorne breaks literary convention just so that he can pursue the
idea that the crimes of one generation can have awful repercussions
for succeeding ones. In the Preface he emphasizes that The House of
the Seven Gables is a “Romance” rather than a “Novel,” allowing
him to include the fantastical elements that pervade the novel. Hawthorne portrays the disastrous results of sin as indelible. Even centuries cannot make the stain of the Colonel’s sins go away: though the
primary action of the novel takes place almost 200 years later, the
Pyncheons still feel the effects of their ancestor’s crime.
Hawthorne has less faith in the power of curses, however, and
while Maule’s warning from the scaffold sets the story in motion,
the novel does not suggest that a curse alone can punish a whole
family. On the contrary, the Pyncheons’ misery seems to be brought
about largely by their own greed and overreaching ambition. Colonel Pyncheon brings about the curse while trying to steal land; Gervayse Pyncheon’s life, once quiet and peaceful, takes a tragic turn
16
H
nathaniel hawthorne
when his attempt to recover a missing land deed results in the death
of his daughter, Alice; and even old Jaffrey Pyncheon dies as a result
of seeing his young nephew rooting greedily through his papers. The
simple fact that a curse hangs over the family is not enough to damn
them all; only when a Pyncheon grasps for excessive wealth or
power is he or she brought down. Since the family’s greed brings
about its demise, Maule’s curse, while certainly a warning against
avarice, may in fact be no more than a self-fulfilling prophecy.
themes
Class Status in New England
Hawthorne satirizes nineteenth-century New England society’s preoccupation with class status in The House of the Seven Gables. His
critique of class distinctions becomes most pointed when Hepzibah
frets over opening the store and when Holgrave proclaims his revolutionary ideology. The feud between the Maules and the Pyncheons
is a class conflict of its own—a modest farming family pitted against
elite Puritan followers of the church, the law, and the army. Matthew Maule is a poor farmer sent to the gallows with relative ease by
Colonel Pyncheon, a wealthy landowner and, as implied in his
name, a onetime army man. The interaction between the younger
Matthew Maule and Gervayse Pyncheon makes this class distinction even more evident, for the young Maule first refuses to enter the
house of the seven gables from the back, as would befit a member of
the working class, and then is disturbed by Alice Pyncheon’s apparent disdain for his workman’s status. Even lineage fails to prevent
class discrimination: Hepzibah knows that the Judge’s status makes
his threat to send Clifford to an asylum very real. The scenes where
Hepzibah sets up shop read like a humorous mockery of the aristocratic class, but in the case of Matthew Maule, and later of Clifford,
New England society’s preoccupation with class is clearly shown to
be no laughing matter.
The Deceptiveness of Appearances
The House of the Seven Gables frequently uses the Judge’s infectious smile to demonstrate that appearances can mask underlying
truths. Even as his cruelty becomes apparent, Judge Pyncheon’s brilliant smile continues to dazzle almost everyone. Hepzibah’s scowl,
which results from a physical impediment (nearsightedness), keeps
customers away from her store and even repulses her beloved
brother, Clifford. While authors often focus closely on the physical
appearances of characters, Hawthorne makes physical appearance
the house of the seven gables
H
17
the defining feature of these two characters: the Judge’s smile seems
to take on a life of its own, and Hepzibah’s scowl becomes her most
identifiable trait. That Hawthorne chooses to put these features on
such prominent display, and then to contrast them so sharply with
the personalities behind them, seems to illustrate that he is making a
point about how easily a person’s appearance informs judgments
about them. Other examples, such as the popular opinion that the
wise Uncle Venner is actually a simpleton, further demonstrate
Hawthorne’s view that outward appearances are often misleading.
MOTIFS
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices
that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Mesmerism
moti fs
The House of the Seven Gables deals frequently with reveries and
trances, as the Maules have an unusual ability to mesmerize others.
Franz Mesmer was an eighteenth-century doctor who believed
patients could be cured with psychological or even magical methods; “mesmerism” was the term given to his unique brand of hypnosis-based treatment. The most noteworthy instance of this
phenomenon in The House of the Seven Gables occurs when Holgrave tells Phoebe the story of the younger Matthew Maule’s mesmerism of Alice Pyncheon, which in turn puts Phoebe into a trance.
The Judge’s smile has a sort of narcotic effect, too, seeming to draw
people in, even against their will. The motif of mesmerism allows
Hawthorne to accomplish the objective he so plainly stated in his
Preface: to introduce a fantastic element into the story without completely sacrificing its realism. The presence of mesmerism also
allows for other fantastic phenomena to appear in the novel: when
Phoebe finds Hepzibah alone in a room yet hears the murmur of
voices, this episode requires no substantive explanation and can be
cast as yet another offshoot of this nontraditional science. Clifford
phrases it best when he enthusiastically endorses mesmerism, which
he says will fling “the door of substance . . . wide open” to a spiritual
world. In the case of Holgrave’s hypnosis of Phoebe, mesmerism
also comes to stand for the power of fiction, where the right fiction
can grab the audience and hold it in a trance.
18
H
nathaniel hawthorne
moti fs
Decay
The House of the Seven Gables uses physical degradation and decay
to mirror the spiritual decay that the Pyncheon family suffers. The
house itself has decayed over a century and a half, and the garden is
depicted as damaged, overgrown with weeds, its summerhouse
crushed and covered with vines, its resident chickens now diminished. Even the neighborhood in which the house resides has
become outmoded and unappealing. As the house becomes less
pleasant, so do its inhabitants, as evidenced by the scowling, penniless Hepzibah, a sharp contrast to the beautiful, aristocratic Alice
Pyncheon. Yet this parallel between property and people allows for
renewal as well as decay. Phoebe and Holgrave tend the garden and
fix the summerhouse, and even the chickens begin to return to
health under their care. The motif of decay clearly demonstrates the
pitfalls of families that “plant” themselves in tainted soil, as Holgrave puts it. This perspective is countered by the more hopeful
notion that decay can be arrested and turned to growth.
The Judge’s Smile
In The House of the Seven Gables, the Judge’s smile is brandished
like a weapon and gives him an almost hypnotic power. The smile
seems to function independently of its owner, glowing even when
the rest of the Judge’s face burns with rage or anger. The smile masks
the Judge’s cruel intentions, but it also serves as a testament to the
force of his convictions and self-righteousness. One of the most
menacing aspects of the Judge’s character is his arrogance; despite
his malicious offenses, he maintains that he has done nothing
wrong. His smile helps to establish one of the most haunting themes
in The House of the Seven Gables—that an appealing appearance
can mask underlying evil.
the house of the seven gables
H
19
SYMBOLS
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to
represent abstract ideas or concepts.
The House
The Portrait of Colonel Pyncheon
Of all the symbols in The House of the Seven Gables, none is more
prominent than the portrait of the Colonel, who watches generation
after generation of Pyncheons fall prey to the same ambitions that
brought him down. Judge Pyncheon strongly resembles the portrait,
our first indication that he too may be corrupt. Clifford recoils at the
sight of the portrait, which may be read as evidence of his more honest, upstanding character. As Gervayse Pyncheon agrees to
exchange the house for young Matthew Maule’s help in finding the
Maine land grant, he thinks he sees the portrait frown with disapproval, signaling both that Gervayse’s deal may not satisfy the Pyncheon standards for greed and that something awful may be about
to occur. That the much-sought-after deed is hidden behind the portrait is symbolic of the frustrations that greed inevitably brings, as
the ambitions of the Pyncheons are indirectly stymied by a portrait
of their own ancestor.
s ymbols
The house of the seven gables is an obvious symbol of the declining
Pyncheon fortunes, but it also stands as a more general warning
against the dangers of becoming too embedded in the past. Holgrave repudiates the connection of family and property when he
explains that true political freedom lies in the ability of each successive generation to tear down the old structures and replace them
with its own. When Clifford flees the scene of the Judge’s death and
gets his first taste of freedom on the train, he validates this viewpoint
by characterizing the house as a dungeon from which he has escaped
and touting the railroad as an invention that will bring humanity
back to its original nomadic state. Although the novel concludes
with its protagonists finding comfort within the walls of the Judge’s
country estate, the house of the seven gables lingers as a testament to
the incarceration of the human spirit. (Note that the Judge himself is
described as a mansion soured by a rotting corpse buried somewhere in its walls.)
20
H
nathaniel hawthorne
The Chickens
s ymbols
The Pyncheon chickens are a scraggly bunch, a clear symbol of the
waning fortunes of the family that breeds them. Once the size of turkeys, the chickens have shrunk to regular size and now look weak.
Their perseverance remains admirable, however. Like the garden
and the fortunes of Clifford and Hepzibah, the chickens are also on
the mend. Clifford’s declaration that the chickens shall be freed
from their coop indicates the importance of freedom and release.
The chicken seems like an odd bird for Hawthorne to have selected
to represent the Pyncheon family, and his choice introduces a satirical touch to the novel. In using the chickens to symbolize the proud,
aristocratic Pyncheons, Hawthorne has in effect denigrated them to
a gaggle of constantly fighting, squawking birds.
Summary & Analysis
PREFACE
Summary
Analysis
Hawthorne establishes The House of the Seven Gables as a definitive break with The Scarlet Letter, placing great emphasis on the elements of his work that make it a romance. He portrays the novel as
a limited form that is required to remain true to life, whereas calling
his work a romance frees him to dip into the fantastic and supernatural. Hawthorne also discards the notion that by saying that his
story is a romance he must now present an unadulterated fantasy,
for his narrative will retain the familiar style of a novel. Hawthorne
gives himself the freedom to indulge in the mysticism necessary to
chronicle a cursed family. If we have any objections to the hypnosis
and spontaneous hemorrhages that will occur later in the novel, we
can no longer hold Hawthorne accountable for our inability to suspend our disbelief. At the same time, by calling his novel a synthesis
of the romance and the novel, Hawthorne can still ground his novel
and its characters in the everyday life of New England.
21
s ummary & analys i s
Hawthorne informs us that we are reading a “Romance,” a type of
work that differs substantially from the traditional novel. Hawthorne claims that novels adhere closely to the framework of
everyday circumstance. Romances, on the other hand, give the
writer more freedom to present another version of truth, which
may be enhanced with facets that transcend reality. Hawthorne
tells us that this story is actually something of a mix between the
two genres, but that it is primarily a romance. Hawthorne also
states that his book exemplifies the moral that the sins of one generation will be passed on to future generations; he expresses his
hope that he has not made the story too heavy-handed or moralistic. He concludes with a disclaimer that we are not to make too
many associations between the places and characters in the story
and any possible real-life counterparts.
22
H
nathaniel hawthorne
Hawthorne is adamant that The House of the Seven Gables be
understood as a work of fiction. Consequently, he devotes the final
passage of the Preface to dispelling the notion that the novel is a critique of any actual place. Despite their lineage and prominence,
Hawthorne says, the families in this novel are entirely of his own
creation, although, in the case of individual characters, this may not
actually have been so. The feuding ancestors, for example, were
most likely inspired by actual participants in the infamous Salem
witch trials of the 1690s, when many residents of the Puritan city of
Salem, Massachusetts, were accused of witchcraft and sentenced to
death, often without real trials. The menacing figure of Judge Pyncheon was probably loosely based on a politician who got Hawthorne fired from his customhouse job.
s ummary & analys i s
CHAPTERS 1–2
The terror and ugliness of Maule’s crime, and the
wretchedness of his punishment, would darken the
freshly plastered walls, and infect them early with the
scent of an old and melancholy house.
(See quotations, p. 55)
Summary — Chapter 1: The Old Pyncheon Family
In the mid-1600s, the farmer Matthew Maule builds a small house
next to a lovely, clear spring in what will become a small, well-to-do
Massachusetts town. A local landowner named Colonel Pyncheon,
who wants the land for himself, accuses Maule of witchcraft at a time
of mass hysteria against witches. Maule is convicted and hanged,
but, before he dies, he warns that God will give Pyncheon blood to
drink. Undaunted by this curse, Colonel Pyncheon builds a house
with seven gables, vertical triangular points on a house that run from
the roof’s center to its edge. Maule’s own son helps design and build
the house, and on the day of its opening, a great feast is held. When
Colonel Pyncheon fails to greet his distinguished guests, they charge
into one of his rooms, only to find him sitting dead at his desk. Blood
coats his beard and his shirt. There is no evidence of foul play, but no
one knows how he died, and rumors of strangulation persist. It is
whispered that a mysterious figure was seen fleeing the scene. The
narrator goes to great lengths to discount these rumors.
Future generations of the Pyncheon family continue to occupy
the house over the next century and a half, but they are never able
the house of the seven gables
H
23
Summary — Chapter 2: The Little Shop-Window
Hepzibah Pyncheon, the old maid who inhabits the house of the
seven gables, awakens. A woman with a good heart but a permanent
scowl brought on by nearsightedness, Hepzibah spends quite a bit
of time on her appearance, pausing every now and then to sigh over
the portrait of a beautiful young man, who we are assured is not her
lover. As the sun begins to rise, Hepzibah grows increasingly agitated. She heads downstairs, where we discover that her own financial difficulties have led her to reopen the little shop with the door
cut into the front gable. The shop-tending offends her dignity as a
member of the aristocratic Pyncheon family line, but it is the only
option she has: she is too blind to sew and not educated enough to
teach. She has filled the little shop with many goods, such as ginger-
s ummary & analys i s
to claim one of the dead Colonel’s final acquisitions, a gigantic
tract of land in Maine. Generations of the family are raised thinking the land is rightfully theirs, and they make unsuccessful
attempts to obtain it. The area where the Pyncheon house was
built falls out of fashion. Thirty years before the novel is set, a
wealthy Pyncheon is murdered by one of his nephews, another
Pyncheon. The killer is convicted and jailed for life, but the dead
man’s other nephew, an intelligent man who becomes known as
Judge Pyncheon, is successful and builds a large house just outside
of town. The sister of the jailed Pyncheon continues to live alone in
the house of the seven gables. The Maules, on the other hand, have
not had such a clear descent through history. Many of them have
no knowledge of Matthew Maule or his curse on Colonel Pyncheon, and some are not even aware that they are of Maule
descent. Nevertheless, many still retain the Maules’ characteristic
alienating reserve, and some are believed by townspeople to have
inherited mysterious powers from their forefather.
The chapter ends with a few descriptions. Outside the house of
the seven gables stands a gigantic elm planted over eighty years ago
by one of the earliest Pyncheons. In a nook between two of the
gables grows a cluster of flowers known as Alice’s Posies, named
after an old legend that told of Alice Pyncheon flinging up flower
seeds for fun; the resulting flowers were said to thrive in the dust
and dirt collected on the roof. The house also contains a door on
the front gable, leading to a little shop where a Pyncheon family
member who found himself in dire financial straits once took to
being a merchant.
24
H
nathaniel hawthorne
bread men, children’s toys, and foodstuffs, but she is timid, and she
knocks things over as she sets up. Hepzibah delays opening the shop
as long as she can, but as the day goes on she can put it off no longer.
She opens the store window and quickly runs into the living room of
the house, crying.
s ummary & analys i s
Analysis — Chapters 1–2
Chapter 1 provides us with a lurid history of the Pyncheon family
rich in symbolic passages. The most explicit of these symbols is
Maule’s Well, the cheerful spring whose waters turn brackish after
Maule’s death and the arrival of the Pyncheons, a very literal illustration of the land’s deep corruption. It is indicative that the Maule
rather than the Pyncheon well should be the one spouting dirty
water, as Maule’s curse will prove to be tied to the ill-gotten land
rather than to the Pyncheon family itself. Pyncheons who leave the
house appear to be the least affected by the curse; some are not
affected at all. The murder of old Jaffrey Pyncheon by his nephew is
also irrevocably tied to the house of seven gables: after the crime,
Judge Pyncheon moves away and soon becomes happy, prosperous,
and successful, although his return to the house in later chapters will
signify his downfall.
In Chapter 2, we are abruptly pulled from the tabloid history of
the Maules and the Pyncheons and introduced to Hepzibah Pyncheon, who becomes a sudden embodiment of all the misery narrated in the previous chapter. An old maid who seems to wear a
permanent scowl, she demonstrates the ruin and shame of the life of
a fallen aristocrat. At the same time, we begin to see that Hepzibah
may indeed have a good heart. Her haughty contempt for her own
store is coupled with a very real pain, and she goes about setting up
her shop with a rather touching timidity. In the innocence of her
preparations, Hepzibah robs the house of some of the mystery the
first chapter instilled in it. The house has been presented as a place
of great evil, where even the waters now run black, but here we see
its sole resident as a miserable but not unbearable character, running around with a frenzy that is decidedly human. Although the
fact that Hepzibah’s face has been locked into a frown suggests that
she is unhappy at home, all her activities give the place a sense of
hope and renewal. As later chapters will show, this paradox is a fitting introduction to the house of the seven gables.
the house of the seven gables
H
25
C H A P T E R S 3– 4
Summary — Chapter 3: The First Customer
s ummary & analys i s
The shop’s first visitor is actually the Pyncheon house’s only lodger,
Holgrave, a young man of twenty-two who makes daguerreotypes,
an early kind of photograph. Holgrave gently chides Hepzibah for
being so worried about losing her dignity, saying that now she will
become a “woman” rather a “lady.” Hepzibah’s decision to begin
working, Holgrave continues, means she is “lending [her]
strength . . . to the united struggle of mankind. This is success …!”
Hepzibah resists this interpretation, but Holgrave claims that in their
modern world the title of “lady” is more of a restriction than a privilege. Holgrave asks for some biscuits, which makes him Hepzibah’s
first customer, but as he is her lodger she gives them to him freely.
Hepzibah then overhears a conversation between two workers. They
are surprised to see her shop open and discuss her business prospects
quite openly in front of her. One points out that better shops can be
found on every street corner, while the other adds that his own wife
actually lost money by trying to start a shop. As they walk off, Hepzibah frets over their assertions that she will probably fail.
Hepzibah is even more concerned, however, with the casual way
that the workmen discuss her painful fall from dignity. She finds
their frank conversation about the mechanics of her fall mortifying,
and she is especially offended by the way that what is so important
to her is of only passing interest to the two workmen. The shop bell
rings again, and in walks a small boy, who asks for a gingerbread
man. Hepzibah, who appears to have a low opinion of her own
goods, thinks its wrong to take a child’s pocket money for a piece of
stale baking, so she gives him the cookie for free. Five minutes later,
however, the small boy returns for another cookie. This time Hepzibah, having overcome her disdain for pocket change, takes his
money. Now that her day has begun to pick up, Hepzibah begins to
feel better about opening up her shop. Throughout the day, she
experience brief uplifting moments, and things begin to look better.
Several more customers come through, and most of them are quite
grouchy. Unable to keep up her good spirits, Hepzibah begins to
worry again that the shop will ruin her. When a wealthy woman
walks by, Hepzibah wonders bitterly what use such people serve,
then instantly feels guilty about her bitter sentiments.
26
H
nathaniel hawthorne
s ummary & analys i s
Summary — Chapter 4: A Day Behind the Counter
As the day wears on, an elderly gentleman walks by the house. With
his cane and fine clothes, he is clearly someone of importance. The
man peers into the newly reopened shop window and frowns
briefly. When he sees Hepzibah, the man smiles, nods at her, and
moves on. She recognizes the man as Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, a
wealthy cousin who has built a house for himself just outside of
town. Hepzibah is visited by “Uncle Venner,” an elderly man who is
known around the neighborhood as something of a character.
Uncle Venner is pleased to see that Hepzibah is working, and he
stops to offer her advice on shop-keeping. He assures her that the
days of minding a store will probably only be temporary and that
“[s]omething still better will turn up for you.” The statement
inspires Hepzibah to dream up many fantasies of sudden, untold
wealth. Venner also asks whether an unnamed “he” will return
soon, and adds that everyone in the village has been speaking of
“him.” After Venner leaves, the rest of the day does not go particularly smoothly for Hepzibah. She has trouble concentrating on helping her customers and getting the specific items they want.
Just as she closes her shop, an omnibus arrives and stops in front
of the house. A girl hops out and knocks on the door, and Hepzibah
realizes that it is Phoebe, a young Pyncheon family “offshoot” who
has come to visit, unaware that her letter, sent in advance, never
arrived at the house of the seven gables. Hepzibah decides to let her
in, but tells her that she can only stay one night because she might
disturb Clifford.
Analysis — Chapters 3–4
Between Holgrave, the workmen, and the wealthy lady, Chapter 3
features a varied sampling of New England society. We learn a great
deal about the society’s class and social structure from the way Hepzibah interacts with her fellow villagers. The young Holgrave, a
daguerreotypist by profession, is something of an early bohemian,
defined entirely by his personality rather than by his money.
(Daguerreotype was an early form of photography.) Holgrave represents a new kind of socially mobile New Englander, one who can
interact comfortably with the snobbish Hepzibah but certainly does
not meet the criteria necessary to be considered a gentleman. The
workmen, however, have little connection to Hepzibah’s world.
Where her house is somber and grave, the banter between the work-
the house of the seven gables
H
27
C H A P T E R S 5– 6
Summary — Chapter 5: May and November
Phoebe awakens in the Pyncheon house. She has already brightened
the dingy home with her presence, and she immediately begins
redecorating her room, making it more comfortable and easier to
live in. Hepzibah tells her that she cannot stay, because the master of
the house will be returning soon. When Phoebe naïvely asks if she
means Judge Pyncheon, Hepzibah is incensed and angrily declares
that the Judge will never cross her threshold. The master of the
house, she tells Phoebe, is Clifford, Hepzibah’s brother and
Phoebe’s cousin. She shows Phoebe a picture, and Phoebe remarks
that he has a beautiful face. Phoebe is undaunted, however, by Hepzibah’s instruction that she leave. Buoyed by her cheery nature and
s ummary & analys i s
ers is Hawthorne’s equivalent of comic relief. They openly discuss
their financial success and their wives, whereas Hepzibah seems to
see both money and romantic relationships as taboo topics. In spite
of herself, however, Hepzibah begins to see life through the eyes of
her profession, as evidenced by her scorn for the wealthy lady. That
Hepzibah wonders aloud what such people contribute to the world
indicates that she no longer sees herself as being in the same social category as the wealthy woman. In her descent from haughty aristocrat
to embittered shopwoman, Hepzibah becomes a powerful symbol of
the importance of money in determining New England social status.
Both Uncle Venner and Judge Pyncheon are introduced to us in
this chapter, and the way they are first presented provides clues
about the roles they will play in the novel. Uncle Venner is immediately recognizable as a colorful neighborhood character. He is so
uncontroversial a character that he even helps the author along:
after offering Hepzibah sound advice, Uncle Venner alludes to the
fact that a certain “he” is expected home, allowing Hawthorne to
alert us that something is in the works without breaking the pattern
of his narrative. Judge Pyncheon is a mysterious figure, and Hawthorne’s approach underscores the fact that the Judge’s appearance
may well be deceiving. Hepzibah’s dour response to the man’s
good-natured smile signals that his outward kindness may mask
something less pleasant. Hepzibah’s final observation connecting
the Judge to the deceased Colonel Pyncheon adds an ominous note
to this initial depiction of the Judge.
s ummary & analys i s
28
H
nathaniel hawthorne
excellent domestic skills, she quickly persuades Hepzibah to let her
remain at the house for at least a few weeks. She then makes breakfast for Hepzibah. Phoebe shows herself to be particularly well
suited to running the shop. By the end of the day she has sold most
of the stock and is making plans to improve the store.
Hepzibah is thrilled with Phoebe’s cheerfulness and her skills, and
mourns the fact that Phoebe’s humble background prevents her from
being a lady. The novel notes that while Phoebe is, in fact, from a
humble background, her grace and charm transcend such silly social
distinctions. Hepzibah asks Uncle Venner if he has ever seen a Pyncheon like Phoebe before, and he replies that he has never had the
good luck of seeing anybody so angelic before. As business slows
down, Hepzibah gives Phoebe a tour of the house, showing her where
Colonel Pyncheon died and claiming that if Phoebe could only find
the treasure Hepzibah is convinced is buried in the vicinity, they
would all be wealthy. Hepzibah also shows Phoebe a harpsichord
played by Phoebe’s great-great-grand-aunt, a woman named Alice
Pyncheon, whose ghost is believed to still haunt the house. Hepzibah
makes sure to tell Phoebe about their lodger, Holgrave, who she says
is something of a revolutionary with strange acquaintances. She
adds, however, that Holgrave is charming. When Phoebe asks how
Hepzibah can permit such a lawless figure to live in her house, her
cousin replies that the young man seems to live by his own laws.
Summary — Chapter 6: Maule’s Well
Phoebe heads out into the garden to see if she can help rejuvenate
the plants. She finds a garden in an advanced state of decay, with
an old summerhouse slowly crumbling in the center of it. She discovers a rooster, two hens, and a chick, and she starts to feed and
take care of them. The chickens, we are told, are descendants of an
old, noble race of birds once bred by the Pyncheons. When the
family first began breeding them, the chickens were said to be the
size of turkeys. The chickens have gotten smaller over time, but
even though their line is increasingly feeble and diminished, it continues. As Phoebe feeds the chickens, she is surprised by Holgrave,
who, unbeknownst to her, had been tending to another part of the
garden. Holgrave shows some surprise at the way the chickens
flock to and acknowledge Phoebe. He tells her that he feeds the
birds constantly, but they have always ignored him. Holgrave says
the chickens must like Phoebe because they recognize that she is
part of the Pyncheon family.
the house of the seven gables
H
29
Analysis — Chapters 5–6
Phoebe brings a breath of fresh air into the stuffy Pyncheon house,
and the optimistic, bright, even pastoral vocabulary that surrounds
every description of Phoebe seems to reflect her stalwart country
values. Phoebe’s first action upon waking up is to make her room as
cheery and airy as possible—to begin reshaping the house. She
breathes new life into the shop as well, and her beauty, youth, and
inherent cheerfulness transform a failing Pyncheon experiment into
a commercial success; the store is almost unrecognizable under her
command. By and large, Hepzibah seems to be swayed by Phoebe’s
upbeat demeanor, but it is interesting to note that the she still harbors an old attachment to bloodline. She worries aloud to Uncle
Venner that Phoebe is unlike any Pyncheon she has ever seen.
Phoebe is, in fact, a Pyncheon, but she is not of the aristocratic
strain, and though her modest country background brings a badly
needed change to the house, she is allowed to begin making those
changes only because of her family name.
The ramifications of the close-minded, accursed Pyncheon way
of life are artfully illustrated by the description of the chickens, who
are obvious symbols for the Pyncheon family. Like the Pyncheons,
the chickens were once a large, hardy breed, but like the family that
breeds them, they have suffered with time, shrinking in size. By their
s ummary & analys i s
As a result of Hepzibah’s warnings, Phoebe is initially cautious
around Holgrave, but he is a compelling figure, and she is soon
drawn in. Phoebe thinks very little of daguerreotypes and says that
all of their figures seem overly stern, but Holgrave responds that his
portraits reveal more than a painted picture does. Holgrave says
that his daguerreotypes, rather than being simple pictures, can
reveal the true nature of the individual depicted. He shows her a picture of a man that he says shows the stern, unforgiving character
lurking beneath the subject’s smiling exterior. Phoebe thinks the
portrait is that of old Colonel Pyncheon. Holgrave asks Phoebe to
tend to the chickens and the flowers on his behalf, and she agrees.
When Phoebe returns inside, she finds Hepzibah sitting, rather mysteriously, all by herself. Phoebe sits down with her and is troubled by
the nagging feeling that there is another presence in the room. She
thinks she hears Hepzibah speaking to someone and fancies she
hears a low murmuring in reply, whispered phrases that sound
almost like human speech.
s ummary & analys i s
30
H
nathaniel hawthorne
very nature, too, the chickens, whose clucking and fighting is more
evocative of petty gossip than of serious discussion, seem like a
rather unflattering metaphor for a ruined family. Nonetheless, the
chickens also exhibit a rather admirable dignity, as their lineage has
endured in the face of poor health and seeming neglect. As the narrator tells us, “So wise as well as antique was their aspect, as to give
color to the idea, not merely that they were the descendants of a
time-honored race, but that they had existed, in their individual
capacity, ever since the House of the Seven Gables was founded, and
were somehow mixed up with its destiny.” Not only do the chickens
share the Pyncheons’ declining fortunes, but they are inextricably
linked to the fate of the family’s house as well.
There are inherent contradictions in Holgrave’s character, too,
and his conversation with Phoebe in the garden reveals that he is a
polarizing figure, one who, for better or worse, disrupts the world
around him. Holgrave’s politics are said to be wild and dangerous,
but it is telling that Hepzibah, who seems to have such an austere
conception of society, lets him live in her house; even her usual convictions seem to be overturned by this magnetic figure. In the garden, Phoebe’s hardy country goodness falls prey to Holgrave’s
charm, making this figure, a man she would normally avoid,
become increasingly compelling. Yet the real testament to how contradictory a figure Holgrave is comes when he shows Phoebe one of
his daguerreotypes. The man in the daguerreotype, who strongly
resembles Colonel Pyncheon, should be one of great pomp and
respectability. Although he wears a smile, there is nothing amicable
about this particular daguerreotype. Granted, the photograph’s
subject, who in later chapters will prove to be Judge Pyncheon, supplies his own contradictions and hidden meanings, but it is noteworthy that these mysteries are first revealed by Holgrave.
CHAPTERS 7–8
Summary — Chapter 7: The Guest
Phoebe awakes to find Hepzibah downstairs, deeply immersed in a
cookbook. Hepzibah decides to buy a mackerel from a fishmonger
walking along the street and immediately begins cooking it. Phoebe,
surprised by Hepzibah’s sudden energy, helps to cook the large
breakfast. Throughout the cooking, Hepzibah is on an emotional
roller-coaster, hugging Phoebe joyfully one minute and bursting
the house of the seven gables
H
31
Summary — Chapter 8: The Pyncheon of To-day
The shop bell that so startled Clifford turns out to have announced
the arrival of a new customer. This new arrival is the small boy who
bought gingerbread from Hepzibah before. As the boy leaves the
shop, in walks a portly man with a very noble bearing and a wide
and endearing smile. This is no ordinary smile, for it seems to draw
in anyone who sees it. Phoebe meets him, and the stranger at first
mistakes her for a new assistant hired by Hepzibah. Once the
stranger finds out who Phoebe is, however, he introduces himself as
her cousin, Judge Pyncheon. As a way of greeting Phoebe, the Judge
leans forward to kiss her, but Phoebe instinctively pulls back in spite
of herself. This revulsion briefly annoys the Judge, and a shadow
seems to pass over his face. His bright smile is suddenly replaced by
s ummary & analys i s
into tears the next. Phoebe is surprised to see three places set for the
meal, and when they hear the sounds of their long-awaited guest,
Hepzibah begs her to be cheerful no matter what. Finally, with Hepzibah’s assistance, in walks their guest, Hepzibah’s long-absent
brother, Clifford. He wanders about in confusion, addresses his sister in the third person, and though he is quite taken with Phoebe, he
can barely place her in the family. Phoebe eventually recognizes him
as the man whose miniature portrait Hepzibah keeps in her drawer.
Clifford eats his food ravenously, but he cannot look his sister in the
face and keeps casting his eyes around so that he does not have to
look at the ugliness of Hepzibah’s scowl.
After breakfast, Clifford begins to look around the room. It
becomes apparent that, for all his frailty, he is at heart a sybarite—
a person who devotes his life to the sensual pleasures of sight,
sound, and touch. Clifford takes particular pleasure in the old house
and the pleasant sight of young Phoebe. When he spots the old portrait of Colonel Pyncheon, however, Clifford recoils in horror and
asks that it be removed. Hepzibah replies that, as Clifford well
knows, she can do no such thing, but she agrees to cover it with a
cloth instead. The sudden ring of the shop bell greatly troubles Clifford. Hepzibah explains to him that times have changed and that
they are now so poor that she has been forced to take up shop-keeping. She frets that by doing so she has brought shame on the family,
but Clifford replies that he cannot be shamed further and is not
bothered by Hepzibah’s occupation. He weeps, however, over the
ruins of his life. Eventually, he falls asleep in his chair, while Hepzibah looks at his face and sheds silent tears.
s ummary & analys i s
32
H
nathaniel hawthorne
a great frown, and in this frown Phoebe thinks she sees the Judge’s
true nature, albeit only for a moment. Phoebe also realizes that this
Judge Pyncheon is the same man as the smiling but unforgiving figure portrayed in the daguerreotype that Holgrave showed her.
Phoebe recalls Holgrave’s claim that daguerreotypes, when developed in the sunlight, reveal truths about people that portraits do not.
Phoebe is amazed at how similar Judge Pyncheon is to the portrait of Colonel Pyncheon: the Judge seems to be simply an updated
version of the old Pyncheon patriarch. The narrator interjects at this
point, remarking on the many similarities between these two personages, including a certain greediness and an ability to hide a
rather ruthless nature beneath a friendly exterior. The narrator also
notes that, in most respects, Judge Pyncheon is a weaker, less potent
version of his ancestor. In addition to the physical similarities,
Phoebe notices a more sinister connection to the past when the
Judge makes a small noise in his throat, gurgling slightly as he does
so. The noise makes Phoebe suddenly recall Matthew Maule’s curse
on Colonel Pyncheon—“God will give him blood to drink”—and
the whispered rumors that the blood can supposedly be heard to
gurgle in the throats of Pyncheons. Judge Pyncheon asks to speak to
Hepzibah and guesses that Clifford has arrived. He suggests that
Phoebe may be scared of Clifford, something she is surprised to hear
and against which she protests. Judge Pyncheon cryptically implies
to her, however, that Clifford has done something terrible, but that
it is best she think well of him and so remain ignorant of what he has
done. The Judge says he wants to have a word with Clifford.
As the Judge moves past Phoebe toward the kitchen, Hepzibah
appears and resolutely blocks his way. In an effort to soften her,
Judge Pyncheon makes a kindly offer to support Hepzibah and Clifford financially, but Hepzibah refuses, her eyes glowing with bitterness and maybe even hatred. From the kitchen, Clifford, who is now
awake, begs Hepzibah to make the Judge go away, but his entreaties
are more pitiable than strong. When the Judge hears the sound of
Clifford’s voice, however, the narrator tells us that “a red fire kindled in [the Judge’s] eyes; and he made a quick pace forward, with
something inexpressibly fierce and grim, darkening forth, as it were,
out of the whole man.” Hepzibah stands strong, however, and manages to prevent the Judge from entering the house. The Judge
quickly calms himself and returns to his usual congeniality, adding
that he hopes to visit the house later, when Clifford and Hepzibah
are in a better mood. He leaves beaming his great false smile.
the house of the seven gables
H
33
Hepzibah collapses after the encounter and asks Phoebe to entertain
Clifford for the morning. Phoebe goes to speak with the old man,
deciding that there must be some old feud between Judge Pyncheon
and his cousins.
Analysis — Chapters 7–8
s ummary & analys i s
Clifford is a figure shrouded by suspense, and in Chapter 7 Hawthorne uses the setting of the table to draw out the suspense until
the very final moment. From the moment that Phoebe enters the
kitchen, it becomes clear to her that something unusual is afoot. As
the action unfolds, every detail emphasizes how Hepzibah’s behavior has changed. She is immersed in a cookbook when we first find
her, a sure indication that she is trying something new. The fish
seller makes his appearance, and Hepzibah rushes to get his attention, a sharp contrast to the earlier self who appears incapable of
making even the simplest decisions. And there is the noteworthy
addition of a third place to the table. The house that was, when we
first saw it, so definitively the domain of one woman has tripled its
number of places almost overnight. When Clifford finally appears,
however, he cuts something of an anticlimactic figure. He is almost
delirious, a doddering old man, incapable of even looking directly
at his sister. He shrinks with alarm at the smallest things. This
homecoming is more tragic than the one Hepzibah’s frantic preparations lead us to expect, and it is made all the more pitiable by the
fact that our expectations, like Hepzibah’s, have been raised in
Clifford’s absence.
The loss of the past is a recurrent theme in The House of the
Seven Gables, but nowhere is it more poignantly expressed than in
the comparisons between what Clifford once was and what he has
become. When Phoebe was shown his picture in past chapters, she
exclaimed that he was a handsome man, but we see no evidence of
that here. Hepzibah’s preparations also seem far too great for such
a man. But most telling of all is the description of Clifford as a man
who takes great pleasure in luxury and sensual pleasure. His eyes
consume the beautiful with a hunger as ravenous as the hunger he
brings to the dinner table, and it seems as if he is taking in all such
luxury for the first time in years—which we will discover in later
chapters to be the case. There is a sadness, too, in the way that he
cannot look directly at his sister, even when she is standing next to
him. For these reasons, although the Judge darkly hints to Phoebe
s ummary & analys i s
34
H
nathaniel hawthorne
that there is reason to be afraid, it is hard to attribute any menace
to Clifford’s appearance. His feebleness has already given him an
air of innocence.
Judge Pyncheon here loses any remaining respectability he had in
our eyes, though Hawthorne’s decision to have the Judge remain
smiling does allow us to see how thoroughly he has disguised himself. That Phoebe, who is so unquestionably good, is instinctively
reluctant to endure a kiss from the Judge tells us something is wrong
that is not apparent on his face or person. He suffers another comparison with Colonel Pyncheon, but this one is even more unflattering—not only does he have his ancestor’s cruelty, but he isn’t even
endowed with the Colonel’s strength. And the image of him with red
fire raging naturally invites comparison to the red fires of Hell and
makes him seem almost devilish. Nonetheless, even though the
Judge’s true nature is revealed to Phoebe and to us in this scene, he
is able to regain his composure; the fact that his smile returns so
effortlessly shows us how false this disguise is. It adds, too, to our
perception of the Judge’s evil. Once a character’s true nature is
unveiled, it is usually expected to stay that way; to see it cloaked
again makes it seem all the more devious.
CHAPTERS 9–10
[T]he delicate springs of his character, never morally
or intellectually strong, had given way, and he was
now imbecile . . . the fragrance of an earthly
rosebud . . . had summoned up reminiscences or
visions of all the living and breathing beauty, amid
which he should have had his home.
(See quotations, p. 56)
Summary — Chapter 9: Clifford and Phoebe
Hepzibah comes to realize that she cannot be a comforting presence to Clifford. Her voice croaks when she reads to him; he finds
the books she chooses uninteresting; and he cannot even bear to
look at her withered, scowling face. So Phoebe becomes the sole
source of happiness for the two miserable elders. Miraculously,
Phoebe is not brought down by the pathos and misery that envelop
the house, and she even begins to brighten it up. Phoebe’s is not a
mindless happiness, however, and she begins to acquire a womanly wisdom. She sings as she works, and the sound always makes
the house of the seven gables
H
35
Clifford happy, or at least less unhappy. He becomes “youthful”
when he is near her. His fascination is not lecherous, however, as it
has more to do with his enjoyment of watching her youth and
vigor develop than it does with Phoebe’s appearance. She, in turn,
is not one of those people who is fascinated by misery. In fact, she
finds the mystery surrounding Clifford frustrating, and the time
she spends with him is motivated by pity rather than morbid fascination. In the shop, too, Phoebe continues to be an asset, and most
customers prefer her to Hepzibah.
Summary — Chapter 10: The Pyncheon-Garden
s ummary & analys i s
One of the few sources of amusement for Clifford is the garden,
which, under Phoebe and Holgrave’s tender care, has slowly been
coming back to life. Phoebe often takes Clifford out into the garden,
where she reads aloud to him. These little excursions with Phoebe
always please Clifford, particularly when she reads poetry. In a
magnanimous gesture, he decrees that the old chickens be allowed
to roam free throughout the garden. They often can be found clustered close to Maule’s Well. Earlier in the summer, Holgrave discovered some bean-vine seeds hidden away in a chest of drawers in a
garret over one of the seven gables, stored away by a long-deceased
Pyncheon ancestor. To see how long such seeds last, Clifford
planted them, and now they have shot up as healthy bean vines
laden with bright red blossoms, always swarmed by hummingbirds,
to Clifford’s great delight. The sight of Clifford admiring the hummingbirds and puttering about his garden with an innocence that is
almost childlike warms Hepzibah’s heart. At the same time, however, the sight of such happiness, and the thought that both she and
Clifford have seen so many years wasted, give Hepzibah a slight
twinge of sadness.
Hepzibah has begun arranging Sunday-afternoon lunches with
Phoebe, Clifford, Holgrave, and Uncle Venner. Clifford, whose
social interactions are typically muted, is surprisingly animated at
these lunches. He enjoys speaking with Uncle Venner, whose greatly
advanced age makes Clifford feel almost young. Holgrave also
makes friendly overtures toward Clifford, but the narrator notes the
“questionable” expression that occasionally appears in the artist’s
eye. On one such occasion, Uncle Venner mentions that he dreams
of eventually retiring to the workhouse, which he refers to as the
“farm,” and Clifford insinuates that he has bigger, more ambitious
plans for Uncle Venner. Uncle Venner, however, politely refuses to
36
H
nathaniel hawthorne
be party to any such strategies, saying that he feels no burning desire
to heap up property, since it seems to take away from what God has
provided him with. As the sun begins to set, Clifford’s high spirits
decline. He mutters to himself, “I want my happiness! . . . Many,
many years have I waited for it! It is late!” The narrator expresses
pity for Clifford, for his past troubles and his half-imbecility, and
says that Fate holds no happiness for Clifford unless he can find it in
his time with Phoebe and luncheons like the one he has just consumed. The narrator advises Clifford to accept this as happiness:
“Murmur not—question not—but make the most of it!”
s ummary & analys i s
Analysis — Chapters 9–10
The tableau of relative domestic tranquility that is painted in these
chapters is given weight by the fact that we see Phoebe not only surviving but actually growing in her new environment. Until now, the
house has been depicted as unfriendly territory at best, but it now
takes on an air of fertility and nourishment. Phoebe, we are told, is
noticeably developing into a woman, a strange claim when one considers that she has been at the house for only a matter of weeks, but
one that is stressed nonetheless. Her emotional maturity is remarkable: she sings sad songs, but without any tragedy or self-pity, and
she is more annoyed than fascinated with the pathos that surrounds
Clifford. Granted, Phoebe arrived at the Pyncheon house with an air
of natural vigor and determination, but in Chapter 9 these assets
blossom into something more grounded and serious. While this
makes Phoebe all the more admirable, it also casts a shadow of
doubt on the melancholy that dyes the novel’s every page. Phoebe’s
annoyance with Clifford’s martyrdom may indicate that not everything in The House of the Seven Gables is as predestined as its owners have come to believe.
Clifford is also allowed to grow, and as he emerges from his halfimbecilic state, he blossoms in a manner that is clearly linked to the
garden he so adores. The bean vines are an obvious indicator of this
growth, and they also come to stand for the more general revitalization of the house of the seven gables. Planted from seeds discovered
buried in the musty belongings of an old Pyncheon ancestor, they
indicate that something good can come out of the corruption of the
past; the fact that they grow in the face of all expectations that they
would fail—Holgrave plants them more as an experiment than as a
serious attempt at agriculture—inserts some hope into what has so
the house of the seven gables
H
37
far been a predominantly bleak narrative. While the bean vines
thrive, Clifford’s own rejuvenation and spiritual rebirth are far
from complete. It should be noted that as he extracts himself from
his insanity, he also begins to exhibit some less likable Pyncheon
traits. His disdain for his sister’s face is cruel but may be justifiable
given his penchant for all things beautiful, yet his plans for Uncle
Venner’s future seem strangely greedy, as do his grumblings that he
now wants his happiness. Because Clifford has suffered through
much, a somewhat vengeful spirit seems understandable, but some
of his comments bear an eerie similarity to avaricious remarks we
might have expected to hear from Colonel Pyncheon.
C H A P T E R S 11– 1 2
Summary — Chapter 11: The Arched Window
Hoping to lighten Clifford’s mood, Phoebe often takes him to the
window of the front gable, which looks out onto the street. Clifford is surprised by many of the new innovations that have come
about while he was gone, although he has trouble making sense of
the endless stream passing by: water carts, omnibuses, the sound of
a passing train. He is happier when he sees things he remembers,
such as rickety old-style carts, and laments the lack of stagecoaches. One day an organ-grinder, who works with a monkey
and a moving diorama, begins playing in front of the Pyncheon
house. The diorama has many figures, including a young man who
repeatedly kisses a woman, a miser who counts his money, and a
drunk who continually takes swigs of liquor. The narrator notes
the futility of the figures’ efforts, since once the music stops, they
cease to move, and they are no closer to finishing their activity
than before. The organ-grinder’s monkey, an ugly little thing,
constantly holds out his hairy palm for change and is never
satisfied. The narrator thinks this greedy, ugly monkey is an amusing caricature of many New Englanders’ souls, but Clifford is the
only one to recognize the horror of the monkey, and he recoils
from it.
s ummary & analys i s
“We read in Dead Men’s books! We laugh at Dead
Men’s jokes, and cry at Dead Men’s pathos! . . .
Whatever we seek to do, of our own free motion, a
Dead Man’s icy hand obstructs us!”
(See quotations, p. 57)
38
H
nathaniel hawthorne
s ummary & analys i s
Another day, a procession passes through the streets. The sight of
so many people crowded into the same place at once greatly affects
Clifford, who suddenly steps onto the windowsill and seems about
to jump off. Phoebe and Hepzibah pull him back down, but the narrator suggests that the leap may not have been so bad and that it
might have awakened Clifford from his thick, endless stupor. On
Sunday, the entire town turns out for church, as does Phoebe.
Watching them all go, Clifford suggests to Hepzibah that perhaps
they too could go to church. They dress and walk out the door, but
then immediately stop. They cannot make themselves go farther.
Clifford laments that he and Hepzibah have become ghosts and are
tied to the Pyncheon house forever. Another afternoon, Clifford
amuses himself by blowing bubbles out the window, only to have
one land on Judge Pyncheon, who looks up to the window and
makes a slightly sarcastic comment to Clifford before moving on.
It’s a brief exchange, but it leaves Clifford paralyzed by fear.
Summary — Chapter 12: The Daguerreotypist
Phoebe has now been at the Pyncheon house for a month. Since she
is young and hungry for company of her own age, she becomes
friends with Holgrave, the daguerreotypist. Their conversations are
especially important to Phoebe, who craves a break from the dour
company of Clifford and Hepzibah. Phoebe discovers that Holgrave, at the age of twenty-two, has already lived a diverse life, having worked a dozen jobs and visited not only the Midwestern states
but also parts of Europe. He is an excitable young man who has
been impressed with the ideas of revolutionaries. He makes a long
speech to Phoebe about how everything in their world—their
books, their laws, their houses—is based on the works of dead men,
and he thinks each generation should tear down the institutions of
the past and put up new ones in their place. These ideas unnerve
Phoebe, but she listens nonetheless. The narrator notes that Holgrave’s “earnestness and heightened color” which are increasingly
evident as he speaks, might lead one to imagined that he is in love
with Phoebe, although she has never been able to discern anything
of the sort in his heart.
Holgrave makes many inquiries about Clifford, as he is very curious about both the man’s welfare and his past. Phoebe does not
share Holgrave’s inquisitiveness and is consequently unable to give
him any of the information he seeks. We are told that Holgrave is
not a particularly well-read young man, and that while he considers
the house of the seven gables
H
39
himself a thinker, he still has much to learn, including how to really
think about things. Nonetheless, he possesses a natural courage and
resolve that are made all the more admirable by the fact that they
have survived many trials. Holgrave is wrongly convinced that he
can read Phoebe like an open book, and he fails to recognize that
such personalities often conceal deep thoughts and emotions. Holgrave then expresses to Phoebe his belief in a Pyncheon curse, at
least as much as it has caused something of a Pyncheon “lunacy.”
Phoebe rejects the notion, asking whether such lunacy might be
catching. Holgrave tells her that it is no superstition, and that he has
written an in-depth story about the ancient Maule curse for a magazine. Holgrave asks Phoebe if she would like to hear it, and when
she assents, he reads it to her.
While the organ-grinder himself is not a particularly gripping figure,
he nonetheless offers up a number of symbols that allow Hawthorne
to comment on the world around him. The first of these is the moving diorama, whose figures indulge in a fruitless, endless pantomime
of activity in which goals remain unreached—particularly the lover,
who is no happier for all the kisses he has obtained from his girl.
Hawthorne’s narrator remarks of the scene: “Possibly, some cynic,
at once merry and bitter, had desired to signify . . . that we mortals,
whatever our business or amusement—however serious, however
trifling—all dance to one identical tune, and, in spite of our ridiculous activity, bring nothing finally to pass.” It’s a rare but telling
moment in the narrative in which Hawthorne steps outside his
authorial stance to admit that he is using this part of his story to
impart his own “merry and bitter” opinions, revealing to his readers
that his novel may have more than a simple storytelling agenda.
The organ-grinder’s monkey offers an even more grotesque commentary, personifying the stingy individuals that Hawthorne must
have seen in the society around him. The monkey becomes associated with the demon of avarice when it is described as “the Mammon of copper-coin, symbolizing the grossest form of the love of
money.” The monkey is not the sole source of avarice, however, for
the narrator notes that as New Englanders walk by and drop their
money in the monkey’s hairy palm, they fail to see how well their
“own moral condition was here exemplified,” meaning that the
monkey is the spitting image of the humans from whom he collects
s ummary & analys i s
Analysis — Chapters 11–12
s ummary & analys i s
40
H
nathaniel hawthorne
his coins. Again, Hawthorne seems to be eager that we not miss the
point, for not only does he take great pains to ensure we understand
the ideas he is trying to express, but he states outright that the monkey is “symbolizing” something, in case we try to read such an obvious image too literally. Rather than letting us stroll happily by the
monkey, as all the characters in the story except Clifford do, the
author lets us in on his intentions and takes great pains to make sure
we understand.
Holgrave’s diatribe in Chapter 12 allows Hawthorne to give
voice to contemporary philosophy that transforms the house of the
seven gables into a metaphor for society. When Holgrave touts
some of the Transcendentalist ideas to which Hawthorne himself
was exposed, he stresses the importance of renewal, arguing that
society is based on the views of “Dead Men”—a rather chilling way
of arguing that New England culture is based on stale ideas. Holgrave’s argument that what is important is to rebuild with each succeeding generation is of unmistakable relevance to the Pyncheons,
still haunted by a curse generations old. Holgrave’s statement could
even suggest that Matthew Maule’s curse has become a handy
excuse for the misery of the Pyncheon family. Until now, for the
most part, Hepzibah and Clifford have seemed to be helpless prisoners of an ancient evil, but Holgrave’s politics assign them a degree of
agency, and it becomes somewhat harder to sympathize with their
sufferings when we realize that their problems could disappear once
they left the Pyncheon homestead. Of course, The House of the
Seven Gables is a romance, and in previous pages, including the
incident where Hepzibah and Clifford are unable to go to church,
Hawthorne has presented circumstances as being beyond their control. Holgrave nevertheless offers a very different perspective, and
for a brief moment the story of the house seems to stand for our own
inability to deal with the problems around us and our unwillingness
to even try.
CHAPTERS 13–14
Summary — Chapter 13: Alice Pyncheon
This chapter is the text of Holgrave’s story about the Pyncheon
curse, which he reads aloud to Phoebe. Gervayse Pyncheon, the
grandson of Colonel Pyncheon, summons a carpenter named Matthew Maule, the grandson of the same Matthew Maule who placed
the house of the seven gables
H
41
s ummary & analys i s
the curse on the Pyncheon family. The younger Maule, a bitter and
unpopular carpenter, knows the family legend well and has a deep
hatred for the Pyncheons. Maule believes that the house of the seven
gables is rightfully his and that the curse will never end until the
house has been returned to the Maule family. Although he is only a
laborer, Maule defiantly barges into the house through the front
door and demands to know what Pyncheon wants. Pyncheon, now
a middle-aged man, has not lived in the house for very long. He
spent his younger years in Europe, where he got married and traveled the continent. Now that Gervayse has returned to New
England, however, he is interested in the large area of land in Maine
that Colonel Pyncheon was in the process of acquiring when he
died. Gervayse believes that the Maule family may know where the
missing deeds to the land are, since the current Matthew Maule’s
father, the first Maule’s son, was working on the Pyncheon house
when these deeds disappeared.
The Pyncheons have searched thoroughly for the missing document, even digging up the grave of the first Matthew Maule to look
for it, but have been unable to find it. The younger Maule turns a
deaf ear to Gervayse’s offers of money if he can produce the desired
documentation, but he eventually agrees to help Gervayse in
exchange for the house of the seven gables. After some deliberation,
Gervayse decides that the exchange is worth it, and they have a celebratory drink. Before giving the information, Maule asks to see
Gervayse’s young daughter, Alice Pyncheon. Gervayse reluctantly
agrees. When Alice enters, she admires the strength and artistry evident in the younger Maule, but he mistakes her glance for haughtiness. He makes her sit down and hypnotizes her. Gervayse has a
premonition that Maule is doing something terrible, but Alice
waves her father off, and this dismissal, combined with his greed,
keep Gervayse from protesting. Maule uses Alice as a medium to
contact the spirits of Colonel Pyncheon, the older Matthew Maule,
and his own father. In Alice’s vision, the two Maule spirits physically restrain the ghost of the Colonel from divulging the document’s location, and he is so choked with his own secret that he
begins to cough up blood. The younger Maule declares that the
secret will not be revealed until the deed no longer has value. He tells
Pyncheon to keep the house of the seven gables and glories in the
fact that he now has control over Alice.
Over the next few years, Maule uses his power to toy with Alice.
Regardless of where she is, she is at his beck and call. He can make
42
H
nathaniel hawthorne
her happy or sad at the most inopportune times, or have her dance
a vulgar jig anytime he pleases. Alice suffers greatly from this indignity, and she refuses to marry while her life is not her own. One
night, she is summoned by Maule from a bridal party to a laborer’s
home, and trudges through the dark and snow wearing only a light
evening gown. She arrives at the home, where Maule is marrying the
laborer’s daughter, and he uses his powers to force Alice to wait
upon and serve his new bride. Alice wakes up from her trance once
the ceremony is over and humbly kisses the new bride before heading back home. Inappropriately clad for the cold weather, however,
Alice catches pneumonia and dies. The last marcher in the elaborate
funeral procession is Matthew Maule, who is broken with guilt by
the way his petty antics, which were only meant to humble, have
cost the innocent girl her life.
s ummary & analys i s
Summary — Chapter 14: Phoebe’s Good Bye
Holgrave finishes his story and realizes that his graphic description
of Maule’s hypnotic techniques have succeeded in mesmerizing
Phoebe. For a moment, Holgrave is close to having the same tight
grasp on Phoebe as Maule had on Alice, and we are told that for
young men of Holgrave’s temperament, there is no greater temptation than this power. The narrator tells us, however, that Holgrave’s integrity and respect for individuality win out and prevent
him from taking advantage of his captive audience member. Holgrave wakes Phoebe up. The sun begins to go down, and the young
couple is struck by the romantic beauty of the moonlight. Phoebe
mentions that she must soon return to her country home for a short
time but that she will be back. She expresses some sadness at the fact
that she has become less cheery than she used to be, though she also
feels that she is wiser, too. Holgrave says this should be cause for
celebration, not sadness. Phoebe is now entering the second phase
of her youth, Holgrave says, in which she will be able to appreciate
her life much more than before.
They then discuss Hepzibah and Clifford, whom Holgrave says
are already dead and cannot be brought back. Phoebe is surprised at
Holgrave’s pessimism and a little offended by his lack of sensitivity.
Holgrave asks her forgiveness and explains that he senses trouble.
Judge Pyncheon is a cruel man, he suggests, capable of doing horrible things, but his secrets remain a mystery to Holgrave. Holgrave
and Phoebe part as friends. When Phoebe prepares to depart, Hepzibah sadly observes that she has lost her smile because “there has
the house of the seven gables
H
43
been too much weight on [her] spirits” at the house of the seven
gables. Clifford has a good look at her face and notices she is now a
woman, beautiful rather than pretty, and no longer a girl. As
Phoebe leaves, she runs into Uncle Venner, who again refers to her
as an angel and tells her to be sure to come back. He tells her, too,
that her presence in the house has greatly brightened the lives of her
cousins. Phoebe replies that while she is certainly no angel, she has
done what little good she can.
Analysis — Chapters 13–14
s ummary & analys i s
The tale of Matthew Maule the younger and Alice Pyncheon is particularly difficult to analyze because even its accuracy is suspect.
Throughout the chapter, the exact nature of events is thrown into
question—whether the younger Maule and Gervayse sealed their
deal with a handshake or with lawyers, what exactly was said in
their meeting, and so on. Even the protagonists themselves speak in
insinuations and rely on rumors. This story functions as the romantic centerpiece of the novel, combining near-wizardry, spirits, and
the tragic death of a young innocent. The chapter may be said to
encapsulate the whole of The House of the Seven Gables in exaggerated form, as it is a tale of relative realism laced with a strong dose of
the fantastic. Holgrave, who has written this story, becomes representative of the author, and we, in turn, are cast as the captive, hypnotized audience. This representation of storytelling is not
particularly cheerful or even tongue-in-cheek. Instead, storytelling
is represented as a sort of dark art, capable of giving its practitioners
enormous power—a strange commentary for Hawthorne to offer
on his own craft of fiction.
The story also introduces a number of close parallels between
Holgrave and the Maule family that have been largely dormant until
now. Like Holgrave, the younger Matthew Maule is an artist, and
though he is a tradesman by profession, Alice is primarily struck by
the artistry evident in Maule’s craft. Even more obviously, Holgrave
shows the same hypnotic capabilities as the younger Maule, and he
ends his story in much the same state as his protagonist does when
his spell is over, elated that his subject is now under his spell.
Although Maule clearly does not have Gervayse’s best intentions in
mind when he casts his spell, he is pleasantly surprised by the power
he has over Alice, and his ultimate grief over her death suggests he is
not fully aware of the extent of his power. Holgrave’s intentions
44
H
nathaniel hawthorne
appear to be purer, but he too is not entirely aware of his abilities.
Though he is tempted by the fact that Phoebe has fallen under his
spell, it does not appear to be his goal in telling the story. It is important that Holgrave does not follow through on his newfound
power—his connection to the Maules remains murky, but he seems
to be exercising the willpower necessary to break family patterns.
CHAPTERS 15–16
s ummary & analys i s
Behold therefore, a palace! . . . Ah; but in some low
and obscure nook . . . may lie a corpse, half-decayed,
and still decaying, and diffusing its death-scent all
through the palace! . . . Here, then, we are to seek the
true emblem of the man’s character. . . .
(See quotations, p. 58)
Summary — Chapter 15: The Scowl and Smile
The house of the seven gables becomes a dreary place after Phoebe
leaves; it is made even more so by the arrival of a storm that lingers
for several days. Clifford becomes more and more dour, eventually
refusing to get out of bed. Hepzibah feels helpless and does not
know how to help her brother. That same day, the shop bell rings.
Judge Pyncheon has come to pay his two cousins another visit. Hepzibah responds to the Judge as before, with an anger that borders on
hatred, and demands to know why the Judge continues to bother
them. The Judge at first appeals to her emotional side, delivering a
long and tearful speech about his own love for her and for Clifford,
and informs Hepzibah that he only desires to help his cousins out of
the sheer goodness of his heart. We are told that Judge is widely
regarded as a wise and kindly man, and that he himself is so enamored of his station in life that he has come to believe he has no stains
on his conscience. His one or two harsh deeds, the Judge thinks, are
a necessary evil, balanced out by his various pious activities—
among them his work with a Bible group and his leadership of a
temperance movement dedicated to encouraging sobriety. Hepzibah is not fooled by the Judge’s kind words and continues to refuse
to summon Clifford.
The Judge then becomes angry. The narrator embarks on a
lengthy and descriptive exploration of the theory that the Judge
nurses a terrible secret. The narrator suggests that despite the
Judge’s wholesome and pleasant exterior, he may well have been
the house of the seven gables
H
45
corrupted by an awful, buried truth, which has come to infect every
part of him, like a corpse rotting in the nook of a giant, beautiful palace. The irate Judge tells Hepzibah that he absolutely must speak
with Clifford, because, shortly before Clifford was taken away and
incarcerated, he had told the Judge about documentation that
revealed the whereabouts of a good portion of their Uncle Jaffrey’s
legacy. The Judge desperately wants this piece of evidence, and he
will stop at nothing to get it. Hepzibah refuses to believe that her
brother could really have such knowledge, but the Judge continues
to insist that she fetch Clifford so the Judge can talk to him. Finally,
the Judge threatens to have Clifford locked up in an asylum if he
does not divulge the secret. Hepzibah believes that a conversation
with the Judge will destroy Clifford, but this threat means she no
longer has a choice. She walks upstairs to retrieve Clifford, while the
Judge waits below.
Hepzibah very slowly mounts the stairs that lead to Clifford’s room,
pausing on the way to look through the window at the busy street
outside. She wonders if Clifford actually knows of any hidden gold,
and she wonders what it would mean for them if he did. Hepzibah
soon sees, however, that no one as feeble as Clifford could know
such a secret, and she wonders at the horrible things the Judge will
do to her frail brother in order to obtain this information that Clifford does not know. Hepzibah contemplates calling for help, but
she knows the village would invariably take the Judge’s side. Hepzibah knocks on Clifford’s door, and there is no answer. When Hepzibah enters, the room is empty, and she has panicked visions of
Clifford drowning himself to avoid persecution. She runs downstairs to ask the Judge for his help, but the Judge remains motionless
in his chair in the parlor regardless of how loudly Hepzibah yells.
Suddenly, Clifford springs out of the parlor, gleefully proclaiming
they are “free” as he points grotesquely inside the room. Puzzled,
Hepzibah rushes inside to see what the matter is, then recoils in horror. Clifford tells her they must flee, and after Hepzibah grabs her
cloak and purse, they escape into the night, leaving the Judge’s body
slumped in his chair like “a defunct nightmare.”
s ummary & analys i s
Summary — Chapter 16: Clifford’s Chamber
46
H
nathaniel hawthorne
s ummary & analys i s
Analysis — Chapters 15–16
In Chapter 15, the Judge is further fleshed out as the novel’s villain,
and though it is never questioned that his motives are cruel and selfserving, Hawthorne does add some depth to this discussion by suggesting that the Judge may not be aware of his own faults. The Judge
sees himself as a man of many accomplishments and just a few misdeeds. He is a pious and active member of the community—a judge,
a preacher, and a leader of the temperance movement (a widespread
movement in the United States that viewed alcohol as the nation’s
greatest problem). The Judge’s smile, since it reflects his sense of selfsatisfaction, while misguided, can no longer honestly be called fake
or a deception. The fact that the Judge remains the obvious antagonist of The House of the Seven Gables makes the novel both an
indictment of the society which allows gestures to override true
integrity and an even sterner view of human conduct than we might
expect from the Judge himself. The Judge’s conscience is clear, but
Hawthorne has little use for what some might call mitigating circumstances and condemns the Judge nonetheless.
These chapters both masterfully employ suspense to build up
what will prove to be the climax of the book. Although Hepzibah
greets the Judge apprehensively, he is kind at first and slow to anger.
Given the urgency of his task and the fact that he has so often been
rejected by Hepzibah, we might expect the Judge to immediately
and explosively butt heads with his cousin, but he continues to bide
his time. Even once his anger is aroused, the Judge speaks through
clenched teeth instead of raising his voice, and we are left hungering
for some kind of resolution. The suspense is carried over into the
next chapter, and the tension rises with every step up the stairs the
Hepzibah takes. When Hepzibah finally gets to Clifford’s room, the
scene seems like an inspiration for countless horror movies—she
knocks on the door and there is no answer, then she swings the door
open slowly and steps into the empty room. As Hepzibah is suddenly struck by the thought of Clifford trying to end his own misery,
the prose springs to life, as Hepzibah races down the halls, calls
loudly to the Judge at the top of her lungs, and Clifford suddenly
pops up in the parlor. Yet the novel continues to deny us any resolution. Even though the Judge is left slumped in his chair, exactly what
has happened is left unclear and an aura of mystery hangs over the
next few chapters.
the house of the seven gables
H
47
C H A P T E R S 17– 1 8
“A man will commit almost any wrong—he will heap
up an immense pile of wickedness, as hard as
granite, . . . only to build a great, gloomy, darkchambered mansion, for himself to die in, and for his
posterity to be miserable in.” (See quotations, p. 59)
Summary — Chapter 17: The Flight of Two Owls
s ummary & analys i s
Clifford and Hepzibah flee the house of the seven gables, worried
that they will be implicated in the death of Judge Pyncheon. They
walk along the village streets, fading into the gloomy background of
the overcast day, noticed by no one. Hepzibah feels as if she is living
in a nightmare, but Clifford has never seemed more youthful or
alive; the death of the Judge has left him feeling liberated and elated.
They board a train, and an old gentleman sitting on the other side of
their passenger car strikes up a conversation with Clifford. He
remarks that it is a poor day to travel and would be better spent
inside near a fireplace. Clifford, however, disagrees, arguing that the
“admirable invention of the railroad” will “do away with those stale
ideas of home and fireside, and substitute something better.” The
old man disagrees, and Clifford begins to speak at length. He outlines his belief that mankind moves in an “ascending spiral,” where
previous ideas are revived and reformed. In this case, the advent of
the railroad will allow mankind to return to the nomadic culture of
its primitive era, and will prevent people from becoming “prisoner[s] for life in brick, and stone, and old worm-eaten timber.”
Clifford becomes very animated and almost youthful during this
lecture. He goes on to suggest that houses, particularly those created
by people guilty of something, can visit old curses on future generations. Clifford describes a “hypothetical” house, with seven gables,
where a dead man sits in the parlor. He says, “I could never flourish
there, nor be happy,” and claims it would be a relief if this house
were torn down or destroyed. He hopes for a more “nomadic”
future, where houses are out of daily use. He also believes that a
more spiritual age is approaching, and speaks on the unifying
nature of the telegraph, which he believes will serve to make the
world smaller by allowing lovers to talk over long distances. He
deplores, however, the ability of the telegraph to aid in hunting
down criminals, because it prevents them from being able to escape
their crimes and start afresh, robs them of their rights, and deprives
48
H
nathaniel hawthorne
them of a “city of refuge.” The old man becomes very embarrassed
and suspicious during Clifford’s tirade. Clifford and Hepzibah get
off the train at a lonely way station, where Clifford’s strength leaves
him. Exhausted, Clifford tells Hepzibah to do with him as she will.
s ummary & analys i s
Summary — Chapter 18: Governor Pyncheon
Judge Pyncheon is both spoken of and directly addressed in this
chapter, as if the man were not dead but merely asleep or meditating
in his chair. The narrator exhorts the Judge to awaken while simultaneously listing all of the scheduled plans that the Judge is now
missing. The most significant is a dinner meeting at which the Judge
had planned to get himself nominated as a candidate for governor of
Massachusetts. Even for this, however, the bloated body will not
wake up. A solemn march of ghosts begins. Deceased Pyncheon
after deceased Pyncheon parades by, from Colonel Pyncheon on.
Each of them stops at the portrait of Colonel Pyncheon and shakes
it, looking in vain for something hidden inside the painting. Among
them is the Judge’s own son, whom he has long ago disowned. The
novel wonders what the son is doing here—if he is dead, then the
Judge’s property will go to Clifford and Hepzibah. The next day
comes, and Judge Pyncheon still resists the narrator’s jeers and calls
to wake up. A fly crawls across his face and creeps toward his open
eyes. The narrator gives up in disgust. The Judge continues to sit
slumped in his chair, and the novel’s reverie is interrupted by the tinkling of the shop bell.
Analysis — Chapters 17–18
In Clifford’s animated discussion with the old gentleman on the
train, we see both a continuation of and a variation on Holgrave’s
arguments in Chapter 12. Like Holgrave, Clifford ridicules the idea
of relying too heavily on the institutions of the past; he sees society
as rolling toward nomadic greatness on an unstoppable tidal wave
of progress. He is especially offended by the habit of “planting” a
family in a single spot, which he says traps people in old misery and
taunts them with the memories of their past glory. Unlike Holgrave,
however, Clifford does not dismiss all of the past and even holds up
humankind’s primitive era as an example of the ideal society. His
contempt seems to be more for the more recent past. Clifford’s
tirade constitutes an escape, a mental abandonment of the house
that parallels his physical flight on the train, and his elation is due to
the house of the seven gables
H
49
s ummary & analys i s
the fact that he feels real liberty awaits him ahead. The house does
not give up easily, though, and even at a distance it pushes Clifford
toward insanity, prompting him to reveal the presence of his
cousin’s body in the house and to commit other indiscretions, even
as he cheers on the house’s destruction.
Chapter 18 is a descriptive tour de force. The rather unusual tactic of having the narrator jeer at the villain’s corpse serves to lay bare
both the full extent of the Judge’s ambition and the extent to which
he was hated. The Judge does not have the same powers of interior
monologue as the other characters, so revealing the details of his
day, most notably his bid for the governorship of Massachusetts,
could be a tricky endeavor, one that falls well outside of the rest of
the novel’s narrative structure. Although the details provided here
are not vital to the plot, they offer a powerful comment on the aspirations of the Judge and of people like him. The discussion also confirms what the novel has maintained since the beginning—that it is
when such men are on the verge of their greatest grasp that they are
cut down, as was evidenced by the fate of both Gervayse and Colonel Pyncheon. Even more important, it allows us to witness firsthand the disdain the Judge deserves. There is something distasteful
about gloating over the body of a fallen foe, but the fact that it
occurs forces us to wonder what the Judge has done that could merit
such mockery, and consequently to understand the threat that the
Judge has posed to so many lives.
The other significant scene in this chapter is the ghostly procession of Pyncheons, a powerful moment that Hawthorne carefully
disqualifies by saying, “The fantastic scene, just hinted at, must by
no means be considered as forming an actual portion of our story.”
As with Holgrave’s story about Alice Pyncheon, Hawthorne seems
reluctant to sacrifice the novel’s realism, so he casts the fantastic as
a character’s story or, in this case, as a flight of the imagination. By
having the scene be a daydream instead of an actual occurrence,
Hawthorne fulfills the promise he made in the Preface—that he will
balance the novel form with the romance. This story, like Holgrave’s story about the younger Matthew Maule, is also a distinct
foreshadowing of events, allowing us to divine that the frame surrounding the portrait will be of some importance in the future.
50
H
nathaniel hawthorne
CHAPTERS 19–21
s ummary & analys i s
Summary — Chapter 19: Alice’s Posies
Pyncheon Street, which runs in front of the house of the seven gables,
is beautiful and abounds with vegetables growing in the neighbors’
gardens and the leaves of the great Pyncheon elm whispering in the
wind. Alice’s Posies, the flowers that grow in the dust between two
gables, have bloomed. Uncle Venner passes by, but Holgrave, from
his window, tells him no one is home. A customer bangs angrily on
the door of Hepzibah’s store, but a neighbor says the brother and sister have left. Little Ned Higgins finds the store closed when he tries
to buy a gingerbread man, and the workmen guffaw that the business has already gone under. A butcher who knocks grumbles about
being ignored. The Judge’s horse still stands where the Judge left it,
and some villagers begin to suspect bloody deeds. The organ-grinder
returns and plays in front of the window, but a man tells him the city
marshal is coming to investigate and warns him to be gone. The
novel remarks that this is just as well: it would be a terrifying sight if
Judge Pyncheon were to answer the door, his shirt caked in blood.
Phoebe returns, as good and bright as ever. Ned Higgins, from a distance, shouts and warns that there is something evil inside the house,
and although Phoebe assumes he has been scared by Hepzibah’s
scowl, she enters with some apprehension. The door opens a crack
and slams shut once she has entered.
Summary — Chapter 20: The Flower of Eden
Phoebe is pulled into the house by a strange, warm hand, and when
she steps into the light she realizes it is Holgrave. Holgrave has an
attitude of genuine warmth, as if something wonderful has happened, but he refuses to let Phoebe look in the parlor. He shows her
his old daguerreotype of Judge Pyncheon and then a new one he has
just made of the Judge lying dead. Holgrave tells Phoebe that he has
not told the police or called witnesses because he knows that to do
so would implicate the absent Clifford and Hepzibah, and he hopes
that the two return soon. Holgrave mentions that it would have
been better had Hepzibah and Clifford immediately made the
Judge’s death public, since the circumstances so strongly resemble
the death of Clifford’s uncle Jaffrey Pyncheon, for which Clifford
was blamed. Holgrave adds that Clifford was blamed largely due to
the efforts of the Judge. Phoebe is shocked and wants to immedi-
the house of the seven gables
H
51
ately inform the village of what has happened, but Holgrave is possessed by a strange joy, and finally tells Phoebe he loves her. Phoebe
is doubtful that she can make a restless spirit like Holgrave happy,
but he convinces her that he is willing to give all of this up for her.
Phoebe protests this vow, but she eventually caves in and tells Holgrave she loves him as well. At that moment, Clifford and Hepzibah
return to the house of the seven gables. When they see the young
people, Hepzibah is so glad she is finally able to set down her burden
of grief that she bursts into tears.
Summary — Chapter 21: The Departure
s ummary & analys i s
The death of Judge Pyncheon creates only a mild sensation around
town, but it does prompt rumors about the man’s ugly past. The
death of old Jaffrey Pyncheon thirty or forty years before was dismissed by doctors as an accident, but circumstances made it seem
suspicious, and the suspicion fell on Clifford. However, it turns out
that, in his youth, the Judge was a wild and hot-tempered man, and
it is implied that one night, as he rummaged through his uncle’s
papers, the younger Jaffrey Pyncheon was surprised by the older
Jaffrey Pyncheon, who died instantly from shock. The actual cause
of his death was apoplexy, the bloody brain hemorrhage that killed
Colonel Pyncheon, but rather than being dismayed by the sight,
young Jaffrey continued rifling through his uncle’s drawers and
destroyed a will that left the property to Clifford. Aware that his
uncle’s death might arouse suspicion, young Jaffrey Pyncheon
arranged the evidence to point toward Clifford, and though he may
not have intended for his cousin to be accused of murder, young Jaffrey kept quiet when Clifford was put on trial. Despite the cruelty of
this behavior, the Judge managed to convince himself he was blameless and tucked the whole incident away as a youthful indiscretion.
The Judge would be saddened could he know the circumstances
that followed his death. Unbeknownst to him, his son has died of
cholera in Europe, and his inheritance now goes to Clifford, who
decides to move to the Judge’s lavish estate with Hepzibah, Phoebe,
and, the novel sarcastically notes, that sworn enemy of wealth, Holgrave. Phoebe teases Holgrave when he remarks with regret that the
new house is built of impermanent wood rather than permanent
stone, and he acknowledges with a melancholy smile that he is rapidly becoming a conservative. He finds his new views “especially
unpardonable in this dwelling of so much hereditary misfortune,”
standing beneath the stern gaze of the portrait of Colonel Pyncheon,
s ummary & analys i s
52
H
nathaniel hawthorne
who “rendered himself [for] so long the Evil Destiny of his race.”
Clifford remarks that the portrait has always made him think of
great wealth, and Holgrave responds by pushing a hidden spring
that knocks the portrait to the floor, revealing an ancient parchment
entitling the Pyncheons to the giant tract of land in Maine. Hepzibah remarks that Clifford must have found the parchment and,
dreamer that he was, told stories about it. The more literal-minded
Judge must have confused the parchment with the missing records
of the older Jaffrey Pyncheon, and it was this that he was seeking
when he came to confront Clifford. Holgrave adds that he knows
about the spring because he is a Maule, and that the parchment was
hidden by the older Matthew Maule’s son when he built the house.
Uncle Venner jokes that now the claim is not worth a single share
in his farm, but Phoebe protests that Uncle Venner need no longer
go to his farm, as there is an empty cottage on their property that
would be perfect for him. Everyone agrees that Uncle Venner’s optimistic philosophy would be welcome, and he marvels at this, as he
was once considered a simpleton. Uncle Venner proposes to join
them in a few days, and as the rest of the company get into their carriage, Hepzibah gives money to little Ned Higgins, her first and
most loyal customer. The two workmen comment that the world
works in mysterious ways, and as Uncle Venner walks past the
house of the seven gables, he thinks he hears the strains of Alice Pyncheon’s harpsichord.
Analysis — Chapters 19–21
Chapter 19 explicitly sets the stage for the novel’s conclusion by
reintroducing minor characters and obscuring the primary characters. First of all, the sudden appearance of characters like the workmen and the gingerbread-guzzling Ned Higgins seems almost like a
curtain call, the story’s cast taking a final bow before the main characters bring the novel to its conclusion. Second, this interesting narrative technique pulls the novel out of the claustrophobic setting of
the house and puts it back into the context of the village, mirroring
the transition that the house’s occupants themselves will make.
Despite the commotion surrounding it, the house seems far less forbidding from the outside than it does from within, and when Holgrave pops his head out the window to answer Uncle Venner’s
questions, the image is so quaint and neighborly that it almost
makes us forget the terrible sight that lurks inside. With such a bus-
the house of the seven gables
H
53
s ummary & analys i s
tling world outside, the house itself seems almost insignificant. The
whole chapter is written as a breath of fresh air; that we receive it as
such presages the relief that awaits the house’s inhabitants.
Throughout the novel, the village has been as guilty of myopia as
the inhabitants of the house; the last chapters serve as an across-theboard rejection of popular opinion, the most pertinent example
being the way in which the Judge’s reputation comes tumbling
down so rapidly. Before his death, the Judge’s only guilt seemed to
be his unjust treatment of his cousin, and even that was seen exclusively through Hepzibah’s eyes. With his death from apoplexy,
however, the floodgates are suddenly opened. Now, not only does
his attempt to extort property from Clifford become apparent, but
the rumors that he is a thief, and responsible for the older Jaffrey’s
death, snowball. The speed with which these truths is revealed is
remarkable, but it also leaves room for doubt, and the fact that the
novel prefers to call this gossip rather than absolute truth allows
Hawthorne to both smear his villain and make us marvel at how
quickly, and maybe even unfairly, popular opinion can make or
break reputations. The character of Uncle Venner substantiates this
point, as he is the novel’s wisest personality but confesses that he
was once thought to be rather simple.
On the surface, the union of Phoebe and Holgrave seems like the
quintessential fairy-tale romance, and the marriage between the two
families ties up many of the novel’s loose ends. Holgrave’s reform is
phrased with such regret, however, that it is hard to accept this
interpretation. His love certainly seems genuine, but it comes at a
high price, and in Chapter 20 Phoebe herself protests Holgrave’s
promise to settle down. Of Clifford’s little band, Holgrave is the
only one whom the novel scorns for moving to the Judge’s estate, a
telling moment of sarcasm on the author’s part. Phoebe’s joking
with Holgrave about his wishing for a stone house seems goodnatured, but his reply is specifically and unmistakably characterized
as “half-melancholy,” a word which seems to point to reluctance on
Holgrave’s part. In fact, Holgrave, a onetime free spirit, seems to be
held prisoner by a sense of the inevitable, and his entire proposal to
Phoebe is tainted as a result. While Holgrave loves Phoebe, his later
lack of enthusiasm makes his decision to marry her seem more like
a gesture of resignation than of passion. Consequently, it is hard for
us to enjoy Clifford and Hepzibah’s good fortune. It is difficult to
celebrate their release from captivity when another character seems
to be headed toward similar confinement.
Important Quotations
Explained
1.
[T]hey . . . hinted that he was about to build his house
over an unquiet grave. . . . The terror and ugliness of
Maule’s crime, and the wretchedness of his
punishment, would darken the freshly plastered walls,
and infect them early with the scent of an old and
melancholy house.
55
quotati ons
By building his house on land stolen from Matthew Maule, Colonel
Pyncheon has purportedly cursed himself and his family line for as
long as they live in the house. This passage from Chapter 1 illustrates how deeply the curse and the house are intertwined. The
crime is depicted as actually affecting the house’s infrastructure—it
works itself into the house’s very fabric. These rumors are of course
only murmurs from the village gossips. Hawthorne makes sure to
attribute the speculation only to gossips, so that he will later remain
free to explore the notion that the Pyncheon family, rather than the
house, is responsible for the curse that plagues them.
The passage also sets up some of the book’s most important
themes and stylistic traits. First, it provides the groundwork for the
idea that each generation inherits the vices and misdeeds of its predecessors. Hawthorne repeatedly links the many awful misfortunes
of the Pyncheon family to Colonel Pyncheon’s crimes. Hawthorne
can make claims about curses and haunted houses, as he does in the
quotation above, because by choosing to write a “romance” rather
than a “novel” he has free reign to combine the mystical and fantastical with the bloody truths of reality. Hawthorne presents the
disastrous results of sin as strong enough to pervade both time and
space: sin’s effects persist centuries after Pyncheon’s wrongdoing,
and they are severe enough to stain the very walls of his family’s
home. Hawthorne conveys the intensity of sin’s effects with ominous eerie language characteristic of the Gothic style in which he
writes. Many words in the passage above evoke this ominous tone,
such as “grave,” “terror,” “ugliness,” “wretchedness,” “darken,”
“infect,” “old,” and “melancholy.”
56
quotati ons
2.
H
nathaniel hawthorne
This being, made only for happiness, and heretofore
so miserably failing to be happy . . . this poor, forlorn
voyager from the Islands of the Blest, in a frail bark,
on a tempestuous sea, had been flung, by the last
mountain-wave of his shipwreck, into a quiet harbor.
There, as he lay more than half-lifeless on the strand,
the fragrance of an earthly rosebud had come to his
nostrils, and, as odors will, had summoned up
reminiscences or visions of all the living and breathing
beauty, amid which he should have had his home.
Throughout the novel, Clifford is a difficult, sometimes unpleasant
character, and this quotation from Chapter 9 conveys how his once
beautiful mind has so thoroughly gone to waste. The quotation
beautifully and tragically chronicles how thirty years in prison have
caused his mind to degenerate. The image of Clifford “half-lifeless”
on the sand, captivated by the scent of a rose, illustrates the terrible
suffering that accompanies his return and his sense of having missed
out on his youth. The tone is one of exhaustion, but it is also one of
recovery, for the image does not end with Clifford’s drowning but
with his slowly coming back to consciousness. As we have seen in
other aspects of the novel, in the chickens returning to health and
the garden’s restoration, decay and renewal are linked. Hawthorne’s poetic portrayal of Clifford’s degeneration makes us
inclined to sympathize with Clifford and helps us to understand
why his recovery moves at such a slow pace.
Hawthorne’s language makes Clifford’s incarceration seem like
a violent, almost overwhelming struggle rather than merely an
extended absence. His use of words like “forlorn,” “frail,”
“tempestuous,” and “miserably” helps to convey the severity of
the tribulations that Clifford has endured. He has been delivered
from a “shipwreck” to a “harbor.” The passage ends with words
that conjure pleasure, comfort, and hope: “living,” “breathing,”
and “beauty.”
the house of the seven gables
3.
H
57
“[I]t will startle you to see what slaves we are to bygone times—to Death, if we give the matter the right
word! . . . We read in Dead Men’s books! We laugh at
Dead Men’s jokes, and cry at Dead Men’s pathos! . . .
Whatever we seek to do, of our own free motion, a
Dead Man’s icy hand obstructs us!”
quotati ons
In Chapter 12, Holgrave utters these words with revolutionary fervor, as he outlines the folly of humankind being slaves to the past
and to the future death that awaits us all. Here Holgrave proposes
that society’s very foundations are made up of the works of dead
men—that the modern world is shaped by people who no longer
inhabit it, stifling all contemporary urges and desires. These laws
and theories, Holgrave says, are smoothed and rectified by later
generations, but this is not enough, and he advocates tearing down
all of society’s institutions—from the courtroom to the home—and
beginning again with a clean slate. Holgrave’s politics nicely echo
the novel’s theme of the tyranny of the past, where Pyncheons and
Maules are unable to escape the influence of their dead relatives.
Holgrave, himself a Maule and a possessor of both the Maules’
secret and their formidable power of mesmerism, argues that it is
foolish to accept fate passively, that legacies like his need to be overthrown and rebuilt from scratch.
58
quotati ons
4.
H
nathaniel hawthorne
[A]n individual of this class builds up, as it were, a tall
and stately edifice, which, in the view of other people,
and ultimately in his own view, is no other than the
man’s character, or the man himself. Behold,
therefore, a palace! . . . [I]n some low and obscure
nook . . . may lie a corpse, half-decayed, and still
decaying, and diffusing its death-scent all through
the palace! The inhabitant will not be conscious of it;
for it has long been his daily breath! . . . Here, then,
we are to seek the true emblem of the man’s character,
and of the deed that gives whatever reality it
possesses, to his life.
This passage from Chapter 15 addresses the complex character of
the Judge, who is charming and self-assured on the outside but thoroughly rotten on the inside. Hawthorne does not attempt to understate the power of the Judge’s station and charisma; on the contrary,
he likens these to a “palace,” a building of noteworthy opulence and
splendor. The secret, this passage implies, is not that this palace is a
sham, but that it has been irrevocably corrupted by a rotting corpse
locked deep inside, hidden so completely that even the Judge has
forgotten that it exists. This gloomy Gothic portrayal helps to establish the theme that the current generation inherits the flaws and
errors of past generations. Here the rotting corpse becomes a physical embodiment of the perils of legacy. The palace is infested with
the smell of a rotting ancestor, and no one even notices or thinks to
root out the problem.
the house of the seven gables
5.
H
59
“A man will commit almost any wrong—he will heap
up an immense pile of wickedness, as hard as granite,
and which will weigh heavily upon his soul, to eternal
ages—only to build a great, gloomy, dark-chambered
mansion, for himself to die in, and for his posterity to
be miserable in. He lays his own dead corpse beneath
the underpinning, as one may say, and hangs his
frowning picture on the wall, and, after thus
converting himself into an Evil Destiny, expects his
remotest great-grandchildren to be happy there!”
quotati ons
This dialogue, spoken by Clifford in Chapter 17, neatly sums up the
“moral” of The House of the Seven Gables, which states that the
sins committed over the course of constructing a family fortune will
bring the sinner and the sinner’s descendants more misery than
wealth. In identifying the builder of the house as the cause of the
misery the house has perpetuated, Clifford leaves no doubt that
Colonel Pyncheon is to blame for the family’s misfortunes, and that
his unchecked desire to accumulate wealth has brought him misery
instead. This passage insinuates that the Colonel may not be motivated exclusively by selfish greed. The idea that the Colonel may
have built the house “for his posterity to be miserable in” is certainly
a pessimistic interpretation, but it raises the idea that the Colonel
acts with future generations in mind. Obviously, the Colonel’s intentions go horribly awry, but the generous notion that he is building
for someone other than himself does give him a glimmer of paternal
appeal and serves as a testament to Hawthorne’s willingness to lend
even the most villainous characters a touch of moral ambiguity.
Key Facts
fu ll ti tle
The House of the Seven Gables
au thor
Nathaniel Hawthorne
type of work
Novel, romance
g en re
Satire, horror novel, moral fable
lan g uag e
American English
ti m e an d place w r itten
1850–1851; Lenox, Massachusetts
date of first publication
1851
pu bli s her
James T. Fields
poi n t of vi ew
Mostly told by third-person narrator, who occasionally
ventures inside the perspective of Clifford, Hepzibah, Holgrave,
or Phoebe.
ton e
Varies between a straightforward narration of the facts and the
narrator’s gloomy, often sarcastic take on a number of issues
and characters. The narrator relies heavily on village gossip for
the story and hesitates to identify most “facts” as true.
ten s e
Immediate past
s etti n g (ti m e)
1850s
61
key facts
narrator
Third-person omniscient
62
H
nathaniel hawthorne
s etti n g (place)
A town like those found in the county of Essex, Massachusetts.
protag on i s ts
Hepzibah Pyncheon, Phoebe Pyncheon,
Clifford Pyncheon, Holgrave
major conflict
Judge Pyncheon tries to coerce Clifford into giving him
information regarding their uncle’s missing inheritance. Since
Judge Pyncheon embodies the dogged ambition and greed that
has characterized the Pyncheon family, his persecution of
Clifford and Hepzibah plays out in microcosm their battle
against the entire Pyncheon legacy.
ri s i n g acti on
The Judge order Hepzibah to summon Clifford; Hepzibah
fearfully goes to find Clifford
key facts
cli m ax
Judge Pyncheon dies of apoplexy before he can interrogate
Clifford. The Judge’s death effectively ends the curse of the
Pyncheons.
falli n g acti on
Clifford and Hepzibah flee the house; Holgrave and Phoebe find
the Judge’s body; all the protagonists leave the house of the
seven gables for good
them es
The sins of one generation are visited on the next; the
deceptiveness of appearances; class status in New England
m oti fs
Decay; mesmerism; the Judge’s smile
sym bols
The house; the portrait of Colonel Pyncheon; the chickens
fores hadow i n g
The manner in which Judge Pyncheon is constantly
compared to his ancestor Colonel Pyncheon foreshadows
that the Judge will not be as pleasant as he seems, and hints
at his death from apoplexy.
Study Questions &
Essay Topics
STUDY QUESTIONS
1.
Who would you say is the principal protagonist of The
House of the Seven Gables? Who is the principal
antagonist?
63
ques ti ons & e s s ays
The House of the Seven Gables does not have one obvious protagonist like Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye or Hamlet in
Hamlet. Instead, many of the novel’s characters grow and change
throughout the novel, all contributing to the plot development.
Holgrave fits this description, though his change is somewhat
peripheral, almost an afterthought Hawthorne rushes through in
the final chapters. Phoebe blossoms into womanhood, becoming
wiser as she grows older, but when she arrives at the Pyncheon
homestead, she is so removed from the events of the house that the
story really cannot be called hers. Hepzibah and Clifford, on the
other hand, are rooted in the house’s tradition of misery, and the
story focuses extensively on their transition from living in fear and
constraint to more sustained happiness and freedom. They are the
best examples of protagonists that we meet in The House of the
Seven Gables.
The antagonists—the characters or forces who oppose the protagonist and create conflict—are less obvious. Although the menacing Judge Pyncheon provides the clearest conflict and is the most
likely antagonist, he is in some ways no more responsible for the
troubles of Clifford and Hepzibah than any Pyncheon ancestor. He
is certainly the novel’s most tangible villain, but his close ties to the
portrait of Colonel Pyncheon make him seem more of a figurehead
for past evils than an independent operator. Because the Judge’s
actions move the novel and drive it forward, we could even consider
him the novel’s main protagonist. In naming him the protagonist,
we should keep in mind that he stands for 200 years of tainted
Pyncheon history.
64
q ue s ti ons & es s ays
2.
H
nathaniel hawthorne
In the Preface, Hawthorne claims his book is a romance
rather than a novel. Romances need not deal with
“everyday, ordinary things” and usually incorporate
fantastic elements. Do you think that The House of the
Seven Gables is more of a romance or a novel? Should it
be classified as another genre altogether?
The House of the Seven Gables is, in fact, a skillful blending of both
narrative approaches. The book contains some fantastic elements,
but most of these never stray far from reality. Two scenes—the two
Maule ghosts restraining the spirit of Colonel Pyncheon and the
ghosts parading in front of the dead Judge—are too fantastical to
have actually occurred, but one is presented as a vision of Alice Pyncheon’s and the other as speculation on the narrator’s part. The
hypnotic powers of the young Matthew Maule and Holgrave are
certainly eerie and mystical, but hypnosis does exist, and therefore
these scenes are not entirely fantastical. While The House of the
Seven Gables does not belong to the horror genre, it does incorporate many elements of horror, sharing with the horror genre the
realization that the greatest shock value can be created by making
things too horrible to be true but not so awful that they can’t be
believed. By straddling the line between the romance and the novel,
and by refusing to commit entirely to any genre, Hawthorne makes
his work shocking but also thought-provoking. He creates a work
of fiction that entertains and teaches with a fantastical plot that is
also rich with literary and historical themes.
the house of the seven gables
3.
H
65
Discuss the role of “fate” in the novel. How much of the
Pyncheons’ bad luck is caused by fate, and how much
results from their own actions and choices?
At the beginning of The House of the Seven Gables, fate is believed
to direct the fortunes of Hepzibah and Clifford. The novel indulges
this belief with its graphic descriptions of a curse that has worked
itself into the very walls of the house. As the story progresses, however, we begin to wonder if other elements are not also at work.
Holgrave’s revolutionary doctrine of tearing down the houses of
the dead implies that Clifford and Hepzibah become complicit in
their persecution by being passive. They accept the cruelty they are
handed with a meekness that borders on irresponsibility. The rest
of the Pyncheons also appear to be partly responsible for their own
bad luck: Maule’s curse seems to affect only those who are driven
by excessive ambition and greed, while the more docile members
of the family seem to lead happy lives. To a certain extent, the
novel does put a lot of stock in fate, which is demonstrated by its
eloquent passages depicting the house as an inescapable prison.
Nonetheless, the story also suggests repeatedly that fate is simply
another obstacle to overcome, and that our ultimate destiny
always remains ours to determine.
ques ti ons & e s s ays
66
H
nathaniel hawthorne
q ue s ti ons & es s ays
SUGGESTED ESSAY TOPICS
1.
Discuss the presence of decay and decaying things in The
House of the Seven Gables. What does decay symbolize in
the novel?
2.
Can Clifford be considered a good person? How is his
goodness or malice reflected in the way he treats Phoebe
and Hepzibah?
3.
Discuss the role of hypnotism and mesmerism in The House
of the Seven Gables.
4.
How is Phoebe different from all the other characters in the
novel? Does she resemble any one character more than the
others? If so, why?
5.
Why does Hepzibah continue to refuse the Judge’s offers of
financial help? Can these offers be viewed as genuine, or are
there by ulterior motives?
Review & Resources
QUIZ
1.
Where does Judge Pyncheon live?
A.
B.
C.
D.
2.
At Uncle Venner’s farm
At the house of the seven gables
In prison
At a country house just outside of town
Which character is the oldest?
A. Uncle Venner
B. Clifford
C. Hepzibah
D. Judge Pyncheon
3.
What does Colonel Pyncheon die from?
A.
B.
C.
D.
4.
B.
C.
D.
“May a hundred years of solitude befall you and
your family!”
“A plague on both your houses!”
“God will give him blood to drink!”
“May you never sleep in peace!”
How is Hepzibah related to Clifford?
A.
B.
C.
D.
She is his sister
She is his mother
She is his daughter
She is his cousin
67
revi e w & re s ou rc e s
What is the curse that Maule addresses to Colonel Pyncheon
from the scaffold?
A.
5.
A heart attack
Apoplexy
A duel
Poison
68
6.
H
Who inadvertently caused Uncle Jaffrey’s death?
A.
B.
C.
D.
7.
rev ie w & re s ou rces
Colonel Pyncheon
Uncle Venner
Gervayse Pyncheon
Matthew Maule
Matthew Maule is hanged for what crime?
A.
B.
C.
D.
11.
Maine
Prison
The house of the seven gables
Phoebe’s country home
Who is Holgrave’s ancestor?
A.
B.
C.
D.
10.
He is a professional revolutionary
He is a clerk
He is a daguerreotypist
He is a gravedigger
At the beginning of the novel, Clifford has just spent thirty
years in
A.
B.
C.
D.
9.
Clifford
Holgrave
Hepzibah
Judge Pyncheon
What is Holgrave’s profession?
A.
B.
C.
D.
8.
nathaniel hawthorne
Perjury
Adultery
Theft
Witchcraft
To what office does Judge Pyncheon hope to be elected?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Congressman from Maine
Governor of Massachusetts
Mayor
The Supreme Court
the house of the seven gables
12.
Hawk
Pheasant
Sparrow
Chicken
Why does Phoebe initially worry about Holgrave’s
declaration of love?
She thinks he is too wild for her
She does not love him
They are distant cousins
Her mother disapproves of the marriage
What does Holgrave do when he finds the Judge’s body?
A.
B.
C.
D.
He hides it
He cleans up
He calls the police
He makes a daguerreotype of it
revi e w & re s ou rc e s
A.
B.
C.
D.
17.
Jaffrey
Clifford
Matthew
Stephen
What kind of bird does the Pyncheon family breed?
A.
B.
C.
D.
16.
34
22
15
46
What is Judge Pyncheon’s first name?
A.
B.
C.
D.
15.
At Judge Pyncheon’s house
Behind the portrait of Colonel Pyncheon
In Hepzibah’s bureau
In Matthew Maule’s grave
How old is Holgrave?
A.
B.
C.
D.
14.
69
Where is the deed to the Maine land hidden?
A.
B.
C.
D.
13.
H
70
18.
H
Why does Phoebe briefly depart from the house of the
seven gables?
A.
B.
C.
D.
19.
rev ie w & re s ou rces
His clothes
His cane
His nose
His smile
Where is Hepzibah’s shop?
A.
B.
C.
D.
23.
Ned Higgins
The two workmen
Holgrave
Phoebe
What is the Judge’s most noteworthy feature?
A.
B.
C.
D.
22.
The young Matthew Maule
Holgrave
Judge Pyncheon
Gervayse Pyncheon
Who is Hepzibah’s first customer?
A.
B.
C.
D.
21.
She is scared of the Judge
To visit her country home
To get married
To visit a friend
Who hypnotizes Phoebe?
A.
B.
C.
D.
20.
nathaniel hawthorne
In one of the house’s seven gables
In the marketplace
In the country
Outside the prison
What animal, according to the novel, symbolizes New
England greed?
A.
B.
C.
D.
The chickens
A cat
A monkey
A goat
the house of the seven gables
24.
71
What does the Judge threaten to do with Clifford?
A.
B.
C.
D.
25.
H
Kill him
Have him sent to the asylum
Cast a spell on him
Have him hanged for witchcraft
What happens to the Judge’s son?
A.
B.
C.
D.
He is taken in by Clifford and Hepzibah
He is killed by bandits
He takes over the judgeship from his father
He dies of cholera
revi e w & re s ou rc e s
Answer Key:
1: D; 2: A; 3: B; 4: C; 5: A; 6: D; 7: C; 8: B; 9: D; 10: D; 11:
B; 12: B; 13: B; 14: A; 15: D; 16: A; 17: D; 18: B; 19: B; 20:
A; 21: D; 22: A; 23: C; 24: B; 25: D
72
H
nathaniel hawthorne
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
berlant, lauren. The Anatomy of National Fantasy:
Hawthorne, Utopia, and Everyday Life. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1991.
james, henry. Hawthorne. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University
Press, 1997.
matthiessen, f. o. American Renaissance: Art and Expression in
the Age of Emerson and Whitman. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1941.
mellow, james r. Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
rev ie w & re s ou rces
rosenthal, bernard, ed. Critical Essays on Hawthorne’s the
house of the seven gables. New York: Macmillan Library
Reference, 1995.