1. Discuss the concept of guilt that is developed throughout the novel. 2. Flower imagery plays a large part in the meaning of the novel. Consider the references and allusions to flowers in the novel; then discuss whether or not there is a progression of meaning and/or symbolism to them. […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsCritical Essays Symbols in The House of the Seven Gables
The House From the start, Hawthorne describes the House of the Seven Gables as if it were human; he says, “The aspect of the venerable mansion has always affected me like a human countenance . . . expressive of the long lapse of mortal life.” Personification continues in later descriptions […]
Read more Critical Essays Symbols in The House of the Seven GablesCritical Essays Hawthorne’s Preface
When Hawthorne defined his purpose as a writer of “romances,” his first care was to distinguish the romance from the novel. After we finish reading his definition of a novel, as opposed to a romance, we get the feeling that Hawthorne was groping toward a conception of fiction that was […]
Read more Critical Essays Hawthorne’s PrefaceNathaniel Hawthorne Biography
Life and Background Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, came from old New England stock; in fact, one of his ancestors was a judge during the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692-93. (Hawthorne’s feelings in this matter are part of the story of The House of the […]
Read more Nathaniel Hawthorne BiographyCharacter Analysis Uncle Venner
Uncle Venner is one of Hawthorne’s unforgettable minor characters. He functions in the novel as a sort of one-man chorus, a philosopher of the street, who has “studied the world at street corners.” Some of his golden maxims are “Give no credit!” and “Never take any paper money.” While Hepzibah […]
Read more Character Analysis Uncle VennerCharacter Analysis Phoebe Pyncheon
Phoebe is rather too obviously a “little ray of sunshine.” She is seventeen years old, beautiful, wholesome, obedient, loving, respectful, and practical. But she is intellectually shallow and without much curiosity. She is the daughter of Arthur Pyncheon, the cousin of Hepzibah, Clifford, and the Judge; he took up farming […]
Read more Character Analysis Phoebe PyncheonCharacter Analysis Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon
The image of the Judge’s inward self is alternately like a gray adamantine rock, and then it becomes very much like a heavily brooding cloud, embodied with a coldness that is the precise opposite of his outward “warmth.” His benevolence is counterfeit. His evil is manifested in excess and discordance, […]
Read more Character Analysis Judge Jaffrey PyncheonCharacter Analysis Holgrave
Early in the first chapter, the narrator cites the prediction that old Matthew Maule’s ghost will haunt the “new apartments” of the Pyncheon house. This prophesy comes true in the person of Holgrave, who lives in “a remote gable” of the house, barred from the main portion. He dwells in […]
Read more Character Analysis HolgraveCharacter Analysis Hepzibah Pyncheon
Hepzibah has lived alone in the House of the Seven Gables for thirty years, isolated “until her very brain was impregnated with the dry-rot of its timbers.” She is a sixty-year-old spinster who cannot leave the house. Even during her brief flight with her brother Clifford, the house haunts her […]
Read more Character Analysis Hepzibah PyncheonCharacter Analysis Clifford Pyncheon
Hepzibah’s brother Clifford is the most melancholy and ineffectual of a long line of wasted and delicate Pyncheons. As the novel opens, Clifford has just emerged from thirty years in jail, but he remains in mental and emotional bondage, victimized by a past which he himself perpetuates. Even before his […]
Read more Character Analysis Clifford Pyncheon