House Of The Seven Gables

The House of the Seven Gables

“[The] sympathy or magnetism among human beings is more subtle and universal than we think; it exists, indeed, among different classes of organized life, and vibrates from one to another” (Hawthorne 178). Loosely based on the events of Hawthorne’s own life, The House of the Seven Gables attempts to show the suffering of descendants forced to repent for the sins of their “father”, while they are unknowingly renewing the curse by nurturing the ancestral greed that has passed through the generations (O’ Connor 6) .

Thus the various themes of the novel reflect the central idea of continued sin through the greed and guilt of a declining family.

Each generation struggles to escape the sins of the past, only to be thrust forcefully back to face the offenses of their forefathers. The House of the Seven Gables is a tale of loneliness and greed caused by the sin of preceding generations. The opening of the novel is set in puritan times during the Salem witch hunts. The villainous Colonel

Pyncheon wrongly accused the innocent Matthew Maule of witchcraft so that the Maule land would fall into the Pyncheon family’s hands. Upon his death, Maule “addressed

[Colonel Pyncheon] from the scaffold, and uttered a prophecy...God will give him blood to drink” (Hawthorne 4-5) . The physical wrongdoing of Colonel Pyncheon against

Matthew Maule was avenged at the former’s death, with the curse being fulfilled.

However, the essence of the crime lived on through the generations.

By chapter two, the focus of the novel has shifted to the modern generations of the Pyncheon family. The family has severely declined since the Colonel’s time, yet the curse of greed is as strong as ever. The remains of the family consist of a decrepit spinster named Hepzibah, now the caretaker of the house of the seven gables; her insane brother Clifford, who was just recently released from prison; their devilish cousin Judge

Jaffrey, a man fixated upon his own greed; and their distant cousin Phoebe, the sunny country girl that will be their redemption. Also, the last surviving descendant of the

Maule lineage, the handsome Holgrave Maule, resides at the house.

In a compilation by F.O. Matthiessen, it is stated that the “main theme was not the original curse on the house, but the curse that the Pyncheons have continued to bring upon themselves”. It is not Maule’s death which needs avenging, but the anguish caused by the Pyncheon family’s greed. “Lust for wealth has held the Pyncheon’ in its inflexible