The House of the Seven Gables

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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House of the Seven Gables

House of the Seven Gables. Colonial house built in the English style of half-timber and half-plaster on Pyncheon Street in an unnamed town in Massachusetts. The house had been built by Colonel Pyncheon, who had wrested the desirable site from Matthew Maule, a poor man executed as a wizard. Colonel Pyncheon was responsible for Maule’s execution and took the doomed man’s land. At the moment of his execution, Maule declared that God would give the Pyncheons blood to drink. Despite this grim prophecy, the colonel had his house, and its builder was Thomas Maule, son of the condemned wizard.

Just as the personality of a character evolves over the course of a story, the personality and appearance of the house change as the narrative unfolds. In the late 1600’s, when Colonel Pyncheon first erects the building, it is the most opulent structure in the town. Located on the outskirts, it reflects the colonel’s wealth, social position, and love of fine things. However, because he swindled Maule out of the land on which the house stands, it is also a symbol of the colonel’s cold, greedy, and dishonest nature.

In the years that follow, Gervayse, the colonel’s grandson, and Gervayse’s beautiful daughter, Alice, occupy the house, and it again reflects the character of its occupants. The narrator points out that, although the dwelling is beginning to show its age, it is still a solid, pleasant mansion, whose interior has been redecorated to reflect Gervayse’s sophisticated European tastes. The presence of the lovely and exotic-looking Alice gives the place a graceful air.

By 1850, when the spinster Hepzibah Pyncheon lives in the house, nature and age have taken their toll on the building. Moss covers its roof and windows, and flowering shrubs known as Alice’s posies grow between two of the house’s gables. The interior of the house is dark and dusty, much like the old woman who inhabits it. Once a public symbol of the Pyncheons’ wealth and power, the mansion now represents decay and physical and psychological isolation, in addition to the family’s material decline. Through most of the novel, Hepzibah never leaves the house. Her pride in her family’s illustrious heritage prevents her from socializing with her middle-class neighbors. When her brother Clifford, who was falsely imprisoned, returns home, he reinforces her reclusive tendencies. The only contact Hepzibah has with the outside world is through the shop she is forced to open because of her extreme poverty.

Meanwhile, throughout the novel, the house stands as a metaphor for the human heart. Animated by memories of generations of Pyncheons, it embodies all human emotion and experience, including joy, sorrow, greed, hatred, and pride. As it ages, the house seems to mellow. Finally, after it is redeemed from its troubling history by the love of Phoebe Pyncheon, a distant cousin who comes to live with Hepzibah, and Holgrave Maule, it becomes no more than an empty shell after the last Pyncheons leave its dark rooms for a brighter mansion in the country.

Various attempts have been made to connect an actual physical place with the novel’s wooden house. The best-known example of this is a brown, gabled mansion still standing in Salem, Massachusetts. Once owned by Hawthorne’s cousins, the Ingersoll family, it is now a popular tourist attraction billed as the “House of the Seven Gables.” Other Salem locales have also been proposed as Hawthorne’s model for the house, including the Curwen mansion and a dwelling belonging to Philip English, another Hawthorne relative. Hawthorne may have drawn his portrait of the fictional house from all three...

(This entire section contains 838 words.)

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structures. However, in his preface to the novel, he cautions against assigning a real place to the imaginary events of the novel. Hawthorne’s disclaimer frees him artistically to use the house as both a character and as a symbol.

Town

Town. The unnamed town in which the House of the Seven Gables stands is described as orderly and home-loving. The town’s history parallels that of Salem, Massachusetts, especially in regard to the witchcraft trials of 1692. Because Hawthorne does not name the town, he has the freedom to use it as a symbol for the wider world, the human society from which Hepzibah and Clifford are separated by the walls of the house.

Train

Train. Railroad train on which Hepzibah and Clifford take an impromptu ride into the countryside to escape the oppressiveness of the house, which is now Jaffrey Pyncheon’s temporary tomb after he dies. This is the first time they leave the house. Filled with people, the train helps them to reconnect with humankind. “Here we are in the world, Hepzibah!—in the midst of life!—in the throng of our fellow beings! Let you and I be happy!” Clifford exclaims. However, his exuberance is short-lived, for he loses his nerve at the last stop and asks Hepzibah to take him back to the familiar, though repressive, environment of their home.

Historical Context

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The United States: The Mid-Nineteenth Century
At the beginning of the second half of the nineteenth century, Americans were optimistically looking forward to the future. Opportunity was the buzzword of the day as territorial expansion and the industrial revolution continued to sweep the nation. The gold rush was on in California and with such economic opportunity feeding their dreams, Americans continued to seek land, wealth, and individual success.

Despite such hope and enthusiasm, the country was becoming increasingly divided on the issue of slavery. The debate about abolition was closely linked to the issue of territorial expansion. During President James K. Polk’s term in office, the United States nearly doubled in size, but with this expansion came questions of the status of blacks in the new territories. With the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted to the United States as a “free” state, yet other territories were allowed to decide whether they wanted to permit slavery or not. Also in 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act went into effect, which stated that fugitive slave commissioners could issue arrest warrants for fugitive slaves and order their return to their masters. The act enraged anti-slavery states, and also in 1850, states like Vermont began to pass their own personal-liberty legislation. This legislation stated that fugitive slaves who escaped to free states did not have to be turned over to federal officers for return to their masters. Ultimately, the nation’s deeply divided consciousness on the issue of slavery led to the American Civil War, which began in 1861.

While the nation’s attention was largely focused on issues of slavery and territorial expansion, the women’s rights movement continued to gain strength. The United States Constitution of 1787 lacked specifications about who had the right to vote, and thus left the question up to the states, who largely granted such rights only to landowning white men. In 1848, a group of women who supported abolition met in Seneca Falls, New York, and sought to change this preference. The group, which included Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, officially set the Woman’s Rights Movement in motion, calling for suffrage and equal rights for women and blacks. In 1850, the first national women’s rights convention was held in Worcester, Massachusetts, with Susan B. Anthony, Soujourner Truth, and Lucretia Mott all in attendance.

Witchcraft and the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692
In 1692, a group of young women in Salem Village, which is now called Danvers, became hysterical after engaging in fortune telling rituals. The group, which included the minister’s daughter, Ann Putnam, were eventually diagnosed as being under the spell of witchcraft and were pressed to tell who it was that had bewitched them. The girls began to accuse people, starting with three neighborhood women. The fervor took hold of the community and with a growing number of imprisonments resulting, the newly appointed Massachusetts governor (Sir William Phips) convened a special court to try the accused. In the months that followed, one hundred and fifty arrests were made, and many people were imprisoned. In the end, twenty individuals were hanged for the crime of practicing witchcraft. Hawthorne’s great-grandfather, John Hathorne, was one of the three judges to preside over the trials. In 1711, the Massachusetts General Court financially compensated the families of some of the victims and their families for the wrongdoing.

Literary Style

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Gothic RomanceThe House of the Seven Gables is a Gothic novel, which is a type of novel that was popularized in England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Gothic romances trace back to Horace Walpole’s 1765 novel, The Castle of Otranto and were often mysteries that involved the supernatural. Characteristically, novels of this type take place in haunted castles or other remote and isolated locations. Often, gothic romances involve a heroine in peril and are peppered with horror and violence. The House of the Seven Gables clearly takes after this genre. Though not a castle, the House of the Seven Gables is a desolate home that has a seemingly ongoing history of violence within its walls. The house is haunted by the curse that Matthew Maule (the elder) placed on Colonel Pyncheon in 1692 just before the former’s execution for witchcraft. The mysterious deaths of Colonel Pyncheon, Jaffrey Pyncheon, and Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, along with Matthew Maule’s alleged witchcraft, his grandson’s ability to mesmerize Alice Pyncheon, and later Holgrave’s ability to do the same with Phoebe all can be seen as supernatural elements within the text.

Third-Person Omniscient and First-Person Plural Point of ViewThe House of the Seven Gables is told primarily in the third-person omniscient point of view. This means that the narrator, who is not a character in the story, tells the events of the story from a “godlike” perspective. The narrator knows everything about the characters and the events, past and present, relating to the action of the story. Interestingly, there are times that Hawthorne’s narrator lapses into the first-person plural point of view, referring to himself and an unknown other person (perhaps the reader, perhaps not) as “we.” While the third-person omniscient point of view suggests that the narrator is all-knowing and perhaps reasonably objective, the first-person plural narrative style suggests that the narrator may be telling the story from a more subjective position. In the preface, the narrator makes a point to tell readers that the story they are about to read is a “Romance” rather than a “Novel.” The narrator makes this distinction in order to alert readers that the tale is a truth being told in a manner reflecting the “writer’s own choosing and creation.” This claim and the presence of the first-person plural narration suggests that the narrator is likely imparting his personal take on the events rather than depicting them as a wholly objective narrator might.

Light and Dark Imagery
Light and dark imagery permeates The House of the Seven Gables. As Richard Harter Fogle notes in Hawthorne’s Imagery: The Proper ‘Light and Shadow’ in the Major Romances, the house as well as the characters are all cast in a reoccurring pattern of lightness-darkness or sunshine-storm. For Fogle, light and sunshine stand for “general good fortune, for material prosperity, and for harmonious kinship with society.” On the other hand, he likens the storm or darkness to “misfortune and the isolation of the original Pyncheon sin.” With this observation in mind, one can readily place the characters within their respective realms. Phoebe is associated with light. While Hepzibah and Clifford were once associated with light, they have fallen into darkness. Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, as Fogle notes, is “a false sun god” who “passes from one extreme to the other.” First, he beams smiles and is a picture of beneficence incarnate; then, he changes and exposes his darker, greedier, and illintentioned self.

Literary Techniques

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In his celebrated Preface to the novel, Hawthorne makes a point of calling The House of the Seven Gables a romance. Intent on distinguishing it from the novel, which he asserts is bound more closely to tenets of verisimilitude, the novelist insists his work is less concerned with representing with exactitude the everyday life of the people he writes about than it is with offering readers a portrait of human nature that is psychologically true. Hawthorne makes use of the intrusive and omniscient narrator, who comments on the actions of the men and women in the story and directs readers to an understanding of both character and theme.

A master of the use of symbolism, Hawthorne fills this novel with objects and people who serve to highlight his themes and suggest a greater dimension to his work. Without question, the central symbol is the House itself. Erected by the Pyncheons on the spot of land which the Colonel wrested from Matthew Maule, it represents the decay of a family whose fortunes have been ill-gotten. The elm tree which stands outside its door keeps out the sun and seems to engulf the edifice in a gloom which permeates the lives of the inhabitants of the House.

As he does in many of his other works, Hawthorne also makes masterful use of light and darkness to suggest moral states. Phoebe Pyncheon is constantly associated with the light; she seems to bring sunshine into any place she enters, indicating a wholesomeness and moral rectitude which sets her apart from other Pyncheons, who suffer from the decay associated with the family. Inside the house, darkness pervades, and it is only through Phoebe's actions that Hepzibah and Clifford emerge from the metaphorical darkness which surrounds them. Also prevalent throughout The House of the Seven Gables are references to classical mythology and to the Bible. These allusions link Hawthorne's story with the Western tradition in literature, giving the events in this small New England town an air of universal significance.

Compare and Contrast

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1850: The population of the United States is 23,191,876.

2000s: In 2000, the population of the United States is 281,421,906.

1850: Hawthorne purchases a house in Concord, Massachusetts for $1,500.

2000s: In 2004, with prices ranging from $275,000 to $4.8 million, the average home price in Concord, Massachusetts is $600,000.

1850: Working women often work as shopkeepers, seamstresses, domestic servants, teachers, or hat and fan makers.

2000s: Working women can be found in most every occupation, including corporate management, medicine, dentistry, construction, marketing and communications, trucking, accounting, small business ownership, and software programming.

Literary Precedents

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Like The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables relies heavily on techniques developed by Gothic novelists during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The House, like the haunted castles in the European versions of Gothic fiction, dominates the landscape and serves as the focal point for the series of sinister and terrifying activities in the story. The novelist also includes a heavy dose of coincidence and a cast of characters bordering on stereotypes. He even uses the device of the interpolated tale, the story of Alice Pyncheon, to add a sense of mystery to his tale.

A number of critics have pointed out parallels between the novel and John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, a seventeenth-century allegory describing the journey of a good Christian to heaven. As he does in much of his other work, Hawthorne makes frequent allusions to Biblical figures and events; these add resonance to the text and suggest a wider range of significance for the events of the tale.

The House of the Seven Gables is also heavily reminiscent of Greek tragedy. The Pyncheon family, like a number of Greek families represented in the dramas of Sophocles and Aeschylus, suffers from a curse brought on by the behavior of an ancestor who seeks to gain advantage over his neighbor by immoral methods. The descendants of Governor Pyncheon, who built his house on property swindled from his nemesis Matthew Maule, are doomed to live out the prophesy that the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children for generations. The fate of Hepzibah and Clifford Pyncheon is similar to that of Greek figures such as the descendants of Atreus.

Adaptations

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The House of the Seven Gables was brought to life on the screen in 1940. Unfortunately, producer Burt Kelly, director Joe May, and writer Lester Cole chose to adapt Hawthorne's story freely, and the result was not well received by either critics or the movie-going public. If there is a saving grace to the production, it lies in the work of the actors who were cast in leading roles. George Sanders is convincing as the evil and duplicitous Jaffrey Pyncheon, while Vincent Price — noted for his roles as a villain — is equally adept in portraying the heroic Clifford Pyncheon. Margaret Lindsay gives a creditable performance as Hepzibah.

More than a half dozen audio recordings of the novel have been produced since the 1970's, including one targeted at foreign speakers to assist them in understanding the story, and one aimed at students, providing an adaptation of the tale, study aids, and vocabulary exercises.

Media Adaptations

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An unabridged reading of The House of Seven Gables read by Roslyn Alexander is available through http://www.audible.com for purchase. Produced in 1993 by Recorded Books, Inc., this reading runs for over twelve hours.

A second reading of The House of the Seven Gables, which runs six hours and is narrated by Joan Allen, is also available. This abridged reading was produced by Dove Audio, Inc. in 1997.

Http://www.audiobooks.com also offers a recorded reading of The House of Seven Gables performed by Buck Schirner and produced by Brilliance. This 1995 version runs eleven hours.

J. Searle Dawley directed a silent film adaptation of The House of the Seven Gables in 1910. This adaptation starred Mary Fuller as Hepzibah Pyncheon and was produced by the Edison Company.

The House of the Seven Gables was adapted as a film by Joe May in 1940. The adaptation starred George Sanders, Margaret Lindsay, Vincent Price, Dick Foran, Nan Grey, Cecil Kellaway, Alan Napier, Gilbert Emery, Miles Mander, and Charles Trowbridge. Universal Studios re-released the video in June 1998.

In 1951, Robert Montgomery and the production company Neptune produced a fifty-minute adaptation of the novel starring Gene Lockhart, June Lockhart, Leslie Nielson, and Richard Purdy.

In 1963, Admiral released a two-hour production of Hawthorne’s works starring Vincent Price. Twice Told Tales includes two of Hawthorne’s short stories, “Doctor Heidegger’s Experiment” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” as well as The House of the Seven Gables. Additional cast includes Sebastian Cabot, Mari Blanchard, Beverley Garland, Brett Halsey, Richard Denning, Abraham Sofaer, Joyce Taylor, Edith Evanson, Jacqueline DeWitt, Floyd Simmons, and Gene Roth.

Bibliography and Further Reading

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Sources
Buitenhuis, Peter, “Critical Reception,” in his “The House of the Seven Gables”: Severing Family and Colonial Ties, Twayne’s Masterwork Studies, No. 66, Twayne Publishers, 1991, p. 11.

Chorley, Henry Fothergill, “The House of Seven Gables,” in Athenaeum, Scarecrow Author Bibliographies, No. 82, Scarecrow Press, 1988, p. 88.

Crowley, J. Donald, “Introduction,” in Hawthorne: The Critical Heritage, Barnes & Noble, 1970, pp. 7, 9.

Fogle, Richard Harter, “III: The House of Seven Gables,” in Hawthorne’s Imagery: The Proper “Light and Shadow” in the Major Romances, University of Oklahoma Press, 1969, pp. 49, 50, 52.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The House of the Seven Gables, Modern Library, 2001.

Meeks, Wayne A., ed., “Deuteronomy 5:21,” in The Harper- Collins Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Harper- Collins Publishers, 1989, p. 278.

Warren, Austin, “Nathaniel Hawthorne,” in Rage for Order: Essays in Criticism, 1948, reprint, University of Michigan Press, 1959, pp. 84–103.

Whipple, Edwin Percy, “The House of Seven Gables,” in Graham’s Magazine, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 6, June 1851, pp. 467–68.

Further Reading
Boswell, Jeanetta, Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Critics: A Checklist of Criticism, 1900–1978, Rowman & Littlefield, 1982. As the title suggests, this volume provides a selection of criticism about Hawthorne through the greater part of the twentieth century.

Martin, Terrence, Nathaniel Hawthorne, rev. ed., Twayne Publishers, 1983. In addition to providing biographical information, Martin explores Hawthorne’s major works.

Mellow, James R., Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times, Houghton Mifflin, 1980. Mellow’s biography is an important resource for all students interested in learning more about Hawthorne and his contemporaries.

Person, Leland S., A Historical Guide to Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Larry J. Reynolds, Oxford University Press, 2001. In addition to providing bibliographic information, Person’s collection of essays includes a chapter about mesmerism in The House of the Seven Gables, a chapter about Hawthorne and history, and an illustrated chronology of history that maps Hawthorne’s life to relevant historical events.

Rosenthal, Bernard, ed. Critical Essays on Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables,” G. K. Hall, 1995. In this collection of essays, Rosenthal provides readers with an in-depth and readable look at one of Hawthorne’s best known novels.

Scharnhorst, Gary, Nathaniel Hawthorne: An Annotated Bibliography of Comment and Criticism before 1900, Scarecrow Press, 1988. This volume provides a comprehensive bibliography for criticism about Hawthorne’s works through 1900. Each entry includes a brief quote from the article. All mentions of the The House of the Seven Gables can be conveniently found through the index, which cross references the entries by topic.

Wagenknecht, Edward, Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Man, His Tales and Romances, Ungar, 1989. Wagenknecht takes a close look at the relationship between Hawthorne’s life and his fiction, including a section dedicated to The House of the Seven Gables.

Wineapple, Brenda, Hawthorne: A Life, Knopf, 2003. In this lengthy biography of Hawthorne, Wineapple traces the writer’s life—his marriage, friendships, politics, religious beliefs, and career—to its end in 1864.

Bibliography

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Abel, Darrel. The Moral Picturesque: Studies in Hawthorne’s Fiction. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1988. Sees the novel as an allegory about love versus self-love, tradition versus ambition and pride, and imagination versus preoccupation with the present fact.

Donohue, Agnes McNeill. Hawthorne: Calvin’s Ironic Stepchild. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1985. Calls the novel Hawthorne’s attempt to “gloss over” his basically tragic view that the parents’ sins are visited upon the children. Argues that its dominant symbol, after the house itself, is the garden of Eden, which in turn is connected to the idea of the Fall. Claims the book’s ending indicates that Phoebe and Holgrave will be tempted into another Fall.

Male, Roy R. Hawthorne’s Tragic Vision. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1957. Argues that the book’s theme is the interpenetration of past and present. Breaks new ground in the critical understanding of Hawthorne.

Martin, Terrence. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Boston: Twayne, 1983. Focuses on ways in which Hawthorne and his characters view the effects of the past on the present. Also investigates the novel’s treatment of Hawthorne’s theme of the relationship between head (Holgrave) and heart (Phoebe).

Waggoner, Hyatt H. The Presence of Hawthorne. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979. Originally an introduction to an edition of the novel, the chapter “From Darkness to Light” argues that the book expresses Hawthorne’s “greatly desired belief in the possibility of redemption from evil.” Also shows that the book is “radically democratic.”

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