Critical Analysis of Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables

Plot Overview and Narrative Context. In the late 1600s in New England, greedy Colonel Pyncheon acquired land for a large, imposing house, apparently by suggesting that the unassuming landowner, Matthew Maule, was guilty of witchcraft; however, just before Maule was hanged for this alleged offense, he pronounced a curse on Pyncheon—a curse that reverberated down through the decades, affecting not only the colonel (who soon died) but also his descendants. In the first part of the 19th century, one of those descendants, an elderly unmarried woman named Hepzibah Pyncheon, lives in the decaying house with her broken brother, Clifford, who has recently returned from serving a lengthy prison sentence for a murder he did not commit. To make ends meet and to preserve her financial independence from a greedy relative named Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon (the true but secret murderer), Hepzibah reluctantly opens a small shop in the house, where she is assisted by a cheerful young relative named Phoebe, whose romance with a man named Holgrave (a secret descendant of Matthew Maule) eventually helps lift the dark cloud that has hung over the occupants of the ill-fated House of the Seven Gables.

Genre Definition and Romantic Conventions. The Romance Genre vs. Novel Realism. Although The House of the Seven Gables (1851) is commonly considered a novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne himself described it as a "romance". A romance, in Hawthorne's view, was less tightly tied to strict realism than a novel was; it could afford to be more symbolic, more allegorical, more speculative and philosophical, and more closely aligned with suggestive fantasy than with merely plausible or mundane "fact". Hawthorne was generally less interested in depicting the external features of the familiar, everyday world than he was with delving into life's deeper meanings—especially the moral meanings that lay beneath the surface of characters and events.

Gothic Conventions and Aesthetics. This concern with ethical significance is especially obvious in The House of the Seven Gables, with its heavy preoccupation with matters of human sin. Not surprisingly, the book's focus on sin—and particularly on pride, greed, and hypocrisy—naturally lends itself to a dark and gloomy tone and atmosphere, and those traits in turn help make this text a gothic work. Gothic fiction often centers around old, decaying houses or mansions, and it also often involves mysterious, gruesome deaths and other sorts of bizarre misfortune. Suspense, horror, and even elements of the supernatural often play a large role in gothic writing, which also often features lovely young heroines and grim, powerful, and threatening older men. Family curses, hidden sins, strange omens, and persistent, puzzling mysteries all often play additional roles in gothic texts, and all these features, taken together, help to make The House of the Seven Gables a classic example of the gothic genre. Hawthorne, however, is less interested in producing exciting melodrama than he is in exploring the moral significance of human behavior. His book rises above simple, obvious suspense through its reflective, philosophical tone and its broad range of ethical and social themes.

Moral Philosophy and the Dynamics of Sin. The Theological Dynamics of Sin. A concern with sin is one of the most obvious themes of this particular text, as it often is in Hawthorne's fiction in general. Hawthorne believed that humans possess an innate capacity for evil, and in The House of the Seven Gables he shows how a sin committed in the distant past can reverberate for generations. Yet sin, in this book, is not an impulse humans simply cannot control; instead, it is a freely chosen act for which each sinner bears personal responsibility. Colonel Pyncheon is a sinner in his greed and deceitfulness, and so is his distant descendant, Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, yet Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon is hardly the victim of some sort of irresistible or inevitable genetic curse. Rather, he simply chooses to violate the laws of proper moral conduct in much the same way as his ancestor did.

Free Will and Moral Choice. Thus, if various Pyncheons sin in ways that prove disturbing and destructive, it is not because they have no choice, but, on the contrary, because they repeatedly yield to the same corrupt temptations. If there is a "curse" on the Pyncheon family, it is a curse that some of them freely cooperate in perpetuating. Only when a Pyncheon deliberately chooses to sin does evil result—often for others, but also often for him. Thus, both the colonel and the judge are found suddenly dead just when they seem most powerful. The universe, in Hawthorne's fiction, is ultimately a moral place in which few sins are unpunished long. Sin can be hidden or disguised for a time, but eventually its ugly consequences are felt—and often they are felt first and foremost by the sinners themselves.

Appearance versus Reality and Social Critique. Dichotomy of Appearance and Inner Reality. This contrast between hidden sin and public reputation is, indeed, a central theme of Hawthorne's book. In fact, The House of the Seven Gables is generally concerned, in numerous respects and on numerous levels, with the contrast between external appearances and inner reality, particularly in the way it presents the colonel and the judge. Both of these men enjoy great social status and a respectable reputation, yet each is morally corrupt, and each is guilty of conscious hypocrisy. The judge's attractive smile masks an inner evil that the virtuous Phoebe nevertheless instinctively intuits, and it is one of the many ironies of the book that this corrupt and hypocritical man is in an official position to sit in judgment of others.

Moral Subversion and Outer Misleading. Yet this kind of contrast between external appearance and inner reality figures in the book in other ways, as well. Thus the elderly Hepzibah, despite a physically unattractive appearance (since her face is distorted by a permanent but involuntary scowl), is capable of appealing kindness, while Holgrave, the young man who lodges in Hepzibah's house, is finally revealed as a direct descendant of the very man—Matthew Maule—whose unjust death led to the "curse" on the Pyncheon family. Part of the whole purpose of Hawthorne's book is to encourage his readers to look beneath the surface of reality and to attempt, instead, to explore its inner depths; he tries to stimulate his audience, when reading the book, to exhibit the same kind of probing intelligence that led to the book's creation. Hawthorne is less interested in stirring up and satisfying superficial suspense than he is in provoking moral reflection.

Socio-Political Transition: Elitism to Democracy. To stress the moral dimensions of this book, however, is not to deny its social and political elements. Indeed, numerous commentators have read it as Hawthorne's meditation on the transition from an outmoded aristocratic culture (rooted in elitism, isolation, and feelings of smug superiority) to a newer kind of social arrangement—an arrangement grounded in the more democratic, more republican values he associated with the best revolutionary American ideals. According to this reading, most members of the Pyncheon family represent a kind of atrophying elitism that was becoming increasingly irrelevant in Hawthorne's day; Phoebe and Holgrave, by contrast, ultimately represent the less pretentious, humbler attitudes of a younger generation that was both more vibrant and more vital than the dying aristocracy of the decaying past. The death of the older-style Pyncheon family values therefore symbolizes (according to this reading) the passing of an often-regrettable era in American history, and Hawthorne's sympathies are wholly with the rise of the newer, more open, more generous, and more public-spirited attitudes he associates especially with the young and optimistic Phoebe. Even Hepzibah, by the end of the novel, seems to have left some of her old ways of thinking behind and has embraced a new attitude toward her place in her society. It is not surprising (according to this view) that at the end of the text most of the surviving characters abandon their ancient, ancestral home, since the history and values associated with that dilapidated house now seem increasingly irrelevant to the lives they plan to lead in the future. By the end of the book the central characters (especially Phoebe and Holgrave) move beyond the self-centeredness that had resulted either in death or in stunted, disappointed lives for so many persons earlier in the text. Hawthorne thus reveals his sympathies with a democratic future rather than with an arid, aristocratic past.

Literary Craftsmanship and Critical Reception. Stylistic and Structural Excellence. However one chooses to interpret the meanings of the book, its success as a work of art obviously depends on the skillfulness of its style, structure, techniques, and craftsmanship. The House of the Seven Gables would not be worth reading as a work of literature if it did not possess strengths in all these areas, and indeed commentators have praised the work for virtues in all the respects just mentioned. The book has been commended, for instance, for the ways it combines realism, poetic phrasing, and vivid depictions of life in a particular region (a kind of writing known as local color). In addition, the work has been admired for its ability to blend history and humor, lyricism and satire, as well as brooding terror with a touching story of developing young love. The characters have been acclaimed as memorable and diverse, and the book has also been applauded for its effective use of symbolism—especially symbolism involving the house, the garden, and even the family chickens, whose decrepit condition reflects the circumstances of the people who own them.

Imagery and Structural Contrasts. Critics have also lauded Hawthorne for his effective use of imagery, particularly imagery of light and dark, imagery of plants and hearts, and imagery involving clothing, paintings, mirrors, and even an organ grinder's monkey. Readers have admired the work for its combination of ambiguity, irony, suspense, wit, gossip, legend, and paradox, and they have also noted with approval Hawthorne's ability to structure the work around a series of effective contrasts, such as contrasts between the two families (Pyncheons and Maules), between good weather and bad, between scenes set inside and outside the confining house, between supernaturalism and realism, and between sterility and vitality.

Critical Detractions and Literary Legacy. Nevertheless, despite frequent praise for all these strengths, the work has not been without its detractors. Some readers, for instance, have found Hawthorne's satire of Judge Pyncheon too heavy-handed, while others have criticized his characters for allegedly lacking life. According to this view, the characters are too often treated as allegorical props, simply designed to illustrate a moralistic message, instead of being given independent and complex existence as believably complicated human beings. Perhaps the most common criticism of the book, however, concerns its ending, which many readers consider contrived and unconvincing. The happy, optimistic conclusion of the book has struck many commentators as rushed and forced, and the transformation in Holgrave's character has, in particular, been the subject of persistent criticism. Yet even this controversial conclusion has had its defenders, and in general the book has won far more praise than censure. For most readers it is Hawthorne's most important achievement after The Scarlet Letter itself.

Pedagogical Discussion Questions. - 1st question: While the novel considers the relationship between past and present, it also seems to focus on the hope for human progress. Does Hawthorne seem to be hopeful about the direction in which society is moving? Does he believe in human progress? What, in his opinion, seems to be necessary for human progress and advancement?

2nd question: Compare and contrast the ending of this novel with the conclusion of The Scarlet Letter. How do the endings of the two works differ in tone, mood, characterization, and attitude? Which ending is more optimistic? Which ending is more credible? How is each ending a fitting (or unfitting) conclusion to the book it brings to a close? How and why has each ending aroused controversy? What is your personal opinion of the effectiveness of each conclusion?

3rd question: Read this work alongside another work of gothic fiction from the same period, such as Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher". How, and to what degree, is each work an example of the gothic genre? Discuss the two works in terms of their plots, characterization, and symbolism, particularly the ways they use houses as symbols. Compare and contrast the endings of the two texts. What are the moral or ethical implications of each work?

4th question: In what way does a text such as The House of the Seven Gables foreshadow certain much later novels, such as William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury? Discuss the use of regional settings, family life, and social class. How are brother-sister relationships significant? How is house symbolism an important factor?