Hawthorne's Personality Revealed in His Novel, The House of the Seven Gables

Hawthorne's Personality Revealed in His Novel, The House of the Seven Gables

"At the moment of execution--with the halter about his neck, and while Colonel Pyncheon sat on horseback, grimly gazing at the scene--Maul had addressed him from the scaffold, and uttered a profecy, of which history, as well as fireside tradition, has preserved the very words.--'God,' said the dying man, pointing his finger with a ghastly look at the undismayed countenance of his enemy, 'God will give you blood to drink'"(12)! The House of the Seven Gables portrays many emotions throughout the novel. Writers express themselves through their literature using many different traits. They write about what they know, and who better to portray than the writer himself. The House of the Seven Gables is a perfect example of a writer portraying himself and his emotions. Nathaniel Hawthorne gives his readers an insight to his personality through the characters in this classic novel with the use of characterization, similes, and many other writing traits.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts which is known as, "America's capital of hauntings, diabolical occurrences, and Puritan hellfire" (Reader's Digest). The characters of his stories are usually lonely and reclusive, and this novel is no exception. Hawthorne himself stated that, "Seven Gables was 'more characteristic of the author, and a more natural book for me to write.'" (Reader's Digest).

One of the most important characters is this novel is that of Hepzibah Pyncheon. Hepzibah is an old woman with a pessimistic outlook on life. She is a very unattractive lady who scowls all that look upon her. Her pleasantness is lacking, and her loneliness is getting the best of her. Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon also believes that she is what is perceived about her which makes matters worse. She is the first character introduced into the novel, besides that of background characters. Hepzibah is introduced as waking up at about sunrise, but as Hawthorne writes, he would not consider her to be waking, but getting up from a night of poor sleep. Hepzibah's longing for someone to want to be with her can be expressed as she is described, "she had never had a lover--poor thing, how could she?--nor ever knew, by her own experience, what love technically means" (31).

Expressing traits similar to how Hawthorne is perceived, he writes mainly through Hepzibah. While most writers were pessimistic in the nineteenth century, Hawthorne is no exception.