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The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne "The House of the Seven Gables" is a romantic novel set in a grand and rustic, old house with seven gables in New England town. The story opens with its history, beginning in the 1690's, when witch-hunting was rampant. Afterwards, it revolves around the course of one summer in the 1850's. At his housewarming party, Colonel Pyncheon, the socially noted owner of the house was mysteriously found dead in one of the rooms. Although he was highly esteemed for his wealth and high position, legend has it that he usurped the land on which his house stood from a poor fellow named Matthew Maule. Maule was a nobody. Furthermore, he was rumored to be practicing witchcraft. For this, he was hanged and it was rumored that Pyncheon was responsible for it because he wanted the land for himself. However, his social prominence and Maule's infamy allowed him to get away with the crime smoothly. Before Maule died though, cursed him saying, "God will give him blood to drink." For years, the Pyncheon-Maule dispute carried on. The long line of Pyncheons struggled to keep the land from their rivals. Though they succeeded in this, their greed became their own undoing. Alice Pyncheon dies because her father, Gervayse, allowed her to be hypnotized by a Maule also named Matthew, because he believed him when he said that he needed Alice's mind to find a the hidden Pyncheon treasure. Clifford Pyncheon was another victim of the greed of his cousin Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon. He framed him and sent him to prison for killing their uncle so that he could have the Pyncheon fortune to himself. However, after many years, the once talked-about mansi... ... middle of paper ... ...return home. Since Judge Jaffery Pyncheon is dead Clifford, Hepziah, and Pheobe inherit all of his wealth and riches. They later find out that Jaffery was responsible for Clifford's 30 year imprisonment. They realize this because all three of the Pyncheon men that had died the same unusual deaths. Due to this fact you can assume that it is a genetic trait. They then conclude that as a youth Jaffery planted evidence as to appear that Clifford committed a murder. Finally, at the end of the story, Holograve finally tells Phoebe that he is a Maule. He also tells her the house is made of wood instead of stone. Holograve finds a spring that Clifford vaguely remembered. He remembered that it was behind the old portrait, there they found the deed to the vast lands near Maine. They then move into the county to leave the house behind and their memories behind.
Mr. Bannister - one of the men of the town who admires Brady greatly. He is chosen to be on the jury because he does not know how to read.
house. He said "The murderer of your friend and mine - York Driscoll of the
This is because the people of his hometown were truly convinced the McMillian was a very
The Salem witch trials of 1692 were one of the bloodiest witch-hunts in America colonial history. The event started in the house of the new minister of Salem, Samuel Parris, when his daughter, Betty, suffered from mysterious symptoms, and later she accused her slave, Tibuta, for using witchcraft on her. Later, two other women, Sarah Goode and Sarah Osborne, were accused of using witchcraft on other girls; right after the accusations, they were arrested (Lecture 9/13/2016). As a result, the hunt of witches began which led to hundreds of arrests, and nineteen accused were hanged (Text 190). Although three hundred years have passed, the true cause of the episode remains a mystery. Many scholars have conducted numerous studies of the trails, however,
This conspiracy was an ongoing event that occurred during the spring of 1692. Take notice that this also occurred during the witchcraft derangement. The location was
The first suspect is Edward “Bennie” Bedwell. Bedwell was a local dishwasher who was questioned at a local motel for three days (Sigona). What supported Bedwell as a suspect is that he actually confessed to the murder (Sigona). There were multiple problems with Bedwell’s confession, however. The first problem with his confession is, “Bedwell couldn’t read or write, so it would be nearly impossible for him to understand what he was confessing to” (Sigona). The second problem with his confession is “After a time, everyone realized Bedwell’s story didn’t add up. There were inconsistencies, including the fact that Bedwell said he was with the girls for a month before they died” (Sigona). Finally, the main problem with his confession is that the girls were dead within four hours of leaving home (Sigona). The other suspect in the case of the murder of Barbara and Patricia Grimes is Max Fleig. Max Fleig was a young man in his teens when the Grimes sisters were murdered (MacGowan). Max offered to take a lie detector test, which he failed (MacGowan). The reason Fleig was released even after failing the test is “The police began to focus on him as a prime suspect until they were told that it was illegal to polygraph someone underage. The police released him, many of the authorities thinking he was their man” (MacGowan). Another example that supports Fleig as a suspect is that he was imprisoned later in his life
Most of the accusations were made against innocent people for reasons of economic conditions, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies. Of course there was also the fact that people weren’t aware of the certain mental illnesses caused by their environment. For example the one of the first people to be accused of witchcraft was a young girl named Betty Paris who one day became very ill with convulsive erogtism. Ergot is a fungus that invades growing kernels of rye, so it is very likely that she got sick from simply eating bread. Since people were scientifically unable to explain her sudden seizures and hallucinations she was accused of witchcraft.
A pretrial plea bargain was given to Bundy, which was Bundy would plea guilty to the murders of killing Levy, Bowman and Leach. In exchange, Bundy would be sentenced to prison for a firm 75 years. He ultimately declined the offer and decided with trying to win the case, which was not a smart move by Bundy. Bundy thought the prosecutors had no evidence from the Chi Omega sorority, but what he’s about to find out ruins his life. No evidence was recovered at the Chi Omega sorority house like Bundy thought, but two crucial testimonies from sorority members played a big role. Connie Hastings believed she saw Bundy in the house that night, while Nita Neary stated that she saw him escaping the house clasping the oak firewood murder weapon. These testimonies showed that Bundy was in the house and was in the house around the same time of the murders. But with no physical evidence, Bundy could not be found guilty. What Bundy didn’t realize was that there was a piece of evidence from the sorority crime scene. While investigators examined the scene, one officer found the bite marks on Levy’s buttocks. The officer picked up a yellow marker ruler and took photographs of the bite mark. By the time the trial had started the bite mark disappeared, because the tissue around Levy’s buttocks had gone back to its normal color, size and shape. Prosecutors took the photos to forensic odontologist Dr. Richard Souviron.
In times of war, the Letter of Marque and Reprisal was issued, giving privateers the license to attack an e...
Miss Cline, on top of having a motive, she lied to the interrogator. Now being the daughter of a commissioner, I know Betsy has
Sam and his black dog, Turk. William also had some young Indian friends he met
This combination of fears, unholyness, sin, and loss of social status each stemming from the others, created a vicious cloud of anxiety and suspicion within the town. And ultimately, with no other way to lessen the tension that grew from the pressure of religious standards, the witch trials were a much needed, but terribly unfortunate, outlet for the Puritans. If they had not had such strict principles in their
...er. The moors quickly changed to a more appealing nature compared to when Catherine and Heathcliff were separated. Wuthering Heights embodied more sorrow, strenuous feelings mainly taken from Heathcliff that poisoned the rest of the residents that stayed there. Heathcliff’s character was revengeful and deceitful which caused everyone to have little trust in him adding more tension and anger to the atmosphere of the house. Thrushcross Grange had a more positive feel to it because the residents inside had less worries and work to achieve. The Linton’s focused on their lifestyle and did what made them happy which to them meant less work and more family events. Emily evidently uses the setting of each property as well as the moors to directly relate the behavior and actions the character’s in her novel “Wuthering Heights,” portrays compared to their personalities.
The Salem witch trials was a very big thing back in the 1600’s. At that time Puritans believed in witchcraft and that the devil could conjure your spirit. They were scared of these things happening in their village so they would do anything to prevent it from happening,. This included killing anyone suspected to be with the devil or to be a witch. It turned out to be a big problem when a group of girls were supposedly seeing spirits sent out at them and the devil would come to them telling them to sign his book.
The Scarlet Letter is a blend of realism, symbolism, and allegory. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses historical settings for this fictional novel and even gives historical background information for the inspiration of the story of Hester Prynne in the introduction of The Scarlet Letter, ‘The Custom-House’. The psychological exploration of the characters and the author’s use of realistic dialogue only add to the realism of the novel. The most obvious symbol of the novel is the actual scarlet letter ‘A’ that Hester wears on her chest every day, but Hawthorne also uses Hester’s daughter Pearl and their surroundings as symbols as well. Allegory is present as well in The Scarlet Letter and is created through the character types of several characters in the novel.