The house of Seven Gables Analysis

“The love of money is the root of all evil.” This basic proverb it the foundation that Nathaniel Hawthorne builds upon in The House of Seven Gables. Like all of hawthorns works he exploits the evils of the puritan heart in is 1851 Romantic Fantasy. Hawthorne tells the story of the Pyncheon family’s struggle to overcome the inherrated problem caused by the sins of their ancestors. The Pyncheon family, however, thinks the problems come from an inherrated curse that was placed on the family. The House of Seven Gables shows Hawthorne’s opinion of the puritan heart (Gioia and Kennedy p. 196). He believed that their hearts were full of sin, and that they were blinded by the sin and evil so much that they could not even see that the problem lies with themselves. Hawthorne believed that the inherrated evil of the heart could only be overcome by true love.

To understand the family history, you must first meet the family. The Pyncheon family history starts in 1692 with the introduction of Colonel Pyncheon. He was a strict puritan whom everyone thought was a good godly man. However, his heart was greedy and evil. He had a man put to death so that he could gain the man’s property. These sins and evils are passed down through several generations of Pyncheon’s. In some generations the evil is stronger or weaker. The traits are passed until the later 1900’s to an elderly woman named Hephzibah Pyncheon. Hephzibah, the great grand niece of the Colonel, did not inherit all of his evil traits. Her heart was not greedy or full of hate, but she feels that she is better that everyone else because she is a Pyncheon. By the time the novel focuses on her however, she is nearly seventy and she realizes that she must open up a penny shop to survive. Hephzibah’s brother, Clifford, lives with her in the house of the seven gables. Clifford is an emotional man who has spent most of his life in prison for the murder of one of his uncles. Clifford, however is the only male Pyncheon who is not full of hate, he killed his uncle to stop his uncle from killing others. Clifford and Hephzibah live in the house and are occasionally visited by their cousin, Phoebe Pyncheon. Because Phoebe moved from another town, she is unaware of the supposed curse and the inherrated evil that is supposed to dwell in her. Phoebe is perfect in every way. She is beautiful, happy, and she has a good heart. She is ...

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...razy and others to become more powerful or richer to cover the feeling of grief (Anthony Trollope p 308).

The ghost is also the on who resolves the conflict. Once the Pyncheon’s realize that all they have to do is confess their sins and come to terms with themselves and the Mauls then the conflict will end, and they will live happily ever after.

The novel as a whole was excellent. The plot and the theme were excellent, and the novel should be converted into a movie because it has all of the things a good thriller and horror movie should have. The only drawback was the language and the style in which it was written. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a master of words and the human language, but describing a half-dead chicken does not need a two-page description. If someone could re-write the novel in today’s English, without loosing the quality of work, this could easily be the best novel ever.

The theme of the novel is perfect for Hawthorne as well as everyone in every time period. It describes Hawthorne’s views as puritans as evil hypocrites, as well as showing every generation that just because you inherrated a bad family, it doesn’t mean you have to relieve the inherrated experience.