Table Of Content
Just before dying, Matthew places a curse on Colonel Pyncheon, saying that "God will give him blood to drink." Colonel Pyncheon acquires the land, builds his house using Thomas Maule, Matthew Maule's son, as the architect. The day of his house-warming feast, to which he has invited the entire community, including many very esteemed society people, Colonel Pyncheon is found dead in his study with blood dripping from his mouth. Subsequent generations live in the house, believing that they are entitled to a large piece of land in Maine that Colonel Pyncheon was in the process of acquiring before he died.
By Nathaniel HawthorneIntroduction by Katherine HoweAfterword by Brenda Wineapple
Although he has dabbled in several occupations, including dentistry and teaching, Holgrave is now a daguerreotypist, or a photographer. His profession represents the way in which he is a forward thinker who enjoys the changes brought by technology. Unlike Clifford, who is at first nostalgic about the past, Holgrave favors the future. Like his ancestor, Matthew Maule, Holgrave has the power of mesmerism, or the ability to hypnotize people. Unlike the younger Matthew Maule, Holgrave does not use this power in harmful ways against other people, specifically Phoebe.
Characters
House of Seven Gables - East Hampton Star
House of Seven Gables.
Posted: Thu, 16 May 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]
There is evidentlya mystery about the picture, that perplexes these poor Pyncheons when theyought to be at rest. In a corner, meanwhile, stands the figure of an elderlyman, in a leathern jerkin and breeches, with a carpenter’s rule stickingout of his side pocket; he points his finger at the bearded Colonel and hisdescendants, nodding, jeering, mocking, and finally bursting into obstreperous,though inaudible laughter. They met few people abroad, even on passing from the retired neighborhood ofthe House of the Seven Gables into what was ordinarily the more thronged andbusier portion of the town. What a treasure-trove to these venerable quidnuncs, could theyhave guessed the secret which Hepzibah and Clifford were carrying along withthem! But their two figures attracted hardly so much notice as that of a younggirl, who passed at the same instant, and happened to raise her skirt a trifletoo high above her ankles. Had it been a sunny and cheerful day, they couldhardly have gone through the streets without making themselves obnoxious toremark.
Governor Pyncheon
A party of leaden dragoonswere galloping along one of the shelves, in equipments and uniform of moderncut; and there were some sugar figures, with no strong resemblance to thehumanity of any epoch, but less unsatisfactorily representing our own fashionsthan those of a hundred years ago. Another phenomenon, still more strikinglymodern, was a package of lucifer matches, which, in old times, would have beenthought actually to borrow their instantaneous flame from the nether fires ofTophet. It has already been observed, that, in the basement story of the gable frontingon the street, an unworthy ancestor, nearly a century ago, had fitted up ashop. Ever since the old gentleman retired from trade, and fell asleep underhis coffin-lid, not only the shop-door, but the inner arrangements, had beensuffered to remain unchanged; while the dust of ages gathered inch-deep overthe shelves and counter, and partly filled an old pair of scales, as if it wereof value enough to be weighed. It treasured itself up, too, in the half-opentill, where there still lingered a base sixpence, worth neither more nor lessthan the hereditary pride which had here been put to shame. Such had been thestate and condition of the little shop in old Hepzibah’s childhood, whenshe and her brother used to play at hide-and-seek in its forsaken precincts.
II: The Little Shop-Windows
Holgrave took his departure, leaving her, for the moment, with spirits notquite so much depressed. With a beating heart, she listened to the footsteps of earlypassengers, which now began to be frequent along the street. Once or twice theyseemed to linger; these strangers, or neighbors, as the case might be, werelooking at the display of toys and petty commodities in Hepzibah’sshop-window.
The House of the Seven Gables Assembles New Development Team - Northshore Magazine
The House of the Seven Gables Assembles New Development Team.
Posted: Tue, 08 May 2018 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Still, her native kindliness wasbrought strongly into play, not by what was darkly picturesque in hissituation, nor so much, even, by the finer graces of his character, as by thesimple appeal of a heart so forlorn as his to one so full of genuine sympathyas hers. She gave him an affectionate regard, because he needed so much love,and seemed to have received so little. With a ready tact, the result ofever-active and wholesome sensibility, she discerned what was good for him, anddid it.
Never before had she had such a sense of the intolerable length of timethat creeps between dawn and sunset, and of the miserable irksomeness of havingaught to do, and of the better wisdom that it would be to lie down at once, insullen resignation, and let life, and its toils and vexations, trample overone’s prostrate body as they may! Hepzibah’s final operation waswith the little devourer of Jim Crow and the elephant, who now proposed to eata camel. In her bewilderment, she offered him first a wooden dragoon, and nexta handful of marbles; neither of which being adapted to his else omnivorousappetite, she hastily held out her whole remaining stock of natural history ingingerbread, and huddled the small customer out of the shop.
Holgrave
When romances do really teach anything, or produceany effective operation, it is usually through a far more subtile process thanthe ostensible one. The author has considered it hardly worth his while,therefore, relentlessly to impale the story with its moral as with an ironrod,—or, rather, as by sticking a pin through a butterfly,—thus atonce depriving it of life, and causing it to stiffen in an ungainly andunnatural attitude. A high truth, indeed, fairly, finely, and skilfully wroughtout, brightening at every step, and crowning the final development of a work offiction, may add an artistic glory, but is never any truer, and seldom any moreevident, at the last page than at the first. When Gerald decides not to sell the house after all, Clifford and his father argue violently. Jaffrey, knowing Clifford is innocent, nonetheless accuses him of murder. Clifford is convicted and imprisoned, but renews "Maule's curse" upon Jaffrey before being led away.
Clifford and Phœbe
The current occupant of the house with seven gables, Hepzibah is Clifford’s sister and a cousin to Judge Pyncheon and Phoebe. With her face locked in a permanent scowl due to nearsightedness, Hepzibah scares customers away from her small store, but she has a good heart and takes good care of her brother. At about this time, Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, a wealthy man of the town who lives in a palatial country place, visits Hepzibah and demands to see Clifford. Hepzibah steadfastly refuses, but one day the Judge says that he must see Clifford or institute proceedings to have him committed to an insane asylum.
Evidently, this is to be a day of more thanordinary trial to Miss Hepzibah, who, for above a quarter of a century gone by,has dwelt in strict seclusion, taking no part in the business of life, and justas little in its intercourse and pleasures. Not with such fervor prays thetorpid recluse, looking forward to the cold, sunless, stagnant calm of a daythat is to be like innumerable yesterdays. The deep projection of the second story gave the house such a meditative look,that you could not pass it without the idea that it had secrets to keep, and aneventful history to moralize upon. In front, just on the edge of the unpavedsidewalk, grew the Pyncheon Elm, which, in reference to such trees as oneusually meets with, might well be termed gigantic.
So long as any of the race were to be found, they had been marked out fromother men—not strikingly, nor as with a sharp line, but with an effectthat was felt rather than spoken of—by an hereditary character ofreserve. Their companions, or those who endeavored to become such, grewconscious of a circle round about the Maules, within the sanctity or the spellof which, in spite of an exterior of sufficient frankness and good-fellowship,it was impossible for any man to step. It was this indefinable peculiarity,perhaps, that, by insulating them from human aid, kept them always sounfortunate in life. It certainly operated to prolong in their case, and toconfirm to them as their only inheritance, those feelings of repugnance andsuperstitious terror with which the people of the town, even after awakeningfrom their frenzy, continued to regard the memory of the reputed witches. Themantle, or rather the ragged cloak, of old Matthew Maule had fallen upon hischildren.
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