House Of The Seven Gables :: essays research papers fc

The House of the Seven Gables     The sympathy or magnetics among human beings is more subtle and universalthan we think it exists, indeed, among different classes of nonionized life, and vibratesfrom one to another (Hawthorne 178). Loosely based on the events of Hawthornes give birthlife, The House of the Seven Gables attempts to show the suffering of descendants forcedto regret for the sins of their father, while they are unknowingly renewing the threat bynurturing the ancestral greed that has passed through the generations (O Connor 6) . Thus the various themes of the fiction ponder the central idea of continued sin through thegreed and unrighteousness of a declining family.     Each generation struggles to escape the sins of the past, only to be biffforcefully back to face the offenses of their forefathers. The House of the Seven Gablesis a chronicle of loneliness and greed caused by the sin of preceding generations. The openingo f the novel is set in puritan times during the Salem witch hunts. The villainous ColonelPyncheon wrongly accused the innocent Matthew Maule of witchcraft so that the Mauleland would travel by into the Pyncheon familys hands. Upon his death, Maule addressedColonel Pyncheon from the scaffold, and uttered a prophecy...God will give him businessto drink (Hawthorne 4-5) . The physical wrongdoing of Colonel Pyncheon againstMatthew Maule was avenged at the formers death, with the jinx being fulfilled. However, the essence of the crime lived on through the generations.      By chapter two, the focus of the novel has shifted to the modern generations ofthe Pyncheon family. The family has severely declined since the Colonels time, yet thecurse of greed is as strong as ever. The re mains of the family consist of a decrepitspinster named Hepzibah, now the caretaker of the house of the seven gables her insane sidekick Clifford, who was just recently released from prison th eir devilish cousin JudgeJaffrey, a man fixated upon his own greed and their distant cousin Phoebe, the sunny uncouth girl that will be their redemption. Also, the last surviving descendant of theMaule lineage, the picturesque Holgrave Maule, resides at the house.      In a compilation by F.O. Matthiessen, it is stated that the main theme was not theoriginal curse on the house, but the curse that the Pyncheons have continued to bringupon themselves. It is not Maules death which postulate avenging, but the anguish causedby the Pyncheon familys greed. Lust for wealth has held the Pyncheon in its inflexible