Article #77-2 | Gutenberg Articles

Excerpt

Excerpt from The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

In September of the year during the February of which Hawthorne had
completed “The Scarlet Letter,” he began “The House of the Seven
Gables.” Meanwhile, he had removed from Salem to Lenox, in Berkshire
County, Massachusetts, where he occupied with his family a small red
wooden house, still standing at the date of this edition, near the
Stockbridge Bowl.

“I sha’n’t have the new story ready by November,” he explained to his
publisher, on the 1st of October, “for I am never good for anything in
the literary way till after the first autumnal frost, which has
somewhat such an effect on my imagination that it does on the foliage
here about me—multiplying and brightening its hues.” But by vigorous
application he was able to complete the new work about the middle of
the January following.

Since research has disclosed the manner in which the romance is
interwoven with incidents from the history of the Hawthorne family,
“The House of the Seven Gables” has acquired an interest apart from
that by which it first appealed to the public. John Hathorne (as the
name was then spelled), the great-grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne,
was a magistrate at Salem in the latter part of the seventeenth
century, and officiated at the famous trials for witchcraft held there.
It is of record that he used peculiar severity towards a certain woman
who was among the accused; and the husband of this woman prophesied
that God would take revenge upon his wife’s persecutors. This
circumstance doubtless furnished a hint for that piece of tradition in
the book which represents a Pyncheon of a former generation as having
persecuted one Maule, who declared that God would give his enemy “blood
to drink.” It became a conviction with the Hawthorne family that a
curse had been pronounced upon its members, which continued in force in
the time of the romancer; a conviction perhaps derived from the
recorded prophecy of the injured woman’s husband, just mentioned; and,
here again, we have a correspondence with Maule’s malediction in the
story. Furthermore, there occurs in the “American Note-Books” (August
27, 1837), a reminiscence of the author’s family, to the following
effect. Philip English, a character well-known in early Salem annals,
was among those who suffered from John Hathorne’s magisterial
harshness, and he maintained in consequence a lasting feud with the old
Puritan official. But at his death English left daughters, one of whom
is said to have married the son of Justice John Hathorne, whom English
had declared he would never forgive. It is scarcely necessary to point
out how clearly this foreshadows the final union of those hereditary
foes, the Pyncheons and Maules, through the marriage of Phœbe and
Holgrave. The romance, however, describes the Maules as possessing some
of the traits known to have been characteristic of the Hawthornes: for
example, “so long as any of the race were to be found, they had been
marked out from other men—not strikingly, nor as with a sharp line, but
with an effect that was felt rather than spoken of—by an hereditary
characteristic of reserve.” Thus, while the general suggestion of the
Hawthorne line and its fortunes was followed in the romance, the
Pyncheons taking the place of the author’s family, certain
distinguishing marks of the Hawthornes were assigned to the imaginary
Maule posterity.

Explanation

Detailed Explanation of the Excerpt from The House of the Seven Gables

This excerpt is not a direct passage from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables (1851) but rather a prefatory or critical introduction (likely from an early edition) that provides biographical, historical, and literary context for the novel. Below is a breakdown of its key elements, focusing on the text itself while also addressing its broader significance.

1. Context of the Excerpt

The passage serves as an editorial or scholarly introduction, explaining:

Hawthorne’s writing process (his creative rhythm, the novel’s composition timeline).
The novel’s autobiographical and historical roots (how Hawthorne’s family history influenced the story).
Themes of heredity, guilt, and reconciliation as reflected in the Pyncheon-Maule feud.

This kind of introduction was common in 19th- and early 20th-century editions of classic works, offering readers a lens through which to interpret the text.

2. Summary of the Excerpt’s Content

The passage can be divided into three main sections:

A. Hawthorne’s Writing Process and Timeline (Paragraphs 1–2)

Setting the scene: Hawthorne began The House of the Seven Gables in September 1850, just months after finishing The Scarlet Letter (February 1850).
Physical context: He had moved from Salem (his hometown, steeped in Puritan history) to Lenox, Massachusetts, where he lived in a "small red wooden house" near the Stockbridge Bowl (a lake). This move may have influenced the novel’s setting—a house haunted by the past.
Creative rhythm: Hawthorne humorously notes that he is only productive "after the first autumnal frost," which he says affects his imagination like it does the foliage—"multiplying and brightening its hues."
- Literary device: Metaphor (comparing his creativity to autumn leaves) and personification (the frost acting as a catalyst).
- Significance: Suggests that Hawthorne’s writing thrives in a melancholic, introspective season, fitting for a novel about inherited sin and decay.

B. Historical and Familial Inspirations (Paragraphs 3–5)

The introduction reveals how The House of the Seven Gables is deeply intertwined with Hawthorne’s family history, particularly the curse of Judge John Hathorne (Hawthorne’s great-grandfather, a magistrate in the Salem Witch Trials).

The Hathorne legacy:
- John Hathorne was known for his "peculiar severity" toward an accused witch, whose husband cursed Hathorne’s line, saying God would give them "blood to drink."
- This real-life curse parallels the fictional Maule’s malediction in the novel, where Matthew Maule, a wronged man, declares that God will make the Pyncheons (the novel’s aristocratic family) "drink blood."
- Literary device: Foreshadowing (the real curse mirrors the fictional one, blending history and invention).
- Theme: Hereditary guilt—the idea that the sins of ancestors haunt later generations.
The Pyncheons and Maules as Hawthorne stand-ins:
- The Pyncheons (the novel’s doomed aristocratic family) are based on the Hathornes, while the Maules (a lower-class family cursed by the Pyncheons) paradoxically inherit Hawthorne-like traits (e.g., "reserve").
- Significance: Hawthorne splits his identity—the Pyncheons represent his guilty Puritan ancestry, while the Maules embody his artistic, introspective self.
- Literary device: Dramatic irony (the Maules, though cursed, carry Hawthorne’s own characteristics).
Reconciliation through marriage:
- The introduction mentions Philip English, a real historical figure persecuted by John Hathorne, whose daughter later married Hathorne’s son, ending the feud.
- This mirrors the novel’s ending, where Phoebe Pyncheon (a pure, youthful figure) marries Holgrave (a Maule descendant), symbolizing redemption and the breaking of the curse.
- Theme: The possibility of breaking cyclical guilt through love and renewal.

C. Blurring of History and Fiction (Paragraph 6)

The introduction explains that while the Pyncheons replace the Hathornes in the novel, Maule traits resemble Hawthorne’s own family characteristics (e.g., "reserve").
Significance: Hawthorne reimagines his family’s past, both condemning and absolving it. The Maules, though victims, are not purely innocent—they carry Hawthorne’s own introspective, somewhat detached nature.

3. Key Themes in the Excerpt (and the Novel)

The introduction highlights several major themes of The House of the Seven Gables:

Hereditary Sin and the Past’s Grip
- The Hathorne curse and the Pyncheon-Maule feud illustrate how past crimes haunt the present.
- The house itself (with its seven gables) becomes a symbol of decaying aristocracy and unpaid debts.
Guilt and Atonement
- Hawthorne, descended from a witch-trial judge, grapples with ancestral complicity.
- The novel asks: Can one escape the sins of their forebears?
Reconciliation and Renewal
- The marriage of Phoebe and Holgrave suggests that love and progress can break curses.
- The introduction’s mention of Philip English’s daughter marrying a Hathorne reinforces this hope.
The Artist’s Role in History
- Hawthorne rewrites his family’s story, blending fact and fiction.
- The Maules, though fictional, carry Hawthorne’s own traits, suggesting that art can redefine legacy.

4. Literary Devices in the Excerpt

While this is a critical introduction, it employs several literary techniques to engage the reader:

Device	Example	Effect
Metaphor	"Autumnal frost... multiplying and brightening [imagination’s] hues"	Conveys Hawthorne’s creative process as organic and seasonal.
Foreshadowing	The real curse ("blood to drink") mirrors Maule’s fictional one.	Links history to fiction, deepening the novel’s eerie tone.
Dramatic Irony	The Maules, though cursed, inherit Hawthorne’s traits.	Suggests that victims and oppressors are intertwined.
Symbolism	The house (decay), the frost (creative awakening).	Reinforces themes of time, guilt, and transformation.
Parallelism	Real Hathorne curse → Fictional Maule curse; Real marriage → Fictional Phoebe-Holgrave union.	Shows how Hawthorne reworks history into art.

5. Significance of the Excerpt

This introduction is crucial because it:

Frames the novel as semi-autobiographical—Hawthorne is reckoning with his Puritan past.
Explains the curse motif—the idea that history is inescapable unless actively confronted.
Highlights Hawthorne’s literary method—blending Gothic romance, historical allegory, and psychological depth.
Sets up the novel’s central question: Can America (and its families) escape the sins of its founding?

**6. Connection to The House of the Seven Gables Itself**

While this excerpt is not from the novel, it directly informs how we read it:

The Pyncheon family = Hawthorne’s ancestors (proud, cursed, decaying).
Holgrave (a Maule descendant) = Hawthorne the artist (a reformer, a photographer, an outsider).
Phoebe = hope and renewal (her name means "radiant," and she brings light to the dark house).
The house = America’s haunted past (built on stolen land, witch trials, and Puritan rigidity).

The novel’s ending—where Phoebe and Holgrave leave the house to start anew—suggests that while the past cannot be erased, it can be transcended.

7. Why This Matters Beyond the Novel

Hawthorne’s struggle with hereditary guilt reflects broader American anxieties:

Puritan legacy: How does a nation founded on religious intolerance and violence move forward?
Class and redemption: Can the aristocratic Pyncheons (old money) and the working-class Maules (new ideas) reconcile?
The artist’s role: Hawthorne, like Holgrave, rewrites history through fiction, suggesting that art can be a form of exorcism.

Conclusion: The Excerpt as a Key to the Novel

This introduction is not just background—it’s a guide to Hawthorne’s intentions. It reveals that The House of the Seven Gables is:

A family drama (Hawthorne’s own).
A Gothic allegory (the house as a haunted psyche).
A historical reckoning (America’s Puritan shadows).
A hopeful fable (the possibility of breaking curses).

By understanding this context, readers can see how Hawthorne transforms personal guilt into universal art—making the novel both a confession and a redemption.

Final Thought: Hawthorne once wrote that "easy reading is damn hard writing." This excerpt shows just how deeply personal and painstaking his process was—turning his family’s curse into a story of possible salvation.

Questions

Question 1

The passage’s description of Hawthorne’s creative dependence on the "first autumnal frost" serves primarily to:

A. illustrate the paradoxical relationship between external decay and internal artistic vitality, where desolation catalyses imaginative richness.
B. emphasize the seasonal constraints of 19th-century New England writers, who lacked modern amenities to work year-round.
C. foreshadow the novel’s preoccupation with cyclical time, as embodied in the recurring motif of generational curses.
D. contrast the disciplined, methodical approach of Hawthorne’s contemporaries with his own organic, nature-bound process.
E. underscore the Romantic era’s fascination with the sublime, where natural phenomena are imbued with quasi-divine creative power.

Question 2

The introduction’s treatment of the Pyncheon-Maule feud most strongly suggests that Hawthorne’s fictionalisation of his family history is an act of:

A. psychological projection, wherein the author displaces his own repressed guilt onto a grotesque, aristocratic surrogate.
B. historical revisionism, deliberately distorting records to absolve his ancestors of their role in the witch trials.
C. Gothic sensationalism, exploiting familial trauma for commercial appeal while obscuring its real-world origins.
D. allegorical abstraction, using the feud as a vehicle to critique the broader social hierarchies of antebellum America.
E. artistic exorcism, confronting inherited shame by reimagining its terms and permitting symbolic resolution.

Question 3

The passage’s revelation that the Maules inherit "distinguishing marks of the Hawthornes" (e.g., "reserve") implies which of the following about the novel’s moral framework?

A. The curse’s power derives from the victims’ unconscious internalisation of their oppressors’ traits, perpetuating the cycle.
B. Hawthorne views artistic temperament as a form of hereditary affliction, akin to the Pyncheons’ moral decay.
C. The novel’s symmetry demands that both families bear complementary flaws, balancing the narrative’s ethical ledger.
D. The Maules’ reserve signifies their complicity in the feud, undermining the text’s ostensible critique of Pyncheon tyranny.
E. Identity is fluid and constructed, with the boundaries between persecutor and persecuted blurred by shared psychological legacies.

Question 4

The editor’s decision to include the detail about Philip English’s daughter marrying a Hathorne son serves chiefly to:

A. preemptively deflect accusations of historical inaccuracy by anchoring the novel’s reconciliatory ending in documented fact.
B. highlight the arbitrary nature of feuds, which persist despite the interpersonal connections that could dissolve them.
C. illustrate the inevitability of social integration, as even the most entrenched class divisions succumb to demographic pressures.
D. contrast the rigidity of Puritan moral codes with the pragmatic flexibility of commercial elites like English.
E. foreshadow the novel’s critique of endogamy, where forced unions between enemies produce degenerate offspring.

Question 5

Which of the following best describes the passage’s implicit argument about the relationship between history and fiction in The House of the Seven Gables?

A. Fiction must slavishly adhere to historical fact to achieve verisimilitude, lest it devolve into escapist fantasy.
B. The novelist’s primary duty is to expose historical truths that archival records deliberately obscure or suppress.
C. Literary artistry is most potent when it erases the boundary between past and present, collapsing temporal distinctions.
D. Fiction reconfigures history not to falsify it, but to reveal its latent psychological and ethical dimensions.
E. The past is irredeemably opaque, and fiction’s value lies in its ability to invent coherent narratives where records fail.

Solutions and Explanations

1) Correct answer: A

Why A is most correct: The frost metaphor juxtaposes external decay ("foliage" withering) with internal flourishing ("multiplying and brightening its hues"). This paradox mirrors the novel’s central tension—how the Pyncheons’ moral rot enables Hawthorne’s creative reckoning with it. The passage frames the frost as a catalyst for transformation, not mere constraint (B) or cyclical fatalism (C). The focus is on the generative power of desolation, a hallmark of Hawthorne’s melancholic Romanticism.