Hawthorne’s Treatment Of The Gothic In The House Of Seven Gables
Hawthorne is renowned for his use of psychological analysis in his works, and the reason behind this fame is quite evident in ‘The House of the Seven Gables’. An immensely powerful example of Hawthorne’s psychological perspicacity is what Marilyn R Chandler calls ‘the parallel between the house and the human psyche’: “the grand edifice represses—literally shoves underground—the secret that will become its curse.” (Chandler 82) In 1850, a few months before the publication of ‘The House of the Seven Gables’, Herman Melville reviewed ‘Mosses from an Old Manse’, a short story collection by Hawthorne, in his essay, ‘Hawthorne and his Mosses’. Melville lavished immense praise on Hawthorne,
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This change is very much evident in ‘The House of the Seven Gables’. The dark, decaying, claustrophobic mansion - ‘conceived in the grotesqueness of a Gothic fantasy’, ‘the scene of events more full of human interest, perhaps, than those of a gray, feudal castle’ - at once establishes itself as the central symbol of the novel and imparts an unmistakably Gothic flavour to the narrative. The image of the compass is invoked in relation with the house in the very first sentence of the story - it is as if Hawthorne’s language, too, is carefully calibrated to reinforce the idea of the house as the centre, the essence of the romance, and the one constant presence in the lives of the principal characters. Confusing in its size, with ‘foot worn passageway(s)’, ‘crazy doors’ and a ‘creaking staircase’, the house serves as a pole star for the reader, helping her to navigate her way through the narrative, as early all events - present and past - of the narrative take place within the house, or with the house as the backdrop. Phoebe arrives at the house, and leaves, only to come back for good. Holgrave, the daguerreotypist, having led a nomadic life, finds refuge underneath the seven gables. Hepzibah and Clifford flee in haste, and return, weak and weary, drawn …show more content…
All veils are lifted towards the end, however. Judge Pyncheon is proved to have died of entirely natural causes. With the death of the Judge, the grasping, greedy nature of the Pyncheons - their fatal flaw, if you will - that set in motion the entire unfortunate chain of events, is shown to vanish too. The curse that hung over each successive generation of the Pyncheons is rendered hollow by the union of Holgrave and Phoebe, and the strange realm of witchcraft is also subverted by the slightly more credible science of mesmerism. The aura of the uncanny starts to dissipate, and is finally dispelled with the help of reasonable, rational explanations centred in the realm of the mundane, and psychological justification wherein lies Hawthorne’s specialty. Lionel Trilling, in ‘Our Hawthorne’, also appreciates Hawthorne’s unmatched skill in this sphere: “Many of the tales, or romances as he thought of them, are multi-levelled, ironic explorations of the human psyche - capable of endless extensions of meaning and of stimulating repeated analysis and interpretation.” (Trilling
In a passage from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The House of the Seven Gables, he reveals the complex character that is Judge Pyncheon. Hawthorne suggests that the virtuous appearance Judge Pyncheon exhibits covers the immoral reality that lies behind his lies. Hawthorne leads the reader to speculate on Judge Pyncheon’s questionable character through his skeptical tone and syntax.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories are strongly developed around his unique and powerful use of physical setting. Often the location and the time of day of the story speak as much -- if not more -- of the plot, giving a deeper meaning then just the outside world. However, this emphasis on the physical setting is not always present, as in “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Instead, Hawthorne here used primarily the psychological setting of the characters (and most of all with Parson Hooper) to create this masterpiece work that creates just as much an impact - if not more so -- than any physical setting could ever achieve. Hawthorne’s gift as a writer who knew the power of darkness is evident in his short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the greatest American authors of the nineteenth century. He published his first novel Fanshawe, in 1828. However, he is widely known for his novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables. His novel, The Scarlet Letter, can be analyzed from historical, psychological and feminist critical perspectives by examining his life from the past, as well as his reflections while writing The Scarlet Letter. In order to understand the book properly, it’s necessary to use these three perspectives.
The Dark Side of Judge Pyncheon in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Novel, The House of the Seven Gables
Hawthorne's moods or prevailing feelings during certain scenes are revealed to the reader through nature.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of America's most renowned authors, demonstrates his extraordinary talents in two of his most famed novels, The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. To compare these two books seems bizarre, as their plots are distinctly different. Though the books are quite seemingly different, the central themes and Hawthorne's style are closely related (Carey, p. 62). American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne is most famous for his books THE SCARLET LETTER and THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, which are closely related in theme, the use of symbolism, characterization, and style.
One of the strikingly well used rhetorical devices that Hawthorne includes in “The Custom House” is imagery. He sets the mood at the Custom House by explaining the dull scenery, and these sketches lead the reader to make deeper connections about the story. “Over the entrance hovers an enormous specimen of the American eagle, with outspread wings, a shield before her breast, and, if I recollect aright, a bunch of intermingled thunderbolts and barbed arrows in each claw. With the customary infirmity of temper that characterizes this unhappy fowl, she appears, by the fierceness of her beak and
The element that adds the most mystery to this tale is suggestion. Hawthorne never explicitly tells the reader what is happening; his skillful use of suggestion allows for multiple interpretations of the story to exist, with no particular one being wrong. Foremost,
The novel The House of Seven Gables conveys its messages through the usage of images, which is done through inanimate object or places. This can be seen in the house of the seven gables and the daguerreotype of judge Pyncheon. Hawthorne present these images in such a manner, that their original meaning in the novel is no longer applicable. While many see his writing style as a tedious form, such writing has made the images created by Nathanial Hawthorne. Nathanial Hawthorne may be seen as a writer with a tedious writing style, such as the long descriptions of the images in the novel. Nevertheless it’s an effective manner to use allegory in a novel.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, as an admirer of psychology, uses a distinctive theme of moral ambiguity amongst his characters in the novel The Scarlet Letter. The characters, in particular Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, are rather difficult to classify as either good or bad; they are simply human. Hawthorne’s moral ambiguity amongst these characters makes them more relatable to real human beings and serves as a clear portrayal of the complex human psyche. One can not be defined as simply bad or good; humans are much more complex than these two binary words which is why Hawthorne’s realization of moral ambiguity is quite profound.
In both, Nathanial Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” the protagonists, Young Goodman Brown and the narrator experience a journey into the subconscious. Both stories have an overlap that blurs the boundaries of reality and fantasy. It is truly the supernatural aspects of these two stories that force the protagonists and the reader to delve into the realm of the subconscious and to scrutinize good versus evil and real versus imaginary.
First of all, these three short stores deal with nature and science, but when one delves deeper into the stories, it becomes apparent that Hawthorne actually explores relationships among family members. These three works of writing portray Hawthorne’s thematic writing
Nathaniel Hawthorne is respected as “one of the great masters of American Fiction” (“Hawthorne, Nathaniel” 363). He is an accomplished author who wrote novels as well as children’s literature. However, Hawthorne’s strength is American short story; his “haunting” tales are undeniably responsible for establishing this genre as a “significant art form” (“Nathaniel Hawthorne” Columbia 1). He is known for his “penetrating explorations” of the conflicts within one’s conscience and the consequences that plague his characters, as a result of their disobedience (“Nathaniel Hawthorne” 1). These “dilemmas” of the “human condition” are prominent in his story, “The Birth-Mark” (Tuerk 1). Mosses of an Old Manse, is a compilation of short stories; which
Challenges and changes are a part of life. Many people, especially elderly who have set views can very easily resent changes and anything that can be seen as a challenge to their ideas and the tines they remember. Magic has always been part of life but sometimes the magic life takes on a maliciois spirit when manipulated by those who seek to bring about ruin. Society is built on traditions and revolutions to challenge others. These seemingly unconnected ideas come together in the character of Holgrave ans the plot of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The House of the Seven Gables. Holgrave works as a force of change and challenges conceptions through his profession as a daguerreotypist. But at the same time his ideas ans actions are based on
He himself had declared it to be a ‘romantic’ genre along with gothic interests and it being a carrier of Puritan History of England. For the obvious reasons this novel deals with issues concerning the times of mid-1850 wherein Hawthorne has juxtaposed “poverty and riches”, “aristocracy and democracy”, “youth with age”, “greed with unselfishness”, “complex with simple”, “appearance with reality”, “pride with humbleness”, “the isolated with un-isolated” (Dillingham, 59) all these parallels are supported by detailed characterizations of almost all main characters in the text. Hawthorne has provisioned and facilitated his characters with an independent backbone with which they support his themes and carry them on their own shoulders. The text in its romantic narrative fashion has been well-crafted to involve various themes which Nathaniel Hawthorne wished to include in this 1851 published Gothic work. It will not be incorrect to put forth the view that Hawthorne’s The House of Seven Gables is a representative of the era and society of that time. He has accurately projected the concerned subjects of that time and how they used to affect the humans of that period. The juxtapositions too are echoes of the society and mirror the basics of whatever contrived into being the fundamentals of that society. Therefore, the themes of this text are majorly colored by the real world of that period and the