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How To Judge Pyncheon Family

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of Seven Gables, the unfortunate life and history behind the once-wealthy and cursed Pyncheon family is exploited. Due to selfishness and greed over a plot of land to build what is known as the House of Seven Gables, bad blood came about between the Pyncheon family and the Maule family. The novel picks up over a century after the murder of the man who stole the plot of land from the Maule family, Colonel Pyncheon. The main character, Hepzibah Pyncheon, lives alone in the House of Seven Gables while her brother, Clifford, is in jail for the framed murder of their uncle. Jaffrey Pyncheon, their cousin, is the wealthy yet greedy judge that accused and framed Clifford for this murder. Regardless of the negative reputation that sits with the Pyncheon family, characters such as Clifford, Hepzibah and Phoebe all act as silver lining to this preconceived negativity; this emphasizes that society must understand that individuals have the power to shape their own destiny rather than to simply accepting a predetermined fate. …show more content…

Innocent and confused, Clifford begs to be left alone yet Judge Pyncheon continues to threaten him. The contrast between Clifford’s innocence and Judge Pyncheon’s greedy actions goes to show that a “curse” or a negative family history has no direct effect on an individual. Although Judge Pyncheon is carrying on the trend of a tainted family name through his selfishness, the reality is that Clifford’s innocence goes to show that individuals have the power to the direction of their

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