Post an individual response to 3 of these questions or essay topics for individual credit.
Your post should show evidence of critical thinking and reference to the text.
Your 3 posts are due on Monday, May 24, for full credit.
1. Who would you say is the principal protagonist of The House of the Seven Gables? Who is the principal antagonist?
2. In the Preface, Hawthorne claims his book is a romance rather than a novel. Romances need not deal with “everyday, ordinary things” and usually incorporate fantastic elements. Do you think that
The House of the Seven Gables is more of a romance or a novel? Should it be classified as another genre altogether?
The House of the Seven Gables is, in fact, a skillful blending of both narrative approaches. The book contains some fantastic elements, but most of these never stray far from reality. Two scenes—the two Maule ghosts restraining the spirit of Colonel Pyncheon and the ghosts parading in front of the dead Judge—are too fantastical to have actually occurred, but one is presented as a vision of Alice Pyncheon’s and the other as speculation on the narrator’s part. The hypnotic powers of the young Matthew Maule and Holgrave are certainly eerie and mystical, but hypnosis does exist, and therefore these scenes are not entirely fantastical. While
The House of the Seven Gables does not belong to the horror genre, it does incorporate many elements of horror, sharing with the horror genre the realization that the greatest shock value can be created by making things too horrible to be true but not so awful that they can’t be believed. By straddling the line between the romance and the novel, and by refusing to commit entirely to any genre, Hawthorne makes his work shocking but also thought-provoking. He creates a work of fiction that entertains and teaches with a fantastical plot that is also rich with literary and historical themes.
3. Discuss the role of “fate” in the novel. How much of the Pyncheons’ bad luck is caused by fate, and how much results from their own actions and choices?
At the beginning of
The House of the Seven Gables, fate is believed to direct the fortunes of Hepzibah and Clifford. The novel indulges this belief with its graphic descriptions of a curse that has worked itself into the very walls of the house. As the story progresses, however, we begin to wonder if other elements are not also at work. Holgrave’s revolutionary doctrine of tearing down the houses of the dead implies that Clifford and Hepzibah become complicit in their persecution by being passive. They accept the cruelty they are handed with a meekness that borders on irresponsibility. The rest of the Pyncheons also appear to be partly responsible for their own bad luck: Maule’s curse seems to affect only those who are driven by excessive ambition and greed, while the more docile members of the family seem to lead happy lives. To a certain extent, the novel does put a lot of stock in fate, which is demonstrated by its eloquent passages depicting the house as an inescapable prison. Nonetheless, the story also suggests repeatedly that fate is simply another obstacle to overcome, and that our ultimate destiny always remains ours to determine.
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Discuss the presence of decay and decaying things in
The House of the Seven Gables. What does decay symbolize in the novel?
2. Can Clifford be considered a good person? How is his goodness or malice reflected in the way he treats Phoebe and Hepzibah?
3. Discuss the role of hypnotism and mesmerism in
The House of the Seven Gables. 4. How is Phoebe different from all the other characters in the novel? Does she resemble any one character more than the others? If so, why?
5. Why does Hepzibah continue to refuse the Judge’s offers of financial help? Can these offers be viewed as genuine, or are there by ulterior motives?
Essay Topic 1:
ReplyDeleteDecay is a very important symbol in Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables. In addition to accentuating the physical deterioration of the various aspects of the setting, it serves to epitomize and facilitate the development of several themes. One such theme is the steady decline of the Pyncheon family, which is itself symbolic of the decay of the New England aristocracy as a whole. The advanced state of decay evidenced in the Pyncheon land also evokes images which serve to further the air of mysticism and feeling of the supernatural in the narrative.
The eventual withering and decaying of the house and land can also be seen as a metaphor for the Pyncheon family's powerlessness and inability to defy the inexorable hand of fate; if they are unable to control their own land, they have no chance of steering their destiny.
Discussion Question 2:
Hawthorne states in his preface that The House of the Seven Gables is a romance rather than a novel, and therefore doesn't deal with the ordinary, day-to-day events of life. This characterization allows Hawthorne to steer the novel in new directions and solve plot points via deus ex machina communing with the dead (I found that part terribly contrived. The curse, fine. Fate/greed? fine. "Let's solve this problem by communing with dead ancestors"? too far). However, he also deals with details such as the operation of Hepzibah's shop and dutifully chronicles such minutiae as the specifics of the state of the land. By dealing constantly with both mundane and supernatural themes, Hawthorne's novel showcases traits of both novels and romances, leading me to believe that The House of the Seven Gables is of a genre unto itself.
Discussion Question 1:
While several characters' actions often seem to be those of the average literary villain, none of the physical characters of Hawthorne's work can truly be described as antagonists. Rather, it is the inexorable hand of fate (I'm enjoying that term today) that takes that particular role. It is fate that drove the Pyncheons to the sad state in which the novel finds them, fate that perpetuates Maule's curse on the land and family, and fate that is eventually thwarted when the curse is broken.
Though some characters seem opposed to the cause of the protagonists due in part to their personal greed (namely the prominment members of the Pyncheon family , the Judge and Colonel (who acts from beyond the mortal coil by having brought the curse about in the first place)) none do so to the extent to which fate goes.
The protagonists of the novel are determined by the antagonists actions. As fate conspires mainly against the aspirations of Phoebe and Holgrave, it is they who take on the role of protagonist in The House of the Seven Gables. It is they who, bearing the ideals of a younger , non-aristocratic generation, break the Pyncheon curse and return the status quo to the world at large.
Good Work Michael C3 for each entry.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the rest of you?