# Who is Hepzibah Pyncheon?

> The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

## Answer

Hepzibah is an elderly Pyncheon spinster whose scowl hides gentleness. Impoverished, she opens a cent-shop in the house’s gabled wing while caring for returning brother Clifford and resenting wealthy Judge Jaffrey. She embodies class decline — aristocratic habits without income — and inherited guilt’s daily weight.

Students often reduce her to comic grimace; Hawthorne gives her dignity in shop chapters and devotion to Clifford. Link Hepzibah to decay-and-the-cent-shop and appearance-vs-reality when her kindness contradicts her face.

## Evidence

- [ii-the-little-shopwindow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_the_seven_gables_se/chapters/ii-the-little-shopwindow.md): Hepzibah opens shop despite shame.
- [xvi-clifford-s-chamber](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_house_of_the_seven_gables_se/chapters/xvi-clifford-s-chamber.md): She tends Clifford in the house.

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