The House of the Seven Gables · Theme
Inherited Sin and Guilt
How The House of the Seven Gables develops Inherited Sin and Guilt.
The novel explores how the wrongdoing of one generation—specifically Colonel Pyncheon's theft of land from Matthew Maule—curses and corrupts successive generations, manifesting in the moral decay, suffering, and eventual downfall of the Pyncheon family.
Where it surfaces
- The House of the Seven Gables
The curse of Matthew Maule and the Colonel's violent acquisition of land establish a legacy of sin that haunts the Pyncheon family.
- The Old Pyncheon Family
The Pyncheon family is burdened by the original sin of Colonel Pyncheon's acquisition of Maule's land, with each generation inheriting the guilt and the curse.
- II: The Little Shopwindow
The weight of the Colonel's original sin and the family's long decline presses on Hepzibah, who feels doomed to a life of sorrow and penance.
- IV: A Day Behind the Counter
Hepzibah sees Judge Pyncheon as the reincarnation of Colonel Pyncheon, suggesting a curse passed down through generations.
- Maule's Well
The resemblance between the daguerreotype and the ancestral portrait suggests a continuity of moral corruption across generations.
- VIII: The Pyncheon of Today
Phoebe's horror at the Judge's throat noise connects to the Maule curse, suggesting that the sins of Colonel Pyncheon haunt his descendants.
- XII: The Daguerreotypist
Holgrave links the Pyncheon family's present misery to the original sin of Colonel Pyncheon, whose image and character persist in Judge Pyncheon.
- Alice Pyncheon
The Maule family's legacy of witchcraft and the Pyncheon family's curse are central to the negotiation, with the ghostly portrait symbolizing the enduring guilt of Colonel Pyncheon's actions.
- XIV: Phoebe’s Goodbye
Holgrave speaks of the two-century-long drama of the Pyncheon family, implying that the sins of the past continue to haunt the present inhabitants.
- XV: The Scowl and Smile
Hepzibah sees the Judge as a reincarnation of the Puritan ancestor, linking present sins to the family's dark past.
- XVI: Clifford's Chamber
Hepzibah feels the Pyncheon family history as a series of calamities repeating across generations, with herself, Clifford, and the Judge adding another dark chapter.
- Governor Pyncheon
The narrator emphasizes the heavy sin at the base of Judge Pyncheon's being, linking him to his Puritan ancestor's moral failings.
- XIX: Alice’s Posies
The children's terror of Hepzibah and Clifford, and the rumors linking the Pyncheon family to murder, echo the ancestral curse and guilt passed down through generations.
- XX: The Flower of Eden
The Judge's death is described as an 'idiosyncrasy with his family, for generations past,' linking the present tragedy to ancestral patterns of death and moral failing.
- The Departure
Jaffrey Pyncheon's youthful crime and its cover-up perpetuate the family's curse; the truth emerges only after his death.
