Thesis Statement: 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.

I. Semblance’s of theme in The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables

A. Heart vs. Head

B. Sin

C. Individual vs. Society

1. Hester Prynne

2. Clifford Pyncheon

D. Appearance vs. Reality

A. The Scarlet Letter

1. Scarlet Letter A

2. The Scaffold

3. Pearl

B. The House of the Seven Gables

1. The House

2. The Portrait

3. The Mirror

III. Comparable aspects of Hawthorne’s characterization in The Scarlet Letter

A. Evil Characters

1. Roger Chillingworth

2. Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon

B. Characters with a misleading outward appearance

1. Hester Prynne

2. Hepzibah Pyncheon

3. Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon

A. Romance

1. "The Custom House" and "The Preface"

2. Use of morals

B. Use of Images

1. Rosebush at the Prison-Door

2. Alice’s Posies

by

Joey Fieldsmith

AIM English III

6^th Block

Mrs. Judith Schroeder

Terrrell High School

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.

The central themes in The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables are very similar as they indicate Hawthorne’s ideals through writing. Throughout both of these novels, the theme of heart vs. Head is very apparent. In The Scarlet Letter, the heart leads Hester and Dimmesdale to commit an dreadful sin, but the intellect thoroughly damns Chillingworth (Rountree, p. 78). This same theme is easily evident when we recall the characters of Colonel and Jaffrey Pyncheon in The House of the Seven Gables. Not only are these two selfish with what power they already posses, but they are ruthless in obtaining more land and wealth (Crowley, p. 74). In both novels, the theme of heart vs. head played the central plot of each and was also evident in smaller scenes throughout each. During the course of The Scarlet Letter, Hester is developing mind as Dimmesdale is gaining heart (Rountree, p. 91). When Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the forest, Dimmesdale can at last be true; he can turn completely out of himself as their two hearts are once again unified (Crowley, p. 64). Through the plot development in The House of the Seven Gables, we see a very familiar theme which unifies heart and head. Phoebe is considered to be the heart which warms the house, while Holgrave is the intellectual head. When Phoebe and Holgrave fall in love, heart and head are brought together to form a union that may end the curse forever (Sheldon, p. 16).

The obvious and most prevalent theme in both books is the effect of sin. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne’s sin was an understandably human one which arose from desire for the simple human bliss open to all mankind. At this point, Roger Chillingworth is capable of remorse and is still able to rejoin the great heart of mankind, but he is led astray into his own sin in which he pries into Dimmesdale’s heart, and his latent evil posses him (Rountree, p.89). In The House of the Seven Gables, this theme seems to come through as an inherited curse. Greed drives both Colonel and Jaffrey Pyncheon to encourage the persecution of a less powerful man, and then takes his land or inheritance. This sin is seen as a curse throughout the book as it influences all that the living do (Carey, p. 58).

One of the characteristic themes of each book which helps to establish the setting, is the individual vs. society. Hester Prynne’s battle with society is established immediately, and we are let to judge her for what she has done.

Characters seen as outcasts from society were popular in these two novels, as in The House of the Seven Gables we can see how Clifford Pyncheon was viewed after serving a thirty-year prison term. When theories circulate the town after the Judge’s death, many come to realize Clifford is no murderer. By this point, Clifford has overcome his struggle and no longer cares how he is seen by the townspeople (Sheldon, p. 19). "It was now far too late in Clifford’s life for the good opinion of society to be worth the trouble and anguish of a formal vindication." (Hawthorne, p. 240)

Whether we refer to Hepzibah and Judge Jaffrey, or to Dimmesdale and Hester, each of them concern a conflict of appearance vs. reality. In the case of Hepzibah, she wears a scowl that the world sees as a sign of her wickedness but is truly caused by bad eyesight. Hepzibah’s cousin Jaffrey is inversely judged as he wears a beatific smile, which the townspeople take as a sign of benevolence and goodness, yet he has framed his cousin for murder and taken what wasn’t his. For Dimmesdale, he grows pale and meager—it is the asceticism of a saint on earth; his effectiveness as a minister grows with his despair. He confesses the truth in his sermons, but transforms it, and will not until the end make the effort of self-revelation (Crowley, p. 69).

Nathaniel Hawthorne is best known for his preoccupation and devotion to symbolism. He uses it throughout The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables to bring life and meaning into the story. In no other book is this as noticeable as it is in the use of the letter A in The Scarlet Letter. The letter A appears in a variety of forms and acquires different meanings for some of the characters. To Hester, the A stands for unjust humiliation, while Dimmesdale sees it as a piercing reminder of his own guilt. Chillingworth views the A as a spur to the quest for revenge, but Pearl sees it as a bright and mysterious curiosity (Dibble, p. 78). "The light transfers itself to Pearl, like the scarlet letter, the mystic symbol of her original sin, whom Hester clothes in scarlet and gold." (Fogle, p. 26) To the Puritan community, the letter A stands for a mark of just punishment.

A symbol throughout this novel which seems to have very contrasting meanings at times is the scaffold. The scaffold is seen as a symbol for the open acknowledgment of personal sin by the townspeople and Hester. Later, the scaffold becomes a place where Dimmesdale can escape the grasp of Chillingworth. The framework that both supports and confines recalls the actual pillory on the scaffold, and the resonance between the object and these images suggests a complex relation between things and inner experience. The scaffold also links the actual forms the Puritans construct as instruments of their law, and on the other hand to the individual psychic experience produced by the law’s implementation (Bloom, p. 162).

Hawthorne not only used non-living objects as symbols, he used characters as well. This is well illustrated in the character of Pearl. Pearl is the sunlight of truth, of physical vitality, and of the divine innocence of childhood. She has great potentialities for good and also for evil (Fogle, p. 26). Pearl symbolizes the scarlet letter. She is, thus, the emblem and product of sin, now acting like a perverse or bewildered child, now serving an allegorical office of embodying the complex of traits for which the letter stands. To Dimmesdale, Pearl becomes a kind of living conscience. As early as the first scaffold scene when Dimmesdale is ironically calling on Hester to reveal the name of the infant’s father, Pearl’s actions take on symbolic significance—gazing and waving her arms at Dimmesdale (Dibble, p. 70). "Even the poor baby, at Hester’s bosom, was affected by the same influence; for it directed its hitherto vacant gaze towards Mr. Dimmesdale, and held up its little arms, with half-pleased, half-plaintive murmur." (Hawthorne, Scarlet, p. 62)

Hawthorne used just as much, if not more, symbolism in The House of the Seven Gables. The most obvious and significant symbol in the novel is the house. To start with, we are told that there was something human about the house. "The aspect of the venerable mansion has always affected me like a human countenance, bearing the traces not merely of outward storm and sunshine, but expressive, also, of the long lapse of mortal life within." (Hawthorne, Gables, p. 1) When Phoebe later recognizes that every object in the house responded to her consciousness, as if a moist human heart were in it, the house comes to stand for the individual heart, wherein the emotions of each of its inhabitants are imprisoned (Crowley, p. 76). The darkness of the old house is impressive and significant. Within its depths are shadowy emblems of the past, each representing evil geniuses of the Pyncheon family. Its contents are also very symbolic and significant to the story. The chair is a reminder not only of the old Colonel but also the susceptibility to Maule’s curse; the portrait and the map are dimly visible tokens of the Colonel’s inflexible sternness and greed (Carey, p. 53).

As noted earlier, it is the contents of the house which were very symbolic in representing the many aspects of the plot. One such article is the portrait of Colonel Pyncheon which hangs on the wall in the parlor. This portrait is the demon of guilt that haunts the Pyncheon house. Its resemblance to Judge Pyncheon, the villain of the novel, continues the weight of guilt in the past into the present, as the Judge recapitulates the criminal greed of his ancestry (Fogle, p. 75). Hepzibah feels reverence for the portrait as she senses its spiritual evil and ugliness; she also identifies Judge Pyncheon as the very man. When Phoebe first sees the portrait and learns of its legend, she then, while looking at the Judge, recalls Maule’s curse that Colonel Pyncheon would drink blood. This is significant in showing how for Phoebe, the portrait comes to symbolize Judge Jaffrey. The demonic portrait, however, literally covers a hidden "recess" behind it—a hiding place for the lost deed. The deed is a symbol of evidence of evil persisting from the past to the present (Carey, p. 54).

One final symbolic item that Hawthorne used in The House of the Seven Gables is the mirror which hung on the wall in the parlor. A passage near the end of the novel, inserted after Judge Pyncheon’s death, contains a strange dream pageant. After reporting a ridiculous legend that the dead Pyncheons assemble in the parlor at midnight, Hawthorne imagines them becoming part of a jostling parade, marching past the Colonel’s portrait to confirm that it is still hanging and looking for the secret behind it. "Here come other Pyncheons, the whole tribe, in their half a dozen generations, jostling and elbowing one another, to reach the picture." (Hawthorne, Gables, p. 213). In this scene we see how the mirror symbolizes a portal to another world (Sheldon, p. 13).

Hawthorne’s characterization in The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter show a striking resemblance between the characters’ mentality and their perception by society. Both novels had at least one evil character in them: in The Scarlet Letter, it was Chillingworth, and in The House of the Seven Gables, it was Jaffrey Pyncheon. At first, Chillingworth appears to be more sinned against than sinning. After all, he has been held captive by the Indians for over a year, and when he returns he has to face the sin his wife has committed. By the end of the novel, Chillingworth will be deeply guilty of not one sin, but two—one which leads almost inevitably to the other sins of the novel, and a second which is far more awful than the sin of either Hester or Dimmesdale (Dibble, p. 65). "In a word, old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of a man’s faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will only for reasonable space of time, undertake a devil’s office." (Hawthorne, Scarlet, p. 165) As his name implies, Chillingworth is worth a chill. Chillingworth’s appearance aside, his very singleness of purpose is inhuman (Sheldon, p. 16).

Chillingworth’s evil mind is very comparable to that of Jaffrey Pyncheon. Jaffrey’s evil is manifested in excess and discordance, and he passes from one extreme to the other. He symbolizes Pyncheon pride and greed; from somewhere inside him, the corpse of the old Colonel is diffusing its death scent (Carey, p.50). As the Colonel is remembered as greedy, the Judge is known to be tightfisted. What was seen as the grim kindliness of the Colonel lives on now in what the townspeople see as the benevolent smile of the Judge. Not only does Jaffrey have an evil aura which is very easily related to Chillingworth, but he also has a very misleading appearance. His outward appearance is filled with virtue, and kindness, and generosity, but he is obsessed with grasping after wealth and power (Fogle, p. 85). Jaffrey is central to the theme of the novel, appearance vs. reality. When you compare Jaffrey to Hepzibah, you discover that Jaffrey’s smile is as meaningless as Hepzibah’s scowl (Sheldon, p. 12).

Hepzibah Pyncheon is totally misunderstood by the townspeople, but for a good reason. She wears a scowl likening her to an old, mean woman, which is caused both in part by her near-sightedness and is in part by the effect of her isolation from society. This scowl is what seems to many to be symbolic of her wickedness. "Her scowl—as the world, or such part of it as sometimes caught a transitory glimpse of her at the window, wickedly persisted in calling it—her scowl had done Miss Hepzibah a very ill office, in establishing her character as an ill-tempered old maid." (Hawthorne, Gables, p. 24) It is a tragic irony that Hepzibah’s heart is soft and loving—if envious—while the outwardly genial judge is hard as a rock. Hepzibah and Jaffrey’s appearance can easily be related to that of Hester Prynne.

Hester is clearly not a Puritan, and it is doubtful that her respect for the Puritan code ever truly overcomes her independent passions. Hester does fully acknowledge her sin—and boldly displays it to the world. To the Puritan society, she seems to be an awful sinner, when truly she is good at heart. Hester, though not the out-and-out criminal that the Puritans believe her to be, is still a woman who has deeply sinned, even by today’s standards (Bloom, p. 24). Hester herself admits she has irreparably wronged her husband and so bears some responsibility for the corruption of Chillingworth’s soul. It is easy to see how Hawthorne used all these characters to be interpreted wrongly by society, which sets up the characters’ main role.

As would be expected of nearly every author, Hawthorne’s style is very persistent throughout each of the novels. Hawthorne calls himself a Romance writer, and in both "The Custom House," and "The Preface," he attempts to clarify this. In the first paragraph of The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne at length tries to explain the distinction which he made between the romance and the novel.

The Scarlet Letter is a study in the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, and in every case, the effect is devastating. This is one way Hawthorne weaves morals into these two novels. Sin changes the sinners. It darkens their vision and weakens the spirit’s defenses against further temptation. This same use of the morality of sin is equally apparent in The House of the Seven Gables. In this scenario, the wrong done by one generation of a family is visited upon the generations that follow. The past weighs on the present like the corpse of a dead giant. They can never hope to undo what has been done, but they must strive to break the pattern, to remove themselves from the circle in which they are destined to repeat their mistakes (Carey, p. 65). "The shortcoming of The House of the Seven Gables most frequently cited is, understandably enough, its plot of feud and reconciliation." (Bloom, p. 22)

Hawthorne is probably most reknown for his legendary use of imagery and symbolism. We see through both of these novels effective imagery which foreshadows what is to come. In The Scarlet Letter, we see how Hawthorne uses a rosebush at the prison door to help create the mood and support the meaning of the novel. The rosebush, its beauty such a striking contrast to all that surrounds it, is held out as an invitation to find some sweet moral blossom in the tragic, ensuing story. "The rosebush at its threshold has more cheerful implications, but it can only relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow." (Fogle, p. 22)

The way Hawthorne uses Alice’s posies to foreshadow what is to come and what has happened takes place near the end of The House of the Seven Gables. Clifford tells Holgrave and Phoebe of how he imagined them when he saw the flowers in full bloom, comparing them to the flowers of Eden. With the destruction of the defunct nightmare, the house itself is enabled to emerge from the shadows. "Alice’s posies—palpable emblems of romance with their crimson-spotted flowers, Italian origin, and affinity for the water from Maule’s well—were flaunting in rich beauty and full bloom, to-day, and seemed as it were, a mystic expression that something within the house was consummated." (Crowley, p. 84)

The great American author Nathaniel Hawthorne is well known for his two novels, THE SCARLET LETTER and THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES. Anyone who reads these books in depth, will find how similar they are in theme, the use of symbolism, characterization, and style. Although Hawthorne was said to have never mastered the theme of social redemption, wherein the romantic individual transforms society, these two novels are still considered exemplary of great American literature. "In all Hawthorne’s work he held to the notion that isolation was crime, yet his craft allied him against the community on the side of that crime. In his art and in his life he never was able to resolve the problem." (Crowley, p. 131)

Bloom, Harold, ed., Modern Critical Views on Nathaniel Hawthorne, New York, Chelsea

House Publishers, 1986, pp. 13-179.

Carey, Gary, Cliffs Notes on THE SCARLET LETTER, ed. By Terry J. Dibble, Lincoln,

Cliffs Notes, 1988, pp. 61-82.

Crowley, J. Donald, Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Collection of Criticisms, New York,

McGraw-Hill Books, 1975, pp. 63-85.

Dibble, Terry J., ed., Cliffs Notes on THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, Lincoln,

Cliffs Notes, 1989, pp. 58-83.

Fogle, Richard Harter, ed., Hawthorne’s Imagery, Norman, University of Oklahoma Press,

1969, pp. 21-91.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The House of the Seven Gables, New York, Bantam Books, 1981,

pp. 1-245.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The Scarlet Letter, New York, Penguin Books, 1986,

pp. 1-238.

Rountree, Thomas J., ed., Critics on Hawthorne, Miami, University of Miami Press, 1972,

pp. 79-105.

Sheldon, Sara, ed., Barron’s Book Notes, Chicago, Barron’s Educational Series, Inc., 1984,

pp. 10-20.