The House of the Seven Gables

Phoebe decides to take Clifford to the large arched and curtained window that overlooks the street for a change of pace. Clifford likes looking at the passersby and especially the merchants’ carts. He does not enjoy observing the new technology of omnibuses and trains.

One day an Italian man with a captive monkey sings under the elm tree, and another day a parade goes by. Clifford becomes overwhelmed and steps on the bottom sill of the large window, as if he is going to step out and fall to the ground. He is later unsure why he did this.

After Phoebe goes to church one morning and Hepzibah and Clifford are left behind at the house, Clifford tells Hepzibah how much he would like to go to church. Hepzibah no longer goes to church, but she decides to take him. They get dressed to go, but as they are stepping out of the house, they both feel overwhelmed by the prospect of going out into the world, and they retreat back into the house, with Clifford remarking that they are “ghosts.”

Nevertheless, Clifford is not unhappy. He especially likes watching children play, and one day he is enjoying a child’s pastime of blowing soap bubbles. Judge Pyncheon shows up to the house and subtly ridicules Clifford for his enjoyment of activities that please children.

Phoebe is generally done with shopkeeping and taking care of Clifford by sunset, and she takes advantage of this time to get out of the house, going shopping or to lectures. Though still cheerful, she is not as thoroughly bright as she once was. She is “less girlish,” and her eyes are “deeper” and “darker.”

The only person who is around her own age with whom she comes into regular contact is Holgrave, though she does not know him well. Holgrave has nonetheless revealed much of his history to Phoebe. He is largely self-educated and became independent as a child, which suited his nature. Though he is only 22, he has had many jobs, from teacher to dentist to editor, and he has traveled through Europe. Recently, he has given lectures on Mesmerism, and he proves his abilities by putting Chanticleer, the rooster among the hens, under his “spell.”

He enjoys his current job as a daguerreotypist, but he assumes it will not be permanent. Despite his mobility and his constant change of career, Hargrove has “carried his conscience along with him” (177), something Hepzibah has always understood. Phoebe admires him, but she is also frightened by her sense that “his law differed from her own” (177) and the way he “unsettles” what she had assumed to be settled: He is much less conventional than she is. He also seems more interested in observing and analyzing than feeling. He often asks about Clifford, more out of observational interest than deep concern, or so it seems to Phoebe.

Holgrave goes into detail one warm day when he and Phoebe sit in the garden about his ideas regarding “the Past.” Holgrave thinks that buildings should not be built of brick or stone or any other permanent material. Instead, they should be allowed to disintegrate, so that each generation must build their own housing. Living in housing that is passed down from one generation to the next is a way of worshiping “the Past” and “the Dead.” Holgrave goes on about the worshipping of the Dead: We read the Dead’s books, die of the Dead’s diseases and use the Dead’s remedies, and we continue to live through the Dead’s forms and customs.

Holgrave confides in Phoebe that he is living in the house of the seven gables so that he can study it so that he can learn how to refuse this way of living among the Dead. He also tells her that he believes Maule’s story “[exemplifies] a theory” (185) about the “lunacy” of Colonel Pyncheon’s obsessive desire “to plant a family” (185), a desire which is foundational to much of the violence in the world. He goes further and confides that the daguerreotype he has taken of Judge Pyncheon has strangely seized his mind. As a way to try to understand this “strangest tenacity of clutch” (186), Holgrave has written a story, which he starts to read to Phoebe.

Holgrave reads Phoebe the following story that he has written regarding the history of the house and the family:

About 40 years after Colonel Pyncheon’s death, the grandson of the executed Matthew Maule, also named Matthew Maule, is called by Gervayse Pyncheon, the grandson of Colonel Pyncheon, to the house. The messenger tells Matthew that Colonel Pyncheon haunts the house, and he is afraid.

Many townspeople believe that the executed Matthew Maule also haunts the house, and his grandson proclaims that his grandfather will continue his haunting until the house is returned to its rightful owners. The carpenter is not generally liked, though, as many believe he can cast spells, a rumor which is exacerbated by his not going to church.

Gervayse was a little boy at the time of his father’s death and was the one to find the body. He has many children now, and his daughter Alice is home from Italy. Matthew goes to the front door instead of the side entrance, designated for “help.”

Gervayse has called Matthew to the house because he wants to question Matthew about the lost deed to the Pyncheon tract of land in Maine. As a child, he remembers papers spread out over his grandfather’s desk right before he died, and there are rumors that the Maules have the lost paperwork or at least know where it is hidden. These rumors were so strong that they led to the disinterment of Matthew’s grandfather, whose hand was strangely cut off.

Gervayse says he will pay Matthew for any information he has, but Matthew rejoins with the proposal that Gervayse sign over the house and his grandfather’s original small plot of land on which the house sits if he provides information. Gervayse is open to the proposition, as he would rather return to Europe than live in New England and he is not attached to the house. If he is able to claim the territory, then this would make a return to Europe much easier.

They have a drink together, though Gervayse thinks that he notices a frown in the portrait of Colonel Pyncheon. Matthew insists that it is necessary for him to see Alice, as she must be part of the retrieval of the documents. Maule holds his hands over Alice, and she makes a strange, soft sound that her father understands is a cry for help, but he does nothing. Gervayse thinks about interrupting, but he also thinks that Maule’s intervention is for her own good, as it may secure a large dowry for her.

Alice appears unconscious, but Maule wakes her and declares that she is “his” and that he will use her as a medium to obtain information about her Pyncheon ancestors. Gervayse is furious, and there is a strange gurgling sound in his voice. Maule places blame on Gervayse, asking, “Is it my crime, if you have sold your daughter for the mere hope of getting a sheet of yellow parchment into your clutch?” (206). The narrator claims that Alice’s enslavement to Maule is worse than literal enslavement as commodity.

The paperwork is never secured, but Alice remains under the control of Maule, who can control her from afar. She later is called to a bridal party for Maule’s bride and is forced to walk home in cold weather, which kills her. Maule feels terrible, as he never intended to kill her, but instead, to feel some control over her, as the Pyncheons have taken control from his family.

Holgrave looks up from reading his story and sees Phoebe asleep. He thinks about how he could put Phoebe under his spell, but as tempting as that is, he resists.

Phoebe wakes up and shares with Holgrave that she no longer feels as cheerful as she once did, and Holgrave attributes this to her growing up, assuring her that there is a second cheerfulness that comes from falling in love that does not depend on delayed maturity. Though Phoebe feels she has aged and lost some of her youthful sparkle over the last several weeks in the house, she considers the house of the seven gables her home, and she will be returning to her mother’s house for a few weeks in order to say proper goodbyes before returning to the house of seven gables.

Holgrave returns to the subject of the Pyncheon family and remarks that Clifford and Hepzibah only appear to be alive, and Phoebe finds his comments disturbing: For her, Holgrave observes others’ lives from a distance, as if they exist for him only to analyze. He tells her that he has mystical abilities, but he is not sure what will happen to the Pyncheon family, though he deeply mistrusts Judge Pyncheon.

Phoebe leaves for the country a few days later. She, Hepzibah, and Clifford are all sad for her to leave, but she plans to return soon, as this is her home. Both Hepzibah and Clifford notice how much heavier her demeanor, though still cheerful, is.