The House of the Seven Gables

The portrait of Colonel Pyncheon has a prominent place in the house, granting the Puritan patriarch an ongoing physical presence in the space long after his death. The portrait symbolizes both The Legacy of Violence and The Influence of the Past on the Present, serving as both a perpetual reminder of the house’s violent founding and the enduring influence of that legacy upon the present-day generation.

In both its domineering representation of Colonel Pyncheon and its domineering location within the house, the portrait oppresses and disciplines the family members who disagree with The Legacy of Violence it represents, such as Clifford, who is made sick by the portrait. He begs Hepzibah to cover the portrait, but no one ever considers taking it down. Toward the novel’s end, the portrait falls when the hidden niche with the land deed in it is revealed, symbolizing the end of Colonel Pyncheon’s influence and the family’s definitive break with violence and guilt.

Darkness and light form an important motif in the novel, which is often manifested in both the literal and figurative lighting of the scenes and characters. The gloominess of the house of the seven gables reflects the gloom of its violent legacy and the sadness and isolation of its sibling inhabits, while Phoebe’s “sunny” demeanor brings light into the space through her literal redecorating of the house and her bright and cheerful manners. Important transitions between light and dark enable revelations and breakthroughs: Repeatedly, Phoebe and Holgrave arrive at tentative understandings of one another in moments of twilight in the garden.

This motif of light and dark also appears in Holgrave’s daguerreotypes, where light is “captured” and itself then “captures” essences through a chemical process. Holgrave comes to understand the relationship between Colonel Pyncheon and Judge Pyncheon through comparing the colonel’s portrait with Judge Pyncheon’s daguerreotype. The mix of light and darkness in his daguerreotypes, he insists, also helps to reveal the inner essence of people, suggesting how much “lightness” or “darkness” is within them morally.  

The conclusion of the novel suggests a permanent turning away from the darkness of the house of the seven gables in favor of the brightness of a new day in a “new” house, where all is healed.