How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Miss Hepzibah, by secluding herself from society, has lost all true relation with it, and is, in fact, dead; although she galvanizes herself into a semblance of life, and stands behind her counter, afflicting the world with a greatly-to-be-deprecated scowl. Your poor cousin Clifford is another dead and long-buried person, on whom the governor and council have wrought a necromantic miracle. I should not wonder if he were to crumble away, some morning, after you are gone, and nothing be seen of him more, except a heap of dust. Miss Hepzibah, at any rate, will lose what little flexibility she has. They both exist by you. (14.19)
What do you think of the tone of Mr. Holgrave's description of Hepzibah and Clifford in this passage? Do you agree that, without society, these characters have essentially already died? Are we only alive in our relation to other people? And what kind of responsibility does Phoebe have to ensure they both "exist by [her]"? What is the emotional content of Phoebe's relationship with her two elderly relatives? What keeps her at the House of the Seven Gables with them?
Quote #8
NEVER had the old house appeared so dismal to poor Hepzibah as when she departed on that wretched errand. There was a strange aspect in it. As she trode along the foot-worn passages, and opened one crazy door after another, and ascended the creaking staircase, she gazed wistfully and fearfully around. It would have been no marvel, to her excited mind, if, behind or beside her, there had been the rustle of dead people's garments, or pale visages awaiting her on the landing-place above. Her nerves were set all ajar by the scene of passion and terror through which she had just struggled. Her colloquy with Judge Pyncheon, who so perfectly represented the person and attributes of the founder of the family, had called back the dreary past. It weighed upon her heart. Whatever she had heard, from legendary aunts and grandmothers, concerning the good or evil fortunes of the Pyncheons, – stories which had heretofore been kept warm in her remembrance by the chimney-corner glow that was associated with them, – now recurred to her, sombre, ghastly, cold, like most passages of family history, when brooded over in melancholy mood. (16.1)
We talk about the symbolic value of the House of the Seven Gables in "Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory," so we're not going to get into it too much here. Obviously the structure of the house keeps bringing back "the dreary past." The house provides a place for the dead Pyncheons to keep haunting. It's also the reason for the original Pyncheon crime against Matthew Maule. But we know that some Pyncheons have left this house – Phoebe's family, for example, flourishes elsewhere. Are they beyond the genetic curse of the Pyncheon family? Would this curse dissipate if the original House of the Seven Gables were torn down? As a counterexample, what about Judge Pyncheon himself? He wasn't raised in the house and he doesn't seem very attached to it. Yet he is clearly Colonel Pyncheon reborn. What is the relationship of the House of the Seven Gables to the family curse that Matthew Maule inflicted on the Pyncheon family?
Quote #9
And if he have time, amid the press of more urgent matters, he must take measures for the renewal of Mrs. Pyncheon's tombstone, which, the sexton tells him, has fallen on its marble face, and is cracked quite in twain. She was a praiseworthy woman enough, thinks the Judge, in spite of her nervousness, and the tears that she was so oozy with, and her foolish behavior about the coffee; and as she took her departure so seasonably, he will not grudge the second tombstone. It is better, at least, than if she had never needed any! (18.7)
Chapter 18 is this odd moment in the novel when the narrator tells us what Judge Pyncheon would have done that day if he hadn't suddenly died in the parlor. One of these things is to replace the tombstone on his dead wife's grave. He thinks she was "praiseworthy enough" and doesn't mind replacing her tombstone – especially since it's better to get her a second tombstone than "if she had never needed any!" In other words, he's glad his wife is dead! What did not like about his wife? What traits of hers does he think are worthy of death?