SYmbolism in Hawthorne
SYmbolism in HawthorneAngel Zamot
Composition and Rhetoric – DeShane
November 10, 2000
Final Paper
The Sins of the Father
“Let me make you an offer you can’t refuse,” is the line usually associated with mafia-based movies or associated with extortionist. In a movie by director Frank Coppala known as The Godfather, this is a line that is well used by the head of a Sicilian family who are into this practice of extortion. Later on in the third segment of this trilogy, the second generation of this family played by actor Al Pacino is seen wanting to get out of the family business in hopes of living a normal life. Throughout the entire movie, his overzealous nephew makes that impossible for the family causing the death of the character played by Pacino’s daughter. Later on the final scene is Al Pacino in some sort of field alone and dying an old, frail man overwhelmed by his family’s sins. The theme that is well associated with this movie is that the sins of the father will eventually catch up with every new and passing generation and will not be laid to rest. This theme the sins of the father, has been expressed not only in movies but in literary works as well. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The House of the Seven Gables, that same theme can be found in the pages of his literary work. The theme that one man’s sins can affect an entire family line is prevelant throughout the story of the Pyncheon family. In the novel, Hawthorne communicates his theme the sins of the fathers to the reader in three ways: in his plot, in his characters’ development, and in the way he uses sub-themes within the book.
The plot in The House of the Seven Gables, from the very beginning communicates to the reader that Colonel Pyncheon’s lust for possession of Maule’s property develops the oppression weighed down on future Pyncheons. The wrong done by one generation of a family is visited upon the generations that follow. We are introduced early in the novel by, the greed that drove Colonel Pyncheon to encourage the persecution of Maule, and then to seize Maule’s land for his homestead, brings down a curse upon all of the Colonel’s descendants. His desire and motivation to do this insidious act weighs down on the present and influences everything the next generation Pycheons will do. In his description of the house he states:
“Hence, too, might be drawn a weighty lesson from the little-regarded truth, that the act of the passing generation is the germ which may and must produce good or evil fruit in a far-distant time; that, together with the seed of the merely temporary crop, which mortals term expediency, they inevitably sow the acorns of a more enduring growth, which may darkly overshadow their posterity”.(2)
It is in my opinion, that this description illustrates and compares Colonel Pyncheon’s sins with that of a germinating seed. What is inside the seed when it begins to sprout and form itself will reveal what type of plant will develop. Likewise, Colonel Pyncheon’s sin, like a seed, will effect new generation of Pyncheons in how they will develop. Similar to that of Biblical truths, the writer of the book of Matthew states, “You will know the by their fruits” (7:17). This is what I believe Hawthorne is trying to reveal to us as the reader; furthermore that our actions play a tremendous affect on our families and relatives. As Abraham’s seed in the book of Genesis produces a nation of priest of righteousness, Hawthorne communicates to us that Colonel Pyncheon’s seed will and has produce corruption and injustice. Hawthorne appears to say that we are forever struggling against what has been passed down to us; therefore, we should not be so eager to impose ourselves upon future generations. When Colonel Pyncheon is found dead during a housewarming party at his new mansion, the official cause of death is given as a stroke. Colonel Pyncheon acquired the land for his new homestead only after its owner, a poor man named Matthew Maule, was hanged during the Salem witch-hunts in 1692, for supposedly practicing witchcraft. Until the end, the innocent man suspected Colonel Pyncheon of encouraging the persecution in order to obtain the Maule property. With the hangman’s noose around his neck, Maule cursed the Colonel. The townspeople remembered the words of the wizard: “God will give him blood to drink!” This scene in the book aids the reader to further see Hawthorne’s attempt to witness that Colonel Pyncheon’s sinful act will not be laid to rest with him. “The story of the House of the Seven Gables is a tale of retribution, of expiation extending over a period of two hundred years, it all the while to lay the ghost of the earliest victim,” is stated by one critique if Hawthorne’s book (Duyckinck 352).
With the approach that has already been discussed regarding the plot of the book, in Hawthorne’s development of his characters the theme of sins of the father will be prevalent. The reader is first introduce to Hepzibah Pyncheon, which is as first viewed as this evil, elderly lady. The picture that Hawthorne paints for you in describing Hepzibah makes you want to fear this lady and dislike her because she bears the curse of Colonel Pyncheon’s sin. In the chapter entitled The Little Shop-Window, the author I believed used the very store to describe to the reader how Hepzibah felt about herself. “Now, she places a gingerbread elephant against the window, but tremulous a touch that it tumbles upon the floor, with the dismemberment of three legs and its trunk; it has ceased to be an elephant, and has become a few bits of musty gingerbread” (37). Hepzibah, like the gingerbread elephant, own life was crumbling and broken all she had was but a few vivid memories of times passed to hold onto. Like the gingerbread elephant, those memories were what sustained her in remaining in this old house. In her rusty black silks and her monstrous turban, the sixty-year-old hag could strike fear into any heart. She is afflicted with poor eyesight. Hepzibah wears a chronic squint that twists her face into a nasty scowl. Proud, lonely, and without talent for practical matters, she is the symbol of a decaying, lonely old woman. For twenty-five years she has lived alone in the house of the seven gables, grieving for her unjustly imprisoned brother, Clifford. Like the house itself, this theme of sin because of the darkness associated through the literary description looming over her. In the house, there is a picture of Colonel Pyncheon that looms over Hepzibah and all its inhabitants. I belshe is a symbol of the ruin brought by isolation. In reading this description of Hepzibah you get this overwhelming picture of a hated woman, but through the book Hawthorne’s sub-theme “appearance versus reality”, paints a different picture for the reader. Though the picture is of a horrible, old, woman, she is in actuality one of Hawthore’s better characters in whom is longing for something; moreover we discover it has some connection to her brother Clifford. “Hepzibah, then symbolizes a static, sterile order that adds nothing to the functioning of society” (122). Hawthorne’s way of describing Hepzibah relates to ieve that Hawthorne describes this scene in this manner to communicate to the reader that it is symbolic to heaviness of the sin that has been passed to Hepzibah and her generation of Pyncheons.
Some of the characters in Hawthorne’s book are not always described on being weighed down by the curse of Colonel Pyncheon’s sins they indeed follow in the footsteps of their ancestor when being described. When the character known as Judge Jaffrey Pycheon steps into Hepizibah’s shop you get this feeling of a man of integrity because he is given an image of a well respected individual. Phoebe–who has never met the man–is filled with horror though at meeting him. For a moment she mistakes him for her ancestor, Colonel Pyncheon, rising from the dead. The similarities between the two men go beyond the physical attributes as well. As the Colonel is remembered as greedy, the Judge is now 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. Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon is, as the Colonel was before him, the model of respectability. But a second glance shows that the Judge is not as kind as the Colonel. There is also a nervous quality about him. His face changes rapidly and lacks the Colonel’s steady expression. Judge Pyncheon, on the other hand, wears an intriguing smile, which the townspeople take as a sign of benevolence and goodness. . Again this sub-theme of appearance versus evil is introduce to the reader again of a character seemingly having what seems to be an awesome personality and character, but you later discover that the character is as perverted and twisted as their ancestor. A question that I thought of was why does Hawthorne invite or bring to the forefront another Pyncheon having all the similarities of his past descendant? One writer states in describing Hawthorne’s development of Judge Pyncheon, “Repetition is, in way, a Pyncheon family trait, both in hereditary illness and in facial resemblances between Judge and Colonel” (Bellis 205). It is as though Hawthorne is inviting all the ancestors of the Maule and Pyncheon clans to come together to put an end to this curse and bring about the redemption of the characters in the house. He wants to put these “ghost and goblins” to rest that plague the Pyncheon family, and does so by setting the stage for both Pyncheon and Maule descendants to confront this 200 year old family curse
The characters and plot have already shown us a side to the sins of the past haunting this family but Hawthorne’s use of sub-theme within the book also give us an in depth look to the writer’s goal. There is a constant struggle in the earlier chapters between, Aristocracies versus Democracy that is evident in the way Colonel Pyncheon deals with Old Maule. The first customer in Hepzibah’s shop and her refusal to take his money symbolized this struggle that she had in letting go of her aristocratic lifestyle. The boy represented a new day where society was embracing democratic views. It was difficult for Hepzibah to accept these changes because she still held tightly to her family name. Like the stale Jim Crow gingerbread man, Hepzibah’s held to these principles she had on life regardless how stale they were. This was all she had and her pride would not allow her to give them up for a simple “few pennies”. Evil cuts across social class lines in The House of the Seven Gables, but in his characters Hawthorne presents a clear argument for the triumph of democracy over aristocracy. Hepzibah, Clifford, and Jaffrey depend on a past founded on sin to elevate them to social prominence. On the other hand, Holgrave, the modern man, preaches social reform to both Hepzibah and Phoebe. What were once the privileges of class are now its restrictions. To live without battling necessity is to let the blood chill in our veins, Hawthorne leads us to believe that the struggle of mankind should be a united one.
In reading some of the biographical work of Hawthorne, it gives an explanation why the characters such as Hepzibah seem so isolated; furthermore this help us understand why the sub-theme of isolation is prevalent in his novel. Hawthorne lived in the nineteenth century, at a time when the Romantic poets stressed the importance of individualism and celebrated the differences between people. But Hawthorne had experienced the isolation of individualism and had found no happiness in his many years of solitude. He believed strongly that a man finds happiness not in his differences from other men but in what he shares with them, in his sense of community with them. In their isolation, Hepzibah and Clifford might as well be dead. The only strength Hepzibah has is that which she derives from her love for her brother. It is only in the cent-shop—the setting that puts her in contact with the outside world—which she has the courage to stand up to her cousin Jaffrey. It is only when Clifford tries to rejoin the humanity in a pulsing crowd or on a crowded train that he comes alive. Phoebe and Holgrave, on the other hand, are part of the world in which they live. Their integration into human society, as well as their love for each other, gives them an opportunity to break the curse. The characters live in such sadness because of the name that they bear it looms over them like death, because of this they are forced to live in isolation and bearing the bearing the weight of this family sin and curse.
Hawthorne’s book besides describing the sins of the father in the plot, characters’ development, and sub-themes, also in the end gives us a sense that a man needs a redemptive savior to deliver them out of their futile mannerisms and thinking. With characters such as Phoebe and Holgraves, the book relieves us in knowing that the characters serve as a catalyst in lifting the curse of this accursed family. The book really has a very strong biblical outlook, since it kind of follows a pattern to the Genesis account of man. Adam was the first man which sin came into the world, and that one act effected an entire generation and people till this very day. Phoebe’s character in many ways is symbolic to that of a Christ-like work functioning as a safe haven or a redemptive figure in whom not only the house but the Pyncheon family will be saved by. I believe strongly though that Hawthorne’s overall goal was to relate to us the dangers of sin and how it effects generations yet to come. It makes me think about my own actions on how they can possibly affect my future children and predecessors.