The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

She had known the family for many years only a small garden separated her own family house from the Hathorne's Union Street home. married Elizabeth Clarke Manning on August 2, 1801, when the new Mrs. Īfter a courtship of more than six years, Nathaniel Hathorne Sr. Hawthorne's grandfather Daniel Hathorne (the 'w' was not yet added to the family name) lived here with his wife Rachel Phelps as early as 1765. The land had been deeded to Pickman by his father-in-law Joseph Hardy, and may have recycled structural timbers from a 17th-century Pickman house that earlier stood on its site. The house, originally standing at 27 Union Street, was built sometime between 17 for a Boston mariner named Joshua Pickman. Admission is free to Salem residents year-round and to the general public during winter months a fee is charged during summer months. The structure is located in Salem, Massachusetts, having been relocated to the grounds of the House of the Seven Gables and restored by the non-profit House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association. The Nathaniel Hawthorne Birthplace is the home where American author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born. Tracing the evidence of Christian moralism in The House of the Seven Gables enhances the reader’s appreciation of Hawthorne’s artistry in incorporating religious themes and motifs into his fiction without giving them overtly tendentious purposes.Nathaniel Hawthorne Birthplace, Salem, Massachusetts. A series of overt and covert biblical allusions thus provides a basis for key scenes and characterizations in the narrative, as the Pyncheon patriarchs, Colonel and Judge, are symbolically damned for their murderous hubris, while the inhabitants of the Pyncheon family mansion are eventually rewarded for their moral virtues of submission (Hepzibah, Clifford), love and charity (Phoebe), and forgiveness of injuries (Holgrave). While previous critics have noticed some of the religious and allegorical features of the narrative, none have provided an overarching explanation for their overall significance.

This essay analyzes the pervasive presence of Christian motifs in The House of the Seven Gables, arguing that the most useful term to describe the author’s religious agenda in the novel is Christian moralism.

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne