A short summary of Hawthorne's "The House of the Seven Gables"

The beginning of the book gives an ample description of the House of the Seven Gables and introduces the main characters. The story is set in the mid-19th century which was built in the 17th century. The central theme of the story is the acquisition of the land where the house is built and the consequences that follow.

Colonel Pyncheon covets the land on which Mathew Maule builds his humble home and consequently steals Maule’s house and property by accusing him of witchcraft. The poor man is hanged but he curses the Colonel and his future generation. The Colonel later constructs the House of the Seven Gables with the help of Mathew Maule’s grandson who is a carpenter and once the house is built the Colonel invites the whole town for a big feast while he mysteriously dies that very day. He also has his portrait hung on the wall in his room and forbids it to be taken down however a deed concerning the ownership of the lands claimed by the family is missing and for generations no one finds it. Yet through the years the Pyncheon family lives in the House and each epoch seems to have another Pyncheon who has the Colonel’s character. The recent event before the actual story opens is about a Pyncheon who is accused of murdering his uncle and is imprisoned for thirty years.

Having thus traced the family history, the story opens in its contemporary period where Hepzibah Pyncheon, an elderly woman lives in the house where she opens a tiny store as she is poor. Unfortunately she does not seem to have many customers. Further more the unfortunate woman has a permanent scowl on her face which is not due to her bad temper but to her problems with her vision. At this juncture of the story important characters of the plot are introduced like the little boy, Ned Higgins who buys gingerbread at the store and Mr Holgrave a young daguerreotypist who is a boarder at the House and also Phoebe Pyncheon, a 17 year old relative, who arrives from the country and wishes to stay in the same residence. There is also Uncle Venner a local elderly man mentally deficient and in particular Clifford Pyncheon, Hepzibah’s brother who returns home after spending 30 years in prison. One day Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon the cousin of Hepzibah and Clifford comes to the store but she refuses to see him and goes inside the house. Holgrave soon reveals the history of the Pyncheon family to Phoebe who is shocked especially concerning Clifford’s imprisonment for he is falsely accused of the murder of his uncle.

Judge Pyncheon returns again to the House and asks to see Clifford and when Hepzibah refuses he threatens to send Clifford to an insane asylum. She accuses the Judge for being like the Colonel and goes to find her brother and unable to find him returns to the room where the Judge was sitting and finds Clifford next to him and the Judge dead from a stroke. She panics and runs away with her brother on a train with no destination in mind. The people of the town realise that something is wrong in the House of the Seven Gables when the little shop is not opened. Holgrave and Phoebe return to the House and find the Judge dead from a stroke which is the same natural death by which his uncle died whereas everyone realises that Clifford is framed for a crime that he did not commit. At this moment Hepzibah and her brother return to the House and Holgrave reveals himself as the descendant of Mathew Maule and reveals the location of the map and the deed to the lands which are hidden behind the portrait of colonel Pyncheon. After receiving their inheritance Hepzibah and Clifford and Phoebe move into the Judge’s residence leaving Holgrave to the property that belonged to his ancestors.

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