Nathaniel Hawthorne's use of Symbolisim
Nathaniel Hawthorne's use of symbolism "The decayed remnants of the house of Pyncheon cling to the decayed house of the seven gables in a comprehensive symbolic representation of inbreeding and lingering aristocratic pretension" (Buitenhuis 32). "The symbolic and aristocratic nature of The House of Seven Gables has tempted critics to read into the five major characters, Hepzibah, Clifford, Phoebe, Holgrave and Judge Pyncheon, all kinds of moral and psychological intentions"(Buitenhuis 88). Nathaniel Hawthorne used and possibly, as some might say, over used symbolism throughout The House of Seven Gables especially when describing the external world, his characters and the interior and exterior of the house itself. Hawthorne employs the use of symbolism in his descriptions of the world outside the house. Shortly after the book opens, both the inner and the outer house acquires a metamorphical as well as a literal significance; and when this happens, the verbal scheme broadens beyond descriptive matters and reintroduces symbolism. Consider the street although we are once or twice informed that it is only a quiet lane, Hawthorne's actual descriptions, abounding in masses of heavy surface detail, generally belie this pictu
Hepzibah and Clifford acknowledge this ghostly interior is not simply encircling dungeon: like an organic extension of themselves it has come to stand for - to be -their dismissal and haunted hearts. Holgrave on the other hand does personify the distinctly modern world beyond the house and, it seems likely, the easy, fallacious ethical perfectionism of the nineteenth century" (Griffith 18). Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991Gollin, Rita K. Phoebe is unprepared to recognize the presence of a 'decaying corpse' within (Griffith 17). "They are not however, merely meant to portray the past. They symbolize as well the fact that her early responses to the seven-gabled house are curiously parallel to Jaffery's attitude toward his life. The ruff is symbolic of both his status and his violent death. Her head gear is further parodied by the scanty crest of degenerated chickens. Nathaniel Hawthorne The Man, His Tales and Romances. Hence the impression grows that while on certain occasions the street may be a secluded byway, at other times it becomes a comprehensive symbol of the brisk nineteenth century world (Griffith 15). And Hawthornes various references to it -to the chill, the stagnation the long lapse of mortal life within - are obviously intended to compliment the mortal and immortal disintegration of its inhabitants.
Common topics in this essay:
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Jeffrey's Phy,
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Acceptance Essays
