endered in
             observable terms; at the moment of his death, he is as imposing and impenetrable as
             But the other characters are not without their faults, though not as tainted with
             evil as Jaffrey. Hepzibah would rather think herself better than society rather than be an
             actual, participating member. She let her youth and whatever beauty she had slip away in
             the dark recesses of the dusty old house, all the while clinging to the notion that she was
             a member of the long-dead aristocracy. She also dreamed of the vast fortune she was
             bound to receive from the "Pyncheon territory", a "delusion of family importance" each
             Pyncheon has clung to "from generation to generation" (Matthiessen 143). She lived in
             solitude for the better part of thirty years, remaining an "old maid" who "never had a
             lover". When her finances become dependent on actual labor, she felt that she had
             "brought an irretrievable disgrace" for having to work. Her selfish desire t
             ...