The House of the Seven Gables-Change

Siatta Merchant
Seminar in Composition
Dr. Johns
Blog #2 Group #2

Change, although sometimes unwarranted in all its facets, is a guaranteed natural progression that each individual, community, and society face at numerous intervals throughout time. In Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables,” not only do characters Hepzibah and Clifford go through behavioral changes, but physical changes also occur in the house and its surroundings. In the first five chapters Hawthorne hints at the fact that change might not be a possibility when he says, “Success presented itself as an impossibility, and the hope of it as a wild hallucination.”(32) The reader sees later that the subjects in question, Hepzibah and her store, could actually have success in their endeavors (32). Phoebe’s arrival sets into motion the change that creates the possibility for Hephzibah’s shop to blossom. “With energetic raps at the shop window, Hepzibah summoned the man in, and made purchase of what he warranted as the finest mackerel in his cart… (67)” Here, Hepzibah, a once bitter, somber, and rather depressed individual is shown to be boosted with a sudden energy and willingness to engage in life; this is much improvement from her attitude in the earlier sections of the book. This behavioral change is brought about by Phoebe and also the anticipation of Clifford’s arrival. Hawthorne shows the reader in a wider aspect that change can be produced by the happenings in the present, but also by our anticipations and preparedness for the future. Clifford also experiences much change from the first weeks of his arrival which is shown to be interrelated with the physical changes of the house’s surroundings. “And it was a wonderful coincidence, the good lady thought, that the artist should have planted these scarlet-flowering beans- which the hummingbirds sought far and wide , and which had not grown in the Pyncheon garden before for forty years-on the very summer of Clifford’s return( 102). Although this quote from “The House of the Seven Gables” may seem unimportant, it is an illustration of Clifford’s change. The bean vines planted in the house garden by Holgrave began to blossom on the eve of Clifford’s return; his admiration for the blossom’s beauty, growth, and attraction of hummingbirds actually reveal Clifford’s own character to be rising from a rather nonsensical condition while also depicting the recovery of the house. In this section of the book, Hawthorne is not only saying that change is possible, but he is producing an idea that new or foreign surroundings can propel us to change, and maybe even renewing past feelings and states we have experienced; Clifford was flattered with the garden and its atmosphere in ‘babyhood’ as Hepzibah says, and the house is going back to what it once was. This also furthers our understanding of the book because “The House of the Seven Gables” is a romance in its ability to make connections to the past, and reinforcing the idea that time moves in cycles and that changes are only to propel time back into rotation.
As the book progresses, Hepzibah and Clifford attempt to make a change in their lives by dressing and going to church, only to be stopped by their own fear before actually departing from the house. Although some might describe this as sameness and a situation that lacks change and newness, it is actually a big step for these characters. Hawthorne puts the situation into perspective when he says “Nothing gives a sadder sense of decay than this loss or suspension of the power to deal with unaccustomed things, and to keep up with the swiftness of the passing moment (111).” Hepzibah and Clifford were initially presented as characters with no hope or power to progress back into what their family once was, but then they transitioned and began to blossom; but here Hawthorne is again lessening their power by saying that even though they have changed in some aspects, they emotionally and physically cannot withstand going the extra mile to leave their comfort zone. The bigger picture is that the house is the source of any change that can occur. If they were to finally muster up strength to leave, they, like the Judge, could change into the people they want to be separate from the family legacy and curse. To wrap up this idea of change Holgrave says, “The truth is, that, once in every half century, at longest, a family should be merged into the great obscure mass of humanity, and forget all about its ancestors (128).” Holgrave, a character that shares an idea that change is possible, is tying back into the proceeding idea that if Hepzibah and Clifford, the new generation Pyncheons, allowed themselves to detach from the legacy and story of their past while getting out into the ever-changing broader community, they too could benefit from improvements and grow. Overall, whether it is behavioral or physical, change has occurred in “The House of the Seven Gables” in the characters and the house in which they inhabit, and has created a legacy of stories from the past, that are cyclical, but yet progressive.