"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

Gollin, Rita K. "The Past Revisits in the Present in The House of the Seven Gables." Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenburg Press Inc, 1996. 132- 138.

Now to a considerable extent, Jaffery the hypocrite and Phoebe the guile's one are "less representative of any particular time than they are traditional character types in Hawthornes writing; their relation to the outer house is part of the general plan. 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). "Clifford carries within him the 'rusty, crazy, creaky, dry-rotted, damp-rotted, dingy, dark, and miserable old dungeon' of the house" (Gollin 133). Even Ned Higgins, the mighty devour of gingerbread, must become a symbol. The very emblem of old father time, in both respect of his all-devouring appetite for a men and things, and because he, as well as time, after engulfing thus much of creation, looked almost as youthful as if it had been just that moment"(Wagerknect 102)._

Throughout The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to describe the characters. "At first glance, to be sure, any conceptual frame flexible enough to include the characters will seem highly improbable. Nevertheless, all belonging to the world outside the house and are presented in terms of key images. Each, for different reasons resists the profounder implications of the inner house" (Griffith 14). As Hawthorne deals with each one of the characters respective states of "innocence," his use of language is now turned to "symbolizing moral positions, and it remains remarkably self-constant" (Griffith 14). "Likening Jaffery's entire life to a 'tall and stately edifice' he writes that the judge's sin lurks deep inside, a 'corpse, half decayed, and still decaying. . .with cobwebs festooned over it's forgotten door'"(Griffith 15).

"They are not however, merely meant to portray the past. Just as time and guilt are so closely linked througho

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1406
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)