530 Hawthorne, Nathaniel
represented most concretely by the thoughts, feel-
ings, actions, and relationships of Hepzibah, Clif-
ford, and Phoebe.
Jeffrey Pettineo
illneSS in The House of the Seven Gables
Many of the Pyncheons in The House of the Seven
Gables appear to be suffering from mental illness or,
as Holgrave calls it, “lunacy.” Clifford, Hepzibah’s
brother, is initially described as suffering from a sort
of psychosomatic illness as a result of having been
incarcerated. Moreover, before Phoebe arrives, the
House of the Seven Gables is personified as a dis-
eased entity, beset by corruption and decay.
The primary sufferer from illness is Clifford,
who was falsely tried and convicted of murdering
Colonel Pyncheon, the patriarch of the Pyncheon
family. He has been incarcerated for 27 years, an
event that Hawthorne likens to a burial: “. . . this
long-buried man was likely, for some reason or
another, to be summoned forth from his living
tomb.” Hepzibah, Clifford’s sister, and Phoebe,
cousin of Hepzibah, Clifford, and Judge Jaffrey,
first meet Clifford as he walks in halting fashion
down a staircase, much like an old man. The nar-
rator notes that “. . . there were no tokens that his
physical strength might not have suffered for a
free and determined gait. It was the spirit of the
man, that could not walk.” Clifford longs for hap-
piness, but keeps reinforcing in his own mind the
mental illness others have projected on him. “Alas,
poor Clifford! You are old, and worn with troubles
that ought never have befallen you. You are partly
crazy. . . .” Judge Jaffrey even threatens at one point
to send Clifford away to an asylum if he does not
cooperate in helping Jaffrey find the deed to lands
“in the east,” but this reveals only Jaffrey’s outward
cruelty toward Clifford and his using of Clifford for
the sake of material gain.
Hawthorne vividly describes the psychological
effect that others may have on a sick person. “The
sick in mind, and perhaps in body, are rendered
more darkly and hopelessly so, by the manifold
reflection of their disease, mirrored back from all
quarters, in the deportment of those about them;
they are compelled to inhale the poison of their
own health, in infinite repetition.” In “The Flight
of Two Owls” chapter, Clifford begins to reclaim
some of his youthful spirit and happiness as he gets
a chance to converse with an intellectual traveling
on the same train. It is partly Phoebe’s concern for
Clifford, though, that helps him regain some of his
“spiritual health” by novel’s end. Phoebe is careful to
always maintain a cheery demeanor around Clifford
for fear that the opposite will exacerbate Clifford’s
ill health. Hawthorne frequently contrasts Phoebe
with Clifford, associating Phoebe with growth,
vibrancy, and youth, and Clifford with darkness,
shadows and old age.
The other main “character” that is afflicted with
disease is the House of the Seven Gables itself. The
spring that feeds the house’s well begins to lose some
of its nourishing qualities after Colonel Pyncheon
occupies the mansion: “. . . it is certain that the water
of Maule’s Well, as it continued to be called, grew
hard and brackish. Even such we find it now; and
any old woman of the neighborhood will certify, that
it is productive of intestinal mischief to those who
quench their thirst there.” Just as Phoebe’s youth,
spirit, and beauty help Clifford return to health,
so too do these characteristics aid in the “rejuvena-
tion” of the house. Phoebe’s “genial spirit” and work
ethic help to erase the “grime and sordidness” of the
house. Holgrave, the daguerreotypist, descendant
of Matthew Maule and later husband of Phoebe,
also notes the impoverished state of the house, but
refers to its purification as more a metaphorical
destruction of all things old, including institutions.
He claims the grime and sordidness of the house is
the result of the “crystallization on its walls” of the
breath of those who have lived there in “discontent
and anguish.” Thus, his attraction to Phoebe is also a
metaphorical attraction to the regenerative power of
youth and idealism. Holgrave also believes that the
youth of Phoebe has shielded her from the effects of
the “lunacy” that has infected the bloodlines of the
Pyncheons.
The most common antidotes for the illnesses
witnessed in the novel are brotherhood, com-
panionship, and compassion, and these elements
conspire to return both the house and Clifford to
their former states. Hawthorne also employs health
and illness metaphors in order to comment on and
develop other themes. For example, Clifford’s “ill-