Before moving on to an analysis of other images, it is also worth pointing out that the number seven, as in seven gables, is hardly to be considered a random choice on Hawthorne’s part. As religious scholar Dickson White explained almost a century ago, the number seven implies in agreement with this thesis statement for “The House of the Seven Gables” by the American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, a “vast mass of mysterious virtues” (6) which are clearly important to theology. The number seven is considered to be a perfect number, representing as it does, the vast work of God’s creation having been contained to a mere seven days (White 50). As a result, the number seven gave “rise to a sacred division of time and to much else” (White 50), including “the seven cardinal virtues and the seven deadly sins; in the seven liberal arts and the seven devilish arts, and, above all, in the seven sacraments. And as this proved in astrology that there could be only seven planets, so it proved in alchemy that there must be exactly seven metals” (White 396). In short, seven is a number that has long represented ideal possibilities and potential. At the same time, it is vulnerable to corruption, as is the case in The House of the Seven Gables.

In addition to the house, which is the narrative’s most important allegorical symbol, there is a number of other images that also relate directly to the development of the moral of The House of the Seven Gables. Images of nature, which are so commonly employed in the development of allegory, certainly have an important place in The House of the Seven Gables; indeed, an entire chapter is devoted to “The Pyncheon Garden” (Hawthorne 162). Like the symbols of the house and of the number seven, there is a certain duality inherent in the allegory of nature in works by Hawthorne, and that is that it has the potential to be contained and controlled, just like human passions, or to be left wild, with errant vines and branches choking off the healthy growth of other plants. These are thinly veiled images of the human relationships that characterize the individuals in The House of the Seven Gables. The detailed descriptions of the life of the garden, in which bees and lizards all have work to perform, may seem tangential to the narrative, but their inclusion alludes to the ways in which seemingly invisible actors or unimportant actions have important consequences, even when they are not acknowledged by others. Finally, nature also clearly has a cycle of life and death, just as human beings do. Yet the uninterrupted cycle of life that goes on in the garden stands as an important and dramatic commentary about and counterpoint to the ways that malevolent human interference with one another prevents healthy growth.

A final allegorical symbol is the daguerreotype. Again, the symbolism of the daguerreotype is thinly veiled, but it is nonetheless important. The daguerreotype represents people as they truly are, mostly revealing their “disagreeable traits,” even on “otherwise amiable faces” (Hawthorne 102). Most people, however, rarely have the opportunity to observe themselves, except in mirrors, and so the daguerreotype offers a fixed image of a person as he or she is at one moment in time. The photograph that captures someone’s physical image offers the individual and others an opportunity to reflect upon the personality and character of that person. Despite all of these opportunities, however, the characters in The House of the Seven Gables, generally lack the kind of awareness of self and others that would disrupt the cycles that trap them in patterns that are destructive and, in Hawthorne’s estimation, profoundly immoral.

Since biblical times, the device of the allegory has been an effective way to convey moral messages. While many critics chastise Hawthorne for his reliance upon the device that is “constantly creeping in around [the] fringes” (McCall 28), replacing reality but remaining “insufficiently real” (Brownell 73), the allegories that are identified in The House of the Seven Gables” by Nathaniel Hawthorne function effectively within the text and serve Hawthorne’s intended purpose. Had he set out to write a novel, such criticism may be warranted. However, Hawthorne stated clearly that his intention was not to write a novel, but to write a moral tale, and in The House of the Seven Gables, he has done just that.

Other essays and articles in the Literature Archives related to this topic include :  Nathaniel Hawthorne : An Overview of the Author and Thematic Analysis of Works   •  Full Summary and Analysis of “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne  •  The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne : The Effects of Sin on the Mind, Body, and Soul  •  Analysis and Plot Summary of “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne    •  Full Plot Summary and Analysis of “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne   • Puritan Influences on Modern American Culture and Thought   •   Analysis and Plot Summary of “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Works Cited 

Abrams, M.H., & Stephen Greenblatt, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000.

Brownell, W.C. American Prose Masters: Cooper, Hawthorne, Emerson, Poe, Lowell, Henry James. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909.

Chandler, M.R. Dwelling in the Text: Houses in American Fiction. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991.

Crowley, J. Donald. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge, 1997.

Dickson White, Andrew. A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom. New York: Appleton & Company, 1914.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The House of the Seven Gables. New York: Allyn and Bacon, 1922.

Hoeltje, Hubert H. Inward Sky: The Mind and Heart of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1962.

McCall, Dan. Citizens of Somewhere Else: Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Tharpe, Jac. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Identity and Knowledge. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967.