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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who comes to the shop window after Phoebe has visited the garden the first time?

2. Whose portrait hangs on the wall in the parlor of the House?

3. What kind of clothes is Clifford wearing when readers first meet him?

4. How is Clifford related to Hepzibah?

5. What is Clifford’s state of health?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Hepzibah Pyncheon and why does she run a shop out of the house?

2. Describe the Puritan-era legal battle over the land the house sits on.

3. After the Colonel's death, what happened to the Pyncheon family?

4. How would you describe the House of Seven Gables?

5. Describe Phoebe's first encounter with the Judge.

6. What do Hepzibah's feelings towards the Judge seem to be?

7. Describe how Phoebe comes to stay at the House.

8. Describe Phoebe's first visit to the garden.

9. Describe Holgrave and Uncle Venner.

10. Describe the events surrounding the murder that was committed 30 years before the start of the story.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay discussing how the novel develops the motif of stability vs. transience, or tradition vs. modernity. Which characters symbolize which side of this opposition? How does this motif help develop the themes in the novel? What is Hawthorne trying to convey with this motif?

Essay Topic 2

Hawthorne states in his preface to the novel that the “moral--the truth” of The House of Seven Gables is that “the wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones, and, divesting itself of every temporary advantage, becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief.” Write an essay that explores how the novel demonstrates this “truth.”

Essay Topic 3

Hawthorne wrote The House of Seven Gables about a real house in Salem, Massachusetts--a town with a notorious history and strong ties to Hawthorne’s own past. Write an essay that explains why Salem’s history has a personal significance for Hawthorne, and why he chose to set his novel there.

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