Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2001

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Blakemore, Steven

Abstract

Since its publication, critics and readers have been unsatisfied with the conclusion of The House of the Seven Gables and have viewed it as either inconsistent or a failure. After an analysis of the language, actions, and patterns of imagery in this work, along with The Scarlet Letter and The Blithedale Romance, it had become clear that there is in fact consistency to the conclusion of this text. These patterns suggest Hawthorne's conception of an ultimate hierarchical organization that favors characters who exhibit specific attributes. This organizational pattern can be disrupted through methods of recreating hierarchical order. Such attempts create a false hierarchy, doomed to failure, and corrupt those characters, keeping them from ultimately realizing their true place in the hierarchy. It is only at the end of The House of the Seven Gables that the false hierarchists are punished or redeemed and the naturally hierarchic are ultimately rewarded.

Extent

108 p.

Comments

FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2001.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Identifier

FADT12779

Format

pdf

Download

Share

COinS