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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. What did the Pyncheons lose that cost them a vast fortune?

2. What is Holgrave’s occupation?

3. What is the legend about the well?

4. What does Holgrave suggest about the Judge?

5. What does Phoebe discover Hepzibah doing one morning?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. What were the Maules like as a family?

7. What tragedies soon afflicted the Pyncheon family?

8. Explain who Clifford is and describe his homecoming.

9. Describe Holgrave and Uncle Venner.

10. Who built the House of the Seven Gables? Why is this ironic?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay exploring the oppositions between pairs of characters. Compare and contrast Uncle Venner with Judge Pyncheon, Holgrave with Clifford, and Hepzibah with Phoebe. How do these oppositions help develop the themes of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that explores the narrator as a character in the novel. Is the narrator Hawthorne himself or a separate character telling us the story? How does Hawthorne use the narrator to communicate his own attitudes towards the issues and characters in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that explains the significance of the romance between Phoebe and Holgrave. How does Hawthorne foreshadow its development? Why is it important? How does their union resolve the “curse” of the House of Seven Gables?

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