How does Nathaniel Hawthorne use imagery in The House of the Seven Gables?

Light and dark imagery permeates The House of the Seven Gables. As Richard Harter Fogle notes in Hawthorne's Imagery: The Proper 'Light and Shadow' in the Major Romances, the house as well as the characters are all cast in a reoccurring pattern of lightness-darkness or sunshine-storm. For Fogle, light and sunshine stand for "general good fortune, for material prosperity, and for harmonious kinship with society." On the other hand, he likens the storm or darkness to "misfortune and the isolation of the original Pyncheon sin." With this observation in mind, one can readily place the characters within their respective realms. Phoebe is associated with light. While Hepzibah and Clifford were once associated with light, they have fallen into darkness. Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, as Fogle notes, is "a false sun god" who "passes from one extreme to the other." First, he beams smiles and is a picture of beneficence incarnate; then, he changes and exposes his darker, greedier, and ill-intentioned self.