level 1 Teacher’s notes
The House of the Seven Gables
Nathaniel Hawthorne
About the author
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts,
the United States, in 1804. He was raised in a poor Puritan
family proud of its prosperous past. He got married and
moved to England. In 1860 he went back to the United
States where he died in 1864. In 1850 Hawthorne
published his well-known romance The Scarlet Letter,
which has been made into a film with the same name.
Summary
The House of the Seven Gables is set in New England, the
United States, in the late 1800s but refers back to the late
1600s. Hepzibah Pyncheon lives by herself in an old house
built over a century before by Colonel Pyncheon, who is
believed to have stolen the land where the house is built
from Matthew Maule. Maule cursed the family as a result.
Hepzibah finds herself penniless, so she opens a store.
Her cousin Phoebe comes from the country to help her.
Clifford, Hepzibah’s brother, has been in jail for thirty
years and comes back to a poor house. Judge Pyncheon,
Hepzibah and Clifford’s cousin, is one of the heirs to the
House of the Seven Gables and the land it’s built on. He
was the one to send Clifford to jail on false charges and
means to send him back if his cousin doesn’t tell him the
secret about the land. But when the Judge dies during a
visit to Clifford the Pyncheons inherit his country house,
move there and leave the House of the Seven Gables.
Holgrave, tenant in one of the gables, is a descendant of
Matthew Maule. Phoebe and him are in love, so the rivalry
between Maules and Pyncheons comes to an end.
Background and themes
Hawthorne was inspired by the witchcraft trials in Salem
in 1690s, since one of his great-grandfathers took part
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in them. Even though the novel begins with an ominous
feeling with a description of a curse, it ends in a marriage
and a promise of happiness.
Discussion activities
Chapter 1
Before reading
1 Guess:
Have the students read the introduction and guess
the answers to the questions in the first paragraph.
Then have students look up the meaning of the word
gable and look at the example on the word list. Then
discuss: How can people make money with a big house?
Chapter 2
While reading
2 Listen/Read carefully: Have the students listen to the
story from the beginning of Chapter 2 until it says:
“Then they closed the store for the night” (page 5).
Then discuss if the following sentences are right or
wrong:
1 Hepzibah doesn’t want Phoebe to stay. ✓ / ✗
2 Hepzibah and Phoebe are happy. ✓ / ✗
Chapter 3
While reading
3 Predict: Have students discuss these questions:
On page 14, Phoebe thinks: “This was the same
man—the man with Colonel Pyncheon’s face!” Why
is Phoebe afraid of Judge Pyncheon? Who is he? He is
an important man, but can he be a bad man?
Chapter 4
Before reading
4 Guess and discuss: Get students to look at the
picture on page 16 and answer these questions.
Are Hepzibah and Judge Pyncheon happy? Is Hepzibah
inviting him to come in? Get students to compare Judge
Pyncheon’s clothes to Hepzibah’s dress. Who has got
money?
Then get them to look at the picture on page 21 and
answer these questions: Where is Judge Pyncheon? Is
he sleeping? What has he got in his hand?
Chapter 5
Before reading
5 Guess: Ask students to guess what is going to
happen. Look at the name of the chapter: Who says
“goodbye”? Why? Where does he or she go?
6 Write: House for Sale. Get students to write and
advertisement to sell the house.