American Literature / Unit 8 AML 0720 short lesson, about 20 seconds
*The House of the Seven Gables* and the Curse
Captions available
The idea
Hawthorne's second major romance sets a family under a curse laid at the gallows by a man their ancestor helped condemn, and asks whether the wrong of one generation can be worked out in another. The house itself carries the guilt, which is the Gothic machinery put to Puritan use.
In practice
A curse laid at the gallows.
Where people slip
Inherited guilt is his recurring structure.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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