True to its roots as a Gothic novel, the atmosphere of The House of the Seven Gables broods with ambiguity and fear, with this uncertainty culminating in moments of heightened suspense. In these moments, author Nathaniel Hawthorne breeds tension with a terse syntactical style, igniting imagination with suggestive language, and frustrating the reader with a limited perspective. By presenting the reader with the anxious experience of extended mental uncertainty in a mode akin to realism, he calls into question the reader's ability to perceive their world with clarity and confidence, undermi...

• Word Count: 1547
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate