country girl that will be their redemption. Also, the last surviving descendant of the.
Maule lineage, the handsome Holgrave Maule, resides at the house. .
.
In a compilation by F.O. Matthiessen, it is stated that the "main theme was not the.
original curse on the house, but the curse that the Pyncheons have continued to bring.
upon themselves". It is not Maule's death which needs avenging, but the anguish caused.
by the Pyncheon family's greed. "Lust for wealth has held the Pyncheon" in its inflexible.
grasp". What Hawthorne saw handed down through the generations were not material.
unreality's such as gold and family position, but inescapable traits of character .
Even in the modern times of the novel, the family is ruled by greed and pride. .
The characters are haunted by their own selfish desires; the sin of the past is reborn.
through the greed of the family. Only the light-hearted "flower" Phoebe Pyncheon is.
untouched by the family's inescapable destiny. And while Hepzibah and Clifford.
Pyncheon suffer from illusions of grandeur, they lack the strength of will to achieve their.
ultimate desires.
Hepzibah and Clifford, the "child-like" inhabitants of the house, suffer from the.
"iron will" of Jeffrey's hunger for more wealth to add to his already abundant supply. .
Jeffrey even subjected his own kindred to the harsh hell of prison and destitution just for.
the inheritance of an elderly uncle. Even though approaching old age, Jeffrey would still.
persecute his cousins for a wealth that would only pass momentarily through his hand.
before his own death. He is the reincarnated villain from the past, come to continue the.
curse of a bygone generation in a modern day setting. "[His] guilt is never rendered in.
observable terms; at the moment of his death, he is as imposing and impenetrable as.
ever".
But the other characters are not without their faults, though not as tainted with.
evil as Jeffrey. Hepzibah would rather think herself better than society rather than be an.