Character List
Hepzibah Pyncheon The sixty-year-old spinster cousin of Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon and of Phoebe's father; she is a kinsman to Phoebe; she has been granted the right to reside in the House of the Seven Gables during the remainder of her lifetime; she has Holgrave as a roomer, opens the cent-shop, but scowls most of her customers away; she cares only for her partly demented brother Clifford.
Clifford Pyncheon The nephew of the deceased bachelor Jaffrey Pyncheon, whose death by natural causes Clifford is unjustly blamed for — through the machinations of his cousin Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon. Following a thirty-year imprisonment, Clifford is released and begins to live with his spinster sister, Hepzibah Pyncheon; he retains his love of beauty even though his faculties are ruined; he is tenderly cared for by Hepzibah and Phoebe.
Phoebe Pyncheon The seventeen-year-old country cousin of Hepzibah, Clifford, and Judge Jaffrey; she is lovely and sunny, but intellectually shallow. She marries Holgrave at the end of the novel.
Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon The hypocritical, smiling villain who causes his cousin Clifford's imprisonment and tortures him in an effort to locate missing evidence of Pyncheon family rights to Indian lands; he dies alone in the parlor of the House of the Seven Gables.
Holgrave The twenty-one-year-old daguerreotypist (photographer) who rooms in the seven-gabled Pyncheon house; he resists using his hypnotic powers on Phoebe Pyncheon (whom he ultimately marries); he has radical notions, but, ironically, he becomes conservative. He is really a Maule — descended from Matthew Maule, who ruinously hypnotized Alice Pyncheon.
Uncle Venner The old rheumatic laborer who is full of pithy philosophy; instead of going to the workhouse, he joins Hepzibah, Clifford, Phoebe, and Holgrave when they move to the late Judge Jaffrey's country estate.
Ned Higgins The little boy who often begs cookies from Hepzibah's cent-shop.
Matthew Maule The accused "wizard' whose house-site Colonel Pyncheon covets; when he is about to be hanged for witchcraft, he curses the Pyncheon family. He is the father of Thomas Maule, the builder of the House of the Seven Gables.
Matthew Maule A carpenter, and the only grandson of Matthew Maule, the "wizard." He is summoned by Gervayse Pyncheon thirty-seven years after the house is built. He ruinously hypnotizes that proud man's daughter, Alice Pyncheon.
Alice Pyncheon The Europeanized daughter of Gervayse who plants some flower seeds brought from Europe; she plays the harpsichord. She is ruinously mesmerized by Matthew Maule, the grandson carpenter of the "wizard" Maule; she catches a fatal cold after Matthew Maule's wedding. She is Phoebe Pyncheon's great-great aunt.
Colonel Pyncheon The original Pyncheon; he covets Matthew Maule's house-site and contributes to the condemnation of the "wizard" for witchcraft in order to seize the land and build the seven-gabled Pyncheon house on it; his corpse greets the first guests entering the new house. He is the great-great-great-grandfather of Judge Jaffrey, Clifford, Hepzibah, and Phoebe's father. It is his gloomy portrait which hangs in the parlor of the house.
Jaffrey Pyncheon The bachelor uncle of Judge Jaffrey, Clifford, Hepzibah, and Arthur Pyncheon; he dies of a seizure while observing the young Judge Jaffrey ransacking his desk for papers and money; his death was attributed to Clifford, who was therefore unjustly imprisoned for thirty years.
Scipio Gervayse Pyncheon's Negro servant.