# XIX: Alice’s Posies explained — The House of the Seven Gables > Chapter companion for The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. ## What happens After the storm, the morning brings a renewed, cheerful aspect to Pyncheon Street and the House of the Seven Gables. Uncle Venner is about his rounds, and the house appears inviting despite its dark history. The famous tuft of flowers, Alice's Posies, blooms brilliantly, seeming to signify that something within the house is consummated. Meanwhile, rumors of Judge Pyncheon's murder spread through the town; a hurdy-gurdy player is chased away, and a card belonging to the Judge is found and taken to the city marshal. Children flee in terror, imagining Hepzibah and Clifford as frightening figures. Later, Phoebe returns, finds the garden overgrown and the house locked, and is admitted by Hepzibah through the garden door. ## Themes in this chapter ### Appearance vs. Reality The house appears inviting and cheerful in the morning sun, belying the tragedy and death within; the beautiful Alice's Posies bloom as a sign of consummation while the Judge lies dead. ### Inherited Sin and Guilt The children's terror of Hepzibah and Clifford, and the rumors linking the Pyncheon family to murder, echo the ancestral curse and guilt passed down through generations. ## Character check-ins ### Uncle Venner Seen early in the morning trundling a wheelbarrow, collecting vegetable refuse for his pig. ### Hepzibah Pyncheon Imagined by children as scowling and shaking her finger; later opens the garden door to admit Phoebe. ### Clifford Pyncheon Imagined by children as making awful gestures from a window in a faded dressing-gown. ### Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon Reported all over town as possibly murdered; his engraved card with penciled memoranda is found and taken to the city marshal. ### Phoebe Pyncheon Returns to the house, finds the garden overgrown and the doors locked, and is admitted by Hepzibah through the garden door. ### Dixey One of the men who finds Judge Pyncheon's card and suggests taking it to the city marshal. ## Key lines > The gloomy and desolate old house, deserted of life, and with awful Death sitting sternly in its solitude, was the emblem of many a human heart, which, nevertheless, is compelled to hear the thrill and echo of the world’s gayety around it. The dark, empty house with death inside symbolizes how many people must endure the sounds of joy and celebration around them even when they are grieving. _Contrast between inner tragedy and outer mirth._ > It was like the golden branch that gained Aeneas and the Sibyl admittance into Hades. The single golden branch on the elm tree resembles the mythical golden bough that allowed Aeneas to enter the underworld. _Classical allusion suggesting the house holds secrets of death._ > They were flaunting in rich beauty and full bloom today, and seemed, as it were, a mystic expression that something within the house was consummated. The flowers, called Alice's Posies, were in full bloom and appeared to mysteriously indicate that an important event inside the house had been completed. _The flowers as a symbol of completion or death._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_house_of_the_seven_gables_se/chapters/xix-alice-s-posies - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_house_of_the_seven_gables_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_house_of_the_seven_gables_se/chapters