# XV: The Scowl and Smile explained — The House of the Seven Gables

> Chapter companion for The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

## What happens

During a dreary easterly storm following Phoebe's departure, Hepzibah struggles to care for the despondent Clifford, who retreats to his bed. Judge Pyncheon arrives, demanding to see Clifford, and a tense confrontation ensues. The chapter explores the duality of Judge Pyncheon's public benevolence and hidden corruption, symbolized by a decaying corpse beneath a marble palace.

## Themes in this chapter

### Appearance vs. Reality

Judge Pyncheon's public benevolence contrasts sharply with his hidden corruption, symbolized by the corpse beneath the palace.

### Inherited Sin and Guilt

Hepzibah sees the Judge as a reincarnation of the Puritan ancestor, linking present sins to the family's dark past.

### Isolation and Community

The storm isolates the house's inhabitants, and Hepzibah's shop suffers due to her scowling demeanor, reflecting her alienation.

## Character check-ins

### Hepzibah Pyncheon

Grows increasingly grim and despairing during the storm, confronts Judge Pyncheon with long-suppressed resentment.

### Clifford Pyncheon

Becomes bedridden and despondent after Phoebe's departure; briefly plays Alice Pyncheon's harpsichord.

### Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon

Visits the house, insists on seeing Clifford, and reveals his role in Clifford's release; his dual nature is explored.

### Phoebe Pyncheon

Absent from the house, her departure contributes to the gloom.

### Alice Pyncheon

Her harpsichord is heard playing, evoking ghostly associations.

## Key lines

> What is there so ponderous in evil, that a thumb’s bigness of it should outweigh the mass of things not evil which were heaped into the other scale!

Why should a small amount of wrongdoing outweigh a lifetime of good deeds?

_The narrator critiques the tendency to judge a person by a single flaw._

> The effect was as when the light, vapory clouds, with their soft coloring, suddenly vanish from the stony brow of a precipitous mountain, and leave there the frown which you at once feel to be eternal.

Judge Pyncheon's gentle expression vanished, revealing a permanent, stern hardness.

_Describes the sudden shift in the Judge's demeanor during his confrontation with Hepzibah._

> Behold, therefore, a palace! ... Ah! but in some low and obscure nook ... may lie a corpse, half decayed, and still decaying, and diffusing its death-scent all through the palace!

A person's public character may be grand, but hidden beneath it lies a secret corruption.

_Extended metaphor for Judge Pyncheon's hidden moral decay._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_house_of_the_seven_gables_se/chapters/xv-the-scowl-and-smile
- 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