An Existentialist Study Of Hepzibah's Anxiety In The House Of The Seven Gables

Nathaniel Hawthorne,an American classical novelist,was the founder of psychoanalytical novels in the nineteenth century.With great imagination,he excels at the use of symbolism and psychological description and the exploration of man's nature and fate.The House of the Seven Gables(1851)is Hawthorne's another masterpiece of exploring human nature since the publication of The Scarlet Letter(1850).The House of the Seven Gables represents the living condition of the declining Pyncheon family and the living state of the Pyncheons,such as their melancholy,alienation,loneliness and anxiety.This thesis makes an analysis of the embodiment and causes of Hepzibah's anxiety and her way to work through it with the help of Sartre's existentialism to show that what drives Hepzibah anxious is something null,that is,Sartre's nothingness.Therefore,the way for her to work through anxiety is to decide and act in the face of nothingness.The thesis is mainly made up of three parts: the introduction,the body and the conclusion.The first part is a brief introduction to The House of the Seven Gables,the studies at home and abroad,the problem to be studied and the theory to be applied in this thesis.The body consists of three chapters.The first chapter discusses Hepzibah's anxiety about the inherited curse and the Puritanical fantasies,death and lost youth and integration into the society,which manifests her anxiety about existence.The second chapter analyzes the causes of Hepzibah's anxiety to show that Hepzibah's anxiety is caused by something null and void.Hepzibah,who atones for the inherited curse,makes efforts to keep the Puritan privileges,only to find both the past sins and the Puritan privileges have lost their efficacy.Before integrating herself into the society,Hepzibah is anxious about bringing disgrace on her family and herself,but she comes to know that what drives her anxious is something meaningless.She believes that she could get the spiritual enrichment from either Clifford or God,only to find that she can get no help from them so that she exists as substantial emptiness,which drives her anxious.The third chapter explores Hepzibah's working through her anxiety.In order to achieve peace and repose,she takes several actions in the face of nothingness: forsaking the past shackles,throwing herself into her deeds and freeing herself from inside.The third part is the conclusion.It summarizes the main ideas of this thesis and indicates Hawthorne's concern with and worry about the existential anxiety of the declining aristocracy through representing Hepzibah's anxiety.