The House of the Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The House of the Seven Gables: Unreliable Narrator 1 key example

Key Examples in The House of the Seven Gables

Chapter 10: The Pyncheon Garden
Explanation and Analysis—Ideas vs. Facts:

Throughout the book, Hawthorne flirts with the idea that he is an unreliable narrator. For example, in Chapter 18, he at once dismisses the seriousness of ghost stories and also describes the ghosts of all the Pyncheons gathering in the parlor at midnight:

We are tempted to make a little sport with the idea. Ghost stories are hardly to be treated seriously, any longer. The family party of the defunct Pyncheons, we presume, goes off in this wise.

Chapter 18: Governor Pyncheon
Explanation and Analysis—Ideas vs. Facts:

Throughout the book, Hawthorne flirts with the idea that he is an unreliable narrator. For example, in Chapter 18, he at once dismisses the seriousness of ghost stories and also describes the ghosts of all the Pyncheons gathering in the parlor at midnight:

We are tempted to make a little sport with the idea. Ghost stories are hardly to be treated seriously, any longer. The family party of the defunct Pyncheons, we presume, goes off in this wise.

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