Search results
Holgrave has an attitude of genuine warmth, as if something wonderful has happened, but he refuses to let Phoebe look in the parlor. He shows her his old daguerreotype of Judge Pyncheon and then a new one he has just made of the Judge lying dead.
Holgrave has a staunch belief in societal progress and the tearing down of deadening traditions, such as those represented by the House of the Seven Gables, which he professes to hate. Phoebe finds Holgrave’s radicalism off-putting, but she respects his self-assurance and gradually grows to befriend and love him.
"Hepzibah and Clifford gone?" cried Phoebe. "It is not possible! And why have you brought me into this room, instead of the parlor? Ah, something terrible has happened! I must run and see!" "No, no, Phoebe!" said Holgrave holding her back. "It is as I have told you. They are gone, and I know not whither.
This sense of bitterness and rancor shows how Holgrave continues the Maule legacy of revenge and faulty judgment. His politics, once so inspiring, end up seeming rather flimsy; they crumble almost overnight once he has won Phoebe’s love and seen the Judge dead.
The deed was hidden by Thomas Maule, the builder of the House of the Seven Gables and Matthew Maule's son. Mr. Holgrave knows the secret of the hidden compartment because he is (ta-da!) a descendant of Matthew Maule. Thus, with Phoebe and Mr. Holgrave's love, the bad blood between the Maule and Pyncheon families has come to an end.
Possibly, indeed, it had been Holgrave’s purpose to let them die in their undeveloped germs. “Why do we delay so?” asked Phoebe. “This secret takes away my breath!
People also ask
Why does Holgrave refuse to let Phoebe look in the parlor?
How does Phoebe feel about Holgrave?
Does Holgrave know the House of the Seven Gables?
What does Phoebe say about Holgrave wishing for a stone house?
Can Phoebe make a restless spirit like Holgrave happy?
Why does Phoebe protest Holgrave's promise to settle down?
The sunshine came freely into all the uncurtained windows of this room, and fell upon the dusty floor; so that Phoebe now clearly saw—what, indeed, had been no secret, after the encounter of a warm hand with hers—that it was not Hepzibah nor Clifford, but Holgrave, to whom she owed her reception.
