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Chapter
The Old Pyncheon Family
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Contents
The Old Pyncheon Family
Section recap
What happens in The Old Pyncheon Family.
The novel opens by establishing the dark history of the Pyncheon family and their imposing mansion, the House of the Seven Gables. Colonel Pyncheon, a powerful Puritan, had the original owner Matthew Maule executed for witchcraft so he could seize his land. Maule cursed the Colonel before dying, and true to the curse, Pyncheon was found dead on the very day his grand house was inaugurated. The narrator traces how this original sin of greed and injustice has haunted the Pyncheon family across generations, setting up the novel's central conflict between inherited guilt and the possibility of redemption.
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Key moments
The beats worth remembering.
Colonel Pyncheon Has Maule Executed
Colonel Pyncheon uses his social and political power to have Matthew Maule condemned as a witch, purely to take possession of Maule's valuable land. This act of injustice is the original sin that drives the entire novel's plot.
Maule's Dying Curse
Before his execution, Maule publicly curses Colonel Pyncheon, predicting that God will give him blood to drink. This curse is treated as literally coming true and becomes a symbol of how past wrongs poison future generations.
The Colonel Dies on Opening Day
On the very day the House of the Seven Gables is unveiled to Puritan society, Colonel Pyncheon is found dead in his chair, blood on his lips — fulfilling Maule's curse and establishing the house as a place tainted by sin.
Evidence lanes
The moments you can actually use later.
Land Seized Through False Accusation
The narrator makes clear that Colonel Pyncheon's accusation of witchcraft against Maule was motivated by a desire for land, not genuine religious concern, establishing the family's founding crime as one of deliberate, self-serving injustice.
The Curse Fulfilled at the Housewarming
The Colonel's death on the opening day of the house, with symptoms matching Maule's curse, is presented as more than coincidence — it signals to the reader that the supernatural and the moral are intertwined throughout the story.
Section takeaways
What to carry forward.
The House Symbolizes Inherited Sin
The mansion is not just a building — it physically embodies the Pyncheon family's guilt. Understanding this makes every later scene set in the house carry extra weight about whether the family can ever escape their past.
Greed Has Generational Consequences
Hawthorne argues from the start that wrongs committed for wealth and power do not stay contained to one generation. Students should keep this in mind when analyzing why later Pyncheons suffer despite being personally innocent.
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