THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES
CHAPTER 9 : PHOEBE AND CLIFFORD
Hepzibah, overwhelmed by misfortune and by the literal and symbolic shadow of the House, comes to realize that she cannot restore to happiness her gloomy brother Clifford and she cannot be a comforting presence to Clifford. She tries to entertain him by reading aloud to him, but her voice is a kind of croak. He also finds the books she chooses uninteresting, and he cannot bear to look at her withered face and hideous appearance. So, we may wonder why is Phoebe, and nobody else, given the task of taking care of him ?
I – Phoebe, an ideal character
A/ Phoebe's description
Phoebe embodies several symbolic values. First, she is presented as a perfect creature, as a divinity because she enjoys all the traits of feminine beauty without the slightest blemishes, she is remarkable by her magnificence, her somptuosité and she appears perfectly good-looking (l.2-3, l.10-12, l.17-19).
Secondly, she is compared to a rosebud et to a blossom (l.63, l.90), since she represents purity, virginity, innocence in her thought, judgements and acts. It also signifies that she has not already seen life, tasted life’s pleasures and experienced the beneficial and damaging effects of life.

The narrator gives Phoebe a poetic dimension by using the image of a shipwrecked grounded on the beach and by referring to the five senses because she delights his five senses and arouses emotions in his soul. She is pleasing to eyesight by natural charming and attractive traits and to voice for she sings with angelic qualities (l.70-75). She flatters touch because her hand passes her generosity on him, puts him in touch with the external world and succeeds in wining his trust in it (l.34-38). She delights smell because this flower which is opening gives off a exciting and desirable perfume that intoxicates him (l.90). Taste remains the only sense to which he does not have access in the sense that it represents the forbidden fruit. By