Analysis of Light and Darkness Imagery The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many qualities of symbolism that help develop the main ideas of the novel. Darkness is the emblematic "color"; of the Pynceons. In contrast to its opposite, light, it forms one of the main symbols of the novel: the opposition between dark and light. Hawthorne uses dark imagery throughout his novel to express a sense of decay, but he also uses bright imagery to instill hope. Nathaniel Hawthorne in The House of the Seven Gables describes Phoebe as 'a speck of illuminating light that transforms the darkness of the house like the light of dawn'; (92). This description of Phoebe, using light imagery, expresses that she is a innocent woman with an inner spirit to help break Pyncheon's curse. Clark Giffith records in Hawthorne's Imagery: The 'Proper Light and Shadow'; in the Major Romances that "Phoebe is a a little too evidently a little ray of sunshine..."; (37). When Phoebe enters the house "from the sunny daylight"; and is almost blinded by the "density of the shadows"; lurking in the passages of the old house, you can see the contrast between the illuminated presence of Phoebe and the dark and gloomy house. The old Pyncheon elm, which overlooks the house, is a symbol of resurrection from darkness and decay nineteen, "Alice's Posies",; the Pyncheon elm is suddenly filled with the morning sun, indeed, one branch of the elm has been 'transmuted into brilliant gold.'; The elm is particula...