With the Revolutionary War only sixty-eight years removed, aristocratic thinking is being challenged by the new democratic mind-set. During this turbulent, yet exciting, growth spurt in American history, Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes The House of the Seven Gables (1851). His masterful use of binary characters subtlety argues for the wholesomeness of plebeian democratic values rather than keeping the patrician aristocratic power structure. Hawthorne creates several characters that are in binary opposition to one another. Among other themes, …showed first 75 words of 1681 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1681 total…one woman that posterity would benefit more from a strong set of plebeian values and ideals than from patrician inherited gold. Structuralism and Hawthorne I have written this essay in the structural critique format by deducing meaning from the structure of the binary opposition evident in the characters of the story. This essay follows structuralism because it shows the binary structure Hawthorne has created and what he is trying to say with this literary style.