Identity In The House Of Seven Gables

When identifying someone, there are plenty of things to look at. Donald Hall defined identity as:

One’s identity can be thought of as the particular set of traits, beliefs, and allegiances that, in short or long term ways, gives one consistent personality and mode of social being, while subjectively implies always a degree of thought and self-conscious about identity, at the same time allowing a myriad of limitations and often unknowable, unavoidable constraints on our ability to fully comprehend identity (Hall 3).

A person’s collection of traits and beliefs shape who they are as a person which gives each and every person his or her own identity. Hall believes that there are limitations in life and in our minds that denies each person from

An author's culture can define the way they portray gender in a novel or article. The novel The House of Seven Gables written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was written in 1851. The novel The Rise of Silas Lapham written by William Dean Howells, was written in 1885. Both of the novels were written in the 19th century, but in two different eras, which causes the cultures to be different. In the novel, The House of Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Rise of Silas Lapham, by William Dean Howells use their characters and their gender identities to show the reader that the culture depends on the way the traits are viewed, and that female and male characteristics can be shown in different

“Hepzibah had no natural turn for cookery, and, to say the truth, had fairly incurred her present meagerness by often choosing to go without her dinner […]” (Hawthorne 72). Hawthorne has given Hepzibah a trait that does not follow the traits of women. Cooking is a trait in our culture that has been designated to women more than men. Hepzibah is showing that she doesn't have that trait. She would rather go without food than to cook herself something.

In the book The Rise of Silas Lapham, Howells gives Irene, a young girl, the capability to cook. “[...] there ain’t a great many girls can go right into the kitchen, and make such a custard as she did yesterday” (Howells 130). Howells has given Irene a trait that is portrayed by our culture to be a woman trait.

Hawthorne and Howell depict gender identity two different ways. Hawthorne, illustrates how Hepzibah, an ugly, old, woman, can not cook at all. This is different than how Howell portrays Irene in his book. Irene is a great cook because she makes an amazing custard. Hawthorne is showing the reader that every woman does not have to be like the ideal woman. They can all be independent and the author can express each woman