Critical Commentary on Holgrave related to the Artist and Alienation

Holgrave and Phoebe on Pocket Version of (courtesy of Dr. John L. Idol, Jr.)

As these excerpts from criticism indicate, the interpretation of Holgrave's character has varied widely. Some critics see his character as a reflection of aspects of Hawthorne, while others see sources of his traits in others. His role as an artist defines how many readers interpret his actions and evaluate the implications of the novel's ending.

• Many critics of The House of the Seven Gables have seen links between Hawthorne and his character Holgrave, but James Mellow in Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times also sees some aspects of Herman Melville influencing Holgrave's character.
  
  
• Mellow also notes that Hawthorne sympathizes with Holgrave's antipathy toward the past.
  
  
• In The Salem World of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret B. Moore notes the interest in animal magnetism and mesmerism that existed in Salem in the 1830s and 1840s, a link to Holgrave's practice of these pseudo-sciences.
  
  
• Moore also records Hawthorne's reservations about mesmerism when it came to the treatment of his future wife Sophia's headaches.
  
  
• In her Portraits of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rita K. Gollin remarks upon Hawthorne's interest in portraiture, including daguerreotypes and photographs, and the role of portraits in The House of the Seven Gables.
  
  
• In his lecture, "The Meaning of Hawthorne's Women," Richard Millington argues that in the narrative that Hawthorne felt most closely mirrored his own experience, Holgrave needs to be anchored in Phoebe's affection while she needs to be complicated by his more active mind.
  
  
• In her essay "Hawthorne's Holgrave: The Failure of the Artist-Hero," Nina Baym explores Holgrave's role as an artist and the positive aspects of his character.
  
  
• Nina Baym also comments on Holgrave's attitude toward his art as well as his attitude toward his power. She further comments on the nature of art and the danger an artist poses for the social structure
  
  
• In her evaluation of the last chapters of the novel, Nina Baym sees the change in Holgrave's character as a sign of failure, his acceptance of the status quo in exchange for the security of marriage and property.
  
  
• In her lecture, "Work and Money In Hawthorne's Fiction," Claudia Durst Johnson focuses on the economic factors that influence characters actions and ideas in The House of the Seven Gables. She sees Holgrave as a man controlled by his "narrow" economic circumstances and sees his role as artist as merely one more vocation that he has tried out in an effort to make his way.
  
  
• Johnson also evaluates the ending of the novel and the change in Holgrave's attitude in light of the new economic security that allows the characters to embrace a new life in the Pyncheon country estate.