Excerpt from The Student Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne by Melissa McFarland Pennell in which she outlines Alice's role within the novel

Her [Alice's] presence in the novel is felt indirectly, as she or memory of her haunts the House of the Seven Gables. She is associated with the posies, the garden, and the harpsichord's mystic tunes. Holgrave tells her tragic story to Phoebe, who is often linked to Alice. Her continuing presence in the house suggests that as a victim of Pyncheon greed and Maule vengeance she will not find peace until the conflict is resolved. At the end of the romance, Uncle Venner thinks he hears music from within the house and guesses that Alice's spirit has given one last touch to the harpsichord before floating "heavenward" to a lasting rest" (100). (courtesy Greenwood Press)