In an attempt to write a more cheerful novel than his brooding Scarlet Letter at a time when optimism was the only quality shared by all, Hawthorne wrote, this which critics today call, an artificial novel. ending for his House of the Seven Gables. When all seems darkest, when the curse of the past aims its bloody dagger at the new generation and all hope has failed, Hawthorne steps in to become his own savior, writing wings to his beloved characters so that they can survive. fly towards a fairy tale ending. Hawthorne becomes his own Deus ex machina, leaving stardust in his own eyes and the dry taste of disgust in the mouths of his detractors. But why would Hawthorne do this after the critical success of The Scarlet Letter? In a letter to his editor, James T. Fields, Hawthorne wrote: "[The House of the Seven Gables] grows dreadfully dark towards the end, but I will do my best to pour a little setting sun into it." This letter shows Hawthorne's conscious choice to force a happy conclusion to his story. Critics give three reasons for allowing this forced change: 1) Hawthorne's conflict as a writer, 2) the appeal of the market, and 3) the author's lack of language and cheek. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay While writing The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne discovered a conflict between the writer he wanted to be and the writer he had become. The book had grown out of his control "it got terribly darker towards the end" than Hawthorne had intended. When he began writing House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne wrote in a letter: “I think it is a work more characteristic of my mind and more appropriate and natural to me than The Scarlet Letter; but for this very reason it is likely to interest the public.” Here, Hawthorne apparently cares less about the audience than about being true to his own temperament. Nina Baym wrote: “Hawthorne resented his inability to participate in the hopeful temperament of his day. He wanted to be a happy book writer. He had struggled, unsuccessfully, to lighten the gloom of The Scarlet Letter. He was sure his readers would not like such a dark story. When they loved him, he persisted in his unease, claiming that such a dark story was neither healthy nor natural” (172). Baym shows how much simple reader response has been involved since the success of The Scarlet Letter. Apparently an inner censor, rather than wanting to please his audience, pushed him to write happy stories and judged him insufficient when he failed to do so. Many critics disagree with this interpretation of Hawthorne's happy ending. They point out that despite the moderate success of The Scarlet Letter, he was still struggling financially and knew full well that his reputation for gloom was an obstacle to acceptance by a wider audience. Michael T. Gilmore wrote: “Hawthorne clearly neglected his own warnings about the evils of wealth. The happy ending of The House of the Seven Gables may come less from authorial oversight than from market demands. In concluding his book as he did, Hawthorne gave in to the world's wish that in stories everything would turn out well and he would pay for it” (172). Forced by the pressures of the literary market to liven up his stories for his readership, Hawthorne had become like the character he most hated in House of Seven Gables, Jaffrey Pyncheon. In chapter 18, the angry mockery of Jaffery's corpse, we, 1981, 261