The generations pass on many traits, but above all else, it passes on the decay of the house, and everything involved with it. .
The decadence of the chickens plays an important role in this romance. While Phoebe explores the garden, she comes upon "Chanticleer, his two wives, and a solitary chicken"(p.88). The chickens are compared to turkeys, and they would lay eggs so big, that, "an ostrich need hardly have been ashamed of"(p.89). .
When Phoebe returns with food for them, they recognize her voice, for she is able to communicate with the chickens, as a Pyncheon. As the mansion grows older, so do the chickens. As the generations pass, they slowly get smaller and smaller, to nearly the size of pigeons. "Ever since the House of the Seven Gables was founded, they were somehow mixed up with its destiny" (p. 90-91).
As one of the main antagonists, Judge Pyncheon, is nearly the opposite of everyone else. As the house rots, he rises to power. He drops by for a visit. The word "smile" is mentioned 12 times within chapter eight, the section that introduces the judge for the first time. When he smiles, "he shone like a noonday sun along the streets, or glowed like a household fire in the drawing-rooms of his private acquaintance"(p.124). .
His smile, his clothes, and overall appearance try to cover up who he really is. All fail to see it, except Phoebe, Clifford, and Hepzibah. .
The manor decays, taking the painting of the colonel with it. When Phoebe first meets the judge, she notices that he closely resembles the portrait, down to almost every detail. "The similarity, intellectual, and moral, between the Judge and his ancestor appears to have been at least as strong as the resemblance of mien and feature would afford reason to anticipate"(p.123). He seems to be an incarnation of his ancestor. They both are greedy, dark, and causing a decline in the family's fate.
