All 19 Uses of

essential

in

The House of the Seven Gables

If permitted by the historical connection,—which, though slight, was essential to his plan,—the author would very willingly have avoided anything of this nature.†
Chpt Pref.

essential = necessary or important or relating to the basic nature of something

It is essential to say a few words respecting the victim of this now almost forgotten murder.†
Chpt 1

There is one other feature, very essential to be noticed, but which, we greatly fear, may damage any picturesque and romantic impression which we have been willing to throw over our sketch of this respectable edifice.†
Chpt 1

But, taking the inward and outward history of the first half-day into consideration, Hepzibah began to fear that the shop would prove her ruin in a moral and religious point of view, without contributing very essentially towards even her temporal welfare.†
Chpt 3

essentially = basically (in all important respects; or relating to the basic nature of something)

No better model need be sought, nor could have been found, of a very high order of respectability, which, by some indescribable magic, not merely expressed itself in his looks and gestures, but even governed the fashion of his garments, and rendered them all proper and essential to the man.†
Chpt 4

essential = necessary or important or relating to the basic nature of something

To go of errands with his slow and shuffling gait, which made you doubt how he ever was to arrive anywhere; to saw a small household's foot or two of firewood, or knock to pieces an old barrel, or split up a pine board for kindling-stuff; in summer, to dig the few yards of garden ground appertaining to a low-rented tenement, and share the produce of his labor at the halves; in winter, to shovel away the snow from the sidewalk, or open paths to the woodshed, or along the clothes-line; such were some of the essential offices which Uncle Venner performed among at least a score of families.†
Chpt 4

If any volume could have manifested its essential wisdom in the mode suggested, it would certainly have been the one now in Hepzibah's hand; and the kitchen, in such an event, would forthwith have streamed with the fragrance of venison, turkeys, capons, larded partridges, puddings, cakes, and Christmas pies, in all manner of elaborate mixture and concoction.†
Chpt 7

We shall only add, therefore, that the Puritan—so, at least, says chimney-corner tradition, which often preserves traits of character with marvellous fidelity—was bold, imperious, relentless, crafty; laying his purposes deep, and following them out with an inveteracy of pursuit that knew neither rest nor conscience; trampling on the weak, and, when essential to his ends, doing his utmost to beat down the strong.†
Chpt 8

On this particular forenoon, so excessive was the warmth of Judge Pyncheon's kindly aspect, that (such, at least, was the rumor about town) an extra passage of the water-carts was found essential, in order to lay the dust occasioned by so much extra sunshine!†
Chpt 8

By the involuntary effect of a genial temperament, Phoebe soon grew to be absolutely essential to the daily comfort, if not the daily life, of her two forlorn companions.†
Chpt 9

The author needs great faith in his reader's sympathy; else he must hesitate to give details so minute, and incidents apparently so trifling, as are essential to make up the idea of this garden-life.†
Chpt 10

This was a freedom essential to the health even of a character so little susceptible of morbid influences as that of Phoebe.†
Chpt 12

In a word, I believe,—and my legal advisers coincide in the belief, which, moreover, is authorized, to a certain extent, by the family traditions,—that my grandfather was in possession of some deed, or other document, essential to this claim, but which has since disappeared.†
Chpt 13

The wild, chimney-corner legend (which, without copying all its extravagances, my narrative essentially follows) here gives an account of some very strange behavior on the part of Colonel Pyncheon's portrait.†
Chpt 13

essentially = basically (in all important respects; or relating to the basic nature of something)

Put me in possession of the document essential to establish my rights, and the House of the Seven Gables is your own!
Chpt 13 *

essential = necessary

This bemoaning of one's self (as you do now) over the first, careless, shallow gayety of youth departed, and this profound happiness at youth regained,—so much deeper and richer than that we lost,—are essential to the soul's development.†
Chpt 14

essential = necessary or important or relating to the basic nature of something

It was difficult, however, to conceive of his retaining an accomplishment to which daily exercise is so essential, in the measure indicated by the sweet, airy, and delicate, though most melancholy strain, that now stole upon her ear.†
Chpt 15

She remembered some vague intimations, on her brother's part, which—if the supposition were not essentially preposterous—might have been so interpreted.†
Chpt 16

essentially = basically (in all important respects; or relating to the basic nature of something)

Then, every generation of the family might have altered the interior, to suit its own taste and convenience; while the exterior, through the lapse of years, might have been adding venerableness to its original beauty, and thus giving that impression of permanence which I consider essential to the happiness of any one moment.†
Chpt 21

essential = necessary or important or relating to the basic nature of something