"She seems to think that all the calamities of the Pyncheons began from that quarrel with the wizard, as you call him."
-The House of the Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Dictionary.com defines a "quarrel" as "an angry dispute or altercation; a disagreement marked by a temporary or permanent break in friendly relations." However, the words connotation is that of a rather petty disagreement between people, that leads to mutual sulking. Hawthorne was most certainly not using this definition. The "wizard" put a curse on the Pyncheons, more than a petty quarrel, because of their unjust dealings with him and his family. The quarrel here most definitely is associated with its denotation. As it was a "permanent break in friendly relations" that followed the wizard's curse. The denotation of the word here, Hawthorne used to convey the seriousness of the "break."
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