Blithedale Romance

Characters

Miles Coverdale

Zenobia

Hollingsworth

Old Moodie

Silas Foster

Priscilla

Mrs. Foster

Professor Westervelt

Blithedale Romance

Plot Synopsis

While staying at a hotel, Coverdale watches the scenes from his window where he looks into a beautful boarding house. He sees Zenobia and Westervelt through one of the windows and becomes extremely curious. He visits Zenobia to question her absence from the farm and her relation to Westervelt and Zenobia is offended by his prying questions. He sees that Priscilla is also with Zenobia and Westervelt.

Coverdale tries to warn Priscilla about being a pawn for Westervelt, Hollingsworth, and Zenobia but she does not listen to him. They leave him with unanswered questions so he goes to a saloon to find Old Moodie so that he can inquire what his connection to the two girls are and maybe answer some of his questions. Mr. Moodie tells his whole life story. Moodie was a rice man who had a wife and child. Because of a financial scandal, he lost all he had, his wife died, and he did not keep his daughter. That daughter went to live with a family member. That daughter is Zenobia. Moodie then remarried as a poor man and had another daughter, Priscilla who he raised by himself, as her mother passed.

In the farmhouse, Zenobia dramatically tells a story about the mysterious Veiled Lady. She alludes to Priscilla in describing the Veiled Lady and the events of the story are parallel to the events in Priscilla's life. The four main characters unite at Eliot's Pulpit and discuss women's rights. Unfortunately, Hollingsworth and Coverdale have a falling out based on their contrasting hopes for the future of Blithedale. They end their friendship and Coverdale leaves the farm and returns to the city.

Moodie reveals that he had asked Zenobia to take care of Priscilla but never told her that they were sisters and he was her father. Priscilla knew who Zenobia was and longed to meet her sister which is why she was sent to Blithedale. This story brought clarity to Coverdale. Then, he attends a performance of the magician and the Veiled Lady and runs into Hollingsworth. Westervelt is recognized as the magician and it is revealed that Priscilla is the Veiled Lady.

Coverdale decides to return to Blithedale where he meets with Zenobia, Hollingsworth, and Priscilla at their old spot. Hollingsworth admits his love for Priscilla and leaves Zenobia heart-broken in the woods with Coverdale. She drowns herself and her body is retrieved at midnight by Coverdale, Hollingsworth, and Silas. There is a ceremony to honor her life and Westervelt reveals that she has had other loves. Not long after, Coverdale leaves the farm and sfter some time sees Hollingsworth and Priscilla who are haunted by Zenobia. The story ends with Coverdale confessing that he has loved Priscilla the whole time.

Coverdale goes for a walk into the woods to his favorite spot, Eliot's Pulpit. On his way, he runs into Westervelt who is looking for Zenobia. Coverdale answers and while sitting in his spot, he overhears and sees Zenobia and Westervelt talking. He cannot make out everything that they are saying but he can see that they have a history and complicated feelings for each other.

Zenobia, Priscilla, and Hollingsworth form a close relationship that Coverdale soon becomes jealous of. He entangles himself in their business and is infatuated with their relationship. There are rumors amongst the community that Zenobia and Hollingsworth are in love and are planning to build a house on the land in one of Coverdale's favorite spots. The farm is then visited by Mr. Moodie wishes to see Priscilla and Zenobia for unknown reasons.

Coverdale becomes ill and the women take care of him. It is during this time that his friendship with Hollingsworth blossoms and they open up to each other. Priscilla begins to open up to the members of the community and Zenobia becomes her caretaker. The spring arrives and the community begins to work their land successfully. Hollingsworth and Coverdale develop a slight tension based on opposing philosophical views.

Coverdale and others arrive at the farm and are greeted by Silas, his wife, and Zenobia who was rumored to be a vibrant and beautiful woman. The sit down for supper when Hollingsworth and the ghost-like Priscilla arrives. Priscilla attaches to Zenobia passionately and emotionally and does not explain herself.

Coverdale is returning home after seeing a performance by a magician and the legendary Veiled Lady. He bumps into Old Moodie who asks him for a favor but never tells him what it is. Coverdale is on his way to Blithedale Farm to live in a utopian community that supports agrarian labor and Transcendental beliefs in the hopes of creating a better way of life.

Why is this movie important? What lesson is Hawthorne teaching?

Works Cited

Hawthorne, N. (1852). "The Blithedale Romance." London: Chapman and Hall.

Male, Roy R. Jr. "Toward the Waste Land: The theme of the Blithedale Romance" College English. February 1955. https://www.jstor.org/stable/372340

Hawthorne is satirizing the idea of a utopian society because Blithedale, intially created to find a better way of life, leads to the death of Zenobia who was the symbol of vitality and beauty. This was accomplished through the theme of masking oneself to the rest of the world. The Veiled Lady was a vital symbol in the novel because of her veil which symbolized a hidden privacy. Blithedale and the utopian dream was a cover for the tragic ends of both Zenobia and Hollingsworth. In academic journal, Toward the Wasteland: The Theme of Blithedale Romance, Roy R. Male states that Blithedale is, "a world in which the only really vital characters -Zenobia and Hollingsworth-destroy themselves" (Male 1955). Male also states that, "Hawthorne had anticipated our modern predicaments, particularly our horror at the prospect of life being drained of all spontaneity and vitality," which accurately describes the events of the novel (Male, 1955). Hawthorne is warning people of the dangers of "veiled" people and motives. This urges people to seek the truth ( a very Romantic ideal) and to be their own individual, not to follow and rely on others because it can lead to destruction of oneself.

Ross, Donald. "Dreams and Sexual Repression in the Blithedale Romance" PMLA. October 1971. https://www.jstor.org/stable/461086

By: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Symbolism

The Woods

Zenobia's Flower

• Zenobia's exotic flower is a symbol of her strength as a woman. She is independent, confident, and expresses her ideas which are not qualities of the typical 19th century woman. She defies stereotypes by advocating for women's rights and embracing her individuality. Her flower also symbolizes her pride as a woman.
• Flowers are a universal symbol of life. Because the flower is an exotic flower it symbolizes Zenobia's "exotic" or unique lifestyle. It is also directly symbolic of her life because when she takes off the flower after being denied by Hollingsworth, she commits suicide.

• The woods in this story are a symbol of escape. Coverdale has his favorite spot in the woods which is a configuration of boulders that he calls Eliot's Pulpit. He escapes to this spot on his Sunday off and here escapes the community to become in touch with both his concious and unconcious mind.
• The woods is also symbolic of dreams and repressed desires. Coverdale's dreams are the way that he makes sense of his world in the novel and they clarify the thoughts in his "unconcious mind" (Ross, 1972). He thinks of Zenobia's beauty and sensuality in the woods when he comments on her skin and figure (Ross, 1971).
• Escapism is a major characteristic of American Romanticism.

Evidence Quotes:

• "It was an exotic of rare beauty, and as fresh as if the hothouse gardener had just clipt it from the stem. That flower has struck deep root into my memory. I can both see it and smell it, at this moment. So brilliant, so rare, so costly as it must have been, and yet enduring only for a day, it was more indicative of the pride and pomp which had a luxuriant growth in Zenobia's character than if a great diamond had sparkled among her hair."
• "I noticed—and wondered how Zenobia contrived it—that she had always a new flower in her hair. And still it was a hot-house flower,—an outlandish flower,—a flower of the tropics, such as appeared to have sprung passionately out of a soil the very weeds of which would be fervid and spicy. Unlike as was the flower of each successive day to the preceding one, it yet so assimilated its richness to the rich beauty of the woman, that I thought it the only flower fit to be worn; so fit, indeed, that Nature had evidently created this floral gem, in a happy exuberance, for the one purpose of worthily adorning Zenobia's head."
• "Thus saying, she took the jewelled flower out of her hair; and it struck me as the act of a queen, when worsted in a combat, discrowning herself, as if she found a sort of relief in abasing all her pride."

• "It was my purpose to spend it all alone, from breakfast-time till twilight, in the deepest wood-seclusion that lay anywhere around us."
• "Unless renewed by a yet further withdrawal towards the inner circle of self-communion, I lost the better part of my individuality. My thoughts became of little worth, and my sensibilities grew as arid as a tuft of moss (a thing whose life is in the shade, the rain, or the noontide dew), crumbling in the sunshine after long expectance of a shower."
• "But one morning the lady was wandering in the woods, and there met her a figure in an Oriental robe, with a dark beard, and holding in his hand a silvery veil."
• "And others went a little way into the woods, and threw themselves on mother earth, pillowing their heads on a heap of moss, the green decay of an old log; and, dropping asleep, the bumblebees and mosquitoes sung and buzzed about their ears, causing the slumberers to twitch and start, without awaking."

The Veiled Lady

• The Veiled Lady is symbolic of Priscilla before she is revealed as the Veiled Lady at the end of the novel. The Veiled Lady is described as a spirit and as ghost-like which are the same qualities that Priscilla conveys at Blithedale. These qualities are symbolic of her innocence and purity. The veil is a symbol of a covering or separation between Priscilla and the rest of the characters symbolizing her secrets that she keeps throughout the novel.
• Blithedale is also under a "veil" because on the surface it is a hope for a better way of life but actually ends up killing Zenobia and haunting Hollingsworth.
• The veil is also symbolic of people hiding their motives and not knowing what is truth.

Evidence Quotes:

• "In the case of the Veiled Lady, moreover, the interest of the spectator was further wrought up by the enigma of her identity, and an absurd rumor (probably set afloat by the exhibitor, and at one time very prevalent) that a beautiful young lady, of family and fortune, was enshrouded within the misty drapery of the veil. It was white, with somewhat of a subdued silver sheen, like the sunny side of a cloud; and, falling over the wearer from head to foot, was supposed to insulate her from the material world, from time and space, and to endow her with many of the privileges of a disembodied spirit."
• "Very strange, it must be confessed, was the movement with which the figure floated to and fro over the carpet, with the silvery veil covering her from head to foot; so impalpable, so ethereal, so without substance, as the texture seemed, yet hiding her every outline in an impenetrability like that of midnight."
• "The latter is always artificial; it is meant for the world's eye, and is therefore a veil and a concealment."
• "Within that encircling veil, though an evil hand had flung it over her, there was as deep a seclusion as if this forsaken girl had, all the while, been sitting under the shadow of Eliot's pulpit, in the Blithedale woods, at the feet of him who now summoned her to the shelter of his arms."
• "In Priscilla's manner there was a protective and watchful quality, as if she felt herself the guardian of her companion; but, likewise, a deep, submissive, unquestioning reverence, and also a veiled happiness in her fair and quiet countenance."

Anelise Diaz

A Film Proposal