She leans in close for him to look into her eyes and all he says he sees is a sprite. While the city pushes for societal tradition, in Blithedale, these gender codes are not so strict. He wishes she would not come to his room.Hollingsworth comes in cheerfully, and offers to help take care of Coverdale while he is ill. She fixes her eyes on Zenobia, though, and brightens immensely. To this replies he wants to know the mystery of her life. Coverdale, the narrator, is a complicated mix of idealism and ironic pessimism.

He describes her: dressed simply; dark and glossy hair with one single ornamental flower of exotic and fresh plumage; an “admirable figure” (15); remarkably beautiful.Hindsight Is 20/20: How Characters in The Blithedale Romance Rely on the PastSuddenly Zenobia enters, her bearing and manner like that of a queen.The Blithedale Romance e-text contains the full text of The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne.She sees his staring at her and says that her instinct says he is not an admirer. Coverdale flings himself down on the ground.

It is a simple ceremony. Coverdale still has that shoe today, he adds.Zenobia announces that she knows that she is actually poor and that her life is not what she thought. The novel dramatizes the conflict between the commune's ideals and the members' private desires and romantic rivalries. The story tells of Mr. It is the perfect place for this experiment of Blithedale to take place, as it is free from the constraints, hierarchies, and engrained norms of the city.Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. She is buried at Blithedale and given a simple funeral, at which Westervelt makes a last cryptic appearance and declares her suicide foolish. The story tells of Mr.

A turning point in the novel, the drama culminates with Coverdale's leaving the farm and returning to the city. Miles Coverdale's involvement with the community at Blithedale, especially with the mystery surrounding two of the women there, Zenobia and Priscilla. Coverdale tries to disagree.Osborne-Bartucca, Kristen. It comes again and Hollingsworth enters.

They are sure of their vision, not caring for other men’s scorn. The Blithedale Romance (1852) is Nathaniel Hawthorne's third major romance.

Priscilla sits by Zenobia, delighting in her new friend’s pulchritude and grace.

Coverdale finds him “both freakish and obstinate” (7), as all Moodie asks is if he knows the lady The storm grows stronger outside, but their courage does not flag.

Unnamed city. The girl is sickly and wan, depressed and sad in appearance. McElroy and McDonald suggest that he may have returned to Blithedale with certain expectations about Zenobia after ensuring that she did not get to be with Hollingsworth (the assumption being that he had made possible Moodie’s transference of money to Priscilla form Zenobia), but that when she spurned him again he murdered her. In Hawthorne (1879), Henry James called it "the lightest, the brightest, the liveliest" of Hawthorne's "unhumorous fictions," while literary critic Richard Brodheadhas described it as "… Study Guide They write that perhaps “his mind refuses to remember what he did, though he half-suspects himself.” It is obvious that he is obsessed with her sexually, given his ruminations on her married and virginal state, and his allusions to being jealous of Hollingsworth. The Blithedale experiment ends with Zenobia dead, Hollingsworth a broken man, and Coverdale returned to his city life unchanged. The story tells of Mr. Allusions to her terrible, unsavory, and disreputable past are common; there were “contemporary associations between the seamstress profession and of the prostitute or fallen women” and “links between mesmerism and sexual exploitation.” This theory obviously can’t be definitively proven, but it is certainly wroth considering.A New Critical Reading of The Blithedale RomanceRead the E-Text for The Blithedale Romance…Coverdale knew that Priscilla’s love for her sister could not match that of her dedication to Hollingsworth.The Blithedale Romance essays are academic essays for citation. They disagree so thoroughly that Coverdale renounces Hollingsworth and effectively ends their friendship. They are no longer at the pulpit, at the ledger, using their pen; they are no longer indolent but ready to embrace a life of principle that human society has shunned. They both discuss how strange and lamentable it is that the man is so concerned with his philanthropic endeavor of reforming criminals. Here Priscilla becomes the Veiled Lady, a kind of slave to Westerveldt. Miles Coverdale, a young man, is returning home … Coverdale leaves his warm hearth to set out for his better life. Mrs. Foster knits and then falls asleep. "Form in The Blithedale Romance" In a broader sense, critics have long argued that the majority of the people, places, and events of Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiersCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike LicenseBerlant, Lauren. This page for Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance offers summary and analysis on themes, symbols, and other literary devices found in the text. Westervelt also asks about Zenobia and Hollingsworth. Suduiko, Aaron ed.

Meanwhile, Zenobia and Hollingsworth become close, and rumor flies they might build a house together.

The Blithedalers assume Hollingsworth and Zenobia have picked this site for their house.