The Blithedale Romance

While the narrative implies that Coverdale’s decision to leave Blithedale relates directly to his confrontation with Hollingsworth, it really stems from his dissatisfaction with the utopian scheme as a whole, highlighting the themes of The Search for Utopia and The Conflict Between Self-Interest and Communal Ideals. Blithedale, while founded on ideals of inclusivity, becomes, for Coverdale, “a kind of Bedlam” (140) in which competing new ideas lead to the destruction of human bonds. The close proximity of individuals and the gossip of the community, he fears, have negatively impacted Blithedale’s atmosphere. This disintegration of communal bonds is shown through Coverdale’s final walk through the commune before his departure. In particular, Coverdale’s final visit to the pigs, whom he describes as “the very symbols of slothful ease and sensual comfort” (143), highlights the hypocrisy of the community in its consumption of its own. The swine, for Coverdale, remain in a blissful state, sleeping away their days, unaware that the following season they will become food for the community.

Similar to his earlier seclusion and voyeurism in his Blithedale “hermitage,” Coverdale’s hotel room, with its window facing the boardinghouse, points to his separation from the story’s events as well as his continued observation of others. By gazing upon the lives of others, though, Coverdale admits that he loses his selfhood. When Zenobia, for instance, closes the curtain and disrupts Coverdale’s gaze, he muses that his life “was now attenuated of much of its proper substance, and diffused among many alien interests” (157). Thus, Coverdale’s voyeurism, with its outward focus, severs his understanding of himself—and even when forced to turn his eyes upon himself, he finds that pieces of his identity are missing and distorted. Coverdale is most comfortable when observing others, and he decides to venture from his new “hermitage” only upon realizing that the shadows of Zenobia and Priscilla from behind the curtains offer him “too vague an outline for even my adventurous conjectures to read the hieroglyphic that it presented” (162). His continual desire to find himself in the lives of others and to share in their worlds blinds him to his own potential role in the narrative of his life. He becomes, instead, a spectator, always viewing the performances of others. Indeed, the theatrical thrust of Coverdale’s worldview is particularly evident during his stay at the hotel. The sight of others performing mundane tasks like cooking, brushing their hair, or sharing a kiss function as entertainment for Coverdale, whose disconnection from human interaction is highlighted by the glass of the window separating him from the objects of his gaze.

The closed curtain shade and the gauzy material Priscilla wears when Coverdale at last enters the women’s boardinghouse points to the continued masking and unmasking at work in Hawthorne’s novel. While Zenobia attempts to shield herself from Coverdale’s gaze and uses her own eyes to “[shoot] bright arrows, barbed with scorn” (158) at the onlooker, Coverdale tries to unmask Zenobia through his words. After entering the women’s apartment, Coverdale, irritated with Zenobia’s attitude, endeavors “to make proof if there were any spell that would exorcise her out of the part which she seemed to be acting” (165) by forcing her to give him a peek at something true within. Likewise, Priscilla’s elegant gown, while reflecting her beauty, appears mist-like and insubstantial, foreshadowing the revelation that she is, in fact, the Veiled Lady.

Westervelt’s characterization in this section points to themes of imprisonment and control within the novel and emphasizes the theme of Secrecy and Deceit. While Westervelt’s presence in the women’s apartment puzzles Coverdale and inspires his close questioning of Priscilla’s agency, Westervelt plays a subtle game, positioning himself as a friend to Priscilla. Westervelt interrupts Coverdale’s questions about whether Priscilla chooses to go with Zenobia and him by stating that “he willingly leaves the [premises] at her option” (173). However, Priscilla previously tells Coverdale that she’s “blown about like a leaf” and “never [has] any free-will” (173), thus belying Westervelt’s show of choice. This scene reveals Westervelt’s power over Priscilla, but the end of the chapter also highlights his control of Zenobia, who looks at him with utter scorn, only to have her gaze “rebound […] from his courteous visage, like an arrow from polished steel” (173). These chapters, therefore, develop the image of Westervelt as a powerful presence who controls others through his words.