While searching for a passage for my reading paper, I found one that really just popped out of the page - when Zenobia criticizes Hollingsworth.
Throughout the passage, Zenobia throws insult after insult at Hollingsworth and reveals his true character. She starts off with the most ironic piece: Hollingsworth, who is supposed to care for others, only cares for himself. His scheme is an obsession that drives him, and thus he forgets his true purpose. Also, as a result, she brings up a common theme in the book: that of human betrayal. Hollingsworth used all three characters to achieve his end. He was kind to Coverdale for the sole reason of making an ally to take over Blithedale (yet another betrayal). Hollingsworth only uses Zenobia for her money. As for Priscilla, I am still analyzing this piece a bit, but I believe that Hollingsworth let Priscilla return to the city, and to her bondage as the Veiled Lady. While he does save her, he was, as Zenobia stated, "ready to sacrifice this girl." Hollingsworth replies to Zenobia's claim, not with a refutation of her argument, but instead by attacking her gender. By committing this fallacy, Hollingsworth shows the reader that he does not care about women, 50% of the world, and that Zenobia's claims are not false.
The revelation of Hollingsworth's true character also reveals the multiple themes of the novel. Hawthorne is criticizing the lack of selflessness in his time. He shows this in the most ironic way - by creating a selfish philanthropist. Hollingsworth is the ultimate proof that no one is truly selfless. Even he, a philanthropist, only cares about himself and betrays everyone he knows. He is ready to take over Blithedale in an instant, and throws away Coverdale and Zenobia with no hesitation. He does not value a woman's opinion at all and is in fact very sexist.
No one is able to do what they want. Not one character has enough gut to go and help others. Coverdale is too wimpy and passive to do anything about the class/sex distinctions at Blithedale or to even help Blithedale progress. Zenobia fails to ever take any action for women's rights, even though she constantly advocates them. Priscilla is too timid to take any action and to have any sort of free will of her own.
There is no real protagonist in this novel - every single character fails. Coverdale keeps his emotions bottled up and lets Blithedale fail, Zenobia commits suicide, Priscilla remains in "bondage" to Hollingsworth, and Hollingsworth himself never achieves his goal. Hollingsworth is portrayed as an antagonist with his multiple betrayals and selfishness. Hawthorne shows us that selfish people never prosper, and only end up hurting themselves.
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2 comments:
Our only way of viewing Hollingsworth is through Coverdale, who is an unreliable narrator. Coverdale seems jealous of Hollingsworth, mainly because Hollingsworth has won over Priscilla, who Coverdale loves. In reality, Hollingsworth may not be as bad as Coverdale describes him; after all, his cause is a noble one and Blithedale does seem destined to ruin, so whose to say Blithedale would not be better off as a philanthropic experiment? I'm just suggesting to consider where all the observations in the novel come from: Coverdale.
I'm not sure Coverdale's inadequacies as a protagonist can be attributed to his failure to preserve Blithedale or express his feelings regarding Priscilla. It was never his project to begin with, so it's failure does not mean he was at fault. He didn't do anything to harm the project, except perhaps lack the dedication to see it through. Regarding Priscilla, it was a personal failing but he didn't harm anyone except himself by not acting on his emotions. He was a principled character who perhaps wasn't sufficiently willing to commit himself to their agenda, but that shouldn't necessarily exclude him from functioning as the book's protagonist.
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