Nick G
- Dream and Disguise in "The Blithedale Romance"
- Source: PMLA, Vol. 84, No. 3 (May, 1969), pp. 596-597
- Publisher: Modern Language Association
- Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1261147
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Identity Crisis-- Blithedale
I noticed a great deal of preoccupation with identity in the Blithedale Romance and so far it is my primary "hypothesis". Even at the very beginning of the novel we are presented with a nameless narrator and Mr. Moodie, a character that is introduced without any context. As the story progresses, talk about the Veiled Lady continues to show up and we can't help but wonder who the person underneath the veil could be. Zenobia has a very powerful persona fronted by her nickname and jeweled flower. In fact, Hawthorne makes it a point to have Coverfield declare that she would be a great actress and there is a scene where she is portraying famous pieces of art. Later there is the Masqueraders chapter that tells about the Blithedale residents in disguises. This is also the chapter where the guise of Hollingsworth as the philanthropist is lifted and Zenbia accuses him of being a "monster". Sprague makes an observation that maybe many of us picked up on-- Coverdale's own name suggests that there is an element of hiding involved in him as well as in Blithedale. There are countless examples of the large role that identity play in the novel besides the ones in my brief list here (we'll save the rest for the essay). Well, happy Reading-and-Composition-izing!
Nick G
Nick G
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3 comments:
Good point, I always want to find out who those characters are when they are first introduced, such as Mr. Moodie, Priscilla, and Westervelt...I guess that's one thing that keeps me reading.
I don't know how to register for JSTOR.org, I cannot find Berkeley. Help, please*
Wendy, if you're trying to access JSTOR from off campus, you need to use a proxy server. There is a link to instructions in the sidebar of this blog (under "Resources," after "Oxford English Dictionary Online"). It's easy to set up! Once you do it, you'll automatically be able to use JSTOR, Project Muse, etc.
But remember -- the papers you're writing now are reading papers, not research papers.
This is a great point - I think that Hawthorne is trying to tell us something by the massive amount of identity crises. Coverdale is of course a hidden character, Hollingsworth is only hiding behind his philanthropic schemes, Zenobia is a mysterious, beautiful feminist, and Priscilla is enshrouded in mystery throughout. I think that Hawthorne is showing us that not everyone is who they seem, and every person can have different, hidden intentions.
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