1. In the preface, Hawthorne writes that “his present concern with the Socialist Community is merely to establish a theatre, a little removed from the highway of ordinary travel, where the creatures of his brain may play their phantasmagorical antics” (1). We noted in class that the phantasmagoria was a nineteenth-century pre-cinematic light show in which an oil lamp was used to project images of ghosts and goblins. So Hawthorne’s statement compares the products of authorial imagination to ghostly images, and the author to a kind of show-man.
In light of this, what do you make of Coverdale’s many comments about ghostly appearances?
For example:
While this passed, and while she spoke to my companions, I was taking note of Zenobia’s aspect; and it impressed itself on me so distinctly, that I can now summon her up like a ghost, a litle wanner than the life, but otherwise identical with it.(15)
Or:
The steam arose from his soaked garments, so that the stout yeoman looked vaporous and spectre-like. (18)
2. In the first chapter, Coverdale mentions the Veiled Lady as “a phenomenon in the mesmeric line; one of the earliest that had indicated the birth of a new science, or the revival of an old humbug” (5). This seems to set up a binary opposition between “science” and “humbug.” Ultimately, in what category does Coverdale seem to place the Veiled Lady—science or humbug, or something else?
3. In chapter 9, Coverdale makes a distinction between the “philanthropic man” and the “philanthropist,” calling the latter a “steel engine of the Devil’s contrivance” (71). On what basis does he make that distinction? In light of the rest of paragraph, how is it that Coverdale can tell the difference between a philanthropic man and a philanthropist?
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Blithedale Romance. Introd. Annette Kolodny. New York: Viking Penguin, 1983.
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