After two days struggle, I finally finished The Blithedale Romance. Right after I finished reading, the first thing that came to my mind was that… a sad story with a surprising ending!
The noble queen Zenobia committed suicide and, the last line of the book:
“I – I myself – was in love –with – Priscilla!” (247)
I did not expect Mr. Coverdale to make such a confession at all, since it seems to me that Coverdale is in love with Zenobia, not Priscilla. Remember how Coverdale praises Zenobia? For so many times, that Coverdale glorifies Zenobia as an attractive, noble, brilliant, courageous, and beautiful woman. He deeply admires her! And when Zenobia chooses to follow Hollingsworth, Coverdale seems sad and disappointed.
However, it’s clear that both Coverdale and Hollingsworth love Priscilla, and Hollingsworth even rejected Zenobia. I am surprised that none of the male characters falls in love with such a gorgeous woman. So this makes me wonder if it is specially arranged by the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, with some implications.
We know that Zenobia is a feminist, “If I live another year, I will lift up my own voice, in behalf of woman’s wider liberty” (120). It is also demonstrated on page 225, and many other places in the book. Zenobia’s character is unique, because there were not much feminists in mid-19th century. Using Coverdale’s description, that “We seldom meet with women, nowadays, and in this country, who impress us as being women at all…not so with Zenobia” (17).
On the contrary, Priscilla is characterized as submissive/subordinate, because she listens to every word Hollingsworth and Zenobia say, and she’s quite docile. Priscilla’s character is reflecting the common expectation on how a woman should be like in 19th century.
So, with that being said, both male characters fall in love with a submissive woman like Priscilla, but not a feminist like Zenobia, it makes me suppose that perhaps Hawthorne himself does not like the idea of “feminism”?
Well, that is just a little thought. If you have another perspective about this, I am open to further discussion!
4 comments:
Interesting reading. I too was struck by the contrast between Zenobia's feminism and Priscilla's submissiveness. However, I don't think that Zenobia is consistent with her views. For example, she quietly concedes her argument when Hollingsworth makes masogonistic comments and dismisses her comments as being from the "weaker sex". Additionally, she herself proposes for the women to take charge of the domestic duties that are traditionally assigned to women. Even still, great point and an interesting question about what Hawthorne though
Agreeing with Nick, Zenobia is inconsistent with her views. Initially I thought Zenobia was a strong-minded feminist but after the actions in Chapter 14 she proved otherwise. In Chapter 14, Zenobia gives a passionate speech about women's role in society and how it shouldn't be a purely domestic role. After her speech Hollingsworth completely challenges and discredits her. Zenobia in return does nothing. At the end of the same chapter she is actually seen in Hollingsworth arms. Though Zenobia has strong emotions toward feminist views as evident by the speech, she is limited in what she can believe in by society's close minded views.
Great points, all. Let's remember to contextualize the idea of "feminism" in the first half of the nineteenth century, by the way! What constitutes Zenobia's specific feminism?
I have to agree with Natalia that it's important that we specify what kind of feminism we are talking about here. To often, the image that comes to mind when we think of feminism is the women's scene during the early 20th century with the coming of women's suffrage. However, feminism has evolved greatly over many years and has goes beyond issues of domesticity of women and women's liberty rights.
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