In support of Nina Baym's argument, Blithedale Romance creates a sentiment and behavior that influences one's ability and a vision of reforms that unites the neighborhood. The narrative is founded on Hawthorne's observation of the middle class's underlying anxiety. Two romances and four key characters are seen as being built up in The Blithedale Romance. Hawthorne makes use of the parallels between the American Myth and the Edenic Myth to give fiction a universal and socially pertinent dimension. He grounds the narrative on Blithedale's 19th-century idealists' failure. And it is is emblematic of moral degradation; with American society being the experiment. The analysis entails Nina Baym’s sentiments, commentary and textual evidence on the story. The following paragraphs extrapolates Baym’s view in relation to Blithedale Romance.
To begin with, the paper will sequentially explore Baym’s view of the four characters. Thereafter, the paper will document supportive evidence on why Baym categorizes the characters in such a manner. Hollingsworth is presented as egocentric, selfless and totally absorbed in himself. On the other hand, Zenobia is seen as proud and rebellious while Priscilla is innocent and ignorant. In fact, Coverdale states that the biggest reason why Zenobia dies (in the end) is the fact that she had not outgrown her past habits (Byam 45). This is evidenced by Coverdale’s sentiments, “She based his deeds on orphic wisdoms.” This is explained by his conversation with Priscilla. Coverdale tells Priscilla, “No summer ever came back, and no two summers were ever alike” (Byam 470). Therefore, Hawthorne presents her as a prisoner in the context that she had accumulated remorse due to the existing social and economic crimes.
Similarly, Byam elaborates the tragic consequences of sticking to the past modes of thought and behavior especially in situations relating to emotional responses from men and women. This is elaborated by the moment whereby Hollingsworth chooses Priscilla, which leaves Zenobia shocked. Coverdale sees this situation as a depiction of the present in the past. Lastly, Coverdale is the superfluous persona who fitters away his energy because he is described as “lacking purpose (Byam 34)”
Nina Baym’s thesis narrates that Coverdale presents characters as a part of a dream and these characters act different parts of the conflicts. Coverdale is represented as a spectator, narrator as well as an actor. He is used as an artistic figure with self-conscious dimensions. He represents the miniature version of American way of life and parallels that are usually drawn from the little communities and the rest of the larger parts of the nation. Coverdale is seen as a person who like America’s pilgrim forefathers, helped to steer America through a corrupt social system. When Coverdale arrives in Blithedale for his first time, his reputation precedes him (Byam 560). Zenobia becomes the first to welcome him by telling him that she had been learning his poetry by heart. However, upon settling down, he realizes that his friends including Zenobia did not take him seriously precisely because he was a poet.
Baym presents conflict by explaining how Coverdale is slowly isolated and left in frustration and bitterness. In fact, as the article proceeds, the author explains each character in link with Coverdale’s psyche and conflicts. Zenobia, Priscilla and Hollingsworth, Priscilla’s closest acquaintances formed a circle of their own, with Coverdale left on the periphery. Coverdale is even more agitated by the fact that both Priscilla and Zenobia fall for Hollingsworth’s unprecedented trait of intense masculine and egoistic chauvinism. Coverdale is left reminiscing in his own bad luck. His frustrations are summarized by the following brief statement in the article, “I smiled –somewhat bitterly, in true contemplation of my own ill luck. How little these two women care for me, who had conceded to all their claims…. While Hollingsworth, by some necromancy of his horrible injustice, seemed to have brought them both to his feet” (Hawthorne 123).
One did not have to be a Christian to appreciate the fact that Coverdale was spiritless while Westervelt was a personified version of the devil (Hawthorne 45). Coverdale would eventually allow women to run the church and even the government but he falls in love with Zenobia. Ironically, the obtuse narrator is named after a devout bible translator. Despite the clinging by Priscilla, he projects himself as a man of iron, devoted to a focused pursuit of his exalted goals (Hawthorne 45). Actually, Baym narrates that he preferred the blind and uncritical veneration of Priscilla as compared to Zenobia’s ‘lethal’ combination of beauty and brains. Principally, an upright man would have preferred the later because she would be of greater help to him. Coverdale displays his bleak side when he tortured Priscilla, who was still in love with Hollingsworth. In return, Priscilla angrily calls Coverdale “the gentle parasite’’ (Hawthorne 123). This is symbolic for image of the vine that lovingly strangles in its embrace. Coverdale’s celibacy is a metaphor for immaturity and the desire to remain a child in this ‘prelapsarian world.’
On the other hand, Hollingsworth depicts resolute energy, forcefulness and attractiveness (Byam 557). He is Coverdale’s alternative ego as he represents a totalitarian figure. In her words, Baym States, “Hollingsworth does not represent a corrupted extreme of romantic libertarianism. Rather, he is the opposite principle and representation of authority and domination” (Byam 558).
In this narrative, the allegory and irony is evident by both men falling in love with Priscilla who essentially fits on the traditional stereotype kind of woman. Similarly, both women fall in love with Hollingsworth who represents traditional stereotype men with assertive and chauvinistic character. Baym seeks to bring together the idea that irrespective of the situation, the two traits could not be separated (Baym 560). Eventually, Hollingsworth and Priscilla remain together while Zenobia and Coverdale are left in the cold.
Baym describes Priscilla as a spiritual love and would give everything for her better self and therefore she is described in the article as “Zenobia’s anti-self.” In fact, her character leads to Zenobia committing suicide after Priscilla and Hollingsworth came together. Priscilla is depicted as a symbol of a desexualized feminist. According to Baym, her ‘spirituality’ is predicated by suppressed assertive femininity. Although she is described in other words to be too human to be perfect. Therefore, a comparison between Zenobia and Priscilla is related to a comparison conflicts of darker against lighter forces. More so, the darker forces are symbolized by militant masculinity.
Baym states that Zenobia represents sex, art and nature (Byam 552). She also represents political radicalism. Shockingly, she falls in love with a man who advocated for her most hated virtue in men: use of superior physical force and a representation of “unmistakable evidence of sovereignty” (Byam 569). In contrast to Priscilla’s sexual purity, Zenobia’s sexuality is equated by Coverdale with the deep corruption that would expel humans from paradise. Zenobia’s legend is one of religious allegory. Her persona as a veiled lady is a “promise of a future world.” She tries to demystify the proclamation that she is transcendental and seamstress. She later betrays her sister behind the so-called ‘veil’ and eventually returns to bondage. This is capped by the following description of her, “she is a sorceress, with a forced reciprocal of her own” (Hawthorne 130). Baym also states that Zenobia loses support of the society because of her unconventionality. In another one of Baym’s context, Zenobia saw herself as a tyrant for women suffrage as she states that, “she would raise her voice on behalf of woman’s liberty” (Byam 570).
Before her suicide, she was horribly petrified, as explained by the pictures and dreams of drowned people in agile attitudes. Therefore, she deems it well and modest to commit this atrocity because of the fact that many of village maidens had already did. In fact, she consoles herself as described by the author’s writing, “this would bring peace in the bosom of the old and familiar stream.” The suicide is attributed by the tint and Arcadian affectation that was visible in all their lives for the past few months ( Baym 580).
Lastly, Westervelt is described as a demon of sexual cynicism and fear (Baym 565). Westervelt represented the worst traits of the male gender. He is primarily the hypnotist. He represents material wealth which led to Zenobia drowning in his wake. Zenobia became Westervelts lover, a man described to represent all the patriarchal values in the society i.e. status, power, wealth and money (Hawthorne et al. 34).
Conclusion
To conclude, one did not have to be a Christian to appreciate the fact that Coverdale was spiritless while Westervelt was a personified version of the devil. Priscilla on the other hand is presented as a savior while Hollingsworth was a chauvinist and a depiction of male egocentrism. Zenobia on the other hand was a symbol of wordy wealth and vanity. In a culture under Westervelt and Zenobia, Hawthorne covers the narrative by using Coverdale as the medium. Essentially, Baym explores the traits of the characters and how the correlate with Coverdale, and more importantly with the contemporary American Society.
Works Cited
Byam, Nina. The Blithedale Romance: Radical Meaning. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 2012.Print
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, Seymour L. Gross, and Rosalie Murphy. The Blithedale Romance: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism. New York: Norton, 1978. Print.
