The Blithedale Romance

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance (1852) illustrates the Nineteenth Century’s industrial revolution that spurred social discourse and movements to erect utopian societies. The book chronicles a Mr. Cloverdale, who, with cynicism towards the utopian setting, sets off alongside a brotherhood to become encapsulated by transcendentalist notions. This work’s inception was made possible by Hawthorne’s partaking the Brook farm project of the 1840s. Hawthorne’s objective during this experiment

Merriam-Webster as, “a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions” creates a serious question on the plausibility of a perfect society. Dealing with this very quandary first hand, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance is an experimentation on forming a perfect utopia. Within the novel, the desires of the individual are squandered in favor of the collective. In reading Hawthorne, one gets the sense that the world is just out of reach for him. Attaching a mysticism

  The Fate of the "True Woman" in The Blithedale Romance         The female characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance, Zenobia and Priscilla, differ in their representations of womanhood. Zenobia begins as an independent character, whom later surrenders to Hollingsworth's control, whereas Priscilla is ever submissive to his desires. This determines how the male characters, Coverdale and Hollingsworth, view both women. Coverdale and Hollingsworth

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance and Maria Susanna Cummins’ The Lamplighter are vastly different books. While originally published within two years of each other, both authors approached their writing through distinctive practices. Hawthorne failed to show development in the majority of his characters in his romance, while Cummins’ sentimental novel is heavily loaded with positive character growth. After reading The Blithedale Romance and The Lamplighter, one of the main differences noted

which repeated patterns of light, then blackness, then whiteness meaningfully occur” (Blair 76). Similarly, Hawthorne’s novel The Blithedale Romance employs chiaroscuro for its characters, symbols and the veil motif in particular. Blair does not go further in his discussion of whiteness and blackness in “The Minister’s Black Veil” in relation to The Blithedale Romance. An analysis of the use of color, particularly regarding the veil symbol, in both texts can provide additional insights into Hawthorne’s

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Blithedale Romance, rather than being considered a novel, should be considered with the distinction of a romance. The beginnings of the book are heavily laden with symbols and allusions to the supernatural along with romantic interests, both characteristic of a romance. Coverdale consistently discusses the Veiled Lady and claims Zenobia is an enchantress, actually saying in Chapter Six that “Zenobia is an enchantress!” He continues, “she is a sister of the Veiled Lady! That

The Blithedale Romance by Hawthorne and The Lamplighter by Maria Susanna Cummins portray their women characters in completely different lights. One of the biggest criticisms about sentimental and antebellum literature is that the entire plot revolves around a woman trying to find a husband. In the first novel there is a feminist character who slowly changes her tune over time, in the other novel the female lead mostly adheres to the standards set forth at the time. While both of them have a little

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance and Maria Susanna Cummins’ The Lamplighter are vastly different books. While originally published within two years of each other, both authors approached their writing through distinctive practices. Hawthorne failed to show development in a majority of his characters while Cummins’ novel is heavily loaded with positive character growth. After reading The Blithedale Romance and The Lamplighter, one of the main differences noted was that the development

In The Blithedale Romance, gender and the roles men and women should separately entertain are discussed several times, particularly through Coverdale’s narration and his conversation with Zenobia. Coverdale and Hollingsworth’s attitude towards women demonstrates their support, at times, of the separate spheres ideology where roles are determined based on gender. Coverdale comments on women’s appearance, while Hollingsworth observes women’s place in these separate spheres. Zenobia, contrarily, believes

Nathaniel Hawthorne used the term "romance" to refer to his longer fictions the year before writing The Blithedale Romance, he chose to define the term for the benefit of his readers: When a writer calls his work a romance, it need hardly be observed that he wishes to claim a certain latitude, both as to its fashion and material, which he would not have felt himself entitled to assume, had he professed to be writing a novel. The latter form of composition is presumed to aim at a very minute fidelity