Coverdale’s view of Zenobia and women reformers

“…women, however intellectually superior, so seldom disquiet themselves about the rights or wrongs of their sex, unless their own individual affections chance to lie in idleness, or to be ill at ease. They are not natural reformers, but become such by the pressure of exceptional misfortune. I could measure Zenobia’s inward trouble, by the animosity with which she now took up the general quarrel of woman against man.”
–The Blithedale Romance (126)

Someone please slap Coverdale in the face.

Okay, first of all, kudos to Hawthorne for creating one of the most debilitatingly obnoxious narrators ever. Well, maybe not ever. But still.

In any case, I am not entirely certain what this is supposed to mean. I don’t know if Coverdale is supposed to be a reflection of those people who populated Brookfarm, the majority of those people, the minority of those people, or just one person in particular (perhaps Hawthorne himself?). Or perhaps he represents a certain kind of person, one possessing a certain philosophy/mentality and who, given statistical probability, would probably have made him/herself present in the Brookfarm community.

I’m also a little interested (if not entirely unsurprised) by the way Priscilla is regarded by her neighbors/“new family.” I can’t help but be reminded of Pleyel and the way that he regarded Clara when she attempted to reason with him over her supposedly ruined virtue. The more coherent, logical and intelligent Clara sounded, the more Pleyel resisted her and turned the cold shoulder—the more he seemed to be repulsed by her. But then, the second she would let up, or succumb to some form of “feminine weakness” (i.e. fainting), he was all about her. In that way, I understand that vulnerability is apparently a very appealing quality for women to have—at least in the eyes of these men in question. However, Zenobia offers the opposite, and is also respected and loved, but in an entirely different way. Sometimes I wonder if Zenobia is found appealing despite her strength of mind and stoutness of character, as though these traits are unfamiliar or unconventional and appealing if only for the sense that they are, in some ways, forbidden? Not forbidden forbidden, but more like…the female equivalent of the “bad boy”—the one you don’t take home to have dinner with your parents. But I want to read more before I decide. (Of course, both women, it must be noted, are equally lusted after for their beauty more than anything else. Also proximity might have something to do with that. And also lack of other options.).

I guess I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with this, except to say that so far, after reading 60+ pages of “Blithedale”—I have established (among many, many other yet to be mentioned things) that 1) I am not a fan of Coverdale. And 2) I am very interested in exploring these two supposedly opposing virtues/characteristics in our leading women, and what means what in terms of how they are perceived by their fellow Blithedalers. Particularly the men.

Also, Zenobia and Priscilla have an extremely interesting, very complicated relationship. What’s up with that? I will think on this.

Class Tomorrow Canceled

No class tomorrow, Monday, 2/1. Please keep reading The Blithedale, using the syllabus as your guide.

I thought I would share a quotation from this first section. Feel free to comment on it, or post your own.

“…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….She was dressed as simply as possible…but with a silken kerchief, between which and her gown there was one glimpse of a white shoulder. It struck me as a great piece of good-fortune that there should be just that glimpse. Her hair–which was dark, glossy, and of singular abundance–was put up rather soberly and primly, without curls, or other ornament, except a single flower. It was an exotic, of rare beauty, and as fresh as if the hot-house gardener had just clipt it from the stem. That flower has struck deep root into my memory. I can both see it and smell it, at this moment” (47).