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The Blithedale Romance

Kellyanne Lynch
Dr. Forter
ENGL 285
20 October 2000
Freedom in The Blithedale Romance In The Blithedale Romance, the narrator, Miles Coverdale, believes that freedom came from apathy, and that emotions enslave individuals. He thinks that Zenobia loses her freedom to Hollingsworth by loving him, and he fears that he will lose his freedom if he loves another. Ultimately, he loves and feels that he loses his individuality, which he views as freedom. The author, however, may not have held the same views as his narrator.
Miles believes that Zenobia loses her freedom to Hollingsworth. He first meets Zenobia on page 14 of the novel. She offers him her hand, which he describes as “soft and warm”. The last time she extends her hand to Miles, he describes it as cold (Hawthorne 227). Miles does not view a handshake as mere formality; he considers it a “free, whole-souled gesture”. By “free”, he means that one initiates a handshake of his own accord. By “whole-souled”, he implies that the one who initiates a handshake is not only offering his hand but is offering his soul. Therefore, a handshake is a symbol of an individual’s offering of his soul to another. Miles views Zenobia as one who gives herself to others.

Hollingsworth, on the other hand, is one who takes from others. Starting on the bottom of page 28, Miles says, “Hollingsworth first met Zenobia’s eyes, and began his influence upon her life.” One can see Hollingsworth’s influence on Zenobia by the way she shrinks back. Shortly after Miles meets her, Zenobia talks about women’s rights (16), and she mentions the subject again on page 60. When she is with Priscilla, Miles, and Hollingsworth at Elliot’s pulpit, she seems the most committed to speaking out for her cause (120). Her arguments are the strongest, just before Hollingsworth voices his disapproval (122, 123). She replies in a submissive manner. When Miles asks her later if she will deliver women’s rights speeches, she says, “Women possess no rights” (141). Throughout the remainder of the novel, Zenobia is relatively quiet, until she becomes disenchanted with Hollingsworth. By then, she has offered up her soul to him.
Zenobia verbalises her defeat on page 215, where she describes Hollingsworth as a judge, who condemned her in secret. She says that his “judgement-seat” is the only one “that a true woman stands in awe of, and that any verdict short of acquittal is equivalent to a death-sentence.” She is saying that love is the only way that a woman can prove herself, that a woman must offer her soul to a man as a means of gaining his approval. If he does not acquit her, i.e. pronounce her innocent, he will find her wanting. In Zenobia’s eyes, if she loves a man who does not love her back, she is better off dead.

On page 222, Miles sees Zenobia at her weakest. He finds that a woman who was once strong is now broken. His description of her is as follows: “Her face and brow were almost purple with the rush of blood. They whitened, however, by-and-by, and, for some time, retained this deathlike hue (223).” Purple tones that turn to white are characteristic of frostbite; Hawthorne would have known this, since he is from Massachusetts. Miles is watching Zenobia grow colder before his eyes, as she is experiencing the aftermath of unrequited love. Before she departs, Zenobia says that she is going into a nunnery, suggesting that she wants to separate herself from human affection. Instead, she commits suicide to detach herself from others. Miles may now view detachment as a viable solution (227).
Miles fears losing his freedom to others. On page 89, he feels a need to escape from Blithedale for the day. He states that, “Unless renewed by yet farther withdrawal towards the inner circle of self-communion, I lost the better part of my individuality”. By saying that solitude can renew him, he is saying that he can obtain strength from within. He is also saying that the outside world wearies him. He refers to his solitude as “self-communion”, which appears to be a contradiction of terms. Communion refers to the sharing of thoughts or feelings. If Miles is alone, then he has no one with whom to share. Communion, however, also refers to a religious activity. In Christianity, it is the partaking of unleavened bread and fruit of the vine, symbols of Christ’s body. Christians participate in communion as a means of renewing their commitment to Christ. “Self-communion” could be the partaking of ones own body, a means of renewing ones commitment to oneself. This partaking could also be symbolic, such as in the digestion of ones thoughts. This idea of personal religion is supported further when he refers to the wood path as a “green cathedral”, suggesting that the place for individuality is apart from others.

In this state of “self-communion”, a stranger interrupts Miles (90). This intrusion of another person tears Miles from his “spiritual state”. He refers to the interruption as “a grievous injury.” He also says: “unless there be real affection in his heart, a man cannot…more effectually show his contempt for a brother-mortal, nor more gallingly assume a position of superiority, than by addressing him as ‘friend’.” He is saying that, not only is the stranger being disrespectful, but also he has the nerve to dominate. The way the stranger does this is by calling him “friend”. Miles views the stranger’s interrupting his “self-communion” as disrespect; he views the stranger’s use of the word “friend” as a means to dominate. By implying that Miles is his friend, the stranger is claiming that Miles has an emotional bond with him. The stranger corrupts Miles’ building of individuality and demands, with the word “friend”, that Miles invest his strength in feeling emotions for the stranger. Therefore, the stranger’s intrusion upon Miles’ solitude is a threat against his individuality.
Another instance of Miles finding freedom of individuality through solitude is in the passage about his hermitage (98, 99). This hiding place relates to Miles’ sense of individuality. It is something about which only he knows, and he considers it his own possession. By saying that the hermitage keeps his individuality “inviolate”, he is saying that part of his identity remains secret; nobody can corrupt what he or she does not know about. He displays mistrust for everyone in the Blithedale community. He fears that they might deceive him. By denying them the knowledge of this place, Miles keeps a portion of himself untouchable; a portion of himself is free.

Miles fears that other people will take away his individuality, and with it, his freedom. On page 147, he talks about a book he is reading. He says: “My book was of the dullest, yet had a sort of sluggish flow, like that of a stream in which your boat is as often aground as afloat. Had there been a more impetuous rush, a more absorbing passion of the narrative, I should the sooner have struggled out of its uneasy current, and have given myself up to the swell and subsidence of my thoughts. But, as it was, the torpid life of the book served as an unobtrusive accompaniment to the life within me and about me.” He is reading a book that is so boring that it sometimes does not go anywhere, i.e. goes “aground”; however, he fears something that would make him too emotionally involved. What he fears is something with “a more impetuous rush”, something that pushes him in a direction in which he does not choose. He enjoys the freedom of his own thoughts and finds them a peaceful sanctuary. Therefore, he will only involve himself in activities that are “torpid”, that do not get him emotionally involved or impose themselves upon him.
Nevertheless, Miles becomes emotionally involved with the people of Blithedale. On page 194, he talks about how he cannot stop thinking about Hollingsworth, Priscilla, and Zenobia. He says, “These three had absorbed my life into themselves.” Though he fights against it, Miles grows to love his three friends and loses himself to them. He becomes cold, like Zenobia. On page 19, he describes the cold when he first enters Blithedale. His attention to this detail suggests that he is feeling cold, because he will later lose himself to those he loves. He also describes himself as “a frosty bachelor”. By frosty, he is saying that love touched him and took away part of his soul. When he calls himself a bachelor, he draws attention to the fact that he is unmarried.

     Miles is especially interested in Zenobia. Though he has mixed feelings for Zenobia, Miles loves her. When they meet, Zenobia pays him a compliment concerning his poetry, which he refers to as “inestimable praise from Zenobia” (14). He says this line aloud to her and blushes, suggesting that he is flirting with her. He proceeds to check her out (15), showing a little too much attention to her appearance. On several occasions, he breaks into descriptions of Zenobia, such as the one on page 44, painting her as regal and intelligent. On other occasions, he tries to detach himself from Zenobia by slighting her throughout the narrative. Still, he becomes emotionally involved with her. One might argue that he loved Priscilla; however, his claim of loving her was really an attempt at freedom. Throughout the book, Miles describes Priscilla as weak, or as a ghost when she is the Veiled Lady. Priscilla, like Miles’ boring book, is not a threat.
     Miles thinks of Zenobia, even when she is not physically present. He thinks about her at the hotel, after he leaves Blithedale. He thinks about her before and after he learns that she is living in the house next door. Again, Miles thinks about her after her final discourse (228). He says, “I seemed to feel her eyes upon me. It was as if the vivid coloring of her character had left a brilliant stain upon the air. By degrees, however, the impression grew less distinct.” Even at her weakest, Zenobia is able to impose herself upon Miles’ consciousness. Her character only becomes “vivid” and “brilliant” to the reader after Miles takes painstaking work in recreating her in words. He has imprinted Zenobia into his mind by loving her.
     Miles’ feelings for Zenobia weaken him. Immediately following, he says, “I was listless, worn-out with emotions on my own behalf, and sympathy for others, and had no heart to leave my comfortless lair, beneath the rock.” Intense emotions leave him without energy to move of his own accord. His sympathy for Zenobia causes him to fall under the weight of her emotional toils, i.e. the rock. He loses the ability to consider his own thoughts, because her emotions weigh him down. His keeping of her shoe (232) is not only an act of fetishism, but it is a symbol of his lost freedom.
     Though Miles feels that freedom comes by apathy, passages throughout the novel indicate that Hawthorne does not feel the same way. An essential passage is on page 104, where Miles says, “but real life never arranges itself like a romance.” The name of the book includes the word “romance”. In effect, this statement suggests that Miles contrived the story into a romance. He admits that he distorts how people really are. He says that he views people from a distance, isolates details that interest him, and connect them to create “a monster” (69).
     Hawthorne’s views manage to seep into the narrative in the form of Miles’ subconscious. On pages 98 and 99, Miles describes his hermitage as a good place; however, certain words slip into his description that implies that the hermitage is not good. Miles seems to enjoy his hermitage, spending an extensive amount of time there. Hawthorne is saying, through Miles’ subconscious, that the hermitage is death. Such words as “twisted”, “caught hold”, “entanglement”, “hollow”, and “decay” express the negativity of Miles’ hermitage, i.e. his detachment from others. He uses the words “lovingly strangled with its embrace” to describe his surroundings. The hermitage holds Miles tight in the name of love, but it is choking and “burying” him. Solitude, once considered a righteous entity, becomes oppressive. The danger of Miles’ hermitage is death; his solitude is a “sepulchre”, or tomb.
     Later, when Miles returns to his hermitage, he finds that it has yielded grapes (208). These grapes are the fruits of the hermitage, i.e. what the hermitage produces. They are “intoxicating”, indicating that they cloud an individual’s thinking. Hawthorne may be suggesting that the hermitage imbibes Miles and leads him into believing that solitude is better than community. The grapes are also “passionate”. The hermitage introduces Miles to a different form of emotion. Miles becomes wrapped up in himself and his own thoughts; therefore, he still feels emotions, which enslaved him. In essence, he enslaves himself with his self-absorption.
     Miles may believe that freedom comes from apathy; however, Hawthorne, apparently, does not hold the same view. He may view Zenobia’s suicide and Miles’ loss of freedom as not a result of loving others, but because they excessively love themselves.

Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Blithedale Romance. New York: Penguin Books, 1986.

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