Reading 1001 discussion

Review thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

1. What are the principles of Blithedale, and what do its inhabitants really want?

2. How does the novel uphold or critique the values of the American Transcendentalists?

3. What is the significance of the continuing metaphors of drama and the stage in the novel?

4. What might the references to fire in the story signify?

5. What does Hawthorne symbolize with his references to nature, and do they represent one great opinion or singular metaphors?

6. Discuss themes such as secrecy and self-deception, manipulation and control, and progressive versus traditional gender roles.

7. What is the significance of the dove and to whom might it refer?

8. Why does Coverdale fail to meet up with Zenobia and Priscilla in town, and what does he long for after this event?

9. Who is the first person to fling earth into Zenobia's grave?

10. What does Moodie tell Coverdale was the only thing he was interested in during his younger years?

Diane wrote: "6. Discuss themes such as secrecy and self-deception, manipulation and control, and progressive versus traditional gender roles..."

I read this book as a comment on how reform is essentially impossible, both at the individual and societal level. In the context of question number 6 my interpretation would refer then to self-deception.

I describe this more fully in my review, but I feel like Hawthorne shows here how deeply rooted our innate tendencies are, and that trying to change them is basically a waste of time. He shows us as lazy, detached and our idealized goals as usually impractical. Even the most ambitious and honorable of the characters here does not fully release herself from the roots of her past. I was not expecting this subtext. His argument suggests, I think, why change happens usually incrementally, and why sudden swift movements usually flare out.

1. What are the principles of Blithedale, and what do its inhabitants really want?

I assumed that the community was based on the New England brand of socialist utopian ideals in which the people did share their labor but the core goal was based on Transcendentalism, in which the individuals were able to aspire to spiritual and moral heights, while supporting each other in a beautiful rural environment. In the conclusion of the novel, our narrator speaks of Fourierism and how that took root in the community which hastened its decline. Fourierism was a utopian ideal that was more strictly speaking about labor rather than common cause.

2. How does the novel uphold or critique the values of the American Transcendentalists?

Although our narrator yearns for the Transcendental ideal, he also pokes fun at it by pointing out that an individual ego's aspirations will rarely allow for the good of the whole.

3. What is the significance of the continuing metaphors of drama and the stage in the novel?

Everyone is playing their part. Zenobia in particular is playing the vibrant core of the community, standing up for the rights of women until they come up against her love of an egotistical individual. She plays the queen. Many of the community members play the part of a yeomen and certainly our narrator is happy to labor but is under no delusion that his labor will help his poetry.

4. What might the references to fire in the story signify?

When associated with Zenobia, it tends to refer to her passionate nature. It sometimes seems to refer to the danger of passionate reform movements that rise up and die out because they are based on emotion rather than clear thinking.

5. What does Hawthorne symbolize with his references to nature, and do they represent one great opinion or singular metaphors?

Hawthorne associated with Transcendentalists but saw too clearly the dark side of movement. However, many of his references to nature reflected the Transcendentalist love of nature and also his dark fear that nature didn't really care about what people thought or did.


6. Discuss themes such as secrecy and self-deception, manipulation and control, and progressive versus traditional gender roles.

Hawthorne does pit the characters against each other quite a bit. Zenobia is a free (independently wealthy and unmarried) soul and yet she craters to a subservient role when she is attempting to win Hollingsworth's love. Priscilla is subservient in almost all cases to her father, Zenobia, and Hollingsworth. Westervelt represents the practical ideal which is close to "evil", in that he uses the people around him for his own ends. Hollingsworth hides nothing but manipulates for his great cause. Even our narrator hides his core emotion from us until the end.

1. What are the principles of Blithedale, and what do its inhabitants really want? nature, societal corruption, social reform

2. How does the novel uphold or critique the values of the American Transcendentalists?
individualism,
self-reliance, I thought there was a "community" they were seeking in the book
divinity of nature
(there is nothing really new here, Americans in general like individualism but mankind tends to strive for these things.

3. What is the significance of the continuing metaphors of drama and the stage in the novel? Coverdale is aloof from everything and observing meaning he really isn't participating.

4. What might the references to fire in the story signify? warmth and comfort of community and fervent idealism. The fire burns out symbolizes the future failure. The weakening fire symbolizes the loss of idealism.

5. What does Hawthorne symbolize with his references to nature, and do they represent one great opinion or singular metaphors?
Nature as alluring and dangerous

6. Discuss themes such as secrecy and self-deception, manipulation and control, and progressive versus traditional gender roles. there is secrecy and deceptions from the start with two sisters not knowing they are sisters.

7. What is the significance of the dove and to whom might it refer? dove's represent peace

8. Why does Coverdale fail to meet up with Zenobia and Priscilla in town, and what does he long for after this event? he is spying on them

9. Who is the first person to fling earth into Zenobia's grave? Professor Westervelt is the first person to throw dirt into Zenobia's grave. This act is highly significant because the custom of the time typically reserved this privilege for spouses or close family members, emphasizing the deep, meaningful, and potentially secret relationship Westervelt had with Zenobia, a relationship Zenobia herself wanted God to release her from.

10. What does Moodie tell Coverdale was the only thing he was interested in during his younger years? wealth and worldly position

1. What are the principles of Blithedale, and what do its inhabitants really want?
Blithedale is organized according to socialist principles; the equal sharing of work and the product of that work – food, housing, money (if any). The introduction to the Penguin edition is helpful in establishing the historical context for experiments like this; the financial panic of 1837 led to the failure of farms and a migration of rural dwellers to increasingly industrialized urban areas. In cities, living conditions were dirty and crowded, and people worked indoors for low wages. Hence, a nostalgia grew for an agrarian past where people lived and worked in a healthier environment, closer to nature and to benefit their own families, neighbors, towns, not some unknown, wealthy factory owner.

Hollingsworth, however, wants to use the project as a starting point for his great philanthropy, the reform school for criminals. And regardless of what the others (Coverdale, Zenobia) want from the experiment, they are free to leave whenever they want. As Coverdale muses in chapter 4, “Though we saw fit to drink our tea out of earthen cups tonight, and in earthen company, it was at our own option to use picture porcelain and handle silver forks again tomorrow. This same salvo, as to the power of regaining our former position, contributed much, I fear to the equanimity with which w subsequently bore many of the hardships… of a life of toil.” He goes on to say that if he ever deserved to be “cuffed,” it was when he was condescending to a working-class person by trying to prove himself free of class consciousness.

2. How does the novel uphold or critique the values of the American Transcendentalists?
The experiment turns out to be a failure, so in that regard the book critiques the idea of an agrarian utopia. On the other hand, the humans are the ones who fail.

3. What is the significance of the continuing metaphors of drama and the stage in the novel?
In the preface, Hawthorne says that he is using the location as a “theater,” removed from the real world, where his characters can play out his antics. He seems to want the reader to know that this isn’t the real world (i.e., Brook farm, where he lived and worked), nor is it a “realistic” fictional world.

I also think it’s about Coverdale, who is removed from the central love triangle. In chapter 11, Coverdale compares himself to a Greek chorus – he is “aloof” from personal involvement in the action but still cares about it. Chapter 17, “The Hotel,” is almost entirely devoted to describing the view from his window, almost as if it were a theatrical stage. And in chapter 18, these analogies continue, as Coverdale starts longing for a catastrophe which would end the Zenobia/Hollingworth/Priscilla drama and, the curtain having fallen, he can go on with his life, taking whatever lesson or moral he might.

5. What does Hawthorne symbolize with his references to nature, and do they represent one great opinion or singular metaphors?
Living and working in nature is shown to be beneficial to humans, as opposed to be trapped in urban living and working environments. These unhealthy and unnatural conditions are blamed for Priscilla’s enduring frailty as well as her unearthly appearance. Zenobia, on the other hand, is associated with a kind of “false nature,” the hot-house flowers she constantly wears. Perhaps this is a symbol of how her wealth had enabled her to benefit from healthier food, activities, locations.

6. Discuss themes such as secrecy and self-deception, manipulation and control, and progressive versus traditional gender roles.
I'm going to focus on gender roles. Regardless of how progressive Blithedale might hope to be, gender is one area where it is quite traditional. One of the first chapters notes that men will do the physical labor outside and women will continue to work solely in the domestic realm.

Chapter 14 deals with gender roles very specifically. Hollingsworth basically says that women are “monsters” if their actions, beliefs, energies are not directed in support of a man: she must the Sympathizer, the Believer, the Recognizer. He goes on to proclaim that if women were to attain equality, men should use their physical strength – “unmistakable evidence of their sovereignty” – to beat them back. But that won’t be necessary, because most women know their true place. UGH. Coverdale is right to be bewildered as to why Priscilla and Zenobia should find Hollingworth so appealing, especially after espousing these views. But he acknowledges that women always behave that way, maybe because they have suffered centuries of degradation.

In chapter 26, Zenobia notes that the world makes common cause against the woman who swerves one hair’s breadth out of the beaten track…” and adds that the woman who does this never sees the world the same way again. And the novel is just this conservative, as the innocent and childlike Priscilla is “awarded” the love of Hollingsworth, whereas Zenobia must be punished.

8. Why does Coverdale fail to meet up with Zenobia and Priscilla in town, and what does he long for after this event?
He does see them in town, albeit quite accidentally, first spying them from his hotel window and later going to visit them because he is curious about why they are there with Westervelt. So I’m not sure what this question refers to …?

9. Who is the first person to fling earth into Zenobia's grave?
Westervelt, who I assume was her lover and/or husband.

I am running out of energy since this has been a long day trying to catch up goodreads, but I will try some few thoughts:

1) i see the main theme here as "pride cometh before a fall" which is the problem of the self-deception of the Blithedale experiment. The principles all want different things, but they all have in common that they think they know the way to perfect human nature and bring Eden to earth.
2) Although I think Hawthorne has great affection for people who wish this as individuals, he also sees this as folly because humanity is too deeply flawed.
3 and 5) I agree with others above - the theater is artificial and nature is its opposite. The seekers here are trying to be in nature but actually create a theater out of their surroundings rather than really join in to the natural environment and life of a peasant.

6) Westervelt seems to me to be an interesting devil like character who tempts Zenobia into betraying herself - trying to get rid of her rival and thus losing her integrity - which is a return to the blood origin in some ways since she comes from a rich and manipulative line. This turns into a very christian theme. But I didn't get the sense that Hawthorne was condemning her feminist views at the same time that he was condemning her.