Hawthorne’s Thank You, Next (His Third Novel)

Book: The Blithedale Romance

Author: National Hawthorne

In this novel, Hawthorne embodies the meaning of utopianism and its discontents. In the town of Blithedale, its participants are more involved with their own desires, needs, and dreams than Blithedale itself. Through a slight disappointing tone, Hawthorne demonstrates the failure that Blithedale faces when individuals cannot ignore their social class, intellectual levels,  and individual wants in order to form a community. Two other major themes in the novel are gender discrepancies and sex. Hawthorne comes to an interesting middle ground with women’s roles; he utilizes an encouraging tone when describing the main female character, Zenobia, yet he also views women traditionally in conjunction with their sexuality. The characters’ language is erotic with tension of many unfulfilled sexual desires, which is a topic that is not frequently touched upon in writing.

This piece of literature encapsulates the story of Miles Coverdale, a young poet who plans on joining the Blithedale community after seeing the popular Veiled Lady. Coverdale then meets Zenobia and becomes infatuated with her. New characters continue to be introduced as more problems arise in the seemingly perfect society. We realize that the work in the farm of each individual is unrewarding for all and disastrous for their economy in an attempt to fulfill the dreams of their small town.

I enjoy this book because it puts in perspective what happens when an individual’s desires outrank the ultimate goals of a community. It is also interesting to know that this novel is based on Hawthorne’s own experiences at Brook Farm, an experimental socialist group. His opinions on utopianism reflect on his tone and writing style, and it is intriguing to know that many of the characters in this novel are based on real people that Hawthorne has met. It illustrates the unsettling effects of selfishness when it comes to forgotten possibilities and all forms of relationships. One area that I didn’t like about this book is that there are so many characters, so it is a bit challenging to keep track of everyone and what part they play in the story. But overall, it has been a fantastic read about the potential beauty and eventual ugliness of society when we fail to empathize with those around us.