The Blithedale Romance · Chapter
VI: Coverdale’s Sick-Chamber explained
Coverdale falls ill after the first day at Blithedale and is nursed by Hollingsworth.
What happens
Coverdale falls ill after the first day at Blithedale and is nursed by Hollingsworth. He reflects on his past urban comforts and questions his commitment to the reformist enterprise. Zenobia visits him daily, bringing gruel and engaging in lively conversation, which leads Coverdale to ponder her character and the mystery surrounding her.
Themes in this chapter
Idealism vs. Reality
Coverdale's illness and regret contrast sharply with the high ideals of reforming society, highlighting the gap between aspiration and practical hardship.
Gender Roles and Women's Rights
Zenobia's role as a female reformer and her intellectual vigor challenge traditional gender expectations, though Coverdale notes her domestic shortcomings.
Secrecy and Identity
Coverdale is obsessed with uncovering the mystery of Zenobia's life, and she is aware of his probing glances, hinting at hidden depths.
Characters to notice
- Miles Coverdale
The narrator, lying sick in bed, regrets joining the Blithedale community and longs for his former comfortable life in town.
- Mr. Hollingsworth
Builds a fire in Coverdale's room, nurses him, and is described as a man of prayerful habits and inflexible purpose.
- Zenobia
Brings Coverdale gruel daily, converses vivaciously, wears a fresh exotic flower in her hair, and is perceived as a magnificent woman with a mysterious life.
- Silas Foster
Sounds the horn at daybreak, rousing the household; Zenobia asks him for firewood and water.
- Priscilla
Mentioned briefly; Coverdale cannot vouch for her morning habits.
Key passages
“The horn sounded at daybreak, as Silas Foster had forewarned us, harsh, uproarious, inexorably drawn out, and as sleep-dispelling as if this hard-hearted old yeoman had got hold of the trump of doom.”
At dawn, Silas Foster blew the horn loudly and relentlessly, waking everyone as if it were the last judgment.
Describes the jarring start to the day at Blithedale.
“It affected me with a deep reverence for Hollingsworth, which no familiarity then existing, or that afterwards grew more intimate between us—no, nor my subsequent perception of his own great errors—ever quite effaced.”
Hollingsworth's prayerfulness inspired a lasting respect in Coverdale that even later knowledge of his faults could not erase.
Coverdale's admiration for Hollingsworth's piety.
“Zenobia was truly a magnificent woman. The homely simplicity of her dress could not conceal, nor scarcely diminish, the queenliness of her presence.”
Zenobia's regal bearing and beauty were undeniable, even in her plain clothing.
Coverdale's impression of Zenobia's majestic appearance.
“I noticed—and wondered how Zenobia contrived it—that she had always a new flower in her hair. And still it was a hothouse flower—an outlandish flower—a flower of the tropics...”
Coverdale observed that Zenobia wore a different exotic flower in her hair each day, which seemed almost magical.
The recurring motif of the flower as a symbol of Zenobia's allure and mystery.
“The riddle made me so nervous, however, in my sensitive condition of mind and body, that I most ungratefully began to wish that she would let me alone.”
Coverdale's curiosity about Zenobia's secret became so unsettling that he wanted her to stop visiting.
Coverdale's conflicted feelings about Zenobia's attention.
