The Blithedale Romance · Chapter
XIII: Zenobia's Legend explained
The Blithedale community enjoys an evening of theatrical amusements, including tableaux vivants.
What happens
The Blithedale community enjoys an evening of theatrical amusements, including tableaux vivants. Zenobia, weary of the performances, offers to tell an impromptu legend. She narrates 'The Silvery Veil,' a fantastical story about the Veiled Lady, a magician, and a silvery veil used to ensnare a mysterious maiden. In a dramatic conclusion, Zenobia throws a piece of gauze over Priscilla, startling her and leaving the audience breathless.
Themes in this chapter
Secrecy and Identity
The Veiled Lady's hidden face and the legend's exploration of concealed identity highlight the theme of secrecy, as characters debate what lies beneath the veil.
The Role of the Artist
Zenobia's impromptu storytelling and dramatic flair illustrate the artist's power to create illusion and evoke emotion, blurring the line between reality and fiction.
Characters to notice
- Zenobia
Zenobia is the storyteller, weaving a legend about the Veiled Lady and using a piece of gauze to dramatically veil Priscilla at the story's climax.
- Priscilla
Priscilla is the subject of Zenobia's dramatic gesture; she is veiled with gauze and left visibly shaken, nearly fainting.
- Miles Coverdale
Coverdale narrates the chapter, describing the evening's entertainments and Zenobia's legend, and is called upon to fetch water for Priscilla.
- The Veiled Lady
The Veiled Lady is the central figure of Zenobia's legend, a mysterious performer who vanishes and is ultimately captured by a magician.
- Theodore
Theodore is a character within Zenobia's legend, a young gentleman who wagers to uncover the mystery of the Veiled Lady.
Key passages
“Zenobia had the gift of telling a fanciful little story, offhand, in a way that made it greatly more effective than it was usually found to be when she afterwards elaborated the same production with her pen.”
Zenobia was naturally talented at telling spontaneous stories, which were more captivating than her later written versions.
Coverdale comments on Zenobia's skill as a storyteller, emphasizing the power of oral performance over written narrative.
“Arriving at the catastrophe, and uttering the fatal words, she flung the gauze over Priscilla's head; and for an instant her auditors held their breath, half expecting, I verily believe, that the magician would start up through the floor, and carry off our poor little friend before our eyes.”
At the story's climax, Zenobia dramatically threw the gauze over Priscilla, startling the audience into expecting a supernatural event.
Coverdale describes the theatrical effect of Zenobia's legend, blurring the line between fiction and reality for the listeners.