# XXVI: Zenobia and Coverdale explained — The Blithedale Romance

> Chapter companion for The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

## What happens

Coverdale finds Zenobia alone and grief-stricken after her confrontation with Hollingsworth. He feels a deep, almost priestly sympathy for her, but she initially mocks him, suggesting he will turn her tragedy into a ballad. Zenobia reflects on her fate, blaming the world's harshness toward women who deviate from the beaten path. She speaks bitterly of Hollingsworth and Priscilla, predicting Priscilla's early fading. She gives Coverdale her jeweled flower to deliver to Priscilla, bids him farewell, and departs into the woods. Coverdale, left alone, falls into a troubled sleep and awakens to the moonlight.

## Themes in this chapter

### Gender Roles and Women's Rights

Zenobia articulates the harsh double standard for women, stating that the universe conspires against any woman who steps 'one hair's-breadth out of the beaten track.'

### Love and Sacrifice

Zenobia's love for Hollingsworth is portrayed as a sacrifice that leaves her broken; she gives up her pride and her jeweled flower.

### Idealism vs. Reality

Zenobia dismisses the Blithedale experiment as a 'foolish dream' and a 'mockery,' contrasting its idealistic hopes with the harsh reality of her personal tragedy.

## Character check-ins

### Zenobia

Grief-stricken and defiant after Hollingsworth's rejection; she speaks of her doom, gives away her jeweled flower, and bids farewell to Coverdale.

### Miles Coverdale

Witnesses Zenobia's anguish, feels a deep sympathetic connection, and is asked to be a messenger to Hollingsworth.

### Mr. Hollingsworth

Referenced as the object of Zenobia's love and scorn; she accuses him of having a heart of ice but also defends him.

### Priscilla

Mentioned as Hollingsworth's choice; Zenobia predicts she will fade soon and sends her the jeweled flower.

## Key lines

> That, in the battlefield of life, the downright stroke, that would fall only on a man's steel headpiece, is sure to light on a woman's heart, over which she wears no breastplate, and whose wisdom it is, therefore, to keep out of the conflict.

In life's struggles, a blow that would merely glance off a man's armor strikes directly at a woman's unprotected heart, so a woman's wisdom is to avoid the fight altogether.

_Zenobia's bitter moral about the unequal burden of conflict on women._

> The whole universe, her own sex and yours, and Providence, or Destiny, to boot, make common cause against the woman who swerves one hair's-breadth out of the beaten track.

Everything—men, women, even fate itself—conspires against a woman who deviates even slightly from society's expected path.

_Zenobia's indictment of societal and cosmic injustice toward women._

> Tell him he has murdered me! Tell him that I'll haunt him!

Tell Hollingsworth that he has destroyed me, and that I will return as a ghost to torment him.

_Zenobia's wild, dramatic message for Hollingsworth, blending accusation and threat._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_blithedale_romance_se/chapters/xxvi-zenobia-and-coverdale
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_blithedale_romance_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_blithedale_romance_se/chapters