The community of Blithedale appears to be an attractive lifestyle for its inhabitants. From what I understand they go there in search of happiness, whatever that may mean to the individuals. It seems that at the community, they base their lives on hard work; men working in the fields, and women in the house. What this is descriptive of, in a larger sense, is the whole transcendental movement occurring at this time.
Transcendentalists held Nature (not nature) in high regard, and chose to live more simply than those within towns and modern communities. Hawthorne, through Coverdale’s first statements of the Blithedale community, shows his appeal to this simpler way of life.
I observed that, though Coverdale (and the other inhabitants) came to Blithedale in search of happiness, he never appeared to achieve his goal. Where he had been an intellectual before, and unhappy with this, he turned into a toiling man, and was still unhappy with this. What’s important about this is that without any greater happiness, Coverdale had to change his ways, and act as someone other than he truly was, to fit in with the community. I get the sense that most of the Blithedale inhabitants had to change themselves to be a part of this community, and to what avail?
It is not my purpose, as I am sure it was not Hawthorne’s, to discredit this idea of a simpler, happier lifestyle, as it surely is appealing. The main thing was, though, that people are prone to corruption, hypocrisy, and manipulation, as Hollingsworth, Zenobia, and Priscilla proved. Even Coverdale, after all of his experiences, is none the happier for taking part in this community. This illustrates what I gather to be Hawthorne’s perspective of Transcendentalism: that the idea of such a way of life is immensely more satisfying than the actual thing.
Your post illustrates that, in effect, what the Blithedalers bring with them is what they reap in the end. Coverdale is no more happy, and no one seemed able to change sufficiently.
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