Secrets seemed to be a noteworthy theme in The Blithedale Romance and Coverdale seemed to know about most of them. Out of all of the characters, he seems to know all of the ins and outs. His business seems to be finding out secrets/information. It puts him in a pretty powerful position.
It becomes clear fairly early in the book that he wants control over connection. He wants to be placed above everyone else. Even though he becomes "friends" with Hollingsworth, it is also clear that Coverdale still thinks himself above Hollingsworth. This is most strongly shown when Coverdale and Hollingsworth have their huge falling out. Even though the two men are able to understand each other, they don't seem to be able to communicate as well as they should and it causes a breakdown of the relationship. This is in part to Coverdale placing himself above all others. After this fight in chapter XV: A Crisis, their relationship is never quite the same.
Coverdale seals himself off from people. He clearly wants to know others, but at the same time he doesn't want to connect with them (as seen when Zenobia asks him to look into her eyes). Even while meeting the stranger (later to find out he is Professor Westervelt) in the woods, Coverdale wants to hold himself above; to keep his position of power.
Which leads us back into secrets. Once Coverdale is in his place in the woods, he listens to everyone and everything. He watches and it is almost as if he waits for secret things to come to light under the shadows. This is where he overhears the conversation between Zenobia and Westervelt. At that point it is unclear what exactly the secret is, but Coverdale knows it and once again he is back in the position of power that he finds comfortable.
Coverdale seems to deal in secrets and in a way secrets are who Coverdale is. Without secrets he would have no power and without power he isn't Coverdale at all. But at the very end of the book, Coverdale chooses to tell his readers his big secret - he was in love with Priscilla all along. Honestly it wasn't that big of a secret, many of us sort of knew his feelings before he confessed them. It was almost as if he was giving readers some of his power, but in the end we already knew and there wasn't much power to be gained.
I agree that without power Coverdale is not himself. It is almost as if his own secret held no power, either for or against him. I think it was due to this that he was able to share his so called "secret" to the readers, whereas he kept other's secrets to himself giving him control over the novel as a whole in a way. He was the one character who had the most information throughout the novel, giving him the power that kept him in his comfort zone.
ReplyDeleteYes, that is exactly what I thought as well and it was the point I was trying to reach in this blog post.
DeleteI agree. The secrets give him power, and he seems to relish them even to the extent of making them up if he doesn't know one.
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