Principle in understanding Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance must be a discussion of Miles Coverdale’s dreams regarding the other characters in the narrative. As many critics have noted, Hawthorne makes use of dreams as means to an understanding of that which is hidden in the world in many of his works, and the dream is “the point of view essential for reading Hawthorne”. In The Blithedale Romance, the dream is chiefly employed as a means to discovery and wish fulfillment in Miles Coverdale’s life, particularly in regard to his sexual attraction to Zenobia, and possibly to Hollingsworth. By the use of the dream as a literary device, Hawthorne gives us as readers access to information that would have either been impractical or improper due to social standards at the time to give us explicitly, and lets us know what is really happening with Miles Coverdale in The Blithedale Romance.
-Rob DiMarco
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