The Blithedale Romance

by

Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Priscilla / The Veiled Lady Character Analysis

Priscilla is Zenobia’s half-sister, Moodie’s daughter from his second marriage, the woman behind the Veiled Lady act, and a founding member of Blithedale. She is a quiet, deferential, and obedient person who—despite having a difficult past—finds joy in living at Blithedale. When Priscilla arrives at Blithedale, she immediately attaches herself to Zenobia, who does not yet know that Priscilla is her half-sister, or that Priscilla has specifically come to Blithedale to get to know her. While the two do grow close (despite Zenobia’s annoyance at Priscilla’s clingy and subservient personality), the major fault-line of their relationship is that they both love Hollingsworth, and Zenobia senses that Hollingsworth loves Priscilla, too. Zenobia’s jealousy creates some tension between the two women, but Priscilla is so trusting and loving that she doesn’t seem to sense it. This makes Priscilla vulnerable, and Zenobia betrays her by handing her over to the sinister mesmerist Professor Westervelt, who manipulates and controls Priscilla, making her part of his stage act in which she wears a veil and performs mystical feats. However, Priscilla’ deep love for Hollingsworth proves stronger than her obedience to Westervelt. When Hollingsworth shows up at a Veiled Lady performance and tells Priscilla to come with him, she walks offstage and joins him, eventually becoming his wife. The love between Priscilla and Hollingsworth leads Zenobia to kill herself in despair, but nonetheless, Priscilla and Hollingsworth remain together at the story’s end. In general, Priscilla, is willing to do, say, or believe whatever those around her tell her to (at one point, she even tells Coverdale that she has no free will), and this makes her a good match for the chauvinist and controlling Hollingsworth.

Priscilla / The Veiled Lady Quotes in The Blithedale Romance

The The Blithedale Romance quotes below are all either spoken by Priscilla / The Veiled Lady or refer to Priscilla / The Veiled Lady. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Self-Interest and Utopian Societies Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

“Did you ever see a happy woman in your life? Of course, I do not mean a girl—like Priscilla, and a thousand others, for they are all alike, while on the sunny side of experience—but a grown woman. How can she be happy, after discovering that fate has assigned her but one single event, which she must contrive to make the substance of her whole life? A man has his choice of innumerable events.”

Related Characters: Zenobia (speaker), Miles Coverdale, Priscilla / The Veiled Lady
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Thus, as my conscience has often whispered me, I did Hollingsworth a great wrong by prying into his character, and am perhaps doing him as great a one, at this moment, by putting faith in the discoveries which I seemed to make. But I could not help it. Had I loved him less, I might have used him better. He—and Zenobia and Priscilla, both for their own sakes and as connected with him—were separated from the rest of the Community, to my imagination, and stood forth as the indices of a problem which it was my business to solve.

Related Characters: Miles Coverdale (speaker), Zenobia, Hollingsworth, Priscilla / The Veiled Lady
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:

“For, little as we know of our life to come, we may be very sure, for one thing, that the good we aim at will not be attained. People never do get just the good they seek. If it come at all, it is something else, which they never dreamed of, and did not particularly want. Then, again, we may rest certain that our friends of to-day will not be our friends of a few years hence; but, if we keep one of them, it will be at the expense of the others—and, most probably, we shall keep none.”

Related Characters: Miles Coverdale (speaker), Priscilla / The Veiled Lady
Page Number: 75-76
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

How strangely she had been betrayed! Blazoned abroad as a wonder of the world, and performing what were adjudged as miracles—in the faith of many, a seeress and a prophetess—in the harsher judgment of others, a mountebank—she had kept, as I religiously believe, her virgin reserve and sanctity of soul, throughout it all. Within that encircling veil, though an evil hand had flung it over her, there was as deep a seclusion as if this forsaken girl had, all the while, been sitting under the shadow of Eliot’s pulpit, in the Blithedale woods, at the feet of him who now summoned her to the shelter of his arms. And the true heart-throb of a woman’s affection was too powerful for the jugglery that had hitherto environed her.

Related Characters: Miles Coverdale (speaker), Hollingsworth, Priscilla / The Veiled Lady, Professor Westervelt
Related Symbols: The Veil
Page Number: 203
Explanation and Analysis:
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Priscilla / The Veiled Lady Quotes in The Blithedale Romance

The The Blithedale Romance quotes below are all either spoken by Priscilla / The Veiled Lady or refer to Priscilla / The Veiled Lady. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Self-Interest and Utopian Societies Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

“Did you ever see a happy woman in your life? Of course, I do not mean a girl—like Priscilla, and a thousand others, for they are all alike, while on the sunny side of experience—but a grown woman. How can she be happy, after discovering that fate has assigned her but one single event, which she must contrive to make the substance of her whole life? A man has his choice of innumerable events.”

Related Characters: Zenobia (speaker), Miles Coverdale, Priscilla / The Veiled Lady
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Thus, as my conscience has often whispered me, I did Hollingsworth a great wrong by prying into his character, and am perhaps doing him as great a one, at this moment, by putting faith in the discoveries which I seemed to make. But I could not help it. Had I loved him less, I might have used him better. He—and Zenobia and Priscilla, both for their own sakes and as connected with him—were separated from the rest of the Community, to my imagination, and stood forth as the indices of a problem which it was my business to solve.

Related Characters: Miles Coverdale (speaker), Zenobia, Hollingsworth, Priscilla / The Veiled Lady
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:

“For, little as we know of our life to come, we may be very sure, for one thing, that the good we aim at will not be attained. People never do get just the good they seek. If it come at all, it is something else, which they never dreamed of, and did not particularly want. Then, again, we may rest certain that our friends of to-day will not be our friends of a few years hence; but, if we keep one of them, it will be at the expense of the others—and, most probably, we shall keep none.”

Related Characters: Miles Coverdale (speaker), Priscilla / The Veiled Lady
Page Number: 75-76
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

How strangely she had been betrayed! Blazoned abroad as a wonder of the world, and performing what were adjudged as miracles—in the faith of many, a seeress and a prophetess—in the harsher judgment of others, a mountebank—she had kept, as I religiously believe, her virgin reserve and sanctity of soul, throughout it all. Within that encircling veil, though an evil hand had flung it over her, there was as deep a seclusion as if this forsaken girl had, all the while, been sitting under the shadow of Eliot’s pulpit, in the Blithedale woods, at the feet of him who now summoned her to the shelter of his arms. And the true heart-throb of a woman’s affection was too powerful for the jugglery that had hitherto environed her.

Related Characters: Miles Coverdale (speaker), Hollingsworth, Priscilla / The Veiled Lady, Professor Westervelt
Related Symbols: The Veil
Page Number: 203
Explanation and Analysis: