Professor Westervelt Character Analysis

Professor Westervelt is the enigmatic magician who controls the Veiled Lady. It’s also implied that he is Zenobia’s estranged husband whose cruelty made her flee their marriage. Both Westervelt’s physical appearance and his behavior are sinister and deceptive. He has dazzling white teeth, but there is a golden rod in his mouth, which indicates that his teeth—like his personality—are false. He is very handsome and well-dressed, and he uses a cane that has a snake’s head on the top, which contributes to the rumors that he’s demonic and dangerous. Westervelt first enters the narrative when Miles Coverdale runs into him in the woods surrounding Blithedale. Coverdale immediately takes a disliking to him, despite not knowing who he is, and he is suspicious when Westervelt asks about Zenobia and Priscilla, indicating that the three are connected. While Hawthorne never fully reveals the nature of the connection between these three characters, it’s clear that Westervelt has tremendous power over both Zenobia and Priscilla. Zenobia asks God to release her from whatever connection she has with Westervelt (likely a marriage), which supports the idea that Westervelt is evil and possibly has supernatural demonic powers. (If Zenobia needs God’s help to get free of him, then Westervelt’s influence must be stronger than a mere marriage contract.) He also has tremendous power over Priscilla; once Zenobia betrays Priscilla and hands her over to Westervelt (possibly because Westervelt blackmailed her), Priscilla tells Coverdale that she has no free will. She becomes the Veiled Lady in Westervelt’s mesmerism shows, where she follows all his orders and he exploits her for his own financial gain, highlighting his belief that other people are just tools for him to use. Westervelt takes his influence over other people for granted, which makes it doubly devastating for him when Priscilla runs away with Hollingsworth and Zenobia commits suicide.