The Blithedale Romance contains many symbols of sexual desire, such as Priscilla's purses, which become recurring motifs of purity and hiddenness. In Chapter 5, the narrator describes her handiwork:

She now produced, out of a work-bag that she had with her, some little wooden instruments[...]and proceeded to knit, or net, an article which ultimately took the shape of a silk purse. As the work went on, I remembered to have seen just such purses, before. Indeed, I was the possessor of one. Their peculiar excellence, besides the great delicacy and beauty of the manufacture, lay in the almost impossibility that any uninitiated person should discover the aperture; although, to a practised touch, they would open as wide as charity or prodigality might wish. I wondered if it were not a symbol of Priscilla’s own mystery.

Like Priscilla herself, the purses are delicate, beautiful, and "peculiar." They can be opened only by the maker or by those who have a "practised touch." Many phrases in this passage connote sexual purity, and the narrator explicitly wonders if the purses are a "symbol of Priscilla's own mystery." But what mystery? That of her strange disposition? Or the mystery of the adult world to her innocent purity? The latter idea seems more probable because Priscilla's purity makes her attractive to men: both Hollingsworth and Coverdale fall in love with her simple, girlish presence.

The purses also serve as a symbol of female value in Chapter 9, when the narrator claims that Priscilla remains "unserviceable" except for her needlework:

[...]except with her needle, and those little wooden instruments for purse-making – [Priscilla] was as unserviceable a member of society as any young lady in the land. There was no other sort of efficiency about her. Yet everybody was kind to Priscilla; everybody loved her, and laughed at her, to her face, and did not laugh, behind her back; everybody would have given her half of his last crust, or the bigger share of his plum-cake.

Here, Coverdale says that pursemaking is Priscilla's only talent—just as being beautiful and feminine was often considered a woman's only calling. She is "unserviceable" and inefficient, but just as the purses themselves are beautiful, so is Priscilla, and everyone genuinely seems to like her. At the end of the novel, Priscilla cares for Hollingsworth, and she proves her practical worth beyond the purses. Throughout the story, this recurring motif emphasizes the novel's themes of sexuality, purity, and a woman's role in the Blithedale project.