ative portrayal of the utopian attempt at Blithedale shows him to be skeptical, at best, about human efforts to improve human behavior through the social and political systems. Does this mean, then, that Hawthorne---through his characters---has no hope for humanity?
To the contrary, after all is said and done, the novel is a romance, a story not of politics or sociology but of the human heart. Coverdale focuses on the damage Hollingsworth's reformist efforts have done to that reformer's heart, and it is Coverdale's own heart-felt romantic confession of love for Priscilla which closes the book: "The confession . . . will throw a gleam of light over my behavior . . . and is . . . essential to the full understanding of my story. . . . I---I myself---was in love---with---Priscilla!" (247).
Hawthorne---through his narrator Coverdale---does not hold much belief in the ability of social or political reform to produce great change i
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