Jean

I thought that our discussion of Jean's character in Behind a Mask was really interesting.  I think that how you view the character is all about perspective.  Some people liked her and some didn't, but most everyone could agree that she was manipulative and/or at least a little bit crazy.  Relating to her from our time and place and thinking about if we were ever to come into contact with a person like this, I think that would definitely have a negative effect on our opinion of them.  If we were to be duped like the characters in the story were, I'm sure there would be some very strong feelings.  Personally, I thought that Jean was a great character.  I really enjoyed the story.  My impression of her is formed in relation to other female characters in literature of the period.  A good example of this character type would be Bella or Lucia.  Bella is young, impressionable, dependent, and prone to fits of emotion.  Lucia is haughty, withdrawn, and has very little to offer in the way of intellectual insight.  To have a character like Jean be placed in this stuffy, boring environment made for compelling reading.  She may have been manipulative, sneaky, and yes, a little bit cruel, but it wasn't without just cause.  She was not dealt the best hand in her life.  She is not a woman of rank, and is destined to spend the rest of her days in governess purgatory - not a maid, but not on the same level as the family she serves.  A family, it should be noted, who were none too welcoming upon her initial arrival.  I like that she took her destiny into her own hands and created a life for herself.  Comparisons were also drawn between Jean and a witch.  While I agree that the scene in which she takes of all her makeup, her wig and fake teeth, I was a little bit taken aback (this might be random, but I immediately thought of the movie Hocus Pocus) - but overall I think it was a clever way for Alcott to satirize the notion that once a woman reached a certain age she was not longer marriage material and was doomed to live out the rest of her days as a spinster.  Jean was 30 - gasp! - and therefore needed to make herself up to be more appealing to the rather creepily youth-obsessed men of the time.  Jean beat the odds and I applaud her - and Alcott as well, for that matter.  

Zenobia

"Her sobs were the only sound; she did not groan, nor give any other utterance to her distress.  It was all involuntary." (Hawthorne, 223)

For me, Zenobia was the most interesting character in The Blithedale Romance.  When we first meet her, she seems to be a lively and vital woman who is essential to the community.  Her great spirit and welcoming nature is what brings everyone together on that first night.  As we get further into the novel, however, it becomes less clear whether Zenobia's strong personality and colorful appearance is a blessing or a curse.  We learn that she was born into wealth and has lead a life that, if not well chronicled, seems to have been full of adventure.  It's when we read about her interactions with men that the veneer begins to crack.  First with Westervelt, who seems to be someone with whom she has a history and is immune to the exoticism that enraptures other men upon first meeting her.  Then, for reasons unknown to the reader, she forms a connection with Hollingsworth.  She retains her strong personality, but seems to have met her match in a way.  In my opinion, her final undoing was when Hollingsworth chose Priscilla over her.  He is the last in a string of men who have abandoned her.  First was her father (who professed Priscilla was his favorite, but Zenobia wouldn't have known that), then Westervelt, whose only interest seemed to be in how she could help him make money, and then Hollingsworth, in whom she saw the opportunity to finally settle down.  She had fought all her life to maintain her essence as a lively, vivacious woman, and has been shot down at every turn.  The men of the time simply didn't want that in a wife.  They wanted someone like Priscilla, who would serve, obey and adore them.  Zenobia's outward appearance belied the fact that she wanted to be loved as much as the next person.  When it is denied yet again by Hollingsworth, the years of grief break free uncontrollably.  It is then that she decides that she can't go on living only to be disappointed yet again.  She is like the exotic flowers that she always wore in her hair - admired for her beauty, but unable to survive in the environment in which she's been placed.