Genre in Hawthorne's Blithedale RomanceThe Blithedale Romance, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is the story of a twisted utopia. This perfect world is distorted in the sense that gender roles have a traditional utopian representation, only with a more contemporary vision. Of course, this is interesting because this book was written and published in the 19th century, when such ideas were beginning to establish a form for the genre of writing. Hawthorne combines fantasy, philosophy, mystery, gothic, and even [what we would today call] science fiction. This novel illustrates the anticipated breakup also with new ideas. The writing style takes into account “genderizing degenderizing” affect as well as the nature of the self. In most utopias, gender becomes androgynous as the sexes are neither female nor male. Tasks and habits are usually the same for both sexes and both can love freely. However, only half of these traditions are true for this particular novel. Hawthorne's characters can love whoever they want, but they are still bound by the constraints of traditional roles. Although they try to argue that this will only be a temporary necessity for their community ("I fear we will find some difficulty in adopting the paradise system, for at least a month to come" (17)), change never seems to occur within the community. Women, although they tend to migrate to the camps, still tend to do domestic work such as knitting and cooking. Throughout the novel, women fill positions within the house. Another aspect of gender in this novel is the physical, mental, emotional and moral representation that distinguishes the two sexes. Interestingly, Hawthorne never directly specifies... the center of the card... the characteristics of the other characters. Most women's writings, especially from the 19th century, tended to focus more on feeling. Women writers were more interested in abstract ideas that were not completely visible or obvious. Males, while giving equal impact to writing, tended to try to make a concrete point through concrete evidence. The Blithedale Romance, overall, featured a variety of writing styles and genres approaching two of the main ideas of literature, both in the 19th century and today. The genre may have been manipulated, but it still retained some ideas of utopia. Nature could be discussed, but it was ambiguous. The complete style may have been traditional for Hawthorne's sex, but still maintained enough variation to allow the reader to lead themselves to their own interpretations..