Is she, on the one extreme, as Carol Weshoven says, a "prostitute, willing to trade what little she is for the safety of a life of parasitism,"" (153) or is she a sweet, innocent victim? Miles Coverdale says in his narration of the novel, "It is not, I apprehend, a healthy kind of mental occupation, to devote ourselves too exclusively to the study of individual men and women- (64)
In spite of Coverdale's well-meaning advice, in this paper I will explore Priscilla's relationships, showing that she clings to people like a vine does to a tree, becoming both a victim of their pride and jealousies, and a parasite, albeit, a "gentle parasite,"" who eventually destroys Zenobia, but supports a destroyed Hollingsworth. .
First of all, I think I should discuss Priscilla's relationship to the narrator, since, after all, he is the eyes through which we see all of her other relationships. In Coverdale's own words, "Though she appeared to like me tolerably well, I could never flatter myself with being distinguished by her, as Hollingsworth and Zenobia were- (46). And later, speaking of Priscilla, Zenobia, and Hollingsworth, he says, "while these three characters figured so largely on my private theatre, I "though probably reckoned a friend by all "was at best but a secondary or tertiary personage with either of them- (65). When Coverdale sees Priscilla for the second time, after being sick for a while, he says that she is "far better conditioned both as to health and spirits."" He then compares her to when he first saw her, returning to plant imagery, saying, "she had reminded me of plants that one sometimes observes doing their best to vegetate among the bricks of an enclosed court, where there is scanty soil, and never any sunshine- (47). Coverdale is mean to Priscilla at times, even if he does not intend to be mean. For example, at one point he tries to talk her into not being so extraordinarily happy.
