Zenobia betrays her interest in Hollingsworth very early on, before he even arrives at Blithedale. This foreshadows the obsessive love she’ll soon develop for him that causes her to compromise her principles and look over his deep faults. Her mysterious look at Coverdale after he cracks a joke about committing crimes indicates her displeasure with him for joking about Hollingsworth, who, as Coverdale will note later, is the one person Zenobia can’t laugh about because she takes him so seriously. Coverdale’s joke is also revealing in another sense: Hollingsworth is so devoted to improving society that, as Coverdale jokes, he’d only be happy if the people around him were criminals that he could reform. In other words, Hollingsworth’s utopian streak coexists with a craving for chaos and imperfection—a dynamic that will plague the whole group as they move forward.