Character Conservation: English moral identity in Early Modern Literature
The tree has a unique and revered place in English Literary culture. Its roots are found in biblical associations, legends and mythical tales. In a recent article by Alice Thomson in the Times, titled ‘For the love of Britain plant more trees’, Thomson highlights the importance for planting trees in modern Britain; ‘British nurseries should be encouraged to nurture trees that are pest free.’ The roots for debates about the conservation of British forestry stem to the early modern period. Simon Schama in his work Landscape and Memory explores the politics of tree felling in the early modern state as,‘the forester king was bound to be torn between exploitation and conservation.’ He also points how ‘Arguments over the true responsibility of a national forestry have not changed much since that time.’
The early modern tree is a rich resource for examining character in early modern works of literature. The tree in Early Modern Literature is an important literary symbol in the contextualisation of debates related to environment and use of resources. Professor Andrew McRae ‘examines Michael Drayton’s recurrent laments at the loss of English woodland in Poly-Olbion’. He explores tree felling through a discourse of environmentalism. This raises important questions about, ‘humanity’s engagement with the natural world’. The literary usage of the tree in the early modern period provides a fascinating insight into the creation of a distinct cultural and moral identity.
The tree as a symbol of character has critical implications; as the physical preservation of a tree would extend to moral preservation of character. Early modern usage of tree symbolism in different contexts would be examined to show the dangers of corruption in character. By exploring and examining tree symbolism the findings can be used to make further enquiries about cultural and moral anxieties related to the preservation of character. Furthermore tree symbolism facilitates for deeper analysis of character and its social, economical, and political ideological tenants. The tree as a symbol of character creates fascinating connotations with trade, shipping, national defence and art. As the early modern tree has its roots in many fields an interdisciplinary approach between environmental studies and Medical Humanities would yield fruit for further analysis.
Modernist Literature
The tree as a representation of modern character grows from its biblical connotations and departs into a complex array of meanings and associations. This perspective is further refracted when looking through a modernist lens.
The tree as a modernist symbol for character requires an analysis of its primary associations.
The tree is an important of symbol of identity in Virginia Woolf’ ‘To the Lighthouse’; ‘Move the tree to the middle… She had never finished that picture.’ There is an internal struggle to assert a distinct and feminine identity: Mrs. Ramsey’s decision to move the tree to the middle, after great deliberation, never transpired to action.
The desire to physically assert the artistic representation of one’s identity is shown in Mrs. Ramsey’s control over her artwork. Mrs. Ramsey’s internal conflicts about her locus of control arise when ever she is faced with the question of where to put the tree. The aspiration for the tree to be moved to the middle is an indication that Mrs. Ramsey wishes to be accepted, as a woman and as an artist. However, Mrs. Ramsey’s plight is that she is reaching out to a world that is simply not there. The picture suggests more about character and its implications.
The ubiquitous nature of the tree’s position represents social change through self realisation, ‘It seemed as if the solution had come to her: she knew now what she wanted to do’. The transfer of the tree from the boundary to the centre would define the tree’s position. The tree at the centre of the picture implies that Mrs. Ramsey’s locus of control is now internal and she is no longer on the periphery but central to the lives around her; both psychologically and spatially. Ironically, the epiphany never materialises in an artistic expression. The tree is not so much a symbol of modernist character but a symbol for individuality and independence. The inability for the artist to convey a sense of individuality shows the reader that Mrs. Ramsey is reaching out to a world that is not present, politically speaking. The tree as a symbol of character is challenged by the modernist quest for identity. The desire to move the tree to the centre becomes an expression for the need to a have a solid identity in a modern world of fluctuations, waves, tribulations, and wavering lights. Woolf’s emphasis on the surroundings within the picture represent external influences that can create character.
The position of the tree in the picture alludes to the tension between individual and society, as the, ‘question was of some relation between those masses’. Woolf’s trees are hollowed of their moral centre and a large part of their substance is defined by, ‘those masses’ that surround them. Indeed, there is a philosophical paradox; the quest for one’s independence is founded on considering the needs of others: a contradiction that lies at the heart of this analysis. The struggle for individuality as an artist and as a women is trapped by the need to be measured against the ‘others’ in this case. The tree wouldn’t be at the centre if the ‘hedges’ were not around them and if the ‘wall’ did not stand. The ontological conundrum is solved by suicide; the tree can only be removed by one solution. Death.
Elsewhere in the novel the symbol of trees is illuminated in hues of patriotism, ‘The autumn trees, ravaged as they are, take on the flash of tattered flags’. Woolf’s language merges aesthetics with psychological enquiry but the discussion of character and national identity would be beyond the scope of this discussion.
Overall, the symbol of a tree shows the complexity of mind, identity, and individuality in the emergent branches of a modern world.
George Orwell
Trees symbolism plays a subtle role in George Orwell’s modernist dystopia, Nineteen Eighty Four.
The recurring landscape of the, ‘boughs of elm trees’ to dream, reality, and to memory, demonstrates how trees can be a symbol for political indoctrination or the process of losing one’s identity.
The representation of the tree in Orwell’s work is a self conscious metaphor for the linguistic process where by propaganda is used to take away meanings and make meanings. The tree’s meanings becomes defined through a process of hopes, rebellion, torture, and submission. The journey of Winston’s trees become the meaning of the trees. The tree as a symbol of character becomes a symbol or the political vision of the individual. Reading the tree as an individual leads to the conclusion that the modern person is defined by external factors; politics, governments, and political displacement.
‘Innumerable fingers, like moving trees, were still streaming past in either direction, crossing and recrossing. He shut his eyes again. It was composed almost entirely of words that we already possess words like hit, run, dog, tree, sugar, house, field — but in comparison with the present-day English vocabulary their number was extremely small, while their meanings were far more rigidly defined. All ambiguities and shades of meaning had been purged out of them.’
Trees show the trauma of the individual psyche through political revolution, war, imprisonment, and oppression. The modernist representation of a tree places importance on external factors, thus the process of defining a tree becomes its meaning. There is a sense of an ending created by; ideological fluctuations, political oppression, philosophical uncertainty and moral ambiguity. The modernist representation of trees does not support the interpretation of trees as a symbol of one’s character. Rather trees become a symbol for the process of losing one’s character.
The search for identity becomes as important identity itself, as a the post modern world grapples within a prism of ideologies, a myriad of morals, an abundance of wealth, and disappearing borders.
The tree as a literary symbol will continue growing from its ancient roots. And the questions still remain; what trees will we grow today, where do we want to place them, and what boundaries need to be observed?