Nature Theme Analysis

Throughout the novel, Hill depicts nature in two opposing ways: in its wild forms, and as dead, controlled, or otherwise “tamed.” Hang Wood (the forest that surrounds Warings), is an example of “wild nature,” while the Hooper family’s vast moth collection, which has been carefully preserved, arranged, and classified, is the defining example of “tamed nature.” Charles Kingshaw, the novel’s main character, is strongly associated with nature in its wild and unrestrained forms. Edmund Hooper, the novel’s second main character, is strongly associated with tamed nature.

The oppositional relationship between these two different ways of thinking about nature parallels the antagonistic relationship between Charles Kingshaw and Edmund Hooper, and reveals important things about both characters. Edmund’s fascination with tamed nature is representative of his desire to control everything around him. On his first night at Warings, Edmund studies the family’s moth collection, familiarizing himself with these emblems of tamed nature at the same time that he’s adjusting to his new status as heir to Warings. For Edmund, the moths are a symbol of his family’s power and prestige (the moth collection is one of the world’s greatest), inseparable from his own sense of social superiority to other people. Elsewhere in the book, Edmund is shown to be fascinated with stuffed crows, the circus, and other emblems of nature that has been tamed or controlled, reflecting his own desire to exert control over the world. When he’s exposed to the natural world itself, however, he becomes almost petrified with fear. In the wood, for instance, Edmund has no easy way of asserting his authority or controlling his surroundings. Trees, wild animals, rushing water, and the “boom” of thunder act as constant reminders of his own powerlessness and insignificance. Almost exactly the opposite is true of Charles. The one time in the novel when he’s shown to be completely at ease is when he’s walking through the wood by himself. The surreal sights and overwhelming sounds of the natural world are comforting to him for exactly the reason they’re so unnerving for Edmund: they remind him that he’s far from Warings, and therefore unconstrained by the unacknowledged caste system that dominates his life and his relationship with Edmund. More generally, Charles seems to like nature because he can be alone—far from bullies, his mother, and all the other people who make him feel anxious. Unsurprisingly, Charles is frightened by emblems of nature under control: stuffed birds, animals at the circus, and the moths in the Hoopers’ collection all make him physically ill. These sights seem to remind him of his own feeling of being trapped in a society dominated by an oppressive class structure: at Warings, for instance, he feels as helpless and imprisoned as a bug in a glass case.

In short, Charles’s and Edmund’s comfort and symbolic association with different states of nature mirror the basic difference between them: Charles craves freedom while Edmund craves power. But, like every other relationship in the book (Edmund and Charles, Joseph and Helena), the relationship between wild nature and tamed nature is set off balance or corrupted by Edmund’s influence. Throughout the novel, but particularly toward the end, Edmund ruins Charles’s otherwise positive relationship with the natural world. On several occasions, Charles becomes nauseated with the natural world in its free, live form—for example, when he’s attacked by a crow and when he hears an owl hooting. It’s as if Edmund has poisoned the one happy, fruitful part of Charles’s life: his affinity for nature. As the novel proceeds, and Edmund’s control over Charles’s thoughts and feelings becomes more and more powerful, Charles’s nausea with all nature becomes more pronounced, culminating in the ambiguous manner of his suicide. Consumed, Charles returns to the wood, the only place in the novel where he’s been shown to feel completely comfortable. There, he drowns himself in a stream. It’s important to notice the irony: the wood, a symbol of living nature and wilderness, has become the site of Charles’s death. The suggestion is that Edmund, by indirectly but undeniably causing Charles’s death, has turned Charles himself—once associated with nature in its wild forms—into a symbol of “nature tamed,” just like the collection of dead moths or the stuffed crow. And so Charles’s suicide represents a symbolic victory: Edmund triumphs over Charles, death triumphs over life, and tamed nature triumphs over wild nature.