The Rainbow

by

D. H. Lawrence

The Adam and Eve Wood Carving Symbol Analysis

The Adam and Eve Wood Carving Symbol Icon

Will’s woodcarving of Adam and Eve symbolizes his desire for spiritual harmony both in his faith and in his marriage to Anna. By carving these figures, he expresses a longing for an Edenic world where life and relationships remain free from conflict and sin. However, when Will destroys the carving during a difficult period in his marriage, it reveals his growing disillusionment. The destruction reflects his realization that marriage, and life itself, involve complexities that defy his idealistic view. This moment in Will’s personal life parallels the novel’s broader theme of the modern world intruding on the Eden-like Marsh Farm. Will’s vision of marital and spiritual perfection shatters as the traditional life at Marsh Farm faces the pressures of modernity. The destruction of the carving symbolizes Will’s rejection of an unattainable ideal and underscores the inevitable decline of the rural, pastoral life as the Brangwens confront the changing world.

The Adam and Eve Wood Carving Quotes in The Rainbow

The The Rainbow quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Adam and Eve Wood Carving. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Search for Meaning Theme Icon
).
Chapter 6: Anna Victrix Quotes

She bundled the dishes away, flew round and tidied the room, assumed another character, and again seated herself. He sat thinking of his carving of Eve. He loved to go over his carving in his mind, dwelling on every stroke, every line. How he loved it now! When he went back to his Creation-panel again, he would finish his Eve, tender and sparkling. It did not satisfy him yet. The Lord should labour over her in a silent passion of Creation, and Adam should be tense as if in a dream of immortality, and Eve should take form glimmeringly, shadowily, as if the Lord must wrestle with His own soul for her, yet she was a radiance.

Related Characters: Anna Lensky/Anna Brangwen, Will Brangwen
Related Symbols: The Adam and Eve Wood Carving
Page Number: 142
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8: The Child Quotes

Their children became mere offspring to them, they lived in the darkness and death of their own sensual activities. Sometimes he felt he was going mad with a sense of Absolute Beauty, perceived by him in her through his senses. It was something too much for him. And in everything, was this same, almost sinister, terrifying beauty. But in the revelations of her body through contact with his body, was the ultimate beauty, to know which was almost death in itself, and yet for the knowledge of which he would have undergone endless torture. He would have forfeited anything, anything, rather than forego his right even to the instep of her foot, and the place from which the toes radiated out, the little, miraculous white plain from which ran the little hillocks of the toes, and the folded, dimpling hollows between the toes. He felt he would have died rather than forfeit this.

Related Characters: Anna Lensky/Anna Brangwen, Will Brangwen
Related Symbols: The Adam and Eve Wood Carving
Page Number: 227
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Adam and Eve Wood Carving Symbol Timeline in The Rainbow

The timeline below shows where the symbol The Adam and Eve Wood Carving appears in The Rainbow. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6: Anna Victrix
The Search for Meaning Theme Icon
Religion and Spirituality Theme Icon
...in more conflicts with Anna. She suggests he focus on his wood-carving and finish his panel of Adam and Eve , which is his passionate project. However, because Will knows Anna does not care about... (full context)