Trees Symbol Analysis

Throughout The White Devil, many characters use the image of a tree to symbolize Vittoria and Brachiano’s adulterous relationship. Crucially, however, just as the characters disagree about the nature of the relationship itself—is it a boundary-breaking true love? A hideous, indulgent passion?—none of the characters can agree about what kind of tree best captures this amorous duo. Vittoria herself dreams that her love with Brachiano is symbolized by a strong and lovely yew tree; because yew trees would often grow in graveyards, Vittoria’s dream suggests that this new relationship is growing out of the death of two marriages. Incidentally, yew is also extremely poisonous—and the lovers only take their relationship public once Brachiano has his wife Isabella poisoned. Francisco sees the adulterous couple as an even more nefarious kind of plant life: “like mistletoe on sere elms spent by weather,” he reflects, “let him cleave to her, and both rot together.” Whereas Vittoria sees her love as a triumphant (if toxic) yew tree, Francisco sees their love as “rotting” and parasitic. Tracing the different symbolism of trees in the play thus shows how the same event or pairing can, viewed through a different lens, have a completely opposite connotation.