Desir

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Nature in Modern Literature

• Desirèe Mosca VA

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Aims of the path

• Examine in depth Modern literature
• Find connections between texts
• Train in view of the final examination

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Reasons for the path

• Nature as a recurring theme in literture
• ?
• Why?
• Interest in symbolism of flowers

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My path
Natural references in J.Joyces
Ulysses Natural references in V.Woolfs Mrs.
Dalloway Natural references in G.DAnnunzios
La pioggia nel pineto Natural references in
O.Wildess The Picture of Dorian Gray
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Extracts from Mollys interior monologue
of course a nice plant for the middle of the
table Id get that cheaper in wait wheres this I
saw them not long ago I love flowers Id love to
have the whole place swimming in roses God of
heaven theres nothing like nature the wild
mountains then the sea and the waves rushing then
the beautiful country with the fields of oats and
wheat and all kinds of things and all the fine
cattle going about that would do your heart good
to see rivers and lakes and flowers all sorts of
shapes and smells and colours springing up even
out of the ditches primroses and violets nature
it is
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What? purpose to adorn the house ? appreciation
of Nature How? flux of thoughts inside ?
outside small ? big
abolition of spatial distance
expression of opinion and feelings
language of sense impression (sight, hearing)
repetition (I love, flowers)
adjectives (nice, fine, wild, beautiful)
Why? involvement
partecipation influence
evocation imagination
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they might as well try to stop the sun from
rising tomorrow the sun shines for you he said
the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on
Howth head he said I was a flower of the
mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body
yes that was one true thing he said in his life
and the sun shines for you today yes that was why
I liked him because I saw he understood or felt
what a woman is
What? memories quotation ? situation
reflections and judgements pair
Love/Nature Woman/Flower How? repetition of key
words (sun, flowers, woman)
repetition of formulas (yes, that was) Why?
multiple roles of Nature source for collective
imagination setting of sweet
memories
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and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea
the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the
glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda
gardens yes and all the queer little streets and
the pink and blue and yellow houses and the
rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and
cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a
Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in
my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I
wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the
Moorish wall
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What? memories landscape and atmosphere
pair Nature/Human being (Gibraltar, girl
Molly, flower) How? focus on colors
(red ? passion) adjectives (awful,
glorious) geographical, botanical and
anthropological references ? passion
for detail personification (Gibraltar as a
girl) Why? realism floral
symbolism rose, jessamine ? love
geranium ? aristocracy
? multiple interpretations
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Extracts from Mrs.Dalloway
There were flowers delphiniums, sweet peas,
bunches of lilac and carnations, masses of
carnations. There were roses there were irises.
Ah yes so she breathed in the earthy garden
sweet smell as she stood talking to Miss Pym who
owed her help, and thought her kind, for kind she
had been years ago very kind, but she looked
older, this year, turning her head from side to
side among the irises and roses and nodding tufts
of lilac with her eyes half closed, snuffing in,
after the street uproar, the delicious scent, the
exquisite coolness.
What? Mrs. Dalloways behavior at the
florist How? botanical refereces appeal to
senses (sight, smell) adjectives (awful,
glorious) Why? realism characterisation ?
information about the protagonist
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And then, opening her eyes, how fresh like
frilled linen clean from a laundry laid in wicker
trays the roses looked and dark and prim the red
carnations, holding their heads up and all the
sweet peas spreading in their bowls, tinged
violet, snow white, pale as if it were the
evening and girls in muslin frocks came out to
pick sweet peas and roses after the superb
summers day, with its almost blue-black sky, its
delphiniums, its carnations, its arum lilies was
over and it was the moment between six and seven
when every flower roses, carnations, irises,
lilac glows white, violet, red, deep orange
every flower seems to burn by itself, softly,
purely in the misty beds and how she loved the
grey-white moths spinning in and out, over the
cherry pie, over the evening primroses!
How? simile focus on colors personification
of flowers Why? evocative power of nature
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Extracts from La pioggia nel pineto
Ascolta. Piove dalle nuvole sparse. Piove su le
tamerici salmastre ed arse, piove su i
pini scagliosi ed irti, piove su i
mirti divini, su le ginestre fulgenti di fiori
accolti, su i ginepri folti di coccole
aulenti, piove su i nostri volti silvani, piove
su le nostre mani ignude, su i nostri
vestimenti leggieri, su i freschi pensieri che
l'anima schiude novella
What? evocation of a superhuman experience
How? botanical refereces appeal to senses
(sight, hearing) adjectives Why?
metamorphosis variety of nature greatness of
the experience
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E il pinoha un suono, e il mirtoaltro suono, e
il gineproaltro ancóra, stromentidiversisotto
innumerevoli dita.E immersinoi siam nello
spirtosilvestre,d'arborea vita viventie il
tuo volto ebroè molle di pioggiacome una
foglia,e le tue chiomeauliscono comele chiare
ginestre,o creatura terrestreche hai
nomeErmione.
How? botanical refereces appeal to senses
(sight, hearing) metaphor simile Why?
metamorphosis power of nature properties of
plants bound Nature/Human being
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Extract from The Picture of Dorian Gray
The studio was filled with the rich odor of
roses, and when the light summer wind stirred
amidst the trees of the garden there came through
the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or
the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering
thorn. From the corner of the divan of Persian
saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as
usual, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton
could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and
honey-colored blossoms of the laburnum, whose
tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the
burden of a beauty so flame-like as theirs and
now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in
flight flitted across the long tussore-silk
curtains that were stretched in front of the huge
window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese
effect, and making him think of those pallid
jade-faced painters who, in an art that is
necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of
swiftness and motion.
What? description of a scene How? botanical
refereces appeal to senses (sight,smell)
passion for detail Why? power of sensation ?
pleasure
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• Summing up
• Nature

Setting Evocative
Vehicle of emotions Incitement to
feelings Life
Beauty
Part of collective imagination