51 pages • 1-hour read
The Enchanted April
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Symbols & Motifs
The Castle
The castle is a complex and important symbol whose meaning shifts as the novel progresses. Initially it symbolizes opportunities and the lure of the unknown, representing a kind of escape, but soon becomes a site of transformation. This makes it a key symbol of both The Importance of Self-Discovery and Freedom and The Transformative Power of Acceptance and Understanding.
For both Mrs. Wilkins and Mrs. Arbuthnot, it represents the ability to escape a life that has become drab and without meaning. It also represents the chance to indulge and center themselves rather than their husbands. Mrs. Arbuthnot, deeply unhappy in her marriage, distracts herself with church charity work. Mrs. Wilkins has been forced to build her life around her husband’s needs and interests and has lost touch with her unique identity. Mrs. Arbuthnot feels guilty about the prospect of a “frivolous” vacation, but not guilty enough to forgo the trip. Mrs. Wilkins is more willing to cater to her own desires, and it is in part because of her enthusiasm that Mrs. Arbuthnot allows herself to go.
The castle also comes to symbolize freedom and self-determination. Each of the women who vacation there have had the course of their lives determined by forces outside of their control. The two married women have been forced to cede decision-making to their husbands. Mrs. Fisher, a widow, has lived her life according to the rigid social protocols that have played an outsized role in her identity. Caroline feels that the course of her life was irrevocably altered by the war and the loss of her great love. Each woman throws off these constraints, although at her own pace, and feels freer at San Salvatore than they ever have.
The castle also comes to symbolize reflection and transformation. Each woman uses her time at the castle to reflect on her own life and comes away altered. Mrs. Arbuthnot ruminates on her marriage, and accepts her husband’s profession, finally ready to show him the love that he deserves. Mrs. Wilkins realizes that love need not be reciprocal, and her newfound commitment to selflessness transforms her marriage and her sour-tempered husband. Mrs. Fisher lets go of some of the strict social conventions she held so dear and resolves to be kinder and more open. Caroline carefully assesses her life and develops a better sense of her needs and priorities. There is the definite sense that the women needed the separation and perspective of a “third space” to find the objectivity required for personal growth.
Mellersh’s Sole and Frederick’s Memoirs
Mellersh is a frugal man who values household economy except when it comes to his diet. He enjoys sole (a kind of fish) and, although it is difficult for Mrs. Wilkins to attain, prefers it and other delicacies to the ordinary fare that their household income would more easily provide. Frederick writes salacious faux-memoirs of the mistresses of great kings that are so risqué they upset his pious, devoutly Christian wife. Although Mellersh’s sole and Frederick’s memoirs are different in nature, they share a similar symbolic function within the novel: They represent the marital difficulties that are, at least initially, insurmountable for Mrs. Wilkins and Mrs. Arbuthnot. As such, they help the author to explore The Demands of Marriage and Propriety.
Mellersh’s frugality fails to take into account his wife’s feelings and her own desires about how best to live. Frederick’s memoirs too are written without a thought for the importance that religion and propriety play to his wife. Each man, albeit in different ways, is a self-centered husband. That both of these marriages improve because of the women’s choice to forgive and forget speaks to the novel’s interest in the transformative power of acceptance and understanding. Mellersh and Frederick do not change as a result of self-reflection, but rather because they are so moved that their wives would find it in their hearts to treat them with greater acceptance that they become kinder in turn.
The Kiss Mrs. Wilkins Gives to Mrs. Fisher
Mrs. Wilkins surprises Mrs. Fisher with an enthusiastic kiss during one of the novel’s later scenes, which is a symbol of the transformative power of acceptance and understanding. Although each of the characters has softened toward the people in her life and undergone an emotional transformation while at the castle in San Salvatore, Mrs. Fisher’s transformation has been the least visible to the others. She remains reserved and solitary. Mrs. Wilkins’s kiss shocks her but does not offend her. Although she initially characterized Mrs. Wilkins as silly, “unbalanced,” and in need of guidance, she finds herself won over by the unbridled enthusiasm of the kiss. Mrs. Fisher becomes red-faced and embarrassed but touched by Mrs. Wilkins’s gesture.
That Mrs. Wilkins chooses to bestow such physical affection on an individual who has not yet shown her much kindness speaks to her newfound understanding of love as something selfless rather than reciprocal: She does not need Mrs. Fisher to treat her with kindness in order to respond to Mrs. Fisher with kindness. That Mrs. Fisher does not instantly chastise Mrs. Wilkins demonstrates how much more accepting she has grown during her time at the castle.
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