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The Romance of the Forest
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Themes
The Effect of Landscape on Emotion
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.
One characteristic effect of the Gothic novel is the ability of setting and landscape to inspire emotions. Radcliffe builds a sense of foreboding and menace with settings of thick forests, remote villages, ruined abbeys, and storms; all of which inspire distress and create opportunities for disturbing phenomena and add to the sense of terror. At the same time, she balances these episodes of emotional turmoil the landscape causes with scenes where a character draws comfort from a pleasant scene of natural beauty. In between these extremes, encounters with dramatic landscapes that stir an apprehension of the sublime further speak to the power that landscape has in the novel to arouse emotion and influence states of mind.
A susceptibility for and appreciation of natural elements was a key part of the Romantic aesthetic, drawing on the 18th-century concept of sensibility. Sensibility, or what modern readers would call sensitivity, indicated a responsiveness and susceptibility to extremes of emotion, whether brought about by images, imagination, events, or other people. Adeline’s frequent tremors, fainting, near-paralysis, and similar prostrations are all indications of sensibility, proving that she is easily moved. Sensibility was considered a virtue in both men and women, evidence of a compassionate nature. Theodore’s weeping over his fate has parallels to other male protagonists in 18th-century literature; Henry Mackenzie’s The Man of Feeling (1771) particularly celebrated the abilities of its hero to entertain and express strong emotion. While some critics accused sensibility of being a feminine quality, and thus inappropriate for men, at the time of Radcliffe’s writing, a sensible nature was generally considered praiseworthy. La Luc’s melancholy over his long-dead wife and his loyalty to her memory are another demonstration of sensibility.
While Adeline and others show indications of being moved by the dramatic landscape of the Alps, which is heavily associated with the picturesque and sublime, Adeline is the character who most often demonstrates the ability to soothe her troubled emotions by contemplation of a peaceful natural scene. The narrator explains that Adeline’s mind “was delicately sensible to the beauties of nature” (9), a quality that identifies her early on as one of the heroic characters. Despite the upheaval of being sent away with La Motte in the dark of night, when dawn comes and Adeline views the hills and trees with their spring buds glittering with dew, her grief softens and turns to “momentary joy.” This sensitivity to the beauties of the natural world and her ability to find repose in contemplation of the landscape are signs of her mental resilience, strong character, and refined taste.
Radcliffe continues the theme of landscape as offering aesthetic pleasure in describing Adeline’s experience in the Forest of Fontanville, where “[t]he pleasantness of the shades soothed her heart, and the varied features of the landscape amused her fancy” (25). Her deep comprehension of and appreciation for these beauties result in the composition of poetry, an elevation of literary style that varies the tone of the novel and marks Adeline’s sense of refinement. It is not a coincidence that her first glimpse of Theodore is in the forest, when he finds her singing; the natural setting gives their meeting a sense of rightness and belonging. In 18th-century parlance, the opposite of sensibility was an insistence on rational thought and logic, or sense—a dichotomy illustrated in the title of Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility (1811). However, in Radcliffe’s novel, the opposite of sensibility is simply dullness, a lack of imagination or sensitivity, as illustrated by the solid character of Peter.
When she travels with the La Lucs, her poetic compositions show Adeline’s continuing ability to find wonder and solace in the landscape, which helps quiet her distress over Theodore’s imprisonment. When in their happy conclusion the characters live in the countryside surrounding Leloncourt, this preference for a rural setting further demonstrates the harmonious and virtuous influence that landscape is deemed to exercise on human sentiment. Throughout the novel, Adeline’s ability to respond to the menace, grandeur, or serenity of a landscape provides proof of her sensibility and confirms the virtues of character that identify her as an appropriate heroine for a romance.
The Power of Imagination
In keeping with other explorations of sensibility and the impact of external stimuli on emotions, Radcliffe explores the power of the individual imagination to excite, soothe, and connect to knowledge that the ordinary five senses have no power to comprehend. Like susceptibility to emotion, imaginative ability is regarded as a virtue in both male and female characters when it moves a person to pity or compassion for another. In contrast, the villains are motivated by more concretely sensual desires, emphasizing that imagination is an ability of a higher order and a capacity to be cultivated.
La Motte is the first character to demonstrate imaginative ability when the group discovers the Abbey of St. Clair. As he explores the ruins to determine if the place is habitable, the massive and once-grand structure leads La Motte to consider the monks who once inhabited the place and, from there, contemplate whether his own human life will leave so grand a mark. This philosophical reverie shows La Motte as a sensible person; in keeping with 18th-century views of sensibility, he is capable of both logic and imagination. This is a character virtue which makes legible the moral impulse that makes it impossible for him to kill Adeline—he still has the power to feel compassion for another being—and explains his reformation at the end.
As a sensitive young woman, Adeline is the character who most frequently exercises her imagination and demonstrates the powers of this faculty to excite both fear and pity. Several times, she imagines Theodore in chains, emaciated and suffering the Marquis’s vengeance. These visions reflect her sense of responsibility that Theodore has met this fate, but they also confirm her sensitivity and provide evidence of her continued attachment, even when the two are separated. These visions also add moments of tension, as when Adeline is leaving to attend La Motte’s trial in Paris and has one last fantasy as she gazes upon Theodore: “her melancholy imagination represented Theodore at the place of execution, pale and convulsed in death,” and in her fancy she thinks “that his countenance changed, and assumed a ghastly hue” (336). In suggesting he might die before she can see him again, this fancy heightens the emotional drama of their parting and adds to the general sense of apprehension.
The one supernatural element in the novel is Adeline’s dream, and this, too, can be read as an exercise in imagination. Well before she knows that the man imprisoned and murdered in the abbey was her father, the former Marquis de Montalt, Adeline dreams of seeing him in the abbey’s deepest rooms. In her first dream, the man looks at her with love, suggesting some sort of affiliation. In the continuation, the blood seeping from the coffin to fill the room is not only a horrific image suggesting he died by foul means but also a symbolic connection between them: Adeline, without knowing it yet, shares this man’s blood. When she finds and reads the manuscript that contains the prisoner’s diary, the account of his sufferings deeply moves Adeline. This sympathy, first, shows her compassionate nature in her ability to feel pity for an imagined subject. Second, her reading this account of imprisonment and torture provides a dramatic parallel to the Marquis’s supposed suit, taking place at the same time, which is a torture of its own kind for Adeline. Later, when the identity of the imprisoned man is revealed to be her birth father, Adeline understands that her imaginative connection to him was evidence of their familial connection. Like sensibility, imagination signifies perceptiveness, pity, and the ability to empathize with another, all characteristics that are considered virtues in the moral world of the novel.
Self-Interest, Self-Preservation, and the Insistence on Virtue
In its interest in moral virtue as a mark of character, the novel explores the principles of self-interest, self-preservation, and agency and the extent to which they advance or impede the exercise of virtue. A virtuous character, the novel shows, is an ideal to be pursued not only for its own sake but also for the rewards that follow upon virtuous action. Characters whose self-interested actions harm others are destroyed, while those characters who possess the appropriate virtues enjoy prosperity and peace.
One virtue the novel admires is wisdom, which, La Luc philosophizes, leads to happiness. This truism emerges in a humorous discussion in which La Luc and Monsieur Verneuil—a Frenchman—exhibit typical English prejudice against the French, dismissing them as a people full of frivolity. Wisdom, the novel demonstrates, is not simply the result of knowledge or information but rather the consequence of a sound education, discernment, and the exercise of self-control. Fortitude is another virtue various characters exercise, notably Theodore during his imprisonment. While he feels the injustice of the Marquis’s accusation, his primary concern is the distress that his death will cause his family and Adeline.
The virtuous or heroic characters do not pursue self-interest where it results in harm to another. Adeline maintains a meek and modest demeanor with Madame La Motte, even when the woman becomes dismissive of her, and Adeline asks Louis not to intervene with his mother on her behalf. Rather than acting in self-interest, she takes the route of self-preservation and retains her dignity and humility, which the novel depicts as praiseworthy actions. In contrast, characters acting in their self-interest frequently cause harm to others. The strongest example is the Marquis, whose ambition and greed lead to murder and a great deal of suffering.
La Motte illustrates the more questionable issue of self-preservation, which can either manifest as self-interest or, in some cases, a virtue. La Motte’s crimes in Paris and his robbery of the Marquis are attempts at self-preservation; having lost his wealth, he requires some means to pay for food and supplies. Self-preservation leads La Motte to initially become an accomplice in the Marquis’s schemes against Adeline. When the Marquis requires murder, however, La Motte reaches the end of his moral slide. His self-preservation turns to protecting this last moral principle, and he risks the wrath of the Marquis to save Adeline’s life. Acting for the protection and interest of others is the mark of the virtuous characters in the novel, as seen in Theodore’s heroic defense of Adeline and La Luc’s adoption of Adeline as a near-daughter. Theodore, in particular, acts against his interests to intervene on Adeline’s behalf. His sacrifice is considered heroic, and his virtuous character is confirmed.
Adeline, in her many persecutions, is also interested in self-preservation, but the novel pointedly avoids any circumstance where Adeline could be perceived as acting with aggression. She declines the Marquis’s suit with firm dignity and climbs out the window of his chateau to escape captivity. Then, she helpfully falls into the hands of Theodore to complete her escape. Adeline’s self-interest, as a dependent young woman, is in locating an appropriate benefactor, which she finally does in the form of La Luc. At the trial in Paris, Adeline quails at the thought of accusing the Marquis in person. Rather, the narrator emphasizes her modesty during her public appearance, noting her embarrassment and downward-focused gaze. She wishes to be seen as standing for the cause of justice, but not to be seen advocating solely for her benefit. Virtue requires modest behavior far more so for women than for men. Another virtue particular to women is the preservation of sexual chastity, a principal Adeline follows even under the duress of being kidnapped. The varying emphasis on and consequences for self-interest and self-preservation underscore that intention and consequences play a key role. Additionally, it shows that women and men prioritize guiding virtues differently.
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