The Dark Is Rising

Light and dark are among the most common symbols of good and evil, respectively. Humans generally see darkness as threatening. It brings cold and obscures vision, depriving people of perspective and making them vulnerable to predators that see better. It can cause people to lose their way. Obstacles one can see and avoid in daylight become a threat at night. Darkness also suggests nothingness—the destruction that the Dark in the novel promises.

By contrast, light brings warmth, allows life and growth, and reveals the world, making it possible for people to navigate safely. Being able to see into the distance, people can also choose whether to stay on one path or change direction. In that sense, light also symbolizes imagination—the ability to see a future different from the present and pursue it.

The people of Huntercombe resist the Dark by congregating at Huntercombe Manor, where there is light. They also bring light with them by sharing stories and music—both expressions of light in the form of imagination.

The motif of family emphasizes both Will’s deep connections to his relatives and community and his growing isolation from them as he realizes that he occupies at least half the time in a world entirely separate from theirs. Will loves his close-knit, noisy, affectionate family. Their love for him wraps him in the warmth of childhood. He especially idolizes his oldest brother, Stephen, who was nearly an adult when Will was born.

At the same time, as Will grows into his new role as an Old One (adult), he increasingly feels isolated from the people who love him. They are ephemeral where he is eternal; they are doomed to death while he is doomed to loss and loneliness. His erasure of their memories whenever they grow too close to his second nature enables him to preserve a measure of his normal childhood, which he still needs, but it also ensures his isolation. The motif thus develops themes of Coming-of-Age As a Leap Into the Adult World and Dark May Be Evil but Good Is Not Nice, as Will learns to prioritize responsibilities beyond immediate family.

Cold symbolizes evil and the Dark. As the power of the Dark grows, the temperature drops, filling the villagers of Huntercombe with fear and threatening them with death. The cold of the Dark even enters into Huntercombe Manor, where the people of the village gather for community and comfort; the warmth of human contact and community are not enough to overcome the insidious creeping cold. The cold isn’t broken until the warmth of the Light joins forces against it.

The association of cold with evil is a common trope in fiction, fairytale, and myth; in The Dark Is Rising, that symbolism overlaps with the seasonal imagery. Will is born on the winter solstice (Midwinter Day)—the shortest day of the year, and therefore the point at which winter (cold, darkness, and death) symbolically begins to give way to spring. The timing of Will’s birth suggest his role as an agent of the Light.