65 pages • 2 hours read
Radclyffe HallThe Well of Loneliness
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1928A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Trees
Trees are one of the most prevalent symbols in this text. They first come to attention through the character of Martin Hallam, who remarks on their ability to “patiently go on doing their bit” and references “the enormous courage of trees” (84). Martin says if all humans died, “the trees [would] survive it” (85). He also infers that trees are proof of God.
Trees continue to play a significant role later on. When Stephen is at war, the battered trees seem to stand for humanity’s battered faith, still standing but heavily bowed. Stephen herself can be compared to a tree because of her ability to withstand severe external attacks and because she is marked by courage. Towards the end of the novel, Mary and Stephen have a tree that has just started to grow when Martin shows up. Here, the tree resembles Martin and what will soon be his refusal to give up Mary.
Saints
There is a certain amount of irony in the fact that saints play such a large role in this novel even though Stephen herself struggles very hard to find faith in religion. To begin with, Stephen is named after Sir Philip’s favorite saint, St. Stephen, who is the first known martyr. Stephen’s name reflects her role in the novel, as she is constantly sacrificing for love, and in the last few pages she is told she was “made for a martyr” (396).
Another saint with a symbolic role in this novel is St. Joseph. After Mademoiselle Duphot is let go, Stephen goes to the empty classroom and finds a “little piety card of St. Joseph” on which Mademoiselle Duphot has written to St. Joseph asking him to pray for Stephen (54). Prayers to St. Joseph are made on someone’s spiritual behalf, so it is clear that although Mademoiselle Duphot loved Stephen, she recognized her oddities and her defiance as something to reckon with, and that Stephen’s spiritual battle was far from private.
Another saint included in the text is St. Paul. Stephen calls on St. Paul when she realizes her parents are fighting and she wants to know how to help. St. Paul is known for converting people into Christians, and here Stephen seems to be calling on St. Paul’s transformative power to help harness her own transformation from child to adult.
White
The color white plays a significant role in The Well of Loneliness. White seems to mark out safety in the contexts in which it appears. For example, the front door of Morton is white, and as Stephen mentions several times throughout the book, Morton represents her one refuge and the one place where she can be herself. On the day Stephen comes home from her first triumph at a hunt, she looks up at the frost and sees “white with the whiteness of diamonds” (37). Again, the color white seems to represent a feeling of safety for Stephen, as on one of the best nights of her life the color white is prominent.
These pleasant associations with white are turned on their head later in the novel. When Stephen meets the manipulative Angela Crossby, she constantly associates Angela with white, even Angela provides anything but safety. When Stephen goes out to buy Angela the perfect present, she fixates on “a white velvet cushion” holding a pearl (150). Both of these items are white, suggesting Stephen wants to send Angela a message about the safety she wants to provide. In Angela’s absence, Stephen continuously looks at the “little white velvet box” for reassurance—further proof that white holds a significance for Stephen, even if it is sometimes misleading (150).
