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Saunders, Gill |
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In her novel The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton describes the protagonist Newland Archer buying flowers. This short scene is significant for what it tells us about the characters, and in how it prefigures subsequent events. Wharton employs flower motifs to reveal Archer’s feelings towards his fiancée May Welland, and her exotic cousin, the Countess Olenska. To May he sends lilies-of-the-valley; these simple flowers symbolised innocence and the return of happiness. But to Ellen Olenska he sends "some rather gorgeous yellow roses"1. According to the language of flowers the yellow rose signified the Decrease of Love, or Infidelity; both are apt meanings here because Ellen is married but has left her husband, in scandalous circumstances. This gift of yellow roses also hints at Archer’s subsequent passion for her, which nearly destroys his marriage to May. |
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In writing this scene Wharton drew upon the rich lexicon of meanings, codified in a complex 'language of flowers', which was available to the Victorians (the novel is set in the 1870s) but these meanings are no longer explicit to the modern reader, and little of this Nineteenth century lore now survives in common use. We still associate the red rose with love and desire, but few would now link yellow roses with infidelity. The poppy has been a symbol of sleep and death since Classical times (a meaning reinforced in popular culture when the scarlet field poppy was adopted as an emblem of remembrance for those who died in World War I) but the peony is no longer recognised as a sign of shame or bashfulness. Many flowers have acquired new meanings which have obscured older associations – for example the white lily is now linked with death and mourning, and is often seen at funerals but it was formerly a symbol of purity and innocence, traditionally associated with the Virgin Mary. Indeed flowers themselves were widely regarded as emblematic of female qualities, and commonly symbolised feminine virtues. |
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This loss of language and plant-lore is perhaps an inevitable consequence of our increasingly urban lives; we are ever more divorced from the natural world, cocooned from the changing seasons, ignorant of the sources of our food. Fewer of us are gardeners, living as we do concentrated in high-density urban areas (indeed, this year the proportion of the world’s population living in cities exceeded 50% for the first time). Yet flowers remain central to contemporary life, and our frame of reference; they continue to play a part in our social etiquette as well as our religious rituals. Superstitious vestiges of an older flower lore survive in many cultures2 and we do still share a 'language of flowers', though it is increasingly narrow and debased. Making a gift of flowers is a long-established and still flourishing custom: we use flowers to say 'sorry' or 'thank you', or to send a message of congratulation for achievement and success. On the other hand, flowers continue to serve as emblems of sympathy and consolation at times of sickness or bereavement. They allow us to express feelings that we cannot put into words, and have been used in this way for centuries. (...) |
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