The Significance Of Nature In Rebecca West's The Return Of The Country

In Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier, nature is represented in many different forms. Nature and its surroundings seem to reflect the personas and moods of the characters within the novel. In Monkey Island, there is an abundance of trees, birds, and life. At Wealdstone, nature is more “of open country” (West 44). But at Baldry Court/Harrowweald, nature seems to be more controlled in order to give off the appearance of perfection and keep outsiders out. The Baldry’s live lavishly and their wealth is reflected both inside and outside of their home. But there are times when nature around Harrowweald seems to be ‘uncontrolled’ like the characters themselves. The residents at Baldry Court could not keep the outsiders out. Baldry Court was
After his marriage to Kitty he had to rebuild the house to Kitty’s liking. Kitty’s character is a socialite who is always concerned with keeping up with appearances. Therefore her home needed to look a certain way to be displayed in local newspapers. The interior reflects their wealth as well. The narrator, Jenny, describes some of the rooms in Baldry Court filled with “brittle beautiful things that we had either recovered from antiquity or dug from the obscure pits of modern craftsmanship” (West 6). The artifacts and furniture kept at Baldry Court are things that were rare and hard to find as to create uniqueness about the place rather than having a simple home. Jenny then goes on to say,
There is no aesthetic reason for that border…Its use is purely philosophic; it proclaims that here we estimate only controlled beauty, that the wild will not have its way within our gates…this was no place for beauty that has not been mellowed but lacerated by time, that no one accustomed to live here could help wincing at such external dinginess as hers…it had been our pretence that by wearing costly clothes and organizing a costly life we had been the servants of his desire. But she revealed the truth that although he did indeed desire a magnificent house, it was a house not built by hands. (West