unsanctioned union of Tim and Mary, a union that is spiritual and later physical. I t
is there, near the beach and the archetypal sea, the latter a symbol both of that
from which life emerges and also of the human heart and passions (Chavalier &
Gheerbrant, 1994:838), that the alchemy of maturation through emotional and
social growth takes place. The problems of love, sensual, romantic and altruistic,
are negated along with the problems of inequality in love.
Again, in The Thorn Birds, McCullough uses actual locale or places with rich
associations to give depth to much of the story; the Vatican, London and Crete, the
latter as the setting for the final and most dramatic event in the plot. There are,
however, places that are used as a symbol or metaphor for narrative elements. The
natural beauty of the South I sland of New Zealand is almost Edenic, similar in many
ways to Paddy’s native I reland, yet human life there is hard and, like their ancestors
in the Biblical Eden, there is no future there for the protagonists. The family moves
to Australia where the cruelty and harshness of the land to aliens is repeatedly
stressed. I ndeed, in this work, in her detailed and evocative description of locale,
McCullough uses place almost as if it were a character in the plot, particularly in the
section that centres on the family, living in a poorer area of New Zealand, where
their livelihood depends almost solely on shearing sheep. Central to the novel’s plot
is the later romantic and sexual affair that the protagonist, Meggie, experiences with
Father Ralph de Bricassart, later Cardinal de Bricassart. I n that regard it bears
some resemblance, thematically, to Henry Morton Robinson’s 1950 novel, The
Cardinal, but it is the setting on a tropical island that is significant because of its
Edenic undertone.
I n An I ndecent Obsession too, place is crucial to the structure of the
narrative; the action or plot is set immediately after hostilities have ceased at the
end of World War I I but it is at an Australian military hospital camp on an island in
the South Pacific. Again the South Pacific is used as it was in The Thorn Birds, to
symbolise a light-filled Edenic elsewhere-place set aside from the horror of the
actual post war world, but here the specific place is the mental or ‘troppo’ ward,
literally the realm of the psyche. Some relief is given by the nearby beach, a
symbol again of primeval balance, used in the same way as in The Thorn Birds and
Tim. Since all the characters in this tale know they are soon to return home there is
an overall sense of transience, albeit that the patients and the nurses are uncertain
about their futures. Everything is in flux. They are in a nowhere place, a state of
anomie.
ron
(Ron)
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