From England to Eden 139
punishment for her recent questioning of social convention. It can also be seen
as a transgression from their own beliefs, since neither of them agreed with mar-
riage as a concept. Further allusions to the Garden of Eden are to be found in
the many confl icts that the narrative presents between desire and law, knowledge
and ignorance, and in the repeated imagery of trees, fruit, snakes and lovers, in
the presence of an exotic landscape.
References to the Garden of Eden can be found as early as Chapter 8, when
Rachel attempts to read Edward Gibbon’s Th e History of the Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire. During this scene, Rachel walks away from civilization
towards the river, among trees that bear ‘large blossoms’ with cream and crimson
‘wax-like’ petals.^27 Sitting underneath one of the trees she begins to read Gibbon,
but gives up before suddenly realizing that she is in love with Terence. Th e motif
of a woman attempting to obtain knowledge underneath a tree draws undeni-
ably on the Eden myth, and Woolf encourages this association by emphasizing
the somewhat supernatural quality of the tree in question. Th e tree is a sudden
‘interruption’ to Rachel’s walk
which, though it did not grow across her path, stopped her as eff ectively as if the
branches had struck her in the face ... It appeared to her so strange that it might have
been the only tree in the world.Th e branches
sprang here and there ... as if it had but that second risen from the ground. Having
seen a sight that would last her for a lifetime, and for a lifetime would preserve that
second ... she was able to seat herself in its shade.^28Th e imposition of the tree is described in terms of violence, and its dark trunk
and angular lines give it a sinister, Gothic appearance. Th is ominous description
seems informed by the underlying narrative of the Eden myth, which aligns the
tree of knowledge with death.
Like Eve, Rachel attempts to gain knowledge which pertains to a patriarchal
authority. Gibbon’s work concerns a male version of history, and describes how
civilization has been formed by the actions of those in power. Th is is emphasized
by Woolf ’s choice of quote from the book, an account of how the generals of
Emperor Augustus invaded Ethiopia, Arabia Felix and the countries of northern
Europe, resulting in confl ict between the Romans and the groups that Gibbon
calls ‘natives’ or ‘barbarians’.^29 Adding to the book’s status as masculine authority
is the fact that it is thrust upon Rachel by St John Hirst, a character explicitly
fi gured as a member of the academic (and consequently masculine) elite. He
claims that an appreciation of Decline and Fall is ‘the test’ of an intelligent mind’,
implying the need for this test when he declares that ‘[i]t’s awfully diffi cult to
tell about [the intelligence of ] women ... how much, I mean, is due to lack of