Green Mansions

Abstract

As Morley Roberts tells us, Green Mansions was many years in the writing.¹⁷⁰ It is Hudson’s best-known work; and in my opinion only El Ombú matches its imaginative power amongst his entire oeuvre. The book has certain faults, such as an awkwardness in some of the dialogue and occasional lapses in Hudson’s use of language. There are also occasional faults in the construction; most glaringly, in the motivation for Rima’s return to the forest alone, which results in her destruction at the hands of the Indians; her wish to make a new dress for herself before Abel’s return, because her love for him now makes her feel ashamed to appear in her old clothing, is transparently a mechanical plot-device necessitated by the need for some separation between Abel and Rima at that point in the story. But all these faults are in the nature of minor lapses. Ruth Tomalin is surely correct when she writes: ‘Whether read as romance or poignant metaphor, Green Mansions is like no other tale; it pierces the heart; and it is unforgettable.’¹⁷¹ What I wish to emphasise are the perspectives upon being which the novel opens up; for in these reside much, at least, of the power and the beauty which make the book so ‘unforgettable’. I will be looking at certain symbolic/mythopoeic elements in the novel as a way of delineating these perspectives; namely, the use of landscape; snake and bird symbolism; the figure of Rima and the question of identity; and the theme of ‘darkness’.