Trees and Flowers Symbol Analysis

Throughout the novel, Anne Brontë uses tree- and flower-based imagery to underscore men’s tendency to underestimate women. For instance, Gilbert likens Helen’s mothering of little Arthur to the care a gardener might lavish on a sapling, arguing that it is necessary to expose the young to small portions of the world’s cruelty in order to prepare them for an uncertain future. He admits, however, that he would never advocate for exposing a girl to such realities. The book’s female characters are often described as fragile flowers. Arthur compares Helen to a dewy rose, modest and mysterious, and Annabella Wilmot to a flashy peony, all ostentation and empty show. Fergus Markham tells Helen that, as a newcomer to Linden-Car, she is a flower blooming among an uninteresting patch of domesticated plants. In the climatic scene of the novel, when Helen finally declares her love for Gilbert with a Christmas rose, Gilbert nearly loses Helen by bumbling the moment out of sheer conceit. Male characters might equate women with delicate blooms, but the women almost always prove themselves stronger than their male counterparts. The latter half of the novel, told from Helen’s perspective, reveals the accidental wisdom of Gilbert’s sapling theory. Having suffered years of abuse from the libidinous Arthur Huntingdon, Helen is a strong and independent woman, confident enough in her talents and fortitude to try to make a life for herself and her son without any help from a man.