Charity’s Emotions through Summer

Charity’s relationship to nature is that it shows some kind of innocence to her. It is a beauty that no one else can see but her. On page 55 Edith Wharton say that “The little June wind, frisking down the street, shook the doleful fringes of the Hatchard spruces…across the road into the duck-pond.” This shows the beauty that they are seeing but Charity picks up on it more then anyone. This is evident when she is looking out her window and sees the bird and the flowers but thinks of the calmness of it all.

The seasons of the summer follow Charity’s emotions I think to a point. When she is sad the weather is gloomy and then when everything is going right it is sunny and lovely. Like in the beginning of the book she is happy and content with her life and the weather is perfect not to cold but not to hot for her. Then as the story goes on and Mr. Harney comes to town the weather takes a shift. She starts to fall for him and the weather changes to be hotter. The one time when she was with Mr. Harney going to the house outside of town it started to rain. The rain symbolizes the aspect of something going wrong or a part of her past coming back to her. Take the mountain scene when he mom dies it starts to rain there because she is finding something she doesn’t like and it has to do with her past. Also when she was marrying Mr. Royall the earth seemed to her as it was slipping away and the weather they said was cold and that shows that when she is confused or is numb to the world the weather goes cold.

It always seems like whatever her mood is that is what the weather decides to be.