Rejuvenation in an Eco-communal Ambience: An Analysis of Ethel Wilson’s Swamp Angel

Abstract

Eco-critical analysis is a form of literary criticism that is based on the relationship between the human beings and the natural environment. The main thrust of the eco-oriented writing is based on the reintegration of human as well as non-human world. The critic Sumathy is of the view that, “eco criticism brings out the interconnections between man and nature” (81). Ethel Wilson, one of the pioneer women writers in Canadian literary milieu, elucidates the fact that man and his environment are intertwined and interdependent. She strongly believes the fact that man cannot exist without nature because both are inseparable and interactive towards each other. Her novels analyse the ways in which the environment illuminates the characters and show how the natural settings rejuvenate them in the natural environment. In her fiction Swamp Angel Wilson highlights the rejuvenating impact of natural environment in the lives of the characters. The present paper analyses the rejuvenating experiences of the characters amidst the natural settings in Wilson’s Swamp Angel.