Garden And State:Political Thoughts In Marvell’s Pastoral Poems

Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) is congruously considered by scholars as an enigma. He himself like his poems is full of contradictions. Marvell composed quite a few poems full of garden images. In his poems, garden is actually the political imagination of state. Garden and garden images are depicted in paradoxical ways in his poems, which indicates that garden is like an experimental field of Marvell’s political imagination.Marvell himself is a political figure of his time, and all his poetry embodies the tensions of his age. Although many critics have studied Marvell’s political thoughts in his late prose works, yet none of them discussed the garden images and his political thoughts interactively in his poetry. Actually, garden images have profound political connotations which can not be ignored. In Marvell’s pastoral poems, garden is a metaphor and epitome of state. Marvell ingeniously and carefully weaves his political views into the garden images and creates a kind of garden-state allegory.The body of this thesis is divided into three parts. Chapter one tries to dig out the interrelationship between garden images and state through tracing the tradition of garden-state imagery in literary works and further revealing Marvell’s treatment of garden as imagery of state in his pastoral poems. Garden images in Marvell’s pastoral poems show no accordance; they are contradictory instead:some gardens are corrupted and dilapidated while others are idealized like Eden. Therefore, the next two chapters further explore the political connotations of the two types of garden respectively. Chapter two explores the interrelationship between corrupted gardens and the turbulent England at Marvell’s time and further uncovers Marvell’s political attitude towards leadership by analyzing some specific garden images. Marvell’s variation in political allegiance raises questions about the depth of his political theory. Some critics even call him as a political acrobat. However, Marvell actually holds unique and peaceable political views. For him, state is a stage. While taking the stage, the ruling force, whether it is the Monarchy, the Parliament or any other forms of government, is just like an actor that acts in his own way. But the actor will sooner or later exeunt. Marvell deems that no matter what kind of government takes the ruling role on the stage of state, as long as it acts well and people can live and work in contentment, then the government is eligible. The last chapter tries to present the blueprint of Marvell’s ideal state that is projected into the idealized gardens in his poems. Marvell’s political imagination of an ideal state is both domestic and exotic, which further reflects his political thoughts most incisively and vividly. Domestically, Marvell believes there must be an ideal ruler who is endowed with absolute power and conscience which can ensure the righteous use of the power; externally, Marvell domesticates the exotic Bermuda that represents the New World, which reflects the implantation and impact of British imperialism ideology of expansion on his thoughts.