Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge

First published: 1944 (also known as Green Dolphin County)

Type of work: Moral tale

Themes: Love and romance, religion, nature, and travel

Time of work: The middle to late nineteenth century

Recommended Ages: 15-18

Locale: The Channel Islands and New Zealand

Principal Characters:

• Will Ozanne, a tenderhearted but undisciplined person searching for happiness rather than success
• Marianne le Patourel, a brilliant, ambitious woman who tries to mold Will to fit her ideal
• Marguerite le Patourel, Marianne’s sister and Will’s true love, whose joyful, childlike nature survives many troubles
• Tai Haruru, Will’s friend and protector, whom Marianne both loves and hates
• Veronique Ozanne, Will and Marianne’s beautiful, much-cherished only child

The Story

AlthoughGreen Dolphin Street appears to be an adventure tale, filled with exotic and improbable situations, its true story has to do with the circular nature of life and human experience. In each main character certain patterns evolve and repeat in various ways until, in the end, they return to where they began.

Two sisters, Marianne and Marguerite le Patourel, enjoy a sheltered childhood on one of the Channel Islands. Taught at home by Sophie, their mother, and indulged by their gruff but loving father, the sisters manifest difference in personality that has been evident since birth. Marianne, moody, impatient, greedy for adventure, loves her younger sister but ridicules her passive enjoyment of life and ignores her deeply spiritual nature. When young William Ozanne, the son of Sophie’s childhood sweetheart, arrives on the island, both sisters feel an immediate attraction for him; the love their mother felt for his father returns in them. The three are inseparable.

As they grow up together, the three children repeat patterns of interaction with one another: Marianne seeks always to change and improve the careless and impractical Will; Marguerite loves and supports him, delighting in his humor and warmth; Will respects and admires Marianne while loving Marguerite. Will repeatedly claims that the sisters’ names are too similar.

Will’s weakness—allowing himself to be led by others—causes him to join the navy at Marianne’s insistence. Arriving in a Chinese port, lonely, miserable, and confused, he yields to temptation, is drugged, misses his ship, and finds himself exiled to New Zealand as a deserter. For ten years he works to build a life to offer Marguerite, unaware that the letters he writes never reach her.

The two sisters handle Will’s disappearance in predictable ways: Marianne with bitterness, determined to become wealthy and powerful on her own; Marguerite with prayer and a firm faith that Will is still alive. When Will’s letter proposing marriage finally comes, his old habit of confusing the girls’ names causes him to ask their father for Marianne, not Marguerite. Triumphant, Marianne sets off for New Zealand. Will realizes his mistake only when the ship docks and, true to his nature, takes the easiest way; he marries Marianne, resolving never to reveal the truth.

The hardships of a pioneer existence in a strange and dangerous country magnify the growing bitterness between the two. Will’s friend and mentor, a mysterious man called Tai Haruru (Sounding Sea) by the Maori tribesmen among whom he has lived as a brother, encourages Will to follow his own wishes to live simply and in harmony with the Maori. Both men are disgusted with Marianne’s desire for wealth and prestige. It is not until Marianne is compelled to accept Tai Haruru’s assistance when giving birth to the child Veronique that a friendship grows up between them.

Veronique’s arrival changes the direction in the pattern. Will’s love for his child gives him the strength to ignore Marianne’s nagging. Marianne’s harsh nature softens; she learns to accept love. Meanwhile, Marguerite, alone and grieving on the island, having lost her faith, becomes a spiritual companion to the child she has never seen. In a mystical way she “sends” herself to be a playmate for Veronique. These supernatural experiences lead her back to a religious life, and she becomes a nun.

All three have nearly completed the full circle of change and growth when at last Will and Marianne return to the island, old and at peace with each other, to visit Marguerite. Yet it is the accidental discovery by both sisters of Will’s mistake in names that closes the circle, completing in each of the three the return to the beginning and the end of their search for happiness.

Context

In her autobiography, The Joy of the Show (1974), Elizabeth Goudge describes writing Green Dolphin Street over a period of many years, during which time she produced several other books. She claims that the story in the book, with some alterations, really happened to her grandfather’s brother. It is ironic that this book, written for pleasure in intervals between “serious” novels, has become one of her better-known works, winning a film prize in the United States and becoming a worldwide best-seller.

The book represents an accumulation of childhood memories, family anecdotes, character sketches, and pure invention. The author confesses in her introductory note that she has never been to New Zealand, where a major portion of the plot is set. The island of Guernsey, however, is the probable inspiration for the unnamed “Island” in Green Dolphin Street. As a child, Goudge spent summers with her grandparents on Guernsey, and many of the characters and events in the book appear to have been drawn from these experiences.

Unlike her historical novels, such as The Child from the Sea (1970), A City of Bells (1936), and Towers in the Mist (1938), which are carefully researched and make a point of accuracy while maintaining the liberty of fiction, Green Dolphin Street is in essence a fantasy. It is in the growth and change of its characters that the author reflects the realities of her life. During the time of its writing she experienced a nervous breakdown, the loss and rediscovery of her Christian faith, the chronic and severe ill health of her mother, the death of her father, and the great upheaval of World War II in England. Each character possesses fragments of her personality, as though the book was written to relieve the stress of living, and the richly descriptive narrative of scenes imaginary and remembered may have allowed her to escape into a less threatening world.

Young adult readers will recognize the authentic depiction of both adolescent and adult searches for identity throughout the book. The realism of a love story without the traditional happy ending offers this age group a useful perspective on the unpredictable nature of youthful relationships.