The Man Who Loved Islands by D. H. Lawrence
"The Man Who Loved Islands" is a short story by D. H. Lawrence that explores themes of isolation, human desire, and the complex relationship between man and nature. The protagonist, Mr. Cathcart, is initially drawn to the idea of owning his own island as a means of escaping the complexities of human society. He purchases an island with the intention of creating a perfect world, but soon discovers that his idealized vision is fraught with challenges.
As he attempts to impose his will on the island, Cathcart encounters a series of misfortunes, including the malice of nature and the deceptive behavior of those he employs. His relationships with tenants and staff are superficial, marked by an underlying sense of mockery and discontent. Over time, the island becomes a source of fear and anxiety rather than solace.
In a quest for further isolation, Cathcart moves to a smaller island, only to find that his attempts to achieve a state of desirelessness are ultimately thwarted by human emotions, particularly his feelings for a woman named Flora. The narrative culminates in Cathcart’s increasing alienation from both his environment and himself, as he grapples with the harsh realities of existence. The story serves as a poignant commentary on the limits of human control over nature and the complexities of personal fulfillment.
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The Man Who Loved Islands by D. H. Lawrence
First published: 1927
Type of plot: Symbolist
Time of work: 1928
Locale: Several unspecified islands
Principal Characters:
Mr. Cathcart , a man who loves islandsFlora , his servant, later his wife
The Story
Mr. Cathcart was born on an island. It does not suit him, however, because there are too many other people on it. His life purpose becomes to own an island that he can make into a world of his own. The would-be islander acquires an island, four miles around, with three cottages on it. It has a smaller island lying off it, which also belongs to him. He loves his island, but there is a sinister side to it. It is a timeless world in which the souls of the dead live again, pulsating actively around the living. At night, places and things that seem uncanny in the day become threatening.
To escape such awareness, Cathcart concentrates on the material aspect of the island. He tries to fill it with his own gracious spirit and render it a minute world of pure perfection, made by man himself. He begins by spending money. He brings a housekeeper and butler from the mainland, and installs a bailiff in the farmhouse. He acquires a herd of cows and a yacht. He fills the cottages with tenants, all of whom display a smooth and deferential manner to "the Master." The Master visits his tenants and is treated almost with adulation, but after he leaves, they have subtle, mocking smiles on their faces. It is doubtful that any of them really likes him, or whether he likes any of them.
At the end of the first year on the island, the bills flood in. Cathcart is shocked at how much money the island has swallowed. He thinks up projects to make the farm more efficient and conveys them to the bailiff, who watches him as if he were a strange, caged animal but does not register any of his suggestions. There is a good harvest and, at the harvest supper, everyone toasts Cathcart, dances, and seems happy. Underneath the gaiety, things are not well. A cow falls over the cliff. The men haul her up the bank and bury her, as no one will eat her meat. This incident is symbolic of the periodic malevolence of the island. More catastrophes happen: A man breaks a leg, a storm drives the yacht on a rock, the pigs get some strange disease, families come to hate each other.
Cathcart begins to fear his island. He feels strange, violent feelings he has never known before. He now knows that his people do not love him. Several of them grow discontented and leave, including the housekeeper. At the end of the second year, the island has lost thousands of pounds. The housekeeper has swindled him. He gives notice to the butler and the bailiff.
In the fifth year Cathcart sells the island to a hotel company, which plans to turn it into a honeymoon-and-golf island. He then moves onto the smaller island, which still belongs to him—taking along a few faithful staff—an old carpenter, and a widow and her daughter. The island is a refuge, with no human ghosts. The islander no longer has to struggle and believes himself free from desire. He begins a book on flowers, which he does not mind if he never publishes.
Cathcart and the widow's daughter, Flora, become lovers, and immediately he feels disturbed. Caught in the automatism of sexual desire, he resents losing the state of desirelessness that he had achieved. Eventually, even his desire for Flora dies, and he is left feeling that his island's purity is soiled. He leaves the island to travel but receives a letter from Flora saying she is going to have a child. At an auction of islands, he buys another tiny island to the north. This island is even smaller and more barren than the last, with no buildings or trees on it.
Cathcart marries Flora, but as soon as the child is born, he escapes, as if from a prison, to his new island. He builds a hut and lives on the island with a few sheep and a cat. He is glad there are no trees or bushes, as they assert their presence too strongly, and this would offend him. He loses interest in his book about flowers and avoids contact with anyone. When he watches the mail steamer on the horizon, his heart contracts in fear lest it molest him. He becomes shocked by the sound of his own voice and irritated by the mew of the cat and the bleating of the sheep. He wants only the sound of the sea and silence.
One day, the mail steamer comes and Cathcart talks to its men. He resents their intrusion into his neatly ordered environment. He cannot bear to open the letters they bring because any contact is repulsive to him. The cat disappears, for which he is glad. Sometimes he gets ill, but he knows this only because he falls down; he has ceased to register his own feelings.
In winter, the snow walls in the house. Cathcart tries to get on his boat, but he is too weak and is overcome by the snow, so that he must crawl back inside. When he reaches the boat, there is a great storm. He digs himself out, and when he emerges, the island has changed, with great white hills where no hills had been. He is repulsed: He cannot win against the elements. He climbs a hill, and, as the sun feels hot, he reflects that it is summer, the time of leaves. However, he already senses the snow rolling in over the sea.