Nature and Civilisation

This chapter looks at the characteristics of, and relationship between, the three environments depicted within the film: the forest wilderness; London as represented by the short scene in the Judge’s house; and the cultivated and inhabited spaces of the village. This chapter considers the tension in the film between the primitive, regressive nature wilderness and the civilised and progressive (yet overbearing and tyrannical) London. It examines historical and cultural attitudes to the cultivated, uncultivated and occupied spaces, drawing in discussions on Classical and Romantic approaches to the landscape as well as points made by Paul Newland. It explores the village as a liminal space in which the characteristics of both the natural wilderness and the civilised urban space can be seen. The village space is put into its historical context as an environment subject to contentious changes to the form, function and ownership of the landscape.