Setting and Theme in 'You Gave Me Hyacinths' by Jannette Turner Hospital

Hello BA English readers.  This is the second part of the essay that got 88%.

Question 2:  Discuss the importance of setting in establishing the theme of ‘You Gave Me Hyacinths’ by Jannette Turner Hospital.

The underlying theme of You Gave Me Hyacinths is ‘awakening’; the revealing of new worlds to both the teacher and student; the blooming empathy between two people with utterly contrasting life experiences and mindsets.  Turner Hospital parallels descriptions of the settings (Hawthorne p59-60) and their environmental conditions with the changing relationship between the teacher and student as they journey through the afternoon, progressing their relationship from hostility to trust.  Throughout the story settings play a dual role; they create a context; an evocative mood, era and environment for the story plus they also stand as metaphors for the budding relationship.  By working at these two levels, the descriptive and the symbolic, the various settings help to establish the theme of an ‘awakening relationship’.  The narrative journeys through the stages of awakening just as it journeys through three major settings; the oppressive school room, the freedom of the outdoors and the final intimacy of the teacher’s home. 

Turner Hospital opens the story by describing the ‘unfamiliar context’ (p59) of the setting; the unique, raw Cooktown environment.  Cooktown is an undiscovered environment for most readers and evocative figurative descriptions establish it as a realistic setting.  ‘Summer comes hot and steamy, with the heavy smell of raw sugar to the north-east coast of Australia.’ 

Additionally, the narration works at a symbolic level (p60); it immediately establishes how the cane grows into the cracks of the window but also into the ‘corners of the mind’.  This metaphor immediately establishes that the environment transforms the way one views the world. 

The first stage in the ‘awakening’ starts with establishing difference and its attendant hostility and suspicion.  In striking contrast to the wide, burnt land the school house is the ‘brave outpost of another civilisation’; it stands apart.  This is significant because it symbolises the teacher’s difference; like the school house the teacher stands apart from her students, especially Dellis. 

Whilst this is normal in a student-teacher relationship where there is significant authority and power distance between both, it is accentuated here because the uptight teacher carries a heavy load of naivety, literary theory and moralising religious conditioning.  Establishing that the teacher is starkly different in character, morals and ambitions from Dellis is important to the theme.  It’s the first part in the three stages of awakening because the difference underpins the hostility; a reason Dellis does not trust or engage with the teacher.  Both their relationship and the classroom air was ‘still and fetid’. 

The story turns upon the suggestion the teacher makes to Dellis, ‘Will you go for a walk with me?’.  They leave the ‘stale’ classroom, the teacher’s domain, and enter Dellis’ world and ‘things were immediately better’.  It is in the outdoors on their walk and swim, that Dellis and the teacher move into the second stage of ‘awakening’ where they begin to communicate and understand each other’s contrasting worlds.  ‘Halfway between the corner and the mill, Dellis said suddenly “I like red.”’ This is the first breakthrough.  Just as the journey is at its beginning so too is the relationship. 

As they progress to the beach we see Dellis educating the teacher about the social norms; it’s ok to ‘steal’ sugar cane, to swim naked, to have sex in a cane field… or it is when you’re Dellis.  Again, the teacher and student are different; ‘virgin and child in a field of green’.  Typically construction of the virgin and child is religious but here the virgin is the ‘parent’ figure and the child is educating the teacher about the ways of her world; the green outdoor world rather than the stuffy school room.  Despite their differences they’re building understanding through communion in the outdoor setting.

The final stage of ‘awakening’ comes with trust and intimacy.  The storm hits (both the weather and the fighting at Dellis’ home) and drives both together into the intimate setting of the teacher’s home.  There the trust that has been built between the two and this opens the door to learning; Dellis asks her first question about poetry and opens herself to learning.

In You Gave Me Hyacinths Turner Hospital’s takes us on a journey of awakening.  The settings act symbolically to describe the moral journey where, at the outset, difference creates hostility; followed by communication creating understanding and finishing with trust leading to learning.  Her story is uplifting and hopeful.  It shows us that a change in setting can lead to a change for the better, for both parties.

761 words including quotations.