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The operation of the soul in Wordsworth’s "The Excursion"

University of British Columbia

Wordsworth's "The Excursion" conveys a message of assurance against the fact of death in the temporal realm. The assurance, however, is in nature and the spirit of her forms, rocks, rivers, clouds and elements. It is the soul which must assimilate that assurance, working from the temporal realm to give insight into the spiritual realm, a window between the two. The Wanderer, Narrator, and Pastor may be said to have developed soul and use it effectively against despondency. The Solitary, although he may have developed soul, seems to have lost it, or is unable to allow it to function. The Wanderer shows the function of nature and the spirit of nature in the development of soul. In his formative years, his sensibilities are exposed to experience among nature's forms and the elements. He is able to feel his faith in the wilderness, and as an older person is often able to assuage the doubts of others in adversity. In the mutual respect among the Wanderer, Narrator and Pastor, we see agreement with a generous love towards the scale of being, constituting an act of worship towards a spiritual being who has ordained nature to act as his mouthpiece. It is these friends who attempt to persuade the Solitary that there is an antidote to his despondency. He has not been able to overcome the disappointments of his own life or his disillusionment with social man. He, in fact, cannot see beyond the disappointments of this life and the finality of death in this temporal realm. Wordsworth's use of imagery of the temporal and spiritual realms is interesting, in that nature's forms can be seen in terms of human actions, and human actions can be seen as interactions, of nature's forms and the elements. Considering the two flows of imagery as being parallel, even codimensional, the linking interpretive agency is Wordsworth's concept of the soul. All of the main characters have or share experiences when, in nature's magnificence, we can see the soul at work, reading a message of hope and purpose. The soul's function is outlined in Book IV of "The Excursion". In earlier books we see how the soul is developed, and how man is urged to a moral commitment to the scale of being. In later Books, lessons from the lives of the occupants of the graveyard are produced as examples of varied commitments, or lack of them, to demonstrate to the Solitary a range of attitudes towards the scale of being, with subsequent degrees of states of grace. Wordsworth's method of dramatization shows the different strains of his own convictions, and presents his own sense of the function of nature. He believes in a benevolent spiritual being, who has created nature to inform man of continuance in the spiritual realm. Through the action of the soul, man can adore his God with a moral commitment to the scale of being. The execution of that moral commitment moves man towards a state of grace that will assuage his doubts and fears in the temporal realm and enable him to see beyond the fact of death towards continuance in the spiritual realm.

Text

2010-03-05

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21577

English

University of British Columbia

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