The literary relationship between storms and power is wonderful and fascinating. It links back to the fragility of what it means to be human. A frequent symbol of danger in literature, storms are characterised by chaos, while chaos is characterised by uncertainty and impotence in the face of sudden change.
In Philip Larkin’s poem Mother, Summer, I, he explores the uncertainty of storms and how we project our manifestations of fear onto the environment. The speaker’s mother dislikes thunderstorms to the point where perfect summer days are ruined by the apprehension of one coming. Consequently, the unhappiness of enduring a thunderstorm is nothing compared to the persistent uneasiness of fearing one. Happiness becomes too perfect and too delicate. Expectations become too swiftly shattered. Even to the ‘summer-loving’ boy who narrates (presumably Larkin himself), the disappointment of autumn is something safe and secure since there is no risk of change. The poem serves as an ironic reminder that, as humans, we tend to fear losing happiness so much that we ultimately make ourselves lose it, with no adversities needed. The uncertainty surrounding these thunderstorms is far worse than these thunderstorms could ever be!
Another significantly stormy work of literature is Shakespeare’s The Tempest, where the danger, like in Larkin’s poem, is entirely fabricated. Whilst Prospero’s storm is a ‘real’ storm (unlike the imagined fear of one in Mother, Summer, I), nature is not the enemy, but rather, Man is. The storm is a creation of Prospero, a man seeking to inflate his power, and it epitomises the malevolence and vindictiveness that plagues humanity. Man taps into the dangerous capacities of nature as a tool of fear to distance himself from his impotence.
However, in Seamus Heaney’s Storm on the Island, Man is the storm. Critics point out how the first eight letters of the poem spell out ‘Stormont’, conveying political undertones. This is not Man vs Nature but Man vs Man, and the storm is a metaphor for the destructive force of conflict. The inhabitants of the island start secure and end insecure, aware that there is nothing to fear but this powerful uncertainty caused by The Troubles. This unease manifests itself in the symbol of a lingering storm. They are united against something far greater than them, a danger so capable of devastation yet never entirely present.
Ultimately, storms feature time and time again across literature to highlight our human inability to face apprehension and fear, and our vulnerability to powerlessness in the face of this uncertainty.
Image Credit: illustration by Lucy Keegan