“The Drama of the Green World”–what a romantic phrase! This phrase was coined by literary critic Northrop Frye and describes how nature’s change from winter to spring is one of dramatic action–complete with conflict and triumph. It is a ritual that happens every year. The cold, icy Winter is defeated by Spring and flowers bloom, grass grows green, and animals emerge from their hideaways with their little ones trailing behind. It’s a drama with a happy ending–namely a comedy.
In Anatomy of Criticism, Frye explicitly ties the genre of comedy (in both plays and novels) to the mythos, or recurring plot structure, of spring, where nature passes from a barren place to a fertile one. He notes that the general movement of a comedy goes from a society with obstructing characters in charge to another kind of society.[1] Usually, in a classic Roman or Renaissance comedy, this means there are lovers who cannot be together because of the antagonist(s), usually old parents, but in the end the lovers are reunited and there is a communal feast or celebration where even the curmudgeonly parents are welcomed. The old society is fragmented but the new one is whole. In his literary study, Frye uses Shakespeare’s comedies as model comedies to showcase this mythos. Shakespeare’s writing features such lines as “sweet lovers love the spring” [2] and “when pied proud April, dressed in all his trim, / hath put a spirit of youth in everything,” [3] which situate romance and youth in the setting of the spring season.
Frye ultimately calls the plot of such Shakespearean comedies the “dramas of the green world,” in which one is “assimilated to the ritual theme of triumph of love and life over the wasteland.”[4] They are dramas that can be literally set in a green world–in a green, vibrant earth or forest–but also set in the green world of our dreams, or imaginations–“the dream world that we create out of our desires.” [5] In Shakespeare, Frye notes, forests generally represent the dream world, such as in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where the forest is a fairyland.
A long tradition outside of theatre also supports the notion that Spring is the season of warmth, growth, and hope. In Greek mythology, the coming of spring signified fertility—growth of plants and birth of new animals—and happiness at the return of the goddess Persephone to the earth from the underworld for a part of the year. In pagan European practices, May festivals were held to celebrate the spring, involving games, plays, and dances, such as the iconic maypole dance where children weave ribbons around a pole. After the advent of Christianity, Easter—Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection—also was celebrated in the spring, further linking the season with joy and (re)birth.
So as you see crocuses, daffodils, or snowdrops peaking out of the melting snow this month, take a moment to appreciate the great moment that is occurring in this seemingly small act. That flower is one small representative of the overall fight in nature to return to life after a cold, dead winter. It is a soldier fighting to create a better world of warmth and beauty on the earth. And it is a beacon of light pushing for us to have hope in oppressed and depressed imaginations.
Rejoice in the drama of spring that is unfolding before you!
[1] Northrop Frye, “Archetypal Criticism: Theory of Myths,” Anatomy of Criticism, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), 163.
[2] William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Folger Shakespeare Library. Accessed on January 18, 2021. www.shakespeare.folger.edu, V.iii.19.
[3] William Shakespeare, Sonnet 98, Folger Shakespeare Library. Accessed on January 18, 2021. www.shakespeare.folger.edu, lines 2-3.
[4] Frye, “Theory of Myths,” 182.
[5] Frye, “Theory of Myths,” 183.
If you are interested in reading more about Frye’s season archetype myths, see this post on Autumn.
Gaude 
Pingback: The Call of Divine Discontent | Gaude