The Paradise Setting of Chateaubriand's Atala

Abstract

The landscape description of the New World that begins Chateaubriand's Atala has suffered from misguided criticism. Hostile critics have approached it “scientifically,” denying the authenticity of its details; admirers have rarely offered more than a theory of exoticism. Neither of these approaches uncovers the governing analogy that shaped the landscape details: the setting of Atala as an approximate paradise. The New World is “le nouvel Éden,” adapted to a tradition of garden paradises, particularly that of Milton's Paradise Lost. While recalling its mythical model, however, the features of Chateaubriand's landscape simultaneously and ironically suggest a fallen condition by presenting dualities in a state of tension. This ambivalence sets up a double relationship to the paradisiacal theme treated in the novel. The terrestrial paradise is recalled as the appropriate setting for another Fall. The conflicting properties of the symbolic locale do not achieve the expected synthesis and the story of the ill-fated lovers parallels the mythical Fall analogue. The emphasis then shifts to the celestial paradise, the religious (and Romantic) reconciliation of opposites. This remains tentative, however, for the final image of the novel is of the “new Eden” deprived of its sacred context rife with dualities.