55 pages • 1 hour read
Malcolm LowryUnder the Volcano
Malcolm LowryFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1947A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses depictions of addiction to alcohol that feature in the source text.
The two volcanoes of Under the Volcano are a near-constant presence throughout the plot. At no point do any of the characters move out of the range of the volcanoes, and many chapters end with these characters looking upon the volcanoes and reflecting upon their situations. The volcanoes, though active, stay at rest throughout the novel, and while they do make themselves seen, they are never actually heard. Their constant presence, and the lingering threat that they pose as active volcanoes, introduces the motif of chaos and unpredictability to the novel. There is a double meaning, then, in the title of Malcolm Lowry’s text, for under a volcano there is lava, gas, and the immense power to burn and destroy everything around it. And yet, the title Under the Volcano most directly references the characters operating under the shadow of the volcanoes, and the chaos each one holds and the ability they have to destroy their own relationships. However, like many of the themes and symbols of the novel, this motif also reflects the state of the world around the characters.
The prime example of this chaos is the Consul and his addiction to alcohol. It has made him unpredictable, unreliable, and difficult to work with. His mood is volatile and his commitment to Yvonne can change between dawn and dusk. Similarly, the political state of the world, focused on the Spanish Civil War, reflects the unpredictability of Europe and the world as they crash toward World War II. The volcanoes are a reminder of the instability of life, and the Consul experiences this through his dying hallucination:
It was in eruption, yet no, it wasn’t the volcano, the world itself was bursting into black spouts of villages catapulted into space, with himself falling through it all, through the inconceivable pandemonium of a million tanks, through the blazing of ten million burning bodies, falling, into a forest, falling (390-91).
After having imagined that he climbed El Popo, he comes to realize that he is falling into the volcano and watching the world around him burn. In his dying moments, he is introduced to what is under the volcano, and the terrifying power it possesses. His vision is a preview of what is to come as the world descends into the violence of WWII. The volcanoes that the Consul looks at admiringly throughout the novel have revealed their ability to destroy, just as his ability to destroy comes to the forefront and results in his and Yvonne’s deaths.
La Despedida
La Despedida (The Parting) is a rock formation that Yvonne sees walking with the Consul that symbolizes their relationship. On their way back to the house in the second chapter, they stop in front of the printer’s shop and look in the window. Almost every item in the window is related to a wedding. There are invitations and depictions of brides, creating an atmosphere of hope and happiness. And yet there is one image unlike the others, and that is of La Despedida: “a photographic enlargement, purporting to show the disintegration of a glacial deposit in the Sierra Madre, of a great rock split by forest fires” (56-57). Yvonne recognizes that the other exhibits in the windows add an extra layer of irony to the photo and the contrast of an instance of irrevocable disjuncture amongst images of union evoke an emotional response in her.
She sees herself and the Consul in the photo of La Despedida and the rock formation itself comes to symbolize their relationship. Just as they had once been whole in marriage, so too had La Despedida been one rock. And now, after their divorce, they are as split as the rock, although Yvonne hopes not as irrevocably so. Yvonne continues to ponder the rock as they walk away: “The violence of the fire which split the rock apart had also incited the destruction of each separate rock, cancelling the power that might have held them unities” (57). Yvonne’s reflections represent her relationship with the Consul. As they split apart, both lost something of themselves and have not been able to regain it. Yvonne has come back to Quauhnahuac to attempt to heal their fractures, but they prove to be more like La Despedida than she had hoped. They cannot stitch themselves back together, individually or collectively and as their relationships crumble, both lose their lives—the Consul succumbing to violence sparked by his addiction to alcohol, and Yvonne in the aftermath of that violence.
¿LE GUSTA ESTE JARDÍN?
An interesting motif of Under the Volcano is the repeated inclusion of a sign reading “¿LE GUSTA ESTE JARDÍN? ¿QUE ES SUYO? ¡EVITE QUE SUS HIJOS LO DESTRUYAN!” It is translated in the novel to mean “You like this garden? Why is it yours? We evict those who destroy!” (135). The Consul sees it near his own garden fence as well as all around town, and it comes to symbolize more than just the state of his decrepit garden. Upon closer examination, the sign signifies the severity of the Consul’s addiction to alcohol. Yvonne took care of the garden before she left the Consul, and with her gone, he made no effort to maintain it, letting it be overgrown and using it to hide alcohol from Hugh. By comparison, his neighbor’s garden is neat and beautiful, providing a drastic juxtaposition between the two. The garden did not just fall apart because Yvonne left, but also because of the Consul’s addiction to alcohol. It has him so firmly in its grasp that he gave no mind to the garden itself, and infrequently visited it to the point that a sign could be put up and he wouldn’t notice.
The sign carries an even deeper significance, however, within the novel and is a reflection not only of the individual’s care for their body and mind, but also the world’s general state of chaos. Lowry makes many allusions to the Garden of Eden in Under the Volcano, and with the Spanish Civil War raging, and the rise of Hitler well underway, the world of the novel is heading for chaos and destruction. The people of Earth have been given a wonderful planet to live on but destroy it more and more every year. The Consul even theorizes that the story of Adam in the Garden of Eden is told incorrectly:
I’ve often wondered whether there isn’t more in the old legend of the Garden of Eden, and so on, than meets the eye. What if Adam wasn’t really banished from the place at all? That is, in the sense we used to understand it […] What if his punishment really consisted […] in his having to go on living there, alone, of course—suffering, unseen, cut off from God (140).
In this sense, the sign and its words come to represent the notion that people must live with the consequences of their mistakes. There is no moving on and away. The Consul must live with his addiction and the pain that it has brought him just as the world must live with its mistakes and the negative impact it has on the planet.
Las Manos de Orlac con Peter Lorre
Throughout Under the Volcano there are frequent appearances of posters advertising the film Las Manos de Orlac con Peter Lorre. It is seen by all the characters and is at times a topic of conversation among them. At no point in the novel do the characters go to see the film, but its near-constant presence foreshadows the novel’s ending. While on their ride, Yvonne asks Hugh if he would like to see the film, and he declines:
I think I’ve seen the Peter Lorre movie somewhere. He’s a great actor but it’s a lousy picture. […] It’s all about a pianist who has a sense of guilt because he thinks his hands are a murderer’s or something and keeps washing the blood off them. Perhaps they really are a murderer’s but I forget (115).
The idea that one could have blood on their hands but not see it ties in with the conclusion of the novel. The Consul’s actions at the Farolito directly lead to the death of Yvonne. He may not have killed her himself, but he is certainly responsible. Additionally, it fits into the broader context of the world at the time: With foreign nations interfering in Spain and WWII on the horizon, many may not directly kill, but blood is certainly on their hands.
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