The seasons are changing, and so are you

 

 

              It’s easy to understand that the seasons represent the phases of life. Spring is rebirth, summer is adolescence, fall is old-age, and winter is death. Whenever a child is born in a novel, it’s usually when the sun rises on a new spring day. Then, when the child is a teenager, he/she is usually running through a field in early summer enjoying life. Fall, as the leaves gently flow down to the base of the trees, he/she walks slowly to a favorite spot with a loved one as they both begin to show the signs of old age. And finally, the cold piercing winter. It cuts through the frail skin of our protagonist and slices through him/her without a second thought.

            Or, in other novels, winter can just mean death for anyone. For example, in Wuthering Heights Catherine dies of a broken heart, afterwards snow starts to fall, when she discovers that Heath Cliff has married someone else. Sure, Catherine wasn’t old and frail but she was severely wounded spiritually making her frail and weak. So, she didn’t have to be old to feel the sting of winter. She was already weakened from an unhappy marriage and thinking her soul-mate was happily married without her.
            Keeping the theme of Wuthering Heights at the moment, there are countless scenes in the book where Heath Cliff and Catherine are running through the heather enjoying life and the time with each other in their youth. These scenes symbolize their happiness and their youth because they mostly play during the summer. Then when Catherine leaves with the Lintons but then returns in the winter, it symbolizes the death of her old life with Heath Cliff and of her youth but also the rebirth of her new life. (Which, if you are going to be very analytical, is doomed to fail and die because it ultimately began in the winter.)
            Another example that uses the same theme of the seasons and the stages of life is Jaques’ speech from As You Like It. He says in his speech that life is seven stages instead of four. But, the stages can be put into four categories. For instance, the first two stages he talks about, the infant and the schoolboy, can be put in the category of spring because they are young and symbolize a new beginning. Next, in the category of summer, is the lover and the soldier. In these stages, they have matured to make their own decisions to enjoy life even more. In the category of fall, we have what Jaques describes as the justice and the pantaloon. This is we where we see old age at its beginning and partial end because as a justice they have more experience and then the pantaloon shows the signs of the mind slowly fading away. Finally, there is the “second childhood,” which means they have grown so old they can no longer take care of themselves. This is in the category of winter because of the loss of freedom that they have entered. That is when it becomes too much and the eventual death comes as a relief from suffering.