The Boarded Window: Murlock's relationship with nature

Taken from Sheldon Goldfarb:


From the beginning of the story we are told that Murlock lived alone in the forest. Of course, before his wife died, he lived with her, but it is interesting that the main events of the plot are set in motion by Murlock’s being away “gunning in a distant part of the forest” while his wife falls ill. He is perhaps too much apart, even from his wife.

He also seems to have an excessively antagonistic relationship to the natural world around him, as is indicated by his being off “gunning.” And earlier, in describing Murlock’s attempts at farming, the narrator makes him sound violent by talking of “the ravage wrought by [Murlock’s] ax.” The narrator also refers to Murlock’s zeal for agriculture as a “flame,” which makes him sound like a danger to the forest, although it is true that his flame is “failing” and “expiring in penitential ashes.”

Murlock had arrived in the area “young, strong and full of hope” and had begun “laying sturdily about with his ax to hew out a farm” while also using his rifle to shoot wild game. After his wife’s death, he lets the forest retake the land he had cleared for a farm, perhaps feeling guilty about his previous actions (hence the term “penitential” in describing what happened to his zeal for farming).

Perhaps what the story is trying to suggest in all this is that Murlock was both too much apart from other people (or civilization) and too antagonistic to nature. And what happens to his wife is then some sort of punishment, or a revenge taken by civilization and nature together. The panther is then a symbol of the world’s hostility towards those who fail to interact with it normally, who push it away or attack it. Similarly, the narrator’s throwing of stones at Murlock’s cabin seems to represents the world’s naturally hostile response to one who has kept himself too much to himself.