The role of nature

Another part of your essay should focus on the role of nature in “Sea Story” by A. S. Byatt.

Nature is character-building in the story as both Harold and Laura are somehow connected to nature in general and the sea in particular. Nature defines Harold’s formation and Laura’s traits and choices.

Harold was born and grew up by the sea, forming a deep connection with this natural element. Even his passion for poetry was inspired by a poem describing the sea. When he is at Oxford he cannot understand inland people and longs for his hometown:

The space inside his skull was composed of an almost abstract form – the sweep of sand, the black protuberance of the Brigg with the waves licking it or crashing over it, and most of all the huge curve of the horizon. (ll. 30-32)

Furthermore, he probably falls in love with Laura because she reminds him so much of the sea with her “sleek black wetsuit, like a seal” (l. 42) and “bright-haired like some marine goddess” (l. 127). What is more, the two of them meet in the sea. Water (the sea) is what brings them together and what separates them because Laura chooses to take a job away from Harold in the Caribbean Sea....