38 pages • 1 hour read
Dylan ThomasUnder Milk Wood
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1954A 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
Milk Wood
Milk Wood is a small forest near the town of Llareggub. The wood has a reputation for being the place where the local people go to conduct illicit affairs. Anyone wishing to indulge their passions out of sight of the rest of the town can be found in Milk Wood. People are aware of this, for better or for worse. While many residents of Llareggub use Milk Wood for romantic rendezvous, others disapprove of the “sinful” passions that the forest represents. Many people closely watch the road up to the forest, chattering and gossiping about who is visiting the wood. For Jack Black, gossiping is not enough: Milk Wood represents a form of sin that must be driven from the world. He takes it upon himself to chase the sinners through Milk Wood, revealing their misdeeds to the world. Between the gossip and the harassment, however, people continue to visit Milk Wood. The townspeople, in all aspects of their lives, are caught in a familiar, seemingly unbreakable routine. The wood has become a part of this routine, so its existence is tolerated.
Milk Wood becomes an essential part of the town’s understanding of sin and love. Milk Wood is physically separate from the town, meaning that those who wish to pursue their romantic endeavors must leave Llareggub to do so. Milk Wood functions as a site for the vital release of the passions that are forbidden in the town itself. The people of Llareggub accept these passions as a necessary part of the human condition; however, they cannot be indulged in the town itself. Milk Wood thus becomes a makeshift arena in which the townspeople can escape from the community’s judgment and expectations.
For Reverend Jenkins, Milk Wood symbolizes humanity itself. Unlike Jack, he has no desire to chase sinners through the wood. Instead, he cherishes Milk Wood as a symbol of the corruptible “innocence of men” (62). The reverend’s notion of humanity accepts and embraces the complexity of the human spirit. He does not deny the presence of sin in Milk Wood, but he sees sin as a vital and even lovable part of humanity. Milk Wood, Llareggub, and humankind are not perfect; Jenkins adores them for their imperfection, for the same corruptible innocence that is represented by Milk Wood.
Llareggub
Under Milk Wood is set in the fictional Welsh town of Llareggub. The setting becomes important to the play’s interrogation of the parochial idea of Welsh community and history. As a fictional town, Llareggub represents an abstract ideal. Even the name of the town is a fictional version of a certain idea of Wales. The name Llareggub is “bugger all” (a vulgar British slang term that means “nothing”) written backward, intended to mimic the aesthetic of the Welsh language without actually meaning anything.
In Welsh, the double L is common. Many Welsh towns begin with “Llan,” for example, which means “church.” As such, the town of Llareggub is intended to represent a certain idea of Welshness and Welsh community that may not necessarily be tethered to anything specific. It is a small community, cut off from the outside world and seemingly unaffected by modernity. In this small community, everyone knows one another. They each have distinct roles to play in the community, from gravedigger to schoolteacher to pub landlord. The town is a romanticized version of a self-sustaining society that is untainted by the modern world. Through the play’s portrayal of Llareggub, Dylan Thomas explores quintessential ideas about the Welsh language, people, and nation in an abstract manner.
On the surface, Llareggub seems “picturesque.” Untouched by modernity, the people of Llareggub continue a way of life that seems to be lost to the ages. Beneath the surface, however, Thomas explores his own complex relationship with Wales. The town’s name, again, is an important symbol. Thomas was raised by Welsh-speaking parents, but, like many in his generation, he did not learn to speak the Welsh language. During the 1800s and early 1900s, the British government strictly controlled the use of the Welsh language. The Welsh Not, for example, was a token used in schools to police and discourage the Welsh language. The Not was handed to children heard speaking Welsh, and, in some instances, whichever child was holding the Not at the end of the day was beaten. The Welsh language peppers Under Milk Wood, but only in scattershot idioms. Jack Black shouts “ach y fi” (8), for example, a statement of disgust, as he chases lovers through Milk Wood. The meaningless of the name Llareggub represents Thomas’s interrogation of his own Welsh identity, as someone who can write about Welsh towns and people but only mimic the language on a surface level.
The complex symbolism of the town is both a love letter to and a critique of a certain parochial way of life. Llareggub may seem idyllic, but, as the name implies, nothing of consequence actually happens in the small town. The characters are all trapped in a meaningless daily routine, and their repetitive days, unaffected by the outside world, are almost purgatorial in nature. The play simultaneously idealizes a way of life that has been lost to modernity and illustrates the constraint and stasis that characterizes this way of life. Llareggub symbolizes the way in which nostalgia can become a trap.
The Sea
Llareggub is a coastal town, and the sea plays an important role in the lives of the community. As a fishing village, the people of Llareggub rely on the sea for sustenance. This dependence on the sea is everywhere, down to the name of the pub, Sailors Arms. The town’s relationship with the sea is a nostalgic portrayal of a parochial way of life that is threatened by modernity. The fishermen of Llareggub are continuing traditions and practices that have been passed down by their ancestors. Furthermore, the sea isolates them from modernity in that it allows them to be self-sufficient. The sea symbolizes the attempts by the people of Llareggub to carry on tradition and to continue to practice a way of life that is rapidly disappearing elsewhere.
This reliance on the sea is not without its perils, however, as the people of Llareggub have no control over the elements. The fishermen can only fish when the conditions are right; when the conditions are “too rough for fishing” (39), they cannot venture out to sea. The sea represents the powerful forces that limit their lives and their agency. They may blame God, the government, or bad luck, but the fishermen of Llareggub are reliant on forces that they cannot control. Ironically, the nostalgic portrayal of this traditional way of life demonstrates exactly why it is in danger of disappearing, as the sea exudes a total control over these people’s lives that is not sustainable.
The danger of the sea is also represented by the ghosts who visit Captain Cat in his dreams. The drowned sailors, who are among the first voices to appear in the play, call out to him, listing the ways in which they died and begging him to release them from their purgatorial torment. Their pained voices demonstrate that the same sea that provides sustenance for the people of the town is also a dangerous force, with the power to control those it kills long after they are dead. The sea represents a force beyond the control and understanding of the people of Llareggub, which can both sustain and punish them in equal measure.
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