Symbolism of the garden in G. K. Chesterton's novel «The man who was Thursday»

The article concerns the image of the garden and park in G. K. Chesterton's novel «The Man Who Was Thursday» (1908). The author of the article argues that the garden where the action of the novel takes place receives a symbolic meaning, although it is described as a real site. The imagery of phantasmagoric adventures of characters allows for depicting the world of «wild doubts», despair, and perplexity, which were typical feelings of a person at the beginning of the 20th century in the face of seeming inanity of life. Topoi of the forest and garden are opposed to each other in the novel. The forest is a symbol of doubts and false illusions, which were features of the public consciousness of the time, while the garden is associated with the idea of home, paradise, life variety. The researcher comes to the conclusion that the symbolism of the garden image is based on the author's personal life impressions and the semantics of the garden is used as an artistic and cultural universal characteristic.