The novel Watership Down by Richard Adams, like Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie
Queene, is an allegory. Watership Down also embodies many romantic ideas. Fiver,
a rabbit who sees visions from Frith, represents the turn toward imagination
that occurred in the Romantic period. The rabbits in the novel also value
freedom and rebellion against tyranny, two important Romantic ideas. Many of the
rabbits that left the Sandleford warren were unhappy with authority there, and
the Watership Down warren helped the rebellion against Efrafa. Hyzenthlay, a doe
in Efrafa, questions authority and longs for freedom from tyranny. She embodies
the individualism valued in the Romantic period and, like Fiver, sees visions
from Frith. The rabbits in the novel search for better ways to live- another
important Romantic idea. Fiver leads the search. “I know what we ought to be
looking for – a high, lonely place with dry soil, where rabbits can see and
hear all round and men hardly ever come. Wouldn’t that be worth a journey?”
(Adams 48) Watership Down is an allegory, “a story in which the characters,
settings and events stand for abstract or moral concepts” (Sime 1189). The
different warrens in Watership Down represent different types of government.
Efrafa, a warren run by General Woundwort, is a totalitarian government where
the military class rules and the others are oppressed, much like the Khrushchev
era in the USSR. In The Faerie Queene, each main character represents a heroic
quality. In the epic poem of knights, dragons and ladies, each part represented
a heroic quality that embodied a noble person. During the Romantic period,
people “turned away from the… emphasis on reason and artifice. The Romantics
embraced imagination and naturalness.” (Sims 630). Fiver, a rabbit from the
Sandleford warren, is an example of this Romantic philosophy in the novel. Fiver
has an uncanny sense for danger- a psychic sense that the other rabbits do not
possess. He speaks of one of his visions, “I know there’s something
unnatural and evil twisted all round this place. I don’t know what it is, so
no wonder I can’t talk about it. I keep getting near it, though.”(Adams
102). Fiver’s sense of danger proves accurate. He predicted the destruction of
the Sandleford warren, imagining “The field! It’s covered with blood!”
(Adams 21). This prophecy was later fulfilled when Holly and Bluebell came to
Watership Down and told how the men destroyed the warren. Fiver embraces these
visions, even in the face of other rabbits that tell him he is not thinking
logically. Fiver values his individualism and visions. The rabbits of Watership
Down, like Romantics, “believed in individual liberty and sympathized with
those who rebelled against tyranny.” (Sims 630). The rebellion that the
rabbits supported came from the tyranny in Efrafa. Holly learned of Efrafa on
his arrival, “You cannot call your life your own” (Adams 245). The rabbits
in Efrafa are marked, and depending on the mark, have certain feeding times and
are only allowed above ground at those times. Blackavar, an Efrafa rabbit,
“had been caught trying to run away from the warren.” (Adams 248).
Blackavar’s ears were “ripped to shreds” as punishment. (Adams 248). Holly
and the other Watership Down rabbits “were sniffling at him; absolutely
horror-stricken.” (Adams 248). Strawberry supports rebellion from Efrafa.
“There are rabbits there who’d be the same as we are if they could only live
naturally, like us. Several of them would be glad to leave the place if they
could.” (Adams 265). Hyzenthlay, a doe in Efrafa, longs for individual liberty
and freedom from tyranny. Upon meeting her, Bigwig hears her poem, which, like
romantic poetry, “spoke of personal experiences and emotions” (Sims 630).
Bigwig also sees her emotions in her poetic gaze. “She turned to him a look of
such wretchedness, so full of accusation and suffering, that it was all he could
do not to beg her then and there to believe that he was her secret friend and
that he hated Efrafa and the authority which he represented… this doe’s gaze
spoke of wrongs beyond her power to express.” (Adams 331). Hyzenthlay had told
Holly of her attempt to leave the warren. This doe rebelled against the tyranny
of General Woundwort. Romantics were often looking for “better- that is,
happier, fairer, and healthier- ways to live.” (Sims 631). The rabbits were
also looking for a better way to live. A few of the rabbits who left the
Sandleford warren did so, not because of Fiver’s warning, but because they
were not happy with life at Sandleford. Bigwig leaves the Owsla by rebelling
against the Threarah. “I told him that… a strong rabbit could always do just
as well by leaving the warren…. Lettuce-stealing isn’t my idea of a jolly
life, nor sentry duty in the burrow.” (Adams 29). At cowslip’s warren, the
rabbits thought they had found a better place to live when they saw the carrots
available daily. Hazel remarked “What a Country! What a warren! No wonder
they’re as big as hares and smell like princes!” (Adams 99). Fiver’s
better place is Watership Down, “a high, lonely place with dry soil, where
rabbits can see and hear all round and men hardly ever come.” (Adams 48).
Although the rabbits have a different idea of a better place, they all
constantly seek a better place to live, better things to eat, and better
government. Watership Down mirrors many Romantic philosophies. The ideas of
freedom and rebellion against tyranny are themes that run throughout the book,
just as they were present throughout the Romantic period. Fiver and Hyzenthlay
represent the individualism and imagination that were valued by Romantics.
Watership Down also functions as an allegory representing different qualities in
humans and different forms of government. The importance of Romantic ideas and
their relevance in the modern world is shown in Richard Adams’ 1972 novel,
Watership Down.

Bibliography
Adams, Richard. Watership Down. New York: Avon Books, 1972. Sime, Richard and
others, Eds. Elements of Literature. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc.,
1997.