The Long Engagement

The title refers to middle class social conventions of the time, in particular the fact that the parents of a girl engaged to a poorly paid curate would typically not allow the marriage until he had secured a more remunerative position - i.e. within the church hierarchy. The girl is depicted looking at her own name (Amy) carved, some while ago, into the trunk of the tree by her fiancé as an expression of his love. The carving, however, is about to be covered by rambling ivy - growing up the trunk; ethereal youthful passion is becoming lost to lassiez-faire worldly capitalist demands. It can be said that this symbolism reflects the stark realities of late 1850s and 1860s Victorian England