Waverley

The Scottish Highlands are both a setting and symbol in Waverley. Edward had been taught that the people of the Highlands were barbaric and the landscape was uninhabitable, but he learns throughout the novel that the people and culture are more diverse and nuanced than the generalizations he had internalized at Waverley-Honour. In fact, the Highlands are much more welcoming to Edward than any other region in the novel. He is treated like one of Fergus’s clan, contrary to the betrayal he feels from his regiment, and he experiences passion for a cause for the first time in his life. Through Edward’s eyes, Scott puts a positive spin on many of the contemporary English and Lowland assumptions about the Highlands, emphasizing their simple and natural way of life. Still, Edward and Scott romanticize the Highlands in a way that some readers find a bit fantastical. This is because the Highlands are not just a place, but a symbol of romanticism. Flora, whose untamed passion and interest in the greater good recall to Edward the romantic stories he daydreamed of in childhood, represents the most positive aspects of romanticism, including idealism and reverence for nature.