Kuroshitsuji and the Language of Flowers
Part 3: Cover of chapter 84 (for @tanka34, thanks for the request)
What flowers are depicted and what do they stand for?
Rose: love, beauty; secrecy, nothing is perfect Holly: domestic happiness, foresight, defense; life and persistence in times of darkness Dahlia: elegance, dignity, commitment, creativity; change, betrayal Gentian: intrinsic worth, integrity; bad luck Lily: purity, majesty; innocence after death
Context of the scene
Chapter 84 marks the end of the Weston College arc. It has been revealed that the prefects killed Derrick, his friends and Agares in order to protect the school’s traditions. Undertaker has played the role of the headmaster and had turned the dead into Bizarre Dolls. In this chapter Undertaker escapes and the prefects are expelled from school because of their actions.
Analysis
Before I’ll analyze the picture above I’d like to take a look at the flowers when we’re first introduced to them at the beginning of the Weston arc.
The four flowers (rose, holly, dahlia and gentian) are the representative flowers of the four Weston dormitories: A rose for Scarlet Fox (Red House), holly for Green Lion (Green House), a dahlia for Violet Wolf (Purple House) and gentian for Sapphire Owl (Blue House).
Obviously, the color of the flowers mirrors each dormitory’s color. But maybe the flowers also symbolize certain characteristics of their respective house:
Red House is inhabited by students of exceptionally high birth. Not only is the rose the Queen of Flowers, it’s also England’s national flower which was introduced by King Henry VII as the Tudor rose. So a rose can be seen as a symbol for royalty or nobility and, therefore, is fitting for Red House.
Students in Green House excel in martial arts and sports. Foresight, defense and persistence – which holly stands for – could be seen as attributes of someone from Green House.
Violet House’s students are committed to the arts. Since a dahlia stands for creativity and commitment, this flower fits as well.
Blue House’s flower (gentian) symbolizes integrity and intrinsic worth. The students from this dormitory excel at studying. Their intelligence and strong principles can be seen as inner values and can be associated with the symbolic meaning of gentian.
The prefects, who wear the flower of their house on their school uniform, are a part of the whole system of the school with its structures, rules and traditions. Just like the flowers, everything seems to be beautiful and intact if one looks at it from the outside. But if one takes a closer look there’s a different view:
Roses may be beautiful but they also have thorns, meaning that nothing is perfect. A holly tree has poisonous leaves and the berries can even be deadly. Dahlias not only have positive symbolism. They also stand for change and betrayal. And in folklore gentian was associated with bad luck. It was said that if one picks such a flower, death would follow.
It’s the same with Weston College. The prefects uncover that under the facade of a perfect school there is corruption, mobbing and deceit. But they still try to keep the facade for the sake of tradition which is their downfall since it leads them to commit murder.
Now back to the chapter cover from the beginning:
We see the prefects lying on the ground as if they were dead. The flowers of their dormitory are growing out of their bodies. I think here the flowers represent the system of Weston College with its four houses. Even though there has been a serious disruption of the daily routine as there has been not only bullying and bribery but also murder, the school still exists and the old structures still remain. Edgar Redmond, Herman Greenhill, Gregory Violet and Lawrence Bluer have been expelled from school. Therefore, as prefects, they can be considered dead like it’s implied in the picture. They sacrificed their life and honor as a prefect in order to uphold the system and traditions of Weston. I think that’s why the flowers (which are symbol for the system) grow out of the prefects’ lifeless bodies.
Undertaker and his way of reviving the dead by turning them into Bizarre Dolls could be considered a desperate attempt to undo the murder and hide the truth. Also, after the old prefects are gone Weston continues to exist and everything is supposed to be normal again, like nothing has ever happened. The white lily, which is a symbol for restored innocence after death, could express that.
(If you want me to pick a certain scene to analyze, just send me a message.)
Nicely put. However, I’d like to note that Undertaker is holding the lily upside down, which often negates the original meaning. So… It COULD be saying that nothing will ever be the same again (despite continued tradition at the school), and the expelled P4 will never regain their innocence….
