TREATMENT OF ROMAIVCE IN THE EARLY NOVELS OF HARDY

DISSERTATION SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF Mnitn of ^fjiloiapfip IN Cnglistji

BY Ms. KALPLATA CHANDRAHAS

Under the Supervision of Dr. Mohd. Yaseen Professor of English

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH. (INDIA) 1890 DS1961

trfTN" '^y-AiS 5^ '^ F^ CONTENTS

Page No.

PREFACE i

CHAPTER I

Introduction 1

CHAPTER II : Under the Greenwood Tree 12

CHAPTER III : A Pair of Blue Eyes 30

CHAPTER IV :

Far From the Madding Crowd 48

CHAPTER V : Concluding Remarks 65

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 70 PREFACE PREFACE

The present work is an attempt to study and critically exsmine the artistic significance of Hardy's early romances. Hardy's versatile genius is expressed in his poetry, his novels and in the Napoleonic drama. The Dynasts, Ho is generally regarded as the last of the Victorians and the first annong modem vjiiters and his vjorks are referred as a fine blending of traditional and n»dern elements. His novels read not only as good stories but also reveal desper philosophical aspects of human destiny. No less significant is the vnriter's attempt to exploit the perennial sources of 'wonder and awe', of beauty and its fascinations, of nature in its diverse moods, its benedictions and malevolence, of human passions and the eternal drama of man-woman relationship.

Hardy as popular novelist has attracted the attention of some of the great critics and scholars both in England and America as well as in such far-off count­ ries as India and Japan. Aber Crombie, Duffin, Desmond Hawkins, David Cecil, Douglas Brown, Rutland and several other critics have presented excellent studies of the English genius and have shed considerable light on different aspects of his literary works. However, they seem to have treated the early novels rather casually because they belong to the novelsits' apprenticeship and lack the typical Hardyian characteristics in plotting, characterization, atmosphere or philosophy, For the present dissertation, however, the study of Hardy's early rornances has its ovm justification. These novels show the writer's awareness of artistic demands on the author by the readers, his own love of the gothic and the ballads, his fascination of rural life, its joys and sorrows, the village romance in Churches, fields and woods.

The material for this study has been primarily derived frora Hardy's own writings — his novels, his journals, his biography and critical essays, I have also made use of articles in well-known journals and volume criticism by well-known writers and scholars. My findings are based on intensive study of the novels and my analysis and appreciation of the elements of romance therein, I have quoted relevant passages from the texts to illust­ rate my points wheraver necessary. ill

The chapter division of this study is as follows:

Chapter I INTRODUCTION Chapter II UNDER THE GREENWDOD TREE

Chapter III A PAIR OF BLUE EYES

Chapter IV PAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

Chapter V CONCLUDING REMARKS

I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to my teacher and supervisor, ?rt)fessor ttohd, Yaseos for kindly helping and guiding me in the preparation of this dissertation. Thanks are also due to Professor S,M. Jafar Zald, Chairman, Department of English for his encouragement in my studies. The staff of English Seminar Library and Maul an a Azad Library have ungrudgingly helped me in the collection of the materials and deserve my thanks for their assistance.

KALPLATA CHANDRAHAS CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION

Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet, born near Darchester, in the part of England, known in novels as Wessex. Though apprenticed to a church achi- tect, hs soon turned to literature.

His first novel Desparate Remedies was published in 1371. Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) was more suc­ cessful. Par Prom the Madding Crowd (1874) published in the year v/hen hs married Eiraiia Gifford, ensured him an important place among contemporary novelists. Two on a ToWer and A Pair of Blue Eyes are soma of his Wessex- novels, which arrived after Par Prom the Madding Grovrd and are classified by Hardy as "novels of character and environment." The Return pf the Native (1878), The Hayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887), Tess of D'Urbevilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1896) are generally considered some of the best novels of Thomas Hardy.

A novel is a work of art in so far as it intro- duces us into an imaginary world which to a very great extent, reseirbles, the v/orld in which one actually live. The vrorld of novels owes its characters to the fact that it is begotten by the artist's creative faculty on his experience. The novelist's Imagination apprehends the reality in such a way so as to present us with a new vision of it.

There are various kinds of novels in the vs field of literature, classified as political novels; social novels, historical novels, philosophical novels and so on. Soma novels are also distingiaished on the basis of their style and technique. For example philo­ sophical novel, impressionistic novel, stream of cons­ ciousness novel, romantic novel, neo-romantic or ejKstic novel, novels of adventure and naturalistic novels. But, here we are not concerr^ with this genre of novel in general but the early romantic novels of Thomas Hardy,

All of the Hardy's novels are love-stories. Love is the predominant ®otive activating his chexacterse Man is seen cast into a dark and unsatisfying world thirs­ ting for happiness. The happiness promised by love is

1. David Cecil, Hardy the Novelist (London, 1954 edition) , p. 13. the rrost universal symbol of this thirst that Hardy could have chosen. Most of Hardy-s important characters respond to the call of love; in love* s ecstacy find an intimation of the happiness that they hope, will free from the burden of human predicament. Even in Far From the Madding Crowd or The Trumpet Major, when love does achieve a happy fruition it is shadowed with sadness. Under the Greenwood Tree is the only one successful work, in v/hich the love-story ends in unqualified sur shine but Under the Greenwood Tree is a light weight 2 among his masterpieces. However despite it magic love constittutes only an important aspect of the wider and suggestive term 'romantic', Hardy's romances transcend the limitations of love affairs between boys and girls. Romance implies a wider connotation and comprises the wonderful, the mysterious, the exotic, x.he natural, the supernatural, the sensuous and such other elements whichcharacterize romantic poetry, Romanti- eismhas been various/defined as a return to nature^ an exaltation of the emtlons and senses over the intellect and a revolt against eighteenth century rationalism. One of its facts is the interest in the supernatural,

2. Hardy the Novelist, p. 31. The romantic Rtovement in English literature is said to have been influenced by the work of German and French writers, especially Jean Hacques Roussesu. Many nove­ lists, other than the Gothic romances came to feel that their best means of reconciling, 'the uncommon and the ordinary' was to set their stories in tha past. Scott and Hawthorne agree with the view that the events of the past may be treated in a romantic way by the novelist, Henry James, whose novels and stories are filled with his "sense of the past", desires his imagination to conjure up fanciful figures, believing that these best serve the story teller's fundamental 3 appeal to wonder.

Joseph Conrad recognizes a double allegiance to the uncommon and the ordinary by calling himself a romantic-realist. Although, as both he and James agree, what is remote and unfamiliar is not necessarily wonderful in itself, his stories of the sea and of dis­ tant continents derive som.e of the power from the sense of the supernatural, whether they evoke. In the Preface

3, Henry James, Preface to The Americans Quoted by Miriam Allott in Novelists on Novel (London, 1960), p. 5. to VJlthin the Tides Cox^rad says :

"The nature of the knowledge, suggestions or hints used in iny imaginative v»rk has depended directly the conditions of my active life... If these things appeal to me even in retrospect it is, I suppose, because the romantic feeling of reali was in me an inborn faculty. The problem... was make unfamiliar things credible. To do that I had to create for them, to reproduce for th©in,

to envelf them in their proper atmosphere 4 of achiability.

In English literature. Romanticism came to the fore with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in (1798) of Wordsworth and Coleridge, Perhaps the most famous exponent was William Blake both in his poetry and pain­ ting, English romantic literature encircled by the poetic contributions of Shelley, Byron and Keats and the critical writings of Coleridge and Hazlitt,

Conrad; Preface to "VJithin the Tides" Quoted in No veil is ts on Novel, pp. 54-55. In nineteenth ceJitury Europe, tha literature of post-elasfsieal era respoDclod to the rorfieiitic irapulne^ It Sound eiip'SQaslom not oalv la poetry btst in historical povGls (sQch £C Walter Sc^tt esid Alejtender Ekimas pere) , in tales of 2

Kovolicts^ then^ have continued to gratlfiy our love o£ the uncoi^jroa in h'amaa exp©riGnce ID spite of firmly distinguishing their species of fiction as diffe­ rent in kind from the RoEnenceo 'The novelist Isnows that the ballon of experience is inf act tied to the earth arid he keeps it that v/ay, hox^ever long bis cable raay be^ btst the art of the nacromancer is^ "for the fun of it, insi- 5 diously to cut the cablSo"

When they incorporate 'the marvellous' into theix fiction, what the primitive man sensed and what the great artists always succeeded in showing us that a certain kind of fantasy is a necessary ajjd valuable ingredient in fiction. This fantasy does not provide a means of escape into a world of fixed ideals but quickens

5, Henry James^ The Art of the Novel (London, 1962) The Preface to "The American", p. 34, aad enlarges the mind . The process by attempting to realize the wonderful and strange in terms of the near and familiar.

Every artist constructs his works within certain conventions, v;hich we must accept before we are in a position to estimate his success. The poetic strain in Hardy's creative imagination is one of the romantic type — sublime, irregular, qyaint, mysterious and extravagent, showing itself most typically now in a wild grandeur of conception, now in some vivid parti­ cularity of detail. In addition to being steeped in a poetic mood, his descriptions are thinly embroidered Vifith the freaks of a Gothic fancy.

Covering to Hardy's novels, we find that ballad techniques and overtones combined with full length pic­ ture's of human lives in developing relations to men, environment, and fate to present a vision that speaks to the complex nodern spirit. In this combination Hardy resenibles Smily Bronte, Both need the distorted reality of sensational ballad incident — heroic, romantic, wild, irregular, grotesque, mysterious,, sublime —

S* Hardy the Novelist, pp. 36-37 8

pictured in a high emotional key, to point through superficial natxsralisra to the deeper reality of their vision, And that Hardy's canvas is fuller than 2mily Bronte's is due to the difference in their vision.

To summarise the above discussion we can say that Hardy was a great novelist of the late Victorian period. He had his own views of the aesthetic of the novel. He was a contemporary of Flaubert and Tourgenev, of James, Morre and Pronet, but a colleague of none of them. This sense of isolation from the main stream of vrriters led him to shape his personal aesthetics. Hardy was much impressed by Turner as well as Manet and Coubert, the French impressionists. It is under their influence that he suggests that his art comprised intensifications of seen and felt. The country life, its ballad tradi­ tions, the impact of rural culture, all contribute'^, to enrich his sense of the marvellous and romantic. He says :

"I think that art has in highligh­ ting hitherto unperceived beauty irradi­ ating the light that never was on their 7 t surface."

'^« Sarly Life of Hardy ed. P.S, Hardy (London, 1928), p. 151. 9

Elsv;bere be say :

"To find beauty in ugliness is g the province of the poet,"

In a very important statement, he boasts of emulating the romantic poets by following a pattern that suits his idiosyncracy :

As in looking at a carpet by following one colour, a certain pattern is suggested, by following another colour another; so in life the seer should watch that pattern among general things which is idiosyncracy moves him to observe and describe that alone. That is, quite accurately, a going to Nature; yet the result is no mere photography,

but purely the product of the writer* s 9 own mind.

This emphasis on selection of the unconmon and

perception of unseen and unheared beauty of nature is

8. Sarly Life of Hardy, p. 279. 9» IM^«' P- 19^ • 10

re-echoing of romantic theory of art, Hardy's Wessex v/ith its "Greenhill", "Little Hintoch" and "The Egdon" are perfect representations but are also know that in order to heighten their importance, he throws a glarnour of romance over them. Thus his Wessex as he points out in the Preface to Far From the Madding Crowd becomes a 'draginland'. In Hardy's art emotional penet­ ration was essentital. His novels represent some inte­ rior drama of his soul with Wessex and merely as 'staging'.

In his letters and journals Hardy refers to social novels, exotic novels and novels of adventure. He finds justification for them as long as they are imagina­ tive transcripts of life. In other words, he justifies the blending of realism and romance. In the Preface to Tess of the D'Urbevilles he maintained that "A novel is an impression, not an argument," That is only the symbolic use of the marvellous and the supernatural is a fruitful study of Hardy's Craftmanship. He builds up his atmosphere with ghostly and uncausy presences and adds to our sense of the marvellous. In one of his famous statements. Hardy observed :

"A story must be exceptional enough to justify its tellings. We tale tellers 11

are all "Ancient Mariners" and none of us vfarranted in stopping wedding guests (the public) , Unless he has something more unusual tolerate than the ordinary experiences of the average men and women.

Sairaning up, we can say that Romantic novel is composed of those ingredients that are present in roman­ tic poetry. While a romantic novel is primarily a narrative, the emotional content is not missing altogether. Hardy is undoubtedly one of the great artists whose cont­ ribution to romantic novels paved the way for successive generation of writers in England and even in such count­ ries as Japan and India.

In the subsequent chapters, it would be my endevour to critically examine the romantic aspect of some of his early novels in details. CHAPTER II

UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE UE3DSR THS GREENWOOD TREE

Under the Greenwood Tree was first brought out in the summer of 1872 in two volumes. The original title of the story was to be. The Mel1stock Quire. This has been appended as a sub-title since the early editions. In the Preface to Urider the Greenwood Tree Thomas Hardy informs us that this stoiry to "The Mellstock Quire" and its old establishment west-gallary musicians is intended to be a fairly true picture of the personages, v/ays and customs which were common among such orchestral bodies in the villages of fifty or sixty years age. Fur­ ther the novelist in the same "preface" tells as that "they recieved so little in payment for their perfor­ mances that their efforts were really a labour of love."

William R. Rutland gives a detailed account of the publication of Under the Greenwood Tree. It is first published by Macmillians in 1903 but it had appeared in serial from first half of 1871 in Tinsley's magazine. Tinsley's account of the book is revealing.

1. Thomas Hardy, Preface to Under the Greenwood Tree, Macmillan, St, Peter's Press, p. vi. 13

"I purchased the copyright of Mr. Hardy's second novel called Under the Greenwood Tree. In that book I felt sure I had got hold of the best little prose idyll I had even read...... I almost named about the book; and I gave it away whole sale to press men and anyone I know interested in good fictions. But strange to say, it would not sell... But even though it is as pure and sweet as new mourn hay, it just lacks the touch of sentiments that lady novel readers most admire. In fact, to my thinking if Mr. Hardy could have imported stronger matter for love, laugh­ ter and tears in Under the Greenwood

Tree, the book would have in no way been unworthy of the pen of George Eliot. 2

Tinsley's views about lack of sentiments in the novel may not be quite acceptable to many readers. Lcdy

2. William R. Rutland, Thomas Hardy, "R'andom Recollec­ tion of an old Publisher", vol.1, p. 127 (Oxford, 1938) , pp. 148-149. 14

novel readers do not necessarily from the majority of novel readers. And even if they are, not all are there v/ho are found of mere sentiments only. Secondly, the potential of the novel does not constitute of only love, laughter and tears. On the other hand, there is much more for a time moralist to provide for his/her readers and for his ovm satisfaction as well, which is certainly not lacking in the novel Under the Greenwood Tree.

The review of the novel Under the Greenwood Tree in the Arthenaeum of June 15th, 187 2 is also revealing :

"It is an old common place to say that there is just as much romance, toge­ ther with just as keen interest, in the loves of two young persons of this humble station, as in any courtship which ends at St. George's, But it is not everyone who can make as good a novel out of the one as out of the other, on produce out of such simple materials a story that shall induce as to give up valuable time in order to see the marriage family consummated,"

3, ... Quoted by R, Rutland, Thomas Hardy, p, 149, 15

The Saturday Revlev^ in its critique on September 28th, 1872 vjrote about Under the Greenwood Tree :

This novel is the best prose idyll that we have seen for a long while past... the author has produced a series of pic­ tures of rural life and genuine colouring and drawn with a distinct minuteness reminding one at times of some of the scenes in Herman and Porothea ... Under the Greenwood Tree is filled with touches showing the close sympathy with which the writer has watched the life, not only of his fellow-men in the country hamlets, but of wood and fields and all the outward forms of nature.,, Regarded as a whole, the book has unusual merit in its own special line, full of humour and keen obseirvation and with the genuine aim of the country breathing through it.

Under the Greenwood Tree is considered a work of art. It has freshness about it which Hardy never again

4. Quoted by R. Rutland, Thomas Hardy, p. 150. 16

achieved. Ths novel ovjes nwch of its charms to the feeling that the substance of this • rural-printing of the Dutch-school' is the real life of Dorset. AHDUt the characters of the Mellstock cfwir. Hardy was accus­ tomed to say that he had rather burlesqued them by the fact that poetry and romance always coloured his obse- nances and thus the Mollstock choir lives in our memory. Hardy' s description of village life, natural beauty asid rivalry of the village folk is exquisite in Under the Greenwood Tree. For example the romantic description of Dick and Fancy dance in the chapter "They Dance more v/ildly" is quite representative :

"And now a further phase of rivalry has discussed itself,., Again and again did Dick share his love's hand with another man, and wheel round; then, more delight­ fully promenade in a circle with her all to himself, his arm holding her waist more firmly each time, • and his elbow getting further and further behind her back, till the distance reached was rather noticeable; and, most blissful, swinging to places shoulder to shoulder. 17

her breath curbing round his neck like a summer zephyr that has strayed from its proper date."

Another interesting feature of the novel is the use of dialect which conveys the spirit of peasant life. Hardy renders the speech of the rustics in a superb manner.

Under the Greenwood Tree contains the seeds of most of the Wessex novels. The Wessex-folk are here. The love-story is here, not yet touched to tragic-issues. Apart from human snd pathos, the novel also contains ele­ ments of romance in nature. Hardy successfully conveys the moods of outer nature, by deft poetic description of tiny details. This characteristic is noticeable through­ out the book as the novelist weaves his story through vari­ ous seasons of the year. There is nothing but scintilla­ ting poetry in the chapter "Fancy in the Rain":

The next scene is a tempestuous afternoon in the following month, and Pacny Day is discovered walking from her father's home towards Mel 1 stock.

A single vast grey could covered 18

the country;, froro which the small rain cud raist bad j\ist begtsn to blovj it) v^vy sbeetSff altermately thick and thin«,. Lov^f hanging boughs went up and dovm; high and erect boughs v^ent to and fro? the blasts being so irregular, and divided into so inany cross-currents, the neighou- ring branches of the same tree swept the skies in independent motions, crossed each other, or became entangled. Across the open spacesflew flocks of green and yellowish leaves which^ after travelling a long distance from their parent trees, reached the ground and lay there with their underside upward."

This is obviously a description of nature in its temptuous morel. There can not be a better rendering of Shelley's "Ods to the West Wind" in prose.

As a vJhoie, the novel seems to bear not the staitip of 'fiction' but the stamp of life seen, and remembered — and related by elders to children.

As regards the treatment of romance in Under the 19

Greenwood Trge, Thomas Hardy has said that love is not only comedy "but also tragedy. Though the heroine Fancy and hero Dick had to face strong opposition from Geoffrey Day' s side but ultimately they win and get happily married. We can say that Hardy has 'thrown a veil of romance' over the harder realities of life. Fancy and Dick v/ere in love with each other and wanted to marry, but there were many obstacles in their way, such as social status of the lovers, opposition from their families, etc. And, this thing is evident from the following cjonversation between Dick Dewy and Fancy Day's father Geoffrey Day in the latter's garden in the "Honey taking and Afterwards" episode :

.,. "I've come to ask for Fancy', said Dick •I'd as lief you hadn't,' •VVhy should that be, Mr. Day ? 'Because it makes me say that you've come to ask what ye be'n't likely to have. Have ye come for anything else ?' 'Nothing..."

Similarl}:-, the plot of the novel explains the romantic 20

natxsre of the story. The cesitral theme of the novel is £boi2t the Msllstock Quire or a band of imisicians who v/ere inhabitants of Mellstock Cross and were deeply rooted with their old plans srnd values o: life which might appear unless to the younger generations of Mellstoc"': represented chiefly by Fancy Day. These bandsman were to be displaced by another<, soem-zhat modem organist (Fancy) irs the Church, v/hich v/ould ultimately ruin the v/hole set-up of their lives. Becsuse^ these orchesta-players lived solely for their playings of the instruments in the Church on Sundays or other important da^/s. Throughout the week, they used to reheara* and compose their songs and prepare themselves for their show in the Church. This main plot is interwoven with a sub-plot which runs along the relationship between Fancy, Dick and Mr. Shiner, I^st of the characters occupy important place assigned to them by the novelist. The novel starts with the description of the wonderful, serene and beautiful forests. Thomas Hardy says "to dwellers in a wood almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature." Then, as the story proceeds, the Dewy family is described and the mem­ bers of the Mellstock Quire come to their house, wherfe they

5. Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenvsjod Tree, p. 11. 21

are served with some cider to drink, near the wood-fire. Tranters and other people assemble there, talk about their old friends and those vrho were dead by now. The next day, WilliaTi Dewy, Rauben and other fellow-players get-together on Christmas night to discuss the various tunes to be played in the Church. At Twelve on Christmas night, they all lighted their lamps and set-off, discu­ ssing their old merry pastimes, during which Tranter passed a comment in favour of their old instruments and said, "Angels are supposed to play 'Clarnets* in heaven while there's always a rakish, scampish twist about a fidalle."^

These people then went to the school house to sing and wish 'Merry Christmas' to the new school­ mistress. At the schoolhouse, a shadow with a candle in its hand appeared at a window which was dressed in white. Her eyes were bright and hair was rich in a condi­ tion of disorder over her shoulders. She thanked the singers and the singers in return were struck at their places by her beauty. After sometime, after eating and drinking the group discovered that Dick Dewy was missing

6. Thomas Hardy, Under^the Gre,enwood Tree, p. 32, 22

from the g:coup„ They searched all the houses where they had visited previousl3'o Lastly, Dick was found, leaning agalDct a tree in front of the schoolhouse v/here a light vias still to be seen in the bedroom.

On the Ciiristrnaa moraing^ the choristers got ready for the occasion r-Irs, Fancy Day also entered the Church and sotice^le thing here vias that before Fancy' s entrance, the Chyrch has seernGd somevmat empty; but novj, it appeared to be more full, v/ann and a v^ave of fresh­ ness running along it, And, it v;as Dick who v/as experi­ encing most of the changes in the atmosphere. One more person v;as also having the same hypnotising effect from her presence — the Vicar, Mr. Maybold.

In the night, a party was hosted at the Tranter's in v/hich everyone was invited. In this party, during the country dance "Triumph or Follow ray Lover", everyone choose their partners. Miss Fancy Day appeared as "Flov/er among Vegetables." After spending the holidays Fancy returned back to Mellstock.

The second part of the story proceeds through Dick's several journeys along the schoolroad till their regular meetings begun. Fancy told Dick that she would 23

raarry him if her father permits. But, after some days Dick V7as informed that Fancy's father has asked Mr» Shiner to be his son-in-law and that Mr, Shiner had agreed too. 'Therefore, Dick met Fancy's father to explain him everything and to seek his permission to marry his daughter. But Fancy's father refused bluntly. After some days, vjhile it was raining, Mr, Maybold oome to Fancy's scb^olhouse vjith an unexpected proposal for Fancy to marry him. She wrote to him that although she was tempted for sometime, but she's marrying someone alse and requested him that his proposal to her should be kept a secret.

Finally, after some dramatic turns in the story, the day of Fancy's marriage to Dick arrived. Fancy made fuss of little things childishly and wanted to do the ceremonies her own way, but agreed to do as her mother had done. Then, they all walked towards the Church, v/here they were married. In Yalburry near Geoffrey Day' s house, was an ancient Greenwood Tree-, under which they rejoiced and made merry,

P,B, Pinion in his book, A Hardy Companlo_n remarks that the novel Under the Greenwood Tree^ is a 24

light "pastoral-story' v/hich allows sufficient scope for romantic characters and scenery. Hardy calls it "a rural painting of the Dutch school." The subject was one Hardy knev/ from childhood. He had heard many stories of the old Choir from his parents and grandmother. The Hardy family had been the mainstay of the Stinford string-choir for almost the first forty years of the nineteenth century.

Recent critics have discovered the foreshadovring of tragic overtones in this humorous idyll. There are no deeply ominous notes. The disturbance caused by an owl as it kills a bird in the adjoining, wood is the prelude to Geoffrey Day's refusal to accept Dick Dewy as his daughter's suitor, just as her consequent distress ref­ lected in rain and mist and the writhing of trees in the wind, but no one attaches any importance to this inci­ dental reminder of Nature's curelty in a scene where Shiner and Dick vie for favour, and the heroes overtures are made over the rail of.a piggery. • Clouds quickly pass, and the tone of the novel brooks no heartaches. Dick' s jealousies are amusing and Fancy Day's temptation jars only momentainly. The scene between Di6k and his father at Mel1 stock Cross discloses the lover in his most 25

serious mood; the tranters comments reflect what the common world says; and the world's a very sensible faller on things in jineral. It's views are not dis- consolete or tragic. Appropriately, this comic romance ends on a delicious comic irony. The reader' s sympathies are most likely to be linked with the passing of the old Choir, but even such sentiments are advantitious.

In a story which skilfully combines light romance with the declining fortunes of the Choir, it is obvious that the role of the latter is not a subordinate one. The members of the Mellstock Choir are not presented equally, but among them are lesser, static, perrenial figures, which are undoubtedly the forerunners of the comic rustics in the chorus of commentators and gossips to be found in Far From the Madding Crowd and The Return of the Native. They owe something to the observation of a countr^'man who could regard local characters with keen humorous detach­ ment after a period of absence in London. Their quaint angularity is Hardy's most idiosyncratic achievement in Under the Greenwood Tree. In saying that •the attempt has been to draw the characters humorously, without cari-

•7 cature', Hardy implied a sympathetic treatment.

7. P.B, Pinion, A Hardy Companion (London, 19^) ,pp. 21-22. 25

Under the Greenwood Tree and The Trumpet Major, are considered as Hardy's minor novels, because their poetic elements are not inconsistent with the other impulses, Jean Brooks says "These novels miss the Hardyian tragic intensity but give more scope to the rich humour of caricature, character, situation and Wessex idiom which contribute to a poetic meditation on the importance of the small eternal things of life that go on in time of the breaking of Nations and ancient tradi­ tions."®

Under the Greenwood Tree evokes a poetic mood compounded of nostalgia for old rural ways and hope for the resilience of life in the new order. Fancy Day, educated above her station, is the structural pivot, both in her vacillation between the rustic virtues of Dick Devjy and the refinements of the innovating person, and in her ability to play the organ which displaces the Mel1 stock Quire, The scenes that show the rustics in communal action working, feasting, dancing, celebrating the seasons of the natural and Christmas calender, measuring all the small repetitive events that give their lines significance

8, Jean Brooks, Thomas Hardy - The Poetic Structure, p. 154, 27

in the ricli "VJessex-speech" and gesture that shows respect for self and others, build up a solid image of the sustaining ritual of a community that gives the dis­ persal of an obscure band of musicians nxDre than local significance, But^, the sustaining power of ritual, close to nature has not yet left MellstocX, The ritual processions^ feasts and dances which frame the story bstween Christmas and Fancy's summer-wedding realise the controlling image of "permanence in transcience." Out of the dark wood whose individual voices evoke a whole range of emotions, Dick and the quire evolve first of all as merely another quality of sound, and then as two- dimensional black profiles against the sky, which suggested some processional design on Greek or Strusean poetry.

It is aximatic to say that Nature plays, an impor­ tant role in Hardy's novels. As far as Under the Greenw(:)od Tree is concerned, the title is significant to the extent that at first the Choristers are seen emerging under the greenwood tree from the forest in the very beginning of the novel and similarly they are seen dancing and feasting under the same greenwood tree after Dick and Fancy' s marri­ age at the end of the novel.

Jean Brooks in Thomas Hard;^ _: A Poetic Structure 28

investigates that Nature pervades the novel to contri­ bute in Hardy's distinctive manner, to a poetic under- pattern of resonances. The overview of human emotions into external phenomena gives the story deeper signifi- cancet Stable tree-trunks 'writhed like miserable men* in the rain to mirror the feeling of Dick and Fancy at her father's position^ and the compelling power of "witche*s" charms that removes it. The fertile promise of their wedding-day is mirrored in the noisy activity of birds and the fullness of blossom. There are times, too, when man's juxtaposition with nature defines cosmic 9 abundity and disharmony.

Under the Greenwood Tree also brings forth down to earth, beautiful and realistic descriptions at various places of the dwellers of the Mellstock lane, and even the minute details are thrown open to the reader and reveals the novelist's keen sense of observation. /«id, this is the only of Hardy's novels in which the love story ends in a happy tone. Rest of all his works (major and minor both) , love shows itself nakedly. David Cecil emphasizes the part played by women in the human drama.

9. Jean Brooks, Thomas Hardy; The Poetic Structure, p. 157, 10. David Cecil, Hardjr^JbheJN^veli^, p. 88. 29

To Hardy, as to Byron, love was women's whole existence. Indeed, he had what is rightly or wrongly called "the cold fashioned view of women." He stresses their frailty, their sweetness, their submissiveness, their caprice and their coquety. Even when they are at fault, he repre­ sents then with a tender chivalry. Arabella in "Jude" is the only odious woman in Hardy's books,

Thomas Hardy calls Under the Greenwood Tree an essay in the Durch school of painting. He wanted to give an impression of the rustic life of his youth, and he conceived it as a series of pictures painted with deli­ cate exactness of detail and the mellow colouring of Vermeer of Hobbema, No violent event permitted to dis­ turb the desired atmosphere of rural peace. CHAPTER III

A PAIR OP BLUE EYES A PMR OP BLUE EYES

Thomas Hardy' s A Pair .o£ Blue Ey,es was first published by Tinsley-Brothars in May 1873 in three volunies. Although it was his third novel, it was the first to bear his name» It was also the first novel to be serialized. According to VJilliam R, Rutland, A PBJ.r of Blue .Byes was written during the latter half of 187 2 and appeared in serial forms. In the years following 1850, there sprang up an enormous crop of new periodi­ cals which published only fiction. ;toong these Tinj.- iQy',5 ^Magaaine and Oornhill Magazine were popular.

A .Pair of Blue Eyes received more recognition in the press than any of Hardy's previous works. It was reviewed siinultaneously in the Athenaeum and The Spectator, on June 28th 1873 and in the Saturday Review on August 2nd. The Saturday Review wrote :

Many reader of the fresher and

truer sort of fiction will be glad to

welcome another story from the author

°^ Under the Greenwood Tree, who now 31

for the first time assumes his raal name. ...It is one of the most artistically constructed among recent novels. And, from considerations effecting higher matters than mere constiruction, we should assign it very high place among v/orks of its class.

...The author of A .Pair of Blue 3yes has much to avoid. But he is a writer who, to a singular purity of thought and intention, writes with great power ofl imagination.

Regarding the origin and sources of the novel A Pair of Blue Eyes, P.B. Pinion holds that "though most of the story was fictitiously to fit a general design which Hardy had thought of and written long before he knew Emma Lavania Gifford, its background owes much 2 to his visits to Cornrival. Autobiographical elements can be easily exaggerated. On actual sources Hardy was more than usually explicit. In his notes he holds that

1. Quoted by Willi an R. Rutland, Random' Recollections of an Old Publisher, vol.1, p. l64-f65. Thomas Hardy, "(Oxford, 1938) 2. F.B. Pinion, A Hardy Companion, (London, 1968) 32

there is more of himself in Knight than in Smith, Elfride has points in corraron with those of Mrs. Hardy in quite young vxomanhood, but is dravm uflatteringly to be the horoine of Heirdy* s Camish romance. Mter the success of Undor the Greenwood Tree„ Hardy agreed on terms for the serial poiblication of A Pair of Blue Eyes in Tinsley's Magazine. When he began the novel, he had shaped nothing of what the later chapters were to be like. In an early Preface to the novel. Hardy wrote :

The following chapters were written at a time when the craze for indiscriminate Church restoration had just reached the remotest nooks of Western England, when the wild and tragic features of the coast had long combined in perfect harmony with the crude Gothic Art of the ecclesiasti­ cal buildings...

Hence it happened that an imaginary history of three human hearts, whose emo­ tions were not without correspondence v;ith their material circumstances, found in the ordinary incidents of such Church renova­ tions a fitting frame for its presentation.. 33

The spot (provided) my theatre for these iraperfect dramas of country life and 3 passions.

The story of the novel A.2air_of^lue_Exes is about the succession of suitors for a single girl — Elfride Svjancourt. These suitors are Jethway, Stephen Smith, Henry Knight, Lord Luxellian and ultimately Death. Bvst, the actual story revolves round a love triangle of Elfride Swancourt, Stephen Smith and ICnight.

Thomas Hardy had said that 'Romance is not only comedy but also tragedy' as?d this is evident from the fact that his prosinent novols end as tragedies. Each of tY^ thrae Biain characters o£ the nov®l, A Pair of Blue Eyes^ is quite innocent in his or her ovm way. B«t in this innocense lies the seed of their tragedy which is th© tragic f lav? of each.

ThQ haroinQ of the novel -~ Elfride Swancourt is a girl of ateout twenty years of age. who was not a^rowi ii, manners as in years, l^caose the place where she lived 34

East BnolQlstot-J vras fsr from tho city. Her father was the jrector of a parish on tba outskirts of Lower Wessex csnd a V7idowero He was a sjem of fifty snd suffered from gout.

The love of Elfrido Swancourt for Stephen Smith is described as 'a fancy rooted in inexperience siid nourished by seclusion'« First of all, it leads to her elopement v;ith Stephen; feut |)erhaps more injportsi^tly, it causes tha ruination of her relationshi]^ w^ith Knight, The first suiitor of Elfrido Sx^ssncourt is said to be Felix Jethway. But^ his love was one-sided only; and although he died his ovm natural death, the responsibility was laid on Elf ride Swancourt' s shoulders by Jethway's rnother —- Mrs, Jethway.

The second suitor —- Stephen Smith is patient, loyal self-effacing, and ambitious too. He is described as 'iDut a youth in appearance, and not yet a man in years' , He is also socially inferior to Elfride, though not financially.

The third suitor is Henry Knight, who is much elder, dominating, overpowering and has a stronger character. He at first used to write articles on women and reviews of novels etc. He was a bachelor "Knight's peailiarity of nature was such that would not allow him to take advantage of the 35

wn^arded and passionate avowal she had tacitly made", says Hardy,

Romance, for Thoitias Hardy did not mean mere love between a boy and a girl, but also includes the wonderful, the mysterious and the exotic. Hardy had great fascina­ tion for nature from his early years. This is reflected in his poetry as well a s in his novels. No tale of Hardy's «—=- whether later or early is without the description of nature —— feuna and flora and even including the names of river, trees, birds etc, Thomas Hardy's minute details of nature were provided to him through the place where he lived -==— the countryside —— the Wassex of his novels. It is said that Hardy throws a veil of romance over the harsh realities of life.

To clarify Hardy's concept of romance in A Pair of Bliae Byes, let us first discuss the plot of the novel, Tlio plot of the novel revolves round a girl Elfride and her various suitors as discussed above. The most striking fea­ ture in the personality were her eyes which were blue. "A misty and shady blue, that had no beginning or surface and was looked into rather than at". Elfride leaves a permanent impression on Stephen Smith who cs>mas to East Sndelstow in order to restore the Church in that Parish. There, Elfride 36

Swasicourt v/elcsojaQs and antertaisss Stephen as her father was laid in bod due to ilinesSo Mr Swancourt ndstakenly thinks Stephen to bo o£ some nobis f ajTilly, During his stay at East Endalstow he gets friendly vjith Mr, Swancourt sid gradually Stephen and Elfride get attracted towards each other.

One day Stephen receives a message from his employer to return soon and therefore sets off with a promise that he will oorae back again, Aj)d# he pays his second visit c^lto soon. During this visit he oomes to know that Elfride is writing a romance entitled The Court of King Arthur' s Castle - Romance of Lygnnesse. He than tells Elfride about his best friend Henry Knight, who was a reviewer in At Present.

Then, Stephen comes to the rectory once again due to not-so-important work regarding Church and comes nK>re closer to the Swancourt, One day Elfride offers Stephen to play with-her and was surprised to observe that he was not good at it. Next day Mr, Swancourt suggests that they stKsuld go on a drive to the Cliff beyond Targan Bay, a distance of 3~4 miles. But, as the carriage had broken^ it was decided, that they should go riding. But, Stephen did not know, riding, v/hich once more suprised Elfride Swancourt. During this walk Stephen declared to Elfride that he was in love with her and Elfride too, though partially agreed to it. 37

Th(BTig th©7 sat OD the touh of a grave, to which Elf ride also did not object, but later on, the same day it was jrevsalod to Stephen that it was the grave of a man who

vms madly in IOVQ with her, bat she did not love him at all.

Stephen's father Mr, Smith was a roaster-mason and his family lived in a cottage at Lord Luxellian's. He told all this position to Elf ride, but she said that she still loved Stephen, She suggested him to talk to her father on the issue of their raarriage. But, when Mr. Swancsourt came to know about Stephen's family background, he became fi^rious and asked Elf ride to find someone else for herself. After a few days Stephen left Elfride's house. He told her that he was going to become an established man. When Elfride becQme sadl, they decided to marry secretly at St. Launces,

Incidently, her father was also going somewhere for SOUJS days and he promised to tell his mission when he returned. At St, Launces, Elf ride feels guilty and nervous, therefore, they returned unmarried. But, when she reached home, her father told her that he had gone to get married.

At first Elf ride felt awkward but ,by-and-by becaime friendly with her step-mother, who was very wordly wise sort of woman. She started training Elfride as the ladies lived in the cities and towns. When Elfride told her that she had v/ritten a novel, she encx)uraged her to get it pjbl.lshsd.

Meanwhile Stephen recieved and offer from Mr. Kewby, to work in India, He consulted his guide and friend Mr. Knight and left for the Par East.

Henry Knight reviewed Elfride's romance and know criticised it harshly. Elf ride came to/^X)ut this review through Lord Luxellian, Later on. Knight was found to be the fourth cousin of Mrs. Swancourt. He visited Endel- stow and fell in love with Elfride, She also found him to be more.intelligent and overpowering then Stephen. Just then^ she recieved a deposit note of Rs, 200 pounds and the information that Stephen was coming back on three month's leave. But, when Stephen returned he found that Elfride had not accepted his note of Rs, 200 pounds and had fallen in love with someone else, who was none other than his friend and guide Mr, Knight, He felt shattered.

When, Mrs, Swancourt, Elfride and Knight go on a trip by sea, Elfride and ICnight become more closer to each other. Later, one day Knight offered Elfride to walk on the Cliffs. There, they sat at the same tomb. 39

where she had sat v/ith Stephen and by chance discovered earning the lost/of hers under a rock. Circumstances took such a turn that there were two more admirers of Elfride, besides himself, of which one had died and other had kissed her. He told her that it was his nature that he hated the fact that she had been caressed before, and decided to leave the rectory. In the later development of this romance Mrs. Jethway dies, leaving a note for Mr, Knight, informing him about Elfride's elopement with Stephen and everything else. Knight finally tells be Slfride that can not/marry her and leave her house. After fifteen months Stephen by chance, at Hyde Park. Here Stephen comes to know that Knight had not married Elfride and that the girl to whom he was engaged was Elfrdie herself. Knight somehow comes to the conclusion that it was due to Mrs. Jethway that he had left Elfride.

Both Stephen Smith and Mr, Knight start for Endel- stow in a hope to marry Elfride now, without informing each other. When they reach Endelstow station a proce­ ssion was passing by, at which Mr, Swancourt was also present. That,it was revealed that he was the father of the lady who had died in London and had been brought by train just then. 40

The novel ends v;ith the story which Unity, the maid-servant, tells them about her marriage to Lord lyxelliac and her death in a iBiscarriage,

The tragic tale of the beautiful girl with a 'pair of blue eyes' is presented in the natural surroun­ dings of Cornish Cbasts. Ttomas Hardy's keen interests' in and love for Nature — the flaura and fauna, the birds,, the river, the effect of various shades of a single colour, is evident almost everywhere in the novel. For example,

"... The long armed trees and shrubs of juniper, cedar and pine varieties, were greyish black, those of the broad-leaved sort together with the herbage were greyish- green; the eternal hills and the tov/er 4 behind all grey of the purest melancholy.*'

And, all this, as Thomas Hardy himself says, was providing the sombre artistic effect to the morning.

Another constituent of Hardy's romance seems to lie in his exoticism. The description of the Church and its location contain the exotic effect in its real sense, /^igain.

A Pair of Blue Eyes 41

the total personality of the heroine of the novel — . Elfride Swancourt — her manners, her innocence leave some sort of exotic impression on the mind of the other person.

John Alcorn's deceptively titled work seems to demonstrate that Hardy's novels mark the beginning of a new school of English Fiction. Alcorn defines and traces the developnent of what he calls the naturist writers — Hardy, Samuel Butler, Edward Carpenter, T.E, Lawrence, Hudson, Kipling, H.G. Wells, E.M. Forster, D.H. Lawrence and Norman Douglas. The naturists share an idea of a world, "where biology replaces theology as the source both of psychic health and moral authority". Hardy is central to this group's work because of the "microscopic examination of the vegetable and insect," carried out in 5 the Wessex,

Yet another constituents of the art of Thomas Hardy is beautifully reflected in the combination of the mysterious and the humanitarian. It is evident from the

5. John Alcorn, "The Nature Novel from Hardy to Lawrence" (Book Reviews — Nineteenth Century Fiction) New York : Columbia University Press, 1977, pp. X + 139. 42

fact ^hat when Stephen Smith had come back from India and came to know about Elf ride'a inclination tovrards another person^ he v/as shocked and felt shattered v;hen that person v/as found to be his best friend — Henry Knight, whereas. Knight v;as quite ignorant of Stephen — Elf ride relation­ ship. Therefore, when he came to know that Stephen had come back from India and was present at Bndelstow at that time, he was much surprised why Stephen had not met him yet. He was naturally, eager to meet his old friend — "...the country lad whom he had patronized and tended." Thus, both were right from their point of view. But from the Knight* s point of view , the attitude of Stephen Smith was rather shocking and mysterious towards him.

Hardy makes use of certain unconventional episodes i" A Pa\r of Blue Eyes — which enrich his early romanticism. For example, while going on a ride with Stephen Elfrdie suddenly asks him —

"Do I seen like

La Belle Dame Sans

merci ?"

t Similarly, Lord Luxellian's style of laughing was wonder­ fully suggestive, Thomas Hardy has said — "Acquaintances 43

remembered Mr, Sviancourt by his manner; they remennbered Stephen Smith by his face and Lord Luxellian by his laugh."

A Pair of Blue Syes is, as Conventry Patmore told Hardy, "not a conception of prose," but he succeeds intermittently in uniting poetic and narrative strains to suggest underlying causes. Its lyrical Cornish setting, romantic heroine, anti-realistic symbols and stylized forms as3c for ballad treatment." Mrs. Jethway* s unmotivated appearances v/ould be less improbable in ballad form; in prose she is a less credible symbol of the fatal past than the furmity bag of The Mayor of Casterbridqe, whose appea­ rance in a court of law sometime was quite probable. The tone varies from romantic comedy and social comedy to tragic-comedy, melodrama and ironic tragedy. ... However, juxtapositionof comic and tragic can sometimes have a complex poetic effect that recalls Shakespeare and Ibsen. Hardy scratches the surface of a tragedy to find a comedy in Knight's rescue from the Cliff by Elfride's underwear, the Hamlet — like grave diggers and Knight's pompous lec­ ture on mortality in the vault while Elfride and Stephein suffer agonies of emotion, the absurd self-esteem of the two lovers quarreling over their precedence in the dead Elfride's affections, and Knight's catechism of Elfride 44

on Jethway' s torrib :

"Do you say you were sitting on that tomb ?" he asked moodily.

"Yes, and it was true,"

"Then how, in the name of Heaven, can a man sit upon his ov/n tor±) ?"

"That was another tnan. Forgive me. Forgive me, v/on * t you ? "

"What, a lover in the toirib and a lover on it V" —

Dr. J.C.P. Beauty, in his London Ph.D. thesis "The Fart Played by Architecture in the Life and Works of Thomas Hardy", points out that the evocation of chaos circumscribed by shape in Hardy* s description of Cliff and sea, adumbrates the theme of man's efforts at construction; and the problem of reconciling nature's fixed forms with individual ephemera is mirrored in the rigid Knight's relationship to the mercurial Elf ride.

P.B. Pinion holds that the plot of A Pair of Blue Eyes is unusual and startling rather than ingenious and * complicated. One, peculiarity of this two-phase courtship story is the parallelism of design which takes Slffide 6. Poetry and Narrative; Minor Fictions, p, 151. 45

and Knight to the sanie places as Elfride and Smith, to fysrther the action and enliven it with ironic implica- tionso

Drainatic irony is achieved through synchronized coincidents when Elf ride's admirer draw together or nieet« Retrospectively the weakness of Elfride and Knight sink before the final tragic realization.

The theme is presented in other aspects. A knife clings for life above the cliff, he is confronted by the eyes of an intoedded fossil, and the time closes like a fan. The dramatic glimpse of ephemerality of human life in the context of geological ages discloses one aspect of the intellectual background to Hardy's conception of life.

The poetic symbolism in the gothic extravaganza is incidental. It is more effective than the coincidental association of the falling tower and Elf ride* s pathetic trust in Knight, but it suggests incidental inspiration as do many other items.

Referring to the autobiographical nature of A Pair of Blue Eyes, Rutland observed that the framework of the story was taken from Hardy's own experience. He himself 46

visited Cornwall on a mission of Church renovation, and on that mission, in the vicarage itself, he meet the girl who became his wife. Not only this, a number of incidents in the story had happened to people, whom Hardy had known. This is evident from the accounts given in early life of Hardy. But, it would not be fair to treat this novel as an autobiography, Conrad's Lord Jim and Lawrence's Sons and Lovers are well Icnown examples of the exploitation of autobiographical material for fictional purpose, A Pair of Blue Eyes also has soma elements of Hardy's early youth, his love and fascination for women he met in the vicarage. Hardy classed A Pair of Blue Eyes anong his romances. Writing in 1912, he said "In its action in exhibits the rom.antic stage of an idea which was further developed in a later book" ( Two on, a Tower ) .

The novel with its setting in "the regim of dream and mystery" and depicting the dramas of country life and passions is a fine specimen of Hardy' s early romances. Michael Millgate feels that under pressure of serialization it became 'a kind of rag bag of information, ideas, des­ criptive vigrettes, personal experiences'. but as Hardy

7. Random Recollections of an old Publisher, vol.1, p. 127 Quoted by William R. Rutland, p. 167. 47

says in the Preface the pruning of apparently insigni­ ficant details v;ould have meant 'the disappearance of whatever freshness and spontaneity the pages may have as they stand.' Alan Manford rightly observes that A Pair of Blue Syes should be read and admired for its fine descriptions, the v/ide range of moods it evokes, and its lucid portrayal of characters for whom circumstances and principles oome into conflict with emotions." One may add that Under the Greenwood Tree and A Pair of Blue Eyes together pave the way for realization of Hardy's ideals of romantic novel which found its culmination in Par From the Madding Crowd.

8. A Pair of Blue Eyes ed. Alan Manford Introduction, p. XXII. CHAPTER IV

PAR PROM THE MADDING CROWD PAR PRGM THE MADDING CROWD

Par From the Madding Crowd was written and published by Hardy in 187 4, It is the first major work of the author which placed him on the top list of leading contemporary writers.

The appearance of the story without the name of the author raised a great deal of interest and The Spec­ tator during the first week of 1874, hazard a guess that it might be from the pen of George Eliot. Leslie Stephen congratulated Hardy on the warm reception of the novel which ran in the Cbmhill from January until December 1874, The novel was published in two volumes in Noverriber'74 and it firmly established Hardy's position as a novelist. Far From the Madding Crowd was copiously reviewed in all the periodicals and they highlighted the local colour, realism and romance of the novel. The Athe­ naeum particularly admired Hardy's typical gifts.

Under the Greenwood Tree pleased Leslie Stephen

1. Random Recollections of an Old Publisher, vol.1, p.127. Quoted by VJilliam R, Rutland, Thomas Hardy (Oxford, 1938) , p. 174. 49

so much that he invited Hardy to contribute a serial to Cornhill magaEine. Hardy was busy with A Pair o£ Blue S2Q.S, but he replied that he had in mind a pastoral tale entitled Par Prom the Madding Crowd. The early chapters were submitted in June 1873 and appeared anony­ mously in the Coxmhill throughout 1874. Leslie Stephen had recommended for his serial readers a story with more incidents than he found in Under the Greenwood Tree. Hardy — who v/as always looking for a change of subject and structure in his next novel — did not wish to be too constricted by the plot and had in mind a rather leisurely narrative with a swift conclusion which would give scope for a succession of pastoral scenes, visually presented for readers, who were Unfamiliar with Dorset rustics, customs and features.

It is to be noted that the interest in narrative and characters never flaxed in the novel. Hardy was not content with mere scenic description. He used imagery on a greater scale than ever to reflect feelings and situations, Such impressionist overtones may be seen in miniature where Oak surveys the pit where he has lost the sheep and indepen­ dence, or, at greater length during the'storm. Pictorial presentations in which the actual takes on the significance 50

of metaphor and synibolism are numerous. They include the scene outside the barracks, Boldwood*s contemplation of the valentine in the weird height of wind and snov;. Bath- sheba's first ineetlng with Troy^ the spell-binding of Bathsheba by dazzling sword, scene and wood-land swamp by which Bathsheba finds herself after Troy*s perfidy has been revealed.

These scenes show a striking range in tone and colour but all contained features which are imaginatively selected to impart extra-sensory effects, states a feeling and the author's attitude towards events and characters.,

Thomas Hardy informs us that it was in the chapters of Far From the Madding ,Crowd, as they appeared month by month in a popular magazine, that he first ventured to adopt the word "Wessex" from the pages of early English histoty and gave it a fictitious significance as the exis­ ting name of the district once included in the extinct. The series of novels seemed to require a territorial definition of some sort to lend unity to their scene.

Regvarding the locale of the novel,, Hardy tells us

2, P.B, Pinion, A Hardy Companipjl (London, 19 68), p.27, 51

in the same Preface s

"Moreover, the village called Weatherbury, wherein the scenes of the present story of the series are for the most part laid, would perhaps be hardly discernible by the explorer.., in any existing place now-a-days, thoogh at the time... at which the tale was written, a sufficient reality to meet the descriptions, both of back-grounds and parsonages might have been easily traced, easily enough. The Church remains, by great good fortune, unres- 3 tored and intact,

Hardy's novels and poems suggest the work of a man painfully dissatisfied with the age in which he lived. He v/as homesick for the past — the past of England before the story roots of English manhood and womanhood has been overlaid by what seemed to Hardy a thin soil of finicking sickness miscalled education and culture, Hudson remarks :

3. Thomas Hardy, Preface to Far From the Madding Crowd (Surjeet Publications, Delhi, Reprint 1987)] p. v. 52

"Though Hardy's mind was shaped to extent by the theories of later Garnian philosophers, he thought greatfully of the simple pagamism lingering on in Wessex beneath the Christian Veneer. Wessex was still the old England. Its woods, its heaths, its barrows, its bams and byres — all these stood in memory of a noble antiquity making mute pro­ test against invading aggressive 4 nadarnity,"

It is obvious that Thomas Hardy seems to protest against the so-called modernity which was uprooting the old traditions, village life and love for nature etc, in all his novels amongst which the Wessex Novels are the leading ones. The story of Fsu: Prom the Madding Crowd, plots the tragic cross purposes of five people fighting for happiness of love. The poetic aspects of the under- pattem 'intensify the expression of things... so that the heart and inner-meaning is made vividly visible.*

4, The Age of Hardy, An Outline Histiry of English Literature by William Henry Hu'dson (B".I. Publi­ cations, Reprint 1983) , pp. 271. 53

The VJessex Background of Hardy* s tales adds to their romantic charmo In Far From the Madding Crowd, Hardy used VJessex for the first time to signify the general topographical background.

The plot of this novel is based on the love entan­ glements of three suiters for Bathsheba Gabriel Oak, tv/enty-eight and a bachelor, sees Bathsheba Everdene in a lane and finds her as a beautiful product of Nature. He meets her and proposes to marry, but she refuses. And, after a few days, she returns back to Weatherbury,

After Bathsheba had left, Gebriel somehow lost all his sheep and even had to stock his farm; After two months, he went to a fair at Casterbridge in a wretched state offe­ ring himself first as a bailiff, and then as a shephard. But, no one hired him. At last he decided to go to Weathur- bury — the place where Bathsheba had gone, so he decided to go there. When he was moving on, he saw flames of fire rising high in the fields and that the people standing there were not able to help extinguish the fire. Gabriel at once jumped over to extinguish it as large quantity of com was lying there and somehow managed, to control the fire, while he was busy fighting the flames, the mistress of the fields reached there. She carrie to know through hsr 54

me-n how the nevj onepbered (Gsbriel) laboured to control the firo £23d asrsod tho whole lot of corjio VJhen they stood f ace-to-f acQ ^ thsy wera suirprisod to see each other, boesuss tbe raiotress v.'as DO?JG other than Bathshebao Batbsbeba offered Gebrisl a job as one of the workers on hor fields, ^.?her© she vjorked as a fyll fledged fanner., looked after ox'-Grytbirjg horsGlf sad i^rent to the market til so. In th3 market^, vjhere everyeno else was rnucb impressed ead worried about her^ the ofily persoa ^v^ho did not care a bit v/as Farmer Eoldv;ood» This UBinatural behaviour of Farrier Doldv^ood drew Bathshoba' s atiention towards him,

Pariwsr Boldvjood soroetiov? fails in love with her due to a Valentine sent by Bathg>hebao Ho proposes to her but once again she refuses and tries to convince his that the Valentine was a roere joke.

Parallel to Bathsheba Everden©, runs the tale of Panny Robin and Sergeant Troy. But, the Sergeant mat Bathsheba Everdena, by chance, in a field and tried to attract the mistress with his charms and cheerful manner until the lady came under his spell. Finally, Troy and Bathsheba got married, though Bathsheba'.s mind was still in a confusion. After marriage, Seargent Troy started 55

wasting Bathsheba*s money in "races" and drinking. During the period when all this was going on, Gabriel Oak showed selfless devotion and co-operation towards his mistress. Bathsheba acknowledged it and expressed her sincere feelings towards him.

One day, when Troy and Bathsheba were going to Casterbridge, they met Panny Robin in an ill-clad and miserable csDndition. After her return to the fields Bathsheba recieved a message about Fanny's death from Joseph Poorgras, the very next day. Her husband Seargent Troy was extremely shocked and grieved by the death of her beloved, whom he had promised to marry. He went away from Casterbridge till one day it was published in news- he paper that/was drowned and dead — but his body had not been found. After this news had spread, Boldwood once again hoped that Bathsheba would marry him.

One of the Christmas evening, when Bathsheba exid Boldwood were finally about to m.arry, Seargent Trou sud­ denly appeared before them. He asked Bathsheba to come with him. The lady came in a state of sudden shock and mental confusion on seeing her husband alive and screamed. On the other hand Boldwood thought that Seargent was taking 56

the ledy forcibly. So he took out his gun and shot hicn dead.

0no3 again, after the actual death o£ her husband Bathsh^a started living in utter solitude. And, on one such day, v;hen she was being overpowered by sentiments, Gabriel happened to come there. He informed her that he was leaving aad going to London. The mistress rcmiested him not to leave her in such a miserable condition. But, he remained fina on his decision because he wanted to prove wrong the rumours about their marriage. When Bathsheba heard this, she later on, herself asked Gabriel to marry her. Finally Bathsheba and Gabriel got married and amidst enjoy- EJent of the villagers.

The plot of Far From the Madding Crowd is woven round the love-affairs of village folk like Oak mid Boldwood and Sargeant Troy with Bathsheba as Venus. In the very first chapter of the novel, he gives us a romantic picture of the village damsel who was quite conscious of her exquisite charm and captivating beauty. Hardy describes how Bathsheba, "the handsome girl" after waiting for sometime idly in her place on the waggon, decided to amuse herself with a small swing looking glass i 57

"It v;as a fine inoming, and the EUai lighted wp to a scarlot glov; the csrinssoa jcclcet she wore, and painted a soft lustre tapon her bright face and dark haiTo The niyrthles, geremiums, £33d coctnsGs packed around her were fresh sm& green . „« vfnat possessed her to isidulge in stsch a perfonnsncs -—^ nobody laiov-^s? it ended certainly in a real sitdlCo She bltjshed at herself, and seeing her reflection blush, blu shed the mere ,00 She siriiply obser^;'ed herself as a fair product of Natar© in the feminino kind her thoyghts se'sming to glide into far-off though likely dramas in whidi men would play a part —- Vistes of probahb triumps —- the smiles being of a phase suggesting that hearts were Imagined as lost and won".

Needless to say, Bathsheba epitomises all that is fresh and gay, capricious end captivating and she draws round her the suitors, v/ho play their parts in the natural 58

surrouiTsdings of Norcairijer Hill end VJsstherbury.

Par PgQKi tha,..Maddimj ._Croi-jd is highly enriched v;ith all ths iagsredicuts o£ a roraatitic novel o Whil© going through the bcok^ th© reader is v?ell°fed V7ith the various eoraponeaits of a roraamce, that are fused beautifully in tho novel v/ith the helps of interoomaectiog ideas, images sad phrases.

The scenes soRietimss are intensely draiaatic and sometiK!©s grotescpStf changed vdth inhereat esrotion eeid mystery of subconscious intpulses leaping theatrically to the surface^ set against a running river of q;jiet lyric meditation on old ways and changeless things. Hardy lays Kiuch emphasis on his attachment to Nature and environmeato ^d, to this lively* sensational, beautiful vs-orld surrcujided all over by natural beauty in the forest. Hardy calls as "The Poetry of ffotion".

William R. Rutland observed that in Far From the

Madding Crovid, Hardy has OSKQ a3.iTost to his full staturSo The sphere of experiment has been left behind; not only does

5, Jean Brooks, Thornas Hardy^ The Poetic Structure, J<5ovelists and~th9ir vx>rld series. General Editor, Graham Hough, p. 176, 59

hs knovj v;hat h© wishes to dlo? ho has the technique at coiamand with v^hlcb to (So it.

Bathsheba is that maay characteristic oonipound called by critics 'the Hardy woman'^ but Boldwood, who has strangely no Christieji nasie, is too inach of a lay figyrQo The character of Gabriel Oak is an achieveinent. This strong, simple and lovable shepherd is one of the inost laeK^raDA© ^Ig^res in th® *?essex novels. The 'happy ending* is a concession^ but even The Return of the Native ends with such a concession In Par Prom the Madding Croiid, tragedy stops short of the intensity which the later novels achieve, indeed, there is nore pathos than real tragedy. It is, in short» a work which everywhere shows the highest talent. Such a novel should be highly popular; and popular Par Prom,t_he Maddincf Crowd, certainly was. It made Hardy' s name as a novelist, and so paved the way for the greater g things to conie.

There's a regular conflict between the basic eleaierjtal opposites of life -— in the early novels of Thomas Hard];^, Jean Brooks calls it as the ^Cosmic plane of archaetypal

6. William R. Rutland, Thomas Hardy (Oxford, 1938) , pp. 175. 60

conflict of great ultimates''? and as the conflict of the eleiaental forces v^hich irx5V©s the passions of men. The so basic or th© elerasintal forcos are the chaos and the order, adluistCT^'st ^cpd s^-'-i.-adjustm^ntg ggace and vio\ence^ cpme&v^ . ^^^ tragedy, good and bad^ life and death, the hard and tha soft, the v^ild and the domi^ti^c and so on,

OK© of these ©lenssntal forces, which is .also one of the constityeats of roraance in Hardy's novels ~ the v;ild or e^sotic is also present in Par From the Madding Crowd at several places„ For exaraple s

^The hill vras cssvered on its northern side by an ancient and decaying plantation of beeches, vjfhose upper verge formed a lirso over the crest, fringing its' arched curve against the sky, like a mane. To-night these trees sheltered the southern slope from the keenest blasts, vjhich sHote the wood and floundered through it with a sound as of gruiribling or gushed over its* crowning boughs in a v;eakened moan ,,,, a tongue of air occasio- 7 nally farreting out a few and o.,"

mum w tm-.ammtm ^minm, IM IW I II ' • —^H^*^ • I » m • '•> m iiB>'^r^»^j iii m M»I^ ••••••••• i • •• • i^ MWM • H • »-j »•!• !•!• m ^ i i—IM>MII I r ii ii ji - "j fmri 7. Far Frotti the Madding Crowd, p. In the early novels of ThKDinas Hardy the poetic details are found in abundance, And, accxjrding to Jean Brooks they are "rarely superfluous.•* He cites an example from chapter XXII of Far From the MadcLLnq Crowd.

"the sharply realized shape and colour of tha 'fern-sprouts like bisho^j's crosiers' and the 'odd cuckoo-pint, —» of nature with the deity in the preceding sentence, —• •God was palpably present in the country, and the devil had gone with the world to town*, and prepare for the natural conception of religion in the long description of the Shearing Bam —• where 'the defence and salvation of the body by dally bread is still a study, a religion and desire. 8

In the novel Far From the Madding Crowd, on the one hand, we feel hypnotised by the notes of Parmer Oak* s flute and on the other hand we are sent into a world of

8, Jean Brooks, Ttomas Hardy;_ The Poetic Structure, p. 62

vrOiidsr s^d surprise thrcjgh thQ charms ct Troy' s Sv^rd in chapter XXVIII.

"In an insteait the atmosphere was transf orraed to Bathsheba' s eyes. Beams of light caught from the low sun* s rays above, around^ in front of her, well- nigh shut out earth and heaven -=— all emitted in the marvellous evolutions of Troy's reflecting blade, which seemed everywhere at once, and yet nowhere especially...*'

Par Prom the Madding Crowd has become one of the milestones in the history of English literature due to its' plot, strong characterization and romantic constituents. Hardy's love for Nature and natural surroundings also fona ono of the major osnstituents and plays sn important role in the success of the novel.

Jean Brooks points towards one of the qualities in Thomas Hardy while giving realistic and symbolic description

5- Far From the Madding Crowd, p. 63

of Natures Ho says that Hardy knows Nature too well to limit its' presentation to the pathetic fallacy. In the novel# there are some such scenes too, where Nature seems to be in syinpathy with the human actors.

Somewhere in the novel. Hardy* s art of description is repealed to the reader when Hardy couTpares the clear sky viith the body and stars with the throbs of one body, timed by a coRinon pulse. The description of Nature is very natural, vivid and lively in all the early novels of Thomas Hardy.

The poetry in Far From the Madding Crowd which Leslie Stephen admired in his prose more intensive here than in direct expression, though as the auditory and visual imagery of the scenes at Nora>mbe Hill reminds us at the beginning, this reaches unusual levels of perc€sption,

Virginia Woolf, the famous English writer says in the novels of Thomas Hardy, that — "Nobody can deny Hardy's power —— the true novelists' power - to make us believe that his characters are fellow beings driven by 64

their own passions aad idiosyncracles while they have -—. SDd this ig the poet's gift -— something symboli­ cal about them v7hich is comrran to us all."

10. Virginia Woolf^ The ^Ctoiwnon Reader^ Second Series, (London, 1959) , p. 251. CHAPTER V

CONCLUDING REMARKS 65

C30NCLUDING REMARKS

Hardy's ©arly romances culminating in Far From th© Madding Crpyyd suggest si v-^ater-shed in his career. The latsr novels beginning with The Return o£ the Native (1878) and ending v/ith Jude the Obscure ^1895) show his maturity as an artist as well as a philosophical writer. However, there are some common elements in most of the novels —' the rural setting, the country-folk, their simple life, their conventional manners and romantic attitude to life. The theatre of their love and passion v/as erected on imaginary stories of simple folk who inhale the mysteriously sensuous aim of the Wessex CJountryside, In the early romances Hardy exploits the perennial sources of 'wonder and awe', of beauty and its fascinations, of nature in its diverse moods, its benedictions and malevolence and the eternal drama of man-woman relationships. The early novels show the writer's awareness of artistic demands on the author by the readers, his own love of the Gothic and the ballads and his love of nature and village-romances in Churches, fields and woods.

All of the Hardy's novels are love-stories. Love is the predominant motive activating his characters. Man is seen cast into a dark and unsatisfying world, thirsting for happiness. Most of Hardy' s important characters respond to the call of love and in love* s ecstasy find an intimation 66

of the happiness that they hope will frea them from the sorrows ©2 lifeo But Ms sweetest songs ara often tinged with sadder thoughts. Even Under the Greenwood Tree and Far prom the Madding Crov/d v/hich are novels ending in happiness of the vfedding bells are not without strains of sorrow and suffering.

However, despite its 'niagic love constitutes only an important aspect of the wider and suggestive term 'romantic'. Hardy's romances transcend the limitations of love-affairs between boys and girls. In his novels in general, his early novels in particular romance implies a wider connotation and comprises the wonderful, the myster­ ious, the exotic, the natural and the supernatural. Unlike other romantic writers like Scx)tt and Hawthorne, Hardy tries to reconcile 'the uncommon and the ordinary' by blending realism with the poetry of the countryside. The poetic strain in Hardy's creative imagination is of the romantic type —» sublime, irregular, quaint, mysterious and even extravagant. It is no exaggeration to say that his poetic descriptions are thinly embroidered with the freaks of a gothic fancy. He asserts that "art lies in highlighting hitherto unperceived beauty by irradiating the light that never was on their surface." 67

Undor the GreeBv^ood Tr@e is the first important romaBce or 'prose idyll' by Hardy, As a work of art, it has a kind of freshness around it which the novelist never ageiin achieved, Hardy's descriptions of the real life, of natural beauty and rivalry of the village-folk is exquisite in Under the Greenwood Tree, The novel cxtntains seeds of nx>st of the Wessex novels. Hardy successfully conveys the beauty of outer-nature by deft poetic descrip­ tion of tiny details. This characteristic is noticeable throughout the book as the novelist weaves his stoiry through various seasons of the year.

The theme of the novel is about the Mellstock quire or a band of musicianso Treatment of love affair between Fancy and Dick may be regarded as conventional but Hardy has successfully developed it as a pastoral story which allows sufficient scope for romantic characters and scenery. Under the Greenwood Tree evokes a poetic mood compounded of nostalgia for rural ways and hope for the resilience of life in the new order. Hardy ceil Is the novel an "essay in the Dutch school of painting," Here he combines the art of the painter with that of the writer in a superb manner,

A Pair of Blue Eyes is a fictitiously contrived novel which fits a general vision^srHa^yTK^'^^^iP^Qht of

«' ^'>2^S f.^^f.\*

% ; ;^• 68

and written long before he knew Emma Lavania Gifford. The story narrates the succession of suitors —— Jethway, Stephen Smith, Lord Luxelllan and ultimately Death, The novel had for its sotting, "the region of dream and mystery**, the Ooraish Coasts snd beautifully depicts the drama of country life and passions. Critics have pointed out that this juvenalia is a kind of rag-bag of informations, ideas, descriptive vignnets and personal experiences. But it v^uld not be fair to ignore the vital elements -— love, passion, mystery, chance and death etc., which contribute to the freshness and readability of the novel. The romance in this novel reaches new heights in the mysterious craggy coasts of Cornwall. The old Church remains a witness to the sad stoiry of Elfride and her lovers.

Far .From the Madding Crowd symbolizes the culmina­ tion of Hardy's achievements as a novelist. This pastoral tale with the charming and coquettish heroine, Bathsheba Sverdene at the centre, presents another set of suitors Gabriel Oak, Seargent Troy and Boldwood for her hand. Oak is sincere and devoted towards the mistress despite set­ backs; Troy is flambuoyant and faithless; Boldwood is just pathetic in his protestations, Troy has temporary success and is ultimately killed by Boldwood, Oak is rightly rewarded for his patience and devotion. He accepts the 69

mistress ^as though a rose should shut and be a bud again''e But, Par Prom the Madding Crowd is not just a love-story. The beautiful, natural setting of the Wessex Countryside and the peopie inh^iting it ara exquisitely drawn. The fields and pastures or hillside, rivers, woods, trees, birds and flaura and fsuna take us to a modem Elysium where life with all its stresses and strains goes on smoothly and the rustics accept their misfortune as stoically as they enjoy their blessings unabashedly. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 70

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

NOVELS

Desperate Remedies (1871) Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) Par Prom the Madding Crowd (187 4) The Hand of Ethelberta (187 6) The Return of the Native (1878) The Trtimpet Major (1880) A Laodicean (1881) Two on a Tower (1882) The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) The Woodlanders (1887) Tess of the D'Urbervilla (1891) Juda the Obsaire (1895)

CRITICISM

Life ,and .Arts ed. Earnest Brenneske, Jr. (New York, 1925) -

Essays : "The Profitable Reading of the Piction" (pp. 56-74) . (First published in The Forum^ pp. 57-70; New York, March 1988). 71

"Candour in English Novel* (pp. 75-84) (First published in The New Review pp. 15-21, January, 1980) ,

*The Science of Fiction" (pp. 85-90) (First published in The New Review, pp. 315-19, /^ril, 1891) .

Notes i "Dialects in Novels" (p. 113) (First published in The Athenajm, November 30, 1878).

"On the Use of Dialect" 'p. 114) (First published in The Spectator, October 15, 1881) .

"lAfhy I Don't Write Plays" (pp. 116-17) (First appeared in The Poll Mall Gazette, Ajgust 31, 1892) .

"Appreciation of Anatole Prance" (p. 121) (First appeared in The Times, London, December 11, 1913) .

The Early Life of Thomas Hardy (Ed. P.E. Hardy) New York,' 1928, London, 1933, 72

The Later Life of Thomas Hardy (Ed. P.E* Hardy) New York, 1930, London. 1933.

Prefaces to the Wessex Edition of Novels (24 volSo) , 1921-31,

Dearest Eiwnie s Thomas Hardy* s Letters to his first wife. ed. Carl J. V/eber (London, 19 63) ,

(ii) Secondary Materials i

(^ Books I

Abercrorribie, L. Thomas Hardy; A Critical Study (London, 1912) .

Beach, J,W, The Technique of Thomas Hardy (Chicago, 1922) ,

Blunden, Edmund Thomas Hardy^ (London, 1941) .

Brown, Douglas Thomas Hardy (London, 1954) ,

Cecil, Lord David Hardy the Novelist (London, 19^3)

Chew, Samuel Thomas Hardy ; Poet and Novelist (New York, 1928) . 73

Cox, R.G., Ed. The critical Heritage Thomas Hardy (New York, 1970) .

Dobree, B, The Lamp and the Lute (Oxford, 1927) .

Drabble, M, Ed. The Genius of Thomas Hardy (Knoff, 197 6) .

Duffin, H.C. Thomas Hardy (Manchester, revd. ed. 1937)

Guerard, Albert J. Thomas Hardy, The Novels and the Stories (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1949) .

Harper, C,G, The Hardy Country (London, 1904) .

Hawkins, Desmond Thomas Hardy (London, 1950) .

Johnson, Lionel The Art of Thomas Hardy (London, 1894) .

Lawrence, D.H, "Study of Thomas 'Hardy" Phoenix (London, 1930 ed.) 74

Lennart A, Bjoke The Literary Notes of Thomas Hardy Vol. I, (Geotenberg, 197 4) .

Mc Dowell, A,S. Thomas Hardy? A Critical Study (London, 1931) .

Merryn Williams Preface to Hardy (Longmans, 1974) «

>aiir, Edwin "The Novels of Thomas Hardy" in Essays on Literature and Society, London, 1949.

Sc»tt, James R.A. Thomas Hardy (London, 1951) .

Stewart, J.I.M, Thomas Hardy» A critical Biography (Longmans, 1971) ,

Symons, A« A Study of Thomas Hardy (Haspell House, 1971) .

Weber, Carl J. Hardy of Wessex (Cblumbia university Press, 1940) ,

VJebster, Harvey On a Darkling Plain Curtis (Chicago University Press, 1947) . 75

Whitfield, A. A, Thomas Hardy % The Artist, the Man and the Desciple of Destiny (London, 1921) .

Wirsg, George Hardy (Edinburgh and London, 19 63) ,

PERIODICALS

Aldington, R. "Comad and Hardy" (Literary Review, V, 1924) .

Archer, W. "Thomas Hardy" (Pall Mall Magazine, XXIII, 1901).

Barrie, J. M. "Thomas Hardy, the Historian of Wessex*

(Opntemporary Review LVI, 1889).

Biniyon, L. "The Art of Thomas Hardy** (Boo)cman, February, 1915) .

Chapman, F, •Hardy the Novelist"

(Scrutiny, June 1934) ,

Goldberg, M.A. "Hardy's Double-Visioned Universe" (Essay in Criticism Vll, 1957) . 76

VkitrsYe JoM, "The Supermacy of Thomas Hai'dy'* (New _Adelphi, 1928) .

Smart, Mast air "Pictorial Imagery In the Novels of Thomas Hardy" (The Review of English studies, i^jjgust, 1961) .

Stewart, J„I.M. "The Integrity of Hardy" (Snqlisb Studies, 1948) .

Symons, h» "Thomas Hardy" (Dial, LXVIII, 1920) .

Vfliilbey, C. "The Work of Hardy* (Blackwood's Magaaine GXCIII, 1913) .