Two Fallen Women in 's Poems : "The Woman I Title Met" and "The Chapel Organist"

Author(s) NAGAMORI, Akemi

Citation 人間・環境学 (2017), 26: 229-238

Issue Date 2017-12-20

URL http://hdl.handle.net/2433/235186

Right ©2017 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科

Type Departmental Bulletin Paper

Textversion publisher

Kyoto University 人間・環境学，第 26 巻，229-238 頁，2017 年 229

Two Fallen Women in Thomas Hardyʼs Poems :

“TheWomanIMet” and “The Chapel Organist”

Akemi NAGAMORI

Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501 Japan

Summary Among the most prominent “fallen women” described in Thomas Hardyʼs works is Tess in Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891). Fanny Robin in Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) andSue Brideheadin (1895) are also recognizedas “fallen-women” characters. Such women promptedharsh criticism from Victorian readers, on account of the stark description of the “fallen woman” in the novels. Hardyʼs poems also deal with “fallen women.” Discussion of his poetry in a large number of studies on his major poetic works often tendsto be concernedwith his pessimistic view of life, influencedby Schopenhauer, his “philosophy of life,” or his attitudestowardGodandChristianity. Therefore, by focusing on the two protagonistsʼ femininity of “The Woman I Met” and “The Chapel Organist,” this paper will pay attention to the significance of these fallen-women poems written in Hardyʼs later years and present the poetʼs view of a woman, especially of the two fallen womenʼs conscience that associates them with Christianity.

mindto commit suicidein the presence of people in the Introduction chapel immediately after playing the instrument for the last time. Among the most prominent “fallen women” There have been a large number of studies on described in Thomas Hardyʼs works is Tess in Tess of Hardyʼs major poetic works, such as his elegies for his the d’Urbervilles (1891). Fanny Robin in Far From wife Emma and (1904-08). Discussion the Madding Crowd (1874) andSue Brideheadin of his poetry in such studies often tends to be Jude the Obscure (1895) are also recognizedas concernedwith his pessimistic view of life, influenced “fallen-women” characters. Such women prompted by Schopenhauer, or his “philosophy of life.” There harsh criticism from Victorian readers, on account of are some studies of his any poetic work that does not the stark description of the “fallen woman” in the include his elegies for Emma or The Dynasts, yet they novels. Hardyʼs poems also deal with “fallen are generally discussed by focusing on Hardyʼs women.” In “The Woman I Met,” the female ghost of attitudestowardGodandChristianity, the way in a former prostitute meets a man for whom she has which Hardy treats Christianity, and the protagonistʼs continuedto have affection after her death,and religious mindin his poems. For instance, in “Hardyʼs confesses her true feelings towardhim. In “The ʻReligious Twilight, ʼ” Norman Arkans argues that Chapel Organist,” a woman with a passion for music some of Hardyʼs poems, including “The Woman I plays andsings hymns in a chapel, but she is obligedto Met,” are a unique version of the Christian Myth, quit the position due to rumors about her immorality distinct from his religious verse in general, and that the andprostitution. The mournful organist makes up her gospel strengthens the pattern of “humanism” in his 230 Akemi NAGAMORI religious thought (413). youth, brutally left behindby her seducer,andits Taking into consideration the factors mentioned roaming as a social ostracism who dies at childbirth” above, by focusing on the two protagonistsʼ femininity (61). in the two poems, this paper will present the poetʼs Tess in Tess of the d’Urbervilles is also presentedas view of women, especially the fallen womenʼs a fallen-woman character anda victim of her own fate. conscience andhow this is associatedwith She is initially an undefiled, pure woman, but she is Christianity. First, Hardyʼs treatment of the theme of then rapedby Alec dʼUrbervilleat The Chase (Tess fallen women will be analyzedin Part 1. Part 2, then, 57-58, “Maiden No More”) andbears an illegitimate considers the female protagonist in “The Woman I child, whom she baptizes herself (Tess 74).When Met” andthat of “The Chapel Organist.” In the conversion to Methodism urges Alec to apologize for former, the ghost of the former prostitute speaks to the his past behavior, she refers to their former relationship man, while the latter presents a fallen woman, the thus : “Scamp that I was to foul that innocent life! organist, who narrates her own story ; these poems are The whole blame was mine―the whole unconvention- thus mainly, or indeedwholly,constructedwith the al business of our time at Trantridge” (Tess 247). womanʼs voice. Paying attention to the significance of The subtitle of the novel, “A Pure Woman,” connotes these poems written in Hardyʼs later years, the final her unblemishedmentality throughout the story, even part analyzes his observations as a poet anddramatist. after she is rapedandbecomes a fallen woman. Her past sexual relationship with Alec continues to torment 1．Hardyʼs Treatment of her after she falls in love with Angel Clare. Her tragic Fallen-Women Characters story originates in sexual intercourse with Alec, which makes her a fallen woman, andshe is later obligedto Thomas Hardy produced some prominent fall- consider cohabitation as his mistress. In Tess,as en-women characters in his novels, such as Fanny Auerbach indicates, Tess is passive in the affair with Robin in Far From the Madding Crowd (1874), Tess Alec (169). The heroine is depicted as a helpless in Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891),andSueinJude innocent country girl, who is a victim of the Victorian the Obscure (1895).InFar from the Madding Crowd, patriarchal society andits social laws, while her lack of Fanny Robin, seducedandabandonedmercilesslyby independence triggers the tragedy that results in her Troy, is “an emblem of victimizedwomanhoodstrug- murder of Alec and her execution. gling to the poorhouse” (Ingham 136). Although she The character of Sue Bridehead in Jude is not is not the protagonist of the novel, Fanny plays an seducedlikeFanny andTess, but is still consideredone important role by interrupting the marriage between of Hardyʼs fallen-women characters in that she has an the heroine, Bathsheba, andTroy. When the latter illicit relationship with Jude and bears two illegitimate falls in love with Bathsheba, he confides his liking for children by him, while also raising Little Father Time, a stronger woman to Boldwood ; “she [Bathsheba] the childof Judeʼsfirst wife, Arabella (Jude 265, has a will―not to say a temper, andI shall be a mere 270). Little Father Timeʼs murder of her children and slave to her. I coulddoanything with poor Fanny subsequent suicide, however, trigger Sueʼs return to Robin” (FFMC 180). Fanny Robin eventually dies her oppressive matrimony with Phillotson (Part Sixth, giving birth to Troyʼs child (FFMC 246). N. S. Saleh Chapter 3). Like Tess, Sue also experiences a “fallen” andPyeaam Abbasi argue that Fannyʼs characteristics state as a result of her sexual relationship with Jude. are typical of a fallen-woman character : “Hardy MacPike, focusing on the fecundity of women and successfully declares Fanny Robin as the conventional their sexual freedom, argues that Tess and Sue reflect portrayal of the fallen woman who is seduced in her Hardyʼs social representation of “natural consequen- Thomas Hardyʼs Two Fallen-Women Poems 231 ces” (60). Fanny andTess, as mentionedabove, are Words in Various Moods and Metres (1928).In depictedasseducedorsocially corruptedby men, , fallen-women characters appear in while Sue in contrast chooses a “fallen” state in pursuit the two poems, “Timing Her” and “The Statue of of romantic love. In spite of her situation following Liberty.” In the seventh volume, Human Shows, “A the rape by Alec, Tess tries to pursue romantic love for HurriedMeeting ” portrays love between two people of Angel, like Sue. Both of these heroines in Hardyʼs differentclasses, andis classifiedas a fallen -woman later novels are therefore not merely victims of poem. The eighth collection, Winter Words, published Victorian morality ; rather, by delineating these around ten months after Hardy died on 11 January characters in such a way in his novels, Hardy presents 1928, includes seven fallen-women poems : “Reluc- two types of fallen women in the Victorian period. tant Confession,”“The Whalerʼs Wife,”“The Dead Hardy in fact wove the social issue of fallen women Bastard,”“The Brother,”“A Practical Woman,”2) into his poems at an earlier stage, before he produced “Burning the Holly,” and “The Balladof Loveʼs the fallen women characters in his novels. “The Skeleton.” Notably, all of the fallen-women charac- RuinedMaid, ” for example, in his secondcollection of ters presentedin this last collection are ruinedas a poems, Poems of the Past and the Present (1901),was result of men breaking off their engagements. These written in 1866, one year before Hardy wrote The Poor women are corruptednot by their own will, but as a Man and the Lady, his first novel that was never result of being seduced by men. By contrast, in the published. This pastoral poem with a comic tone takes sixth collection of poems Late Lyrics and Earlier,the the form of a conversation between ʼMelia andher two protagonists in “The Woman I Met” and “The innocent country friend, portraying ʼMeliaʼs deteriora- Chapel Organist” are obligedto practice prostitution tion andher friendʼsenvy for ʼMeliaʼs transformation andbecome fallen dueto their poverty. Taking into into an urban lady. The poem is composed of six consideration that the two poems treat the theme of quatrains, andeach stanza endswith ʼMeliaʼs using the fallen women as prostitutes, “The Woman I Met” and word “ruin (ed)” : “O didnʼt you know Iʼd been “The Chapel Organist” are dealt with in this paper in ruined?”1), “Yes : thatʼs how we dress when weʼre order to explore the significance of depicting fallen ruined” (8), “Some polish is gainedwith oneʼs ruin ” women in poetry who choose their own path in (12), “We never do work when weʼre ruined” (16), Victorian society. “True. Oneʼs pretty lively when ruined” (20),and “My dear―a raw country girl, such as you be, / 2．The Fallen-Woman Spirit in Cannot quite expect that. You ainʼt ruined” (23-24). “The Woman I Met” In “The RuinedMaid, ” in spite of its sensational title, ʼMeliaʼs sarcastic responses andher humorous and “The Woman I Met” was first publishedin the indifferent attitude toward herself not only comically London Mercury in 1921 (Bailey 450),andthen represent womenʼs situations, but also point to Hardyʼs included in Hardyʼs sixth collection of poems, Late cynical attitude toward the Victorian moral code Lyrics and Earlier (1922).In“TheWomanIMet,” during the early stages of his creative activity. the ghost of a prostitute wanders about the city of In addition to “The RuinedMaid, ” some fall- London, and when she sees the narrator, for whom she en-women poems are also included in the four hada liking duringher lifetime, she confesses her collections of poetry publishedtowardthe endof passion for him. Hardyʼs life : Moments of Vision (1917) ; Late Lyrics The poem portrays the female ghostʼs love for the and Earlier with Many Verses (1922) ; Human Shows, man in the form of conversation between her andthe Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles (1925) ;andWinter anonymous male. The ghost dressed “in a shroudthat 232 Akemi NAGAMORI furs half-hid” (8) appears to be a comparatively house in Southwark, London, built for the treatment of wealthy woman, andher “fur” confirms the winter syphilis. The circumstances of the female spirit in setting. As the strange pair goes on talking to each “The Woman I Met” are precisely those of women other, the female spirit reveals to him that her exploitedin Victorian society. Hardythus paints a profession before her death involved lingering in the true picture of a fallen woman in Victorian society who same place where they met at night : hadto earn money this way in orderto survive. ʻThese were my haunts in my olden sprightly What is arguably more important in the poem is the Hours of breath ; fallen womanʼs religious attitude toward God. F. R. Here I went tempting frail youth nightly Giordano Jr. suggests that the female ghost is To their death ; (17-20) comparedto Mary Magdalene 3) andthat the narrator is Her words strongly express the idea of sexual allegorically representedas Jesus Christ (138).Mary experiences with a number of men. She is a prostitute Magdalene represents those who are discriminated and who “[c]ouldpace this street / Eyeing some man to the socially vulnerable. The poem certainly conveys greet” (23-24). Although the fallen woman shows the ghostʼs reverence for Godand,while she attaches pride in her beauty and profession (“you did not see more importance to sexual love than to religion, she there / A single one that rivalledme there! ” (53- regards herself as “a tinselledsinner ” (21),andin 54)), she couldnot confess her “true trade” (47) to confessing her love for him, saying “your very the man before her death, because of her guilt and her simplicity made me love you / Midsuch town dross, / love for him. Till I set not Heaven itself above you, / Who grew my Showalter points out that during the nineteenth Cross” (25-28). Furthermore, before she died, the century, especially in a city, the gap between rich and prostitute hadtriedto give “a costly flower” (49) to poor widened, with homeless and poor working people the man in order to beguile him. As F. R. Giordano Jr. in London obliged to live in working-class districts of points out, the “costly flower” heldin her handis a the East End (6). According to Walkowitz, most poor device to make her seem like Mary of Bethany, who working people, including female workers, lived can also be identified as Mary Magdalene, anointing precariously from day to day (Walkowitz 13-15). Jesusʼ feet with “costly spikenard” (John 12 : 3). There were a large number of women called “common Although it is certain that the female ghost in the poem prostitutes” in the Victorian patriarchal society : some is similar to Mary Magdalene, there are different largely made a living by prostitution, while others characteristics between the two women : the ghost needed the “trade” to supplement their poorly paid clings to life andadoresthe narrator andthis tenacious regular work such as needlework, tailoring, or attachment to this worldis contrary to the Christian employment as a maidservant (13-32). Henry religion, which forbids idolatry. Therefore, although Mayhew, an English social researcher andjournalist in the female spirit cannot be equal to Mary Magdalene, the Victorian era, describes an interview with a Hardy creates the impression that the female spirit sixteen-year-oldprostitute, andnotes that her situation alludes to Mary Magdalene. incites his pity andabhorrence (Mayhew “The The poem also shows the delicate balance of her Dependants [sic] of Prostitutes”). During the female sexuality. The description of the prostituteʼs interview, the young girl hesitantly reveals her “costly flower” certainly makes her seem like Mary wretched “working” conditions and the condition of Magdalene, yet at the same time it implies her the brothel in which she dwells. “sexual” love for the man. The “costly flower” In addition, the Lock-hospital, where the prostitute represents the woman herself, a (somewhat) wealthy of this poem finally dies (56), was an actual lazar prostitute ; accordingly, the fact that she holds and Thomas Hardyʼs Two Fallen-Women Poems 233 gives the flower to him is equivalent to dedicating her tics (174). Hardyʼs “The Chapel Organist” tells of body to the man in pursuit of his (sexual) love―Eros, the organistʼs love andpassion for music. Barbara rather than agape. On the one hand, she is represented Hardy argues that “[l] ike her author [Hardy] the as Mary Magdalene, but on the other hand, she is chapel-organist puts her passions into her art, and ironically still incapable of fleeing from terrestrial, shocks the public” (176). vulgar, andsensual desire. Her love, however, carnal The poem describes a woman who lives and dies as though it may be, is single-hearted, and she reveals a chapel organist. She loves to play the organ “twice how much she longedfor him by asking “Why asked in the week” (8), in spite of the low stipendwhich you never, ere death befell me, / To have my love / “can hardly cover her fare” (8), resulting in her Much as I dreamt thereof?” (70-72). She fears he finding “victual [s] in lust” (51) andpracticing will despise her (33), given that her profession prostitution as a way of living. Although her hidden deviates from the Victorian moral code. The man, side job is gradually disclosed to the congregation, the who is “a fresh blandboy of no assurance ” (37),is deacon and his fellow-deacon reluctantly tolerate her impliedto be Cupiddueto the emphasis on his performance for financial reasons : “get such another “simplicity” (25), while the fallen woman still tends to play here [in the chapel] we cannot for double the to be considered a sexually degenerate woman. She is price!” (30). When the last of her “functioning” fully aware that people in the worldconsiderher one of (61) is announcedafter the postponement of her those women called “common prostitutes,” whose dismissal, she chooses to take her own life : “The existence in the Victorian patriarchal society was grave dread as little do I as my bed” (70). The phrase implicitly admitted. Prostitution was a way of living is taken from Thomas Kenʼs hymn : All Praise to Thee, for poor women in the Victorian period, though My God, This Night : “Teach me to live, that I may criticizedfor its immorality. The narrative of the dread. The grave as little as my bed” (Morgan 71). poem suggests that Hardy neither admits nor denies The organist thus gives notice of her death by singing a these women the right to their profession. The hymn. ambiguity of the female phantom, therefore, represents The poem focuses not only on the female organistʼs the peopleʼs andthe poetʼs attitudestowarda prostitute sexuality, but also on other peopleʼs vulgarity. at that time. Although they at first praise her playing, saying “She touches it mightily true!” (6), they come to be both 3．The Fallen-Woman Musician in attractedto, andcondemningof, her sexuality, in a “The Chapel Organist” typical Victorian reaction. A man peeps up at the organistʼs high seat from below, his voyeuristic eyes The other poem addressing the issue of the fallen hungering for the sexually attractive woman, andpicks woman is “The Chapel Organist,” included in the same out her feminine features one by one : collection, Late Lyrics and Earlier (1923).Inthe ʻA handsome girl,ʼ he would murmur, upstaring dramatic monologue of this narrative poem, a female (andsoIam). chapel organist shares her story in remarkably ʻBut ‒ too much sex in her build; fine eyes, but long-winded lines. While Bailey points out that eyelids too heavy ; Browningʼs “Abt Vogler”4) is the poemʼs model in A bosom too full for her age ; in her lips too terms of the meter used (469), Barbara Hardy suggests voluptuous a dye.ʼ that its subject andform are modeledonBrowningʼs (It may be. But who put it there? Assuredly it crime-monologues such as “The Laboratory,” though was not I.)(15-18) there are some differences in the heroinesʼ characteris- Barbara Hardy also sees the man as “voyeuristic” 234 Akemi NAGAMORI

(176) in this scene that satirizes his hypocritical she is obligedto sell her bodyto men. Just like many primness. On the other hand, the woman understands, poor women of nineteenth-century England, as saying “who put it there? Assuredly it was not I,” but previously discussed in Part 2, she makes money by disregards her inherited beauty, since her lips are made practicing prostitution as an additional job. Added to redby none other than Godhimself. her predicament is the stringent morality of the Apart from the creation of her beauty, there are other Victorian era. Renner, quoting William Actonʼs biblical allusions in the poem. The organist is sympathetic view towardprostitutes in Victorian comparedto Mary Magdalene,a symbol of the socially society, points out that the chapel authoritiesʼ vulnerable. Although the organist sheds tears not of exploitation of the organistʼs performance in fact remorse, but of a kindof triumph, her tears duringthe encourages her to practice prostitution (27).On last performance (71) are connectedto those of Mary account of the low stipendfrom the chapel, the only of Bethany in anointing Jesus Christʼs feet with costly way she can play the instrument is by “comrading spikenard. Furthermore, Havenpool, her residence, is close a sea-captain” (43) andspendingthe night away Hardyʼs name for Poole, a seaport town twenty miles “with a swain” (48). Her passion for music makes a from DorfordBaptist Church, Dorchester (Bailey powerful appeal to the reader : 469). Bailey indicates that the church is a model of Yet Godknows, if aught He knows ever, I loved the chapel of the poem, which lay near the boundaries the Old-Hundredth, Saint Stephenʼs, of Dorchester andFordington (469). Bailey also Mount Zion, New Sabbath, Miles-lane, Holy points out that going to the chapel from Havenpool Rest, andArabia, andEaton, wouldbe a feasible weekly trip ; yet, at the same time, Above all embraces of body by wooers who her prostitution is inevitably disclosed by people in the sought me andwon!. . . (45-47) chapel (469). From a biblical standpoint, she is The irrepressible enthusiasm of the organist, who does identified with Mary Magdalene, who lived on the not seem to mindbecoming a prostitute as long as she west bank of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. The latter is can play music, is ecstatically revealed. The passion saidto have hada villa, providingsexual service to for music welling up inside her is more than enjoyment Roman officers from the nearby camp. In “The or pleasure. Although it is clear that she may be Chapel Organist,” Havenpool, Hardyʼs imaginary physically a fallen woman, she is a pure woman in town, thus alludes to Mary Magdaleneʼs Sea of terms of her artistic passion. As in the subtitle of Tess Galilee. of the d’Urbervilles, “A Pure Woman,” this narrative The female organist goes on playing andsinging in poem also touches on the ambiguous interpretation of a spite of the sexually prejudiced criticism against her, “pure” fallen woman. perhaps spreadby men in the chapel, which she hears “[t] hough tears half-blinded” (20). Her tears 4．Thomas Hardy and the convey her frustration at the sexually-oriented Two Fallen-Women Poems response of the people who fail to recognize her as an organist. She has little interest in her own sexuality, so The two poems analyzedin this paper explore the the anxiety anddreadofothers, that she is subjectedto reality of “common prostitutes” in Englandin the in proportion to her sexual attractiveness, is painful for nineteenth century. As mentionedabove, the fallen her, making her feel exposedas a sex object. woman of “The Woman I Met” suffers from a venereal The organist strives to live her life through music, disease and dies in the Lock-hospital, harboring an utilizing her fine, sensual figure. In order to cover the unfulfilleddesirefor the male narrator. She recalls her fare from the port town, Havenpool, to the rural chapel, whole life as a prostitute andtells him about it in even Thomas Hardyʼs Two Fallen-Women Poems 235 tones. The fallen woman in “The Chapel Organist” Victorian patriarchy ; yet, on the other hand, they are practices prostitution as subsidiary to her main autonomous, andsimply utilize their own female business in order to earn her daily bread as a musician. sexuality. Accordingly, they can be regarded as an Her talent andpassion for music are exploitedby example of female characters called “New Woman,” a so-called “devout” believers in Christianity. Barbara term which referredto a feminist modelthat emerged Hardy considers her death to be “obligatory for in the late nineteenth century, meaning women who Victorian nemesis” (177) : the fallen woman must didnotmarry andlivedindependentlyby themselves. perish at the very endof the poem, partly because she The notion of New Woman hada great influence on wants to die as a chapel organist and leave her feminism into the twentieth century. Unlike the other “performance” in their hearts. fallen-women characters depicted by Hardy in his last In writing these two poems, it seems Hardy took four collections of poems, the two women here have inspiration from his own experience andknowledge, their own voices, andappeal to the readerfor weaving them together in each poem. In relation to recognition. As for Hardyʼs Tess and Jude, numerous “The Woman I Met,” Florence Emily Hardy notes that studies discuss whether their heroines can be consid- Hardy visited Piccadilly, in Westminster, and wrote eredNew Women or not. 6) It is at least clear that both about what he saw there in his diary. He wrote the heroines struggle to be autonomous anddeclaretheir following entry : “Piccadilly at night. ʻA girl held a own ideas. Tess insists on the independence of her long-stemmednarcissus to my nose as we went by spirit even after becoming Alecʼs mistress ; “Ihave each otherʼ” (TheLifeofThomasHardy242).This saidI will not take anything more from you, andI will girl whom he met in Piccadilly could be the model for not―I cannot! I should be your creature to go on “The Woman I Met.” On the construction of “The doing that, and I wonʼt!” (Tess 60). Similarly, Sue Chapel Organist,” Bailey shows that “Hardy told the originally workedat Miss Fontoverʼs shop (Jude Part story with great realism in detail” (469).Asthe Second, Chapter 2), andthen, with Phillotsonʼs help, subtitle of the poem “185-” suggests, Hardy very she advances to the role of teacher (Jude Part Second, likely composedthe poem basedon an actual incident: Chapter 5). Furthermore, she pursues free love7) with he heardof an organistʼs suicidein DorfordChurch Jude against the Victorian moral code and social laws. from his Baptist friends when he was an architectural Her pursuit of a career andfree love denotethe apprentice of John Hicks from 1856 to 1862 (Bailey independence and ambition in her. Tess and Sue, two 468). Furthermore, in his later years, he wrote of his characters in Hardyʼs later works, can be recognized as enthusiasm for music : “Cathedral service : the models of New Women. The two prostitute characters beautiful anthem ʻGodis gone upʼ (Croft). Well in “The Woman I Met” and “The Chapel Organist” sung. Psalms to Walker in E flat. Felt I shouldprefer thus constitute an extension of Tess-Sue type into to be a cathedral organist to anything in the world. Hardyʼs poetry. ʻBidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their work, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure were claiming each slave of the sound”5) (Life 415).The severely criticizedsoon after they appearedfor their poet thus dramatizedthesefacts andcombinedhis candid descriptions of female sexuality, which were at experience andknowledgeof an actual fallen woman odds with the Victorian moral code. Hardy believed with poetic elements. that the worldcouldbe better, noting “as a meliorist8) The two fallen women in “The Woman I Met” and (not a pessimist as they say) I think better of the “The Chapel Organist” practice prostitution as a way world” (Life 397). In addition, after ceasing to write to survive independently in the Victorian age. On the novels, Hardy first expressed his thoughts on poetry in one hand, they are seemingly victims of fate and the “Apology,” the preface of Late Lyrics and Earlier, 236 Akemi NAGAMORI describing the poetʼs role as follows : “Ifwaytothe philosophical conceptions. Although Abt Vogler Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst” (CP (1749-1814) ―the German composer, organist, teacher, andtheorist ―is a model for his poem, 557). For the poet, even in his later years, “a full look Browning made his figure more philosophical than at the Worst” meant paying attention to the socially Vogler. “The Chapel Organist” is composedof long-winded lines in anapestic hexameter, and Abt disadvantaged, such as women who were sexually Vogler, specifically the part quotedby Hardy,has disgraced for the sexuality under Victorian moral similarly long lines andendseach line with anapestic ideology. By making the stories of fallen women the meter. Quinn considers and examines the poem in detail in his study “Robert Browningʼs ʻAbt Voglerʼ : subject of these poems, Hardy therefore tries to The Organist as Improviser andDivine Servant ” delineate female characters in the image of Mary (The Organist in Victorian Literature 1-46). Magdalene, weaving the social issue of prostitution 5 ) Hardy quoted from Browningʼs “Abt Vogler” : “Bidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their together with the voices of fallen women. work, claiming each slave of the sound” (2). 6 ) The following studies discuss whether Tess and Sue can be considered New Women or not : Auerbach Notes 150-84, Brady 93-111, Cunningham 80-118, 1 ) Thomas Hardy, The Complete Poems of Thomas Higonnet 14-31, Jacobus 303-28, Langland32 -48. Hardy, edited by James Gibson (Macmillan, 2001), 7 ) Sue tries to demonstrate “free love” as advocated by p. 158. All subsequent quotations from Hardyʼs the Free Love Union, which argues that matrimony poetry in this paper are taken from this edition. Line can be admitted without approval from authorities numbers are shown in the parentheses after the such as government andchurches. Mona Caird,a quotations. novelist andfeminist in the late nineteenth century, 2 ) “A Practical Woman” is different from the other argues for “free love” in her essay “The Morality of fallen-women poems in that the “practical” woman Marriage” in 1897. merely wants to bear a healthy baby, anddisappears 8 ) The name given to the theory between pessimism and to look for a man capable of “producing him” (11). optimism is “meliorism.” According to the “melio- Although she gives birth to seven babies in thirteen ristic” doctrine, the world generally makes progress years, it can be assumedthat they have different towardgoodness.The worldmay be madecontinu- fathers. For convenienceʼ sake, the poem is here ally better by human effort, andthe assumption is that classifiedas one of the poems describingso -called the worldis neither entirely goodnor entirely bad. “fallen” women who donot get marriedandbear a child. 3 ) Although the issue of whether Mary Magdalene is a References prostitute or not has been controversial, Victorian Arkans, Norman. “Hardyʼs ʻReligious Twilight. ʼ” Texas artists, including Hardy, utilized the image of Mary Studies in Literature and Language, vol. 21, no. 3, Magdalene as a device for portraying a fallen woman, 1979, pp. 413-32. www.jstor.org/stable/40754581? though not as an accurate reflection of the findings in seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. Accessed3 May. biblical studies (Giordano 142). Mary first appears 2017. in Luke 8 : 2, andseven demonsare exorcizedfrom Auerbach, Nina. Woman and the Demon : the Life of a her. The descriptions of her characteristics are not the Victorian Myth. HarvardUP, 1982. same as those of Mary of Bethany (Matt. 24 ; Mark Bailey, J. O. ThePoetryofThomasHardy. North Carolina 14 ; John 12) or those of the sinner (Luke 7 : 37-50). UP, 1970. Nevertheless, according to Hooper, St. Gregory the The Bible : Authorized King James Version, edited by Great identifies Mary Magdalene with Mary of Robert Carroll et al., OxfordUP, 2008. Bethany andthe unnamed “sinner,” a notion that Brady, Kristin. “Thoman Hardy and Matters of Gender.” facilitates the popular association of the three who The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy, edited anointedJesus Christʼs feet with “costly spikenard” by Dale Kramer, Cambridge UP. 1999, pp. 93-111. (81). In addition, in Mary Magdalene : the Image of Browning, Robert. Abt Vogler. Grafton P, 1902. fullonline- a Woman through the Centuries, Maisch traces the book. com/download-book/book/fqbz/abt-vogler. history of the interpretation of Mary Magdalene over pdf. Accessed 21 May. 2017. the centuries. 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トマス・ハーディの詩における 2 人の堕落した女たち ―― “The Woman I Met” と “The Chapel Organist” ――

永 盛 明 美

京都大学大学院 人間・環境学研究科 共生文明学専攻 〒 606-8501 京都市左京区吉田二本松町

要旨 トマス・ハーディ作品における，傑出した「堕落した女 (fallen woman)」キャラクターは， 『ダーバヴィル家のテス』のテスであるが，『はるか群衆を離れて』のファニー・ロビン，そして 『日陰者ジュード』のスー・ブライドヘッドもまた「堕落した女」キャラクターとして知られてい る．そうした女性たちは小説中で克明に描かれたことにより，ヴィクトリア朝の読者たちによって 激しい非難を受ける．しかしながらハーディは，小説のみならず詩作においても「堕落した女」 キャラクターを創作している．これまでハーディの詩作に関する研究はなされてきたものの，多く は彼の悲観論や神やキリスト教への姿勢に関するものであった．それゆえ本稿は，“The Woman I Met”，“The Chapel Organist” に描かれる「堕落した女」キャラクターの女性性に焦点を当てること により，ハーディの作家人生の後期にこれらの詩作が創作された意義を検討し，詩人の女性への眼 差し，とりわけ彼女たちのキリスト教への信仰心と関連付けられる女性としての自意識について論 じるものである．