ROLE OF RUSTIC CHARACTERS IN THE EARLY NOVELS OF THOMAS HARDY

DISSERTATION SUBMITrED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Master of Philosophy in ENGLISH

BY SHUCHITA MtTAL

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF Dr. Mohd. Yaseen frofesfor of Eoglish

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AUGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY AUGARH DS1964 CONTENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER II : UNDER THE GREENVJOOD THEE 23

CHAPTER III FAR FROK THE MADDING he CRO;VD

CHAPTER IV : THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE 73

CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION 97

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 102 PREFACE

Thomas '-Tardy received x-^ide appreciation amon? his contemporaries both for his novels as v;ell as his poetry. Though he hijnself wanted to be remembered as a poet, it is his novels that keep his fame intact. Critical works, evaluating Hardy's novels have continued to appear on both sides of the Atlantic, still much is left to be done. Hardy's Vfessex and his regionalism are still favourite topics for his critics. Some of them have referred to his rustic characters, but no exclusive work has been attempted on them. In this study, I have tried to discuss the role and signifi­ cance of the '.'/essex labourers in the three major novels of Hardy's earlier literary phase, namely. Under the GreenvJood Tree, Far From the Kaddine Crowd, and The Return of the Native. In the Introduction of this study, I have tried to outline the plan of m.y work in the light of Hardy's achieve­ ments as a novelist. The three successive chapters

Under the Greenwood Tree, Far From the Hadding Crowd, and The Return of the Native are- based on an indepth study of the rustic characters in the novels as well as Hardy's treatment of them. The conclusion sums up the major high­ lights of my critical endeavour.

I want to avail myself of this opportunity to acknow­ ledge my gratitude to my learned teacher and supervisor ii

Professor Kohd. Yaseen for his sound advice, expert guidance and constant encouragement at every step. I also extend my regards and thanks to Professor Azizuddin Tariq, Chairman, Department of English, for his sympathetic and affectionate attitude. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Professor B.B. Mittal, Head of the Department of English, D.3. College, Aligarh for his unreserved advice and sugges­ tions. Ky parents and brothers deserve my sincerest grati­ tude for their moral support and inspiration. I extend my regards and gratitude to my uncle Dr. 3.C. Gupta, formerly Senior Official at FAO, Rome, and Dr. Gargi Gupta, Hon. editor "Anuvad" for having valuable discussions with me, and also for letting me consult their rich private library. It is diffifult to acknowledge individually for the help rendered to me in multifarious ways by my seniors and friends, but I can not resist myself from thanking my friends Asmat Jahan and Kaved Akbar for keeping m.e together whenever I was depressed and frustrated.

y.y thanks are also due to the m.embers of the staff of Kaulana Azad Library, AI^U, the Seminar Library of the Department of English, The British Council Library, New Delhi and The Sahitya Academy Library, New Delhi for their cooperation and assistance. iii

My thanks are also due to Kr Shafaat Ali rOian who undertook the most difficult task of typewriting and worked hard to ensure completion of this work in time.

(SnUCHITA yiTAL) CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

An architect ty profession, but an artist by heart, Thomas Hardy started his career as a novelist with the publication of a comparatively less known work Desperate Remedies in I87I. But it was only after the publication of Under the Greenwood Tree (I872) that he could be known as a promising writer. As an author of several ma;jor novels, hundreds of lyrics, scores of short stories, and an epic drama, Hardy is unique among English writers for his achieve­ ments both in fiction and in poetry. His presentation of agrarian society had a special charm for educated urban socity of Victorian England. In fact, he was nostalgic for medieval England and was sceptical of modern civilization. He was, perhaps, afraid that it would destroy the innocence of simple and unsophisticated rustics. Hardy made it a frequent subject of his novels to depict the old-time honoured ways of rural life being demolished by new industrial ways, Hardy's grasp of country life and people, his flair for anecdote and characterization, and his all-embracing sympathy distinguish him as a novelist of different mould.

He as a native of Dorchester, observed fate and chance, and changes of weather changing the course of villagers' life. This "snake and ladder" fate of his native people formed his philosophy of pessimism and atheism. All his works whether in poetry or in fiction are essentially gloomy in nature. A note of haunting sadness runs through every work of Hardy, with the only exception of Under the Greenwood Tree. That his rural background lies at the roots of his gloomy tempera­ ment, is a general view of Hardy's critics, Desmond Hawkins says :

And ty the happy circumstances of his origins, he drew his inspiration from a tradition rich in imaginative simpli­ city. The rural scene of his native countryside gave him the ingredients of tragic drama already tinged with the instinctive poetry of the ballad. The folk-art and dialect speech of the countryside formed a sort of reservoir of strong-natured passions and lyrical expression which had been very little used — except in terms of burlesque — since the Elizabethans,

Even during his boyhood, Hardy used to observe life around him very closely. The simple tragedies of broken love or

1, Desmond Hawkins, Thomas Hardy (London, 1950) p, 99, shattered hopes.of the boys and girls of Dorset moved him deeply. And it is a fact that Hardy derived many of his characters from the people he had come in contact with.

Thomas Hardy in his fiction deals with human life; it mirrors the thoughts and feelings, passions and motives, joys and sorrows, and also the struggles, successes and frustra­ tions of common man. Though Hardy depicted a very small village comm.unity, the simple pleasures and pains in the common man's day-to-day life have a universal appeal. The general theme of Hardy's works is the conflict between man's conscience and the governing power of the universe. Despite such a grand theme, his novels do not carry any serious social, religious or moral problem. He, however, tries to focus on other problems too, such as — decaying traditional institutions (in Under the Greenwood Tree. Tess and Jude); the migration of labourers (in Far From the Padding Crowd. The Woodlanders and Tess); and also poverty and hard-life of farmers, corn-dealers and shepherds (in Far From the Kaddlng Crowd. The Woodlanders. The Mayor and Tess). These problems of rustic life and rustic people vexed Hardy very much, but he touched them slightly and adhered to the themes of broken love, triangle in love-affair, and also of the cruelty -of an indifferent fate. The picturesque quality of his prose is the most remark­ able achievement of Hardy's poetic talent. The background and environment of his novels provide him with a wider canvas to satisfy his poet. It is said of his novels that they are not read, but seen. David Cecil is a great admirer of Hardy's art \^ of presenting the word-pictures of his scenes. He says, "No other English novelist has so great a power of visualisation: it is Hardy's most important weapon, and it is the basis of his whole method. He constructs his book in a series of scenes. 2 We are always told what we are looking at." Through metaphors, similes, and his singular power of Imagination, Hardy creates the splendid panorama. The reader can always feel himself a part of the action; enjoying and suffering with the characters; walking with Tess in twilight; standing by the side of Oak at sheep-washing and sheep-shearing time; with Henchard one can feel the emotions of Jealousy, love and melancholy; while one counts yards with Fanny Robin in her hard struggle to reach an inn, and silently witnesses the breath-taking sight of a dog carrying her on his back. Hardy uses this device for casting the famous Hardyean mood as well as to stir the reader's emotions. One gets easily charged with passion for gambling while looking at Diggory Venn and Wildeve playing desperately even in faint green sparkling light of glow-worms. This

2. David Cecil, Hardy- the Novelist (London, 19^), p. 56 is one of the finest scenes of Hardy's works. David Cecil rightly comments, "The story unfolded itself before him, a passive spectator, as it unfolds itself before us; but because he conceived his story so imaginatively, its ultimate inspir­ ing sentiment coloured his whole creative process, gave shape to every action and incident that suggested itself to hfc. This is the gift of the dramatic poet. It is very rare to find it in a novelist."^

Hardy's attitude to life was marked with the spirit of his age. He saw man caught in the fatal web of his own cons­ ciousness and facing an ever-going conflict between modern materialistic and moral values. Hardy through his rustic characters seems to suggest the right course for life. He believed that a sensitive heart would always be in panic in this world and to live a peaceful life, one should have emotional vaccuity like his coiintry-men. Otherwise life will crush one into pieces as it does to his main characters. Frank R. Giordano expresses his views in this regard, "At the very heart of Hardy's greatest writings is a sense of the fragility of man's attachment to life and the extreme toll in suffering often exacted of sensitive human beings. Life in the Godless, absurd universe is cruel; for many of Its victims. Hardy believed and repeatedly stated, it would have

'3. David Cecil, Hardv - the Novelist (London, 195^), p.S^f. been better had they never been born." Hardy viewed life and its major issues as a native of Dorchester, and studied their impact on the country-folks very closely. His novels present his as well as laymen's reflections of life. Their and attitude to love/marriage makes a very interesting study. The labourers have no time for such luxuries as love and courtship, so they seek for slight illness or minor injuries for such errands. They do not see any reason for a finan­ cially well-off and strong-natured girl to get married, but a lonely man attracts ghosts, according to them. Sometimes, yoTing boys or girls among minor characters develop a one­ sided feeling of love for the major characters as does Charley for Eustacia in The Return of the Native, and the three dairy maids for Angel Clare in Tess. Even after being passionately in love, they accept their fate more realistically than the protagonists who get ruined by this seemingly benevolent spirit.

Hardy perceived that all established social or religious institutions knowingly or unknowingly have their share in plotting against the happiness of martcind and it made him rebellious. Inspite of the fact that he himself wanted to be a parson, he very often attacked the Church for being a cause

h, Frank R. Giordano Jr., "I'd Have My Life Unbe" (The University of Alabama Press, ig^^-) , fT~"7. of man's s-afferings and also for the corrupt and immoral behaviour of clergymen. In Tvo on a Tower, he shows moral laxity in the behaviour of a Bishop whO;a man of fifty, visits a parish to perform some religious ceremonies, but gets pass­ ionately in love with Lady Constantine and vehemently persuades her to marry him. In A Pair of Blue Syes. he mocks the way in which sermons are written and read. The heroine Elfride writes them for her father. It is like playing a game for her, and she puts many pages within black brackets with a remark, "leave this out if the farmers are falling asleep." Hardy again and again displays the villagers' indifference in attending church services as they think/if anyone should go to Heaven, it is clergy people who work hard to get it, and not they.

Hardy is regarded as a regional novelist. He, perhaps, needed a solid ground to work on his stories. Kany writers before and after him have placed their scenes in real back­ ground. But Hardy did it with a difference. He gave his novels dn almost real locale under an obsolete name — Wessex. VJessex became more than a mere background in his novels, it assumed a distinct character and played a significant role in the life of its inhabitants. In his novels. Hardy gives the first-hand account of the dilemmas, the working conditions

5. Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes (Penguin Classics, 1986), p. 76. 8

and the life of the Dorset people. But he never sounds deliberate in the portrayal of his country-side like Dickens or Zola, neither does he depict the rural life in Flaubert's manner of 'documentation', nor with contempt as did Gissing. Hardy had an affinity with his homeland, its fields, farms, heaths and woodlands as well as with its traditions, customs and superstitions, amidst which he was brought up. For the exactness with which he delineated rural life. Hardy is sometimes called a historian of Wessex. A.J. Guerard sees this aspect of Hardy's art as, "his intimacy with the minutiae of rural life, even his precise knowledge of the legal status of the farmer and worker, helped him to see major hum.an issues as his rustics would see them, for the material things which surround us inevitably, color our feelings." Hardy in his novels gives a word-map of his V/essex. Within a few years of his introduction of it, people started inquiring about it and locating it. Hardy's fictitious world is not all fiction; its basis is real. In his 'General Preface to the V/essex Editioa of 1912', Hardy recorded, "At the dates represented in the various narrations, things were like that in Wessex : the inhabitants lived in certain ways, engaged in certain occupations, kept alive certain customs, just as they are 7 shown doing in these pages."'

6. Albert J. Guerard, Thomas Hardy (Cambridge, 19^9), p.75. 7. Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree (Penguin Books, 1985), p. 229. Besides this, Hardy's was a transitional age when the age-old beliefs were dying without providing with any strong substitute belief. Though Hardy wanted a change to better the lot of country folks, he wanted to have the glories of past intact. He mourned the loss of stable rural life, the decaying old customs, and local traditions. He found it very much disheartening that the villages were being deserted by migrating labourers, and village fairs and Lady Day had lost their charm. Moreover, Hardy dreaded the impact of modern education and culture over rural life. It became a repeated theme of his fiction to bring the rustics in the contact of men and women of outside world, that creates a havoc in the life of these simple and artless folks. Sometimes, it seems that Hardy's distaste for urban invasion or his complaint for the loss of rural spontaneity, was more of an imaginative mind than of a native of Dorchester, as doubts A.J. Guerard, "But we would still have to acknowledge that the decay of old customs was more significant to Hardy the novelist than the amelioration of the laborer's lot; the aesthetic changes were the ones which concerned him. The dialogue of his rustics was no more realistic than that of Shakespeare's rustics; their daily security and moral Innocence were, perhaps, very nearly as Idealized, Hardy was not the historian of Dorset but the novelist and poet of 10

V/essex. He was a realist •within a world he had reshaped to his vision and whose joys and sorrows he had quite deliberately o heightened."

Like the setting of his fictional world, Hardy's range of characters too is limited. He remains within the bound­ aries of Wessex and if ever he tries to cross it, he is a failure. His most appreciated works are those in which he deals with countryside and country-people. As is said that one feels more at home in his own environment and among his own people. Likewise, Hardy was very much impressed by the simple and primitive society of Dorset that was still far from the artificiality of urban life. There is no great artist, philosopher or statesman in his novels. Hardy shuns them in favour of artless rustic beings. David Cecil comments on the limited range of Hardyean characters :

In fact, it is no good going to him for a picture of the finer shades of civilised life or of the diversity of the human scene as a whole. The life he portrays is life reduced to its basic elements. People in Hardy's books are born, work hard for their living, fall in love and die; they donot do anything

8. A.J. Guerard, Thomas Hardy, pp. 18-19. 11

else. Such a life limits in its turn the range of their emotions. There is comedy in Hardy's books, and poetry, and tragedy; "but his comedy is limited to the humours of rustic life, his poetry is the poetry of the folk-song, his tragedy is the stark and 9 simple tragedy of the poor.

Since his boyhood, Hardy was in the habit of searching interesting stories on human faces. This interest beca-ne a characteristic vith Hardy — the novelist. He was an acute observer of men and manners. The characters of his novels are illiterate, ignorant working class people to whom educated people's ability of writing their names 'without a sputter of the pen, often times without a single blot' seems quite an amazing thing. From among them, Hardy picked up some strong, but complex-natured persons as his protagonists. They suffer from moral and emotional crisis to make their life miserable. Hardy sees his characters in relation to ultimate human destiny. Unknowingly^ they become puppets for good and evil powers. Their struggle for happiness is a thing common with all of them but the means to achieve it differentiate them from each other. Troy, Eustacia, Dr. Fitzpiers, Arabella and Henchard seek pleasure by giving pain to others,

9. David Cecil, Hardy The Novelist, p. 3^. 12

while Oak, Diggory, Marty South, Tess, Winterborne are the type of characters vho find happiness in sacrificing their own for the sake of others'. But they all live under an whe re illusion to achieve happiness in a world/it is really unattain­ able. It leads them to their tragic end. By putting such characters as are led by emotions, against the stoic-natured rustics, Hardy advocates the life of anti-emotionalism. He also highlights the characteristic virtues of his country­ folks by bringing thera in contact of town people — better in education, superior in status but junior in worth. The town people leave the stable rural life — shaken and miser­ able. Hardy introduces morally-split, intellectual type of men in Angel Clare, Dr. Fitzpiers and in Clym Yeobright. His female characters, indeed, are much better than their male counter-parts. They are full of life and vigour and dominate the scene. In the words of A.J. Guerard, it can be said, "Hardy was certainly the greatest dramatist of female charac­ ter and temperament in a half-century almost monopolized by female novelist .... His attitude progressed ... from fasci­ nated and unwilling sympathetic criticism to almost uncritical sympathy."^ Hardy's chief characters generally meet unnatural death. Frank R. Giordano asserts that Hardy's characters are self-destructive. They invite their doom

10. A.J. Guerard, Thomas Hardy, p. 129. 13

themselves by their behaviour, actions, thinking and desires. Boldwood gets lunatic; Eustacia commits suicide; and Giles Winterborne., Tess, Henchard ,and Jude die in the most unnatural and horrible conditions.

Then, there are chorus people. They are the people vho form the background of Hardy's works and help to create the rural atmosphere. With the only exception of Under the Green­ wood Tree, they are never given much Importance; they are merely by-standers who occasionally touch the main a':;tion to push it forward and sometimes to add complications in the lives of the major characters. Hardy received wide apprecia­ tion for maintaining a skillful balance between the onlooker personages and real partakers of the story. He was a shrewd observer of the talks and habits of the Dorset rustics. They live their lives on an age-old pattern. Wessex-folks are artless people — happy in themselves, away from the emotions of love, hatred,envy or jealousy. They are changeless and indestructible, truly representing mankind as a whole. In Tar From the Kadding Crowd, what Hardy says of Weather'oury people, is true of all Wessex-dwellers. 'In comparision with cities', he says :

11. See Frank R. Giordano, "IM Have my Life Unbe". pP.^2-5l. 11+

V/eatherbury was irnrautable. The citizen's Then is the rustic's Now. In London, twenty or thirty years ago are old times; in Paris ten years, or five; in 'ieatherbury three or four score years were included in the nere present, and nothing less than a century set a mark on its face or tone. Five decades hardly nodified the cut of a gaiter, the embroidery of a smock-frock, by the breadth of a hair. Ten generations failed to alter the turn of a single phrase. In these Vfessex nooks the busy outsider's ancient times are only old; his old times 12 are still new; his present is futurity.

Hardy's rustics are often compared with Greek chorus and with Shakespearean fools. No doubt, Hardy was a thorough book-worm and extensively read Greek and Elizabethan litera­ ture. He v/as greatly influenced by them, and adopted their certain technical devices for his own purposes. Chorus in Greek drama was performed by several singers, singing one simultaneous utterance. It was not a mere show-piece but an indispensible part of it. The most important function of the chorus was to relate the incidents of the past, comment on the present and forbid the future as well as to relieve the

12. Thomas Hardy. Far From the l^adding Crowd (Penguin Classics, 1987), P. 196. t5

gloomy atmosphere with the lyrical and musical element. The Elizabethan dramatists, including l^arlove, the University wits and Shakespeare too made use of it. Shakespeare intro­ duced Fools and other minor characters to lighten the gloom- laden atmosphere of his tragedies, Hardy's rustics are often compared with Shakespearean Fools, but Shakespeare's fools are too witty and their humour is too deliberate to be compared with Hardy's rustics. Shakespeare's fools are professionals and are not fools in reality. Therefore, they know what they should say at any particular moment and how to say it. Hardy's rustics are too unassuming to do anything deliberately, Shakespeare's fools are his own brain-children, though Nick Bottom and his companions in A Kidsummer Night's Dream may unmistakably be called the true precedents of Wessex rustics. The two have a lot in common; they all sometimes sound illogical, childishly innocent and deficient in the wisdom which they think they have. Wessex-people sound most humorous when they try to be serious, reminding one of Bottom and Co. Among his contemporaries, Hardy is often criticized to have imitated George Eliot. Vihen the first few chapters of Far From the Kadding Crowd were published in the Cornhlll Magazine, many critics regarded them as another work from George Eliot's pen. Though the two can well be compared for their power of description, of character draw­ ing, of providing rustic humour as well as for the depiction t6

of rustic scene, yet they maintain their individuality. But, Hardy is more realistic and true in his description of tillages and villagers.

Hardy's rustics are simple, unassuming and primitive sort of Work-men. They x^ork too hard, having no leisure for little enjoyments of life. The only kind of f\in, they do have in life is in village-gatherings and gossips. Their talks go on with work and their conversation is full of obser­ vation and also of humour. Perhaps, Hardy idealizes them to attack the town-people's belief in the labourer's essentially being illiterate, unreflecting, badly paid and badly fed creatures. He blots this prejudiced view by introducing such creatures as have learnt the real philosophy of life through experiences. Struggles and sufferings make his characters perfect. They learn things directly from the book of life. And in all their simplicity, they share their perceptions of life with their companions. It is true that these people are not full-length portraits and one can not compare them with the protagonists because the main purpose of their presence is to provide a chorus. "The true Hardy rustic is," A.J. Guerard thinks, "of personality all compact; of gestures, turns of phrase, humours, and deformities. He has a past history which he delights to relate, but no present history and conflict. For he is immune to suffering and change; he is part of the landscape, and his stability is a fixed screen 17

for the rebellious and changeful protagonists." 13 These chorus people have a definite part to play in Hardy's novels. Except in Jude the Obscure \!?hiGh, perhaps, being the darkest of his works, leaves no place for them, all other novels advance with the help of these secondary characters when they almost unconsciously tend to increase, and sometimes cause catastrophe in the lives of the central-folks. ^•ostly they remain in the background, observing and commenting on the actions and motives of the main characters. The rustics are not to be taken as individuals, as they always appear in a group. And leaving a few, they do not often evince any sharp individual characteristic. Humour (though it is hard to believe that such cloudy novels as Hardy's are, may possess any tickling tinge) in Hardy's novels chiefly depends upon these working-people. Hardy's humour is not bitter; he does not laugh at the people, but always laughs with the people. Hardy provides comic relief through different methods; through the descriptions of certain situations and of certain whimsical characteristics of a character; through dialogues; and through narrating some past Incident in a distorted way as is very common with the rustics. In any case, it is innocent, rustics and genial humour. In A Pair of Blue Eyes occurs a very interesting incident of this distortion of historical facts

13. A.J. Guerard, Thomas Hardy, p. 122. 18

•when the cart-driver tells Smith how Lord Luxellian got title and wealth. That a long time back the Luxellians were merely hedgers. One of them saved the life of Charles the Second, in return he promised to make him a Lord after getting the cro'^ :

'Well, as the story is, the king came to the throne; and some years after that, away 'went Hedger Luxelllan, knocked at the king's door, and asked if king Charles the Second was in. "ITo, he isn't", they said. "Then, is Charles the Third?" said Hedger Luxellian. "Yes", said a young fellow standing by like a common man, only he had a crown on, "my name is Charles the Third." And —'

' I really fancy that must be a mistake. I don't recollect anything in English history about Charles the Third,' said the other in a tone of mild remonstrance. '0 that's right history enough, only 'twasn't printed, he was rather a queer-tempered man, if you remember'. 'And by hook or by crook, Hedger Luxellian was made a lord, and everything went on well till sometime after, when he got into a most terrible 19

row with King Charles the Fourth —' 'I can't stand Charles the Fourth. Upon my life that's too much.' 'Why ? there was a George the Fourth, wasn't there ?" 'Certainly' 'Well, Charleses be as common as George....'

It is an example of Hardy's portrayal of rustic simplicity. Their stories are just to pass the time, therefore, they should be interesting. The rustics look for mirth and laughter, not for factual accuracy.

The Wessex-people are stoics by nature. That those best enjoy life who know least about its ways, is true in their case. They take life as it is. Having no ambitions and desires they are neither happy, nor sad. They bear the gravest misfortunes of their life without much hue and cry. They do laugh with others in their joys and feel sad in their sorrows but they themselves do not take life as a serious business. Sometimes, they tend to be fatalistic as they believe that the course of Fate cannot be turned even by following religious ordinances. Perhaps, this is the reason of their not being very regular at Sunday-services. The

1^. Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes (Penguin Classics, .1986), p. 57. 2a

priests seldom succeed in influencing thera because the rustics dislike any intrusion in their day-to-day life.

The Wessex-people do not mind changes of doctrines such as Calvinism, High Churchism or liberalism so far as they remain within the Church itself and do not try to meddle in their stable life. Like villagers- anywhere in the "world, the V/essex dwellers too are superstitious. It seems appro­ priate to say for thera that ignorance breeds superstitions. They believe in ghosts, witchcraft, apprehensions, and practise little tricks to charm someone to make him fall in love. Hardy's rustics have a taste for music. Hardy himself had a flair for it and he with his father and grand­ father v;as a member of the choir-band of his own parish. Kusic, dancing, drinking and gossiping are their main pastime.

That Hardy was a regional novelist, is a fact. But after the success of Far From the I'adding Crowd, he thought of writing about the "high-life" of London and wrote The Hand of Sthelberta. This attempt was not a bit successful, perhaps because in Hardy's novels, his characteristic rustic atmosphere and rustic characters can not be rem.oved. Among Hardy's other works, the rustics of The Mayor are very impressive. They represent some of the very remarkable Wessex personages. Soloman Longways, Mother Cuxom,Abel V/hittle, 21

the furmity woman and the 'philosophic party' are a fev; of them. '/."ho can forget their wretchedness and cruelty in arranging the 'skimmington-ride' or the villainous furmity woman who discloses Henchard's humiliating secret of the sale of his wife in the court and robs him of his prestige among the Casterbridge folks? They give all information about Henchard to fill in the gap of twenty years. In his works, Hardy dealt with the different-natured rustics. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, he portrayed the villainous characters who take delight in ruining the happiness of other people; in The Vfoodlanders. he idealizes their simplicity; Tess shows them as sympathetic and generous beings. But in Jude the Obscure, 'the simplicity has become mere dullness of wit, and the generosity has disappeared in a harsh and cynical realism.' In fact, Hardy almost reduced the chorus-people to a mere nothing in his last two novels. Though in Tess. the dairy-owner leaves his impressions by his simple, affectionate and humorous nature. Likewise, their behaviour towards Tess for being an unwed mother was not of contempt. The innocent and passionate love of the three dairy-maids for Angel Clare was also successfully delineated by Hardy. But, without any doubt, the Wessex-people are at their best in the

15. A.J. Guerard, Thomas Hardy, p. 123. 22

maoor novels of Hardy's earlier literary career. In the following chapters, I propose to study in detail Hardy's rustic-crew in his earlier masterpieces namely Under the Oreenwood Tree, Far From the Madding Crowd, and The Return of the Native. CHAPTER II

UNDER THE GHEMWOOD TRE^

Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) is one of the early Wessex novels of Thomas Hardy. Originally, it was entitled as The Mellstock Quire which later on turned to be the sub­ title. Thus, the full title of the novel came to be Under the Greenwood Tree or The Mellstock Quire — A Rural Painting in the Dutch School. The novel, an idyll, set in the rustic scene of Mellstock village, is a story about the village choir group and its old-established west gallery musicians. In fact, Hardy was a man, painfully dissatisfied with his age and with the changes in the old^-established institutions. He wanted his old England back with all its pristine glories. Perhaps, his dislike for growing urbanization was due only to his conviction of its being an instrument in the decay of values and morals. Vjhatever was left of old English culture, it was in villages but that too was decaying fast. Hardy mourned this loss frequently in his works. A.J. Guerard observes, "One of Hardy's great "subjects" was, of course, the sad passing of the stable rural life, the decay of old customs and of local traditions, the death of ghost stories and the death of village choires. The agricultural labourers in Under the Greenwood Tree, laid in about 1835, belong to that stable and cheerful old England; they are at most threatened by the modern manners of a Fancy Day and by her anachronistic player-organ,"

1. A.J. Guerard, Thomas Hardy (Cambridge, 19^9), p. 17. 2\

Though he yielded himself to changes as he saw progress and comparatively bright future of labourers in it, he could not shake off his conviction that material progress brought in its train a bankruptcy of genuine sentiments and made life artifi­ cial. Perhaps, it is because of this reason that he created his own fictitious land — the Wessex of his fiction — over which he cast 'a veil of romance' to make it remote and dist­ inct. Hardy's Wessex is still unaffected by modernization. The Wessex people are uneducated but hardworking and simple- natured. They are not perturbed by the complexities of life.

In Under the Greenwood Tree. Hardy depicts the village- choir singers' love and sincerity for music and their reluct­ ance to quit in favour of the organ. The choir-group dexterously performs its role in the novel. The singers usually are in a group like the chorus in the Greek tragedies. They observe and comment on the actions of the protagonists. They seldom appear as individuals, nor are they given any cognizance as such. It is they who produce humour in Hardy's novels of tragic import. The rustic characters of Hardy have no active role to play in the story. They are just bystanders, but they are necessary for the advancement of the story, and are helpful for a better understanding of the main characters.

Under the Greenwood Tree has two themes interlinked with each other — the one is of the replacement of the choir with 25

the organ and the other is of t-wo young lovers — Dick Dewy and Fancy Day. In fact, the latter one is the main plot, but the hero and heroine of this novel seem less interesting than the Kellstock rustics. It is a simple love story with the usual difficulties in the way of marriage. Fancy, the school mistress, has a flirtatious nature. She likes admiring glances of men, has a temporary affair with Farmer Shiner, but ultimately Dick Dewy succeeds in winning her heart and through persuasion, she seeks her father's consent. Even after the engagement, Fancy is momentarily tempted liy vicar May hold's proposal for marriage. However, she soon overcoses her weak­ ness and retreats. The sub-plot of Mellstock choir-group runs side-by-side. The Vicar wants to remove the old choir-band and to introduce new barrel organ to be played by Fancy Day. The musicians are not inclined to oblige him. Thus, there follows a splendid scene between the choir and the Parson, in which the choir confronts and suffers rout at the hands of May bo Id. And on the Thanks giving day, the choir-members come to the Church not to play the band but to attend the service like others. Hardy began with a serious problem but ebbed to the trifling affair of Dick and Fancy. The story of the Mellstock choir received a lighter treatment than it deserved. The plot of the novel is not very interes­ ting, but as A.J. Guerard feels,"However slight in subject and in spite of the fact that the first centre of interest 26

(the Mellstock choir) surrenders to the second (the little romance) rather than blends with it, the book is certainly 2 one of Hardy's finest structural achievements,

Hardy's presentation of his characters as well as his choice of them is his main forte as a novelist. ks an acute observer of men and manners and as a delineator of country life, he selected his characters from the lower strata of society like — peasants, hay-trussers, farmers, thatchers, hedgers, milkmaids and craftsmen. They are artless people, unaware of urban sophistication and wickedness. He sought out his protagonists too from these simple country-folks. They, though coming from the same environment, are compara- tively better educated, refined in manners and financially strong. The antagonists are labourers, working hard to earn their livelihood and having no leisure for the simplest enjoyments of life.

Under the Greenwood Tree presents a series of rustic characters in a rural setting. In this novel, one meets the simplest people of society — a shoemaker Robert Fenny, the tranter Reuben Dewy, gamekeeper Geoffrey Day, grandfather James — the mason, a Mrs. Elizabeth Endorfield who has a reputation of a witch In Mellstock. Many of these working

2. A.J. Guerard, Thomas Hardy, p. 13. 27

villagers are the members of Fellstock choir-group. They spend their days in earning their bread and devote their evening to music. Even the hero and the heroine belong to the sane vjorking class — Dick is the tranter's son and is in the same business and Fancy Day is a school-mistress. Though better educated and more sophisticated than others of their creed, they are brought up to the traditional way of life. Perhaps, this is the reason of Fancy's success in getting her father's consent to marry Dick inspite of his reluctance to v/aste her education on a villager. Under the Greenwood Tree received wide appreciation for its portrayal of the chorus people. One such applause comes from Desmond Hawkins when he says, "In Under the Greenwood Tree^ the wonderful murmuring chorus of Dorset voices is boldly defined and already rich in phrasing and atmosphere, although Hardy is plainly anxious about the viability of Tranter Heuben and the rest as primary characters (and indeed never again did he give his rustics so much prominence). He seems here to excuse them nervously as "quaint characters" with simple and honest hearts."-^ These secondary characters generally appear as a group, yet some of them are sharply drawn individuals like Robert Penny, Reuben Dewy, Geoffrey Day, Mrs. Day and the simpleton Thomas Leaf. As Hardy himself belonged to a rank of society immediately

3. Desmond Hawk ins ,/p, h2. 28

above the peasantry, he had a natural intimacy with the life of Wessex. He was absolutely familiar with all the profess­ ions and character-types of rural Dorsetshire. He has, therefore, gone beneath the skin to unravel the mysteries of the souls of these enduring rustics. In depicting the rustics, he also exhibits a wonderful mastery of the dialect. The rustics of Hardy are keen observei^of the life around them and are endowed with typical humour.

"Before discussing the rustic characters individually, it seems appropriate to examine the functions they perform in the novel. The first and foremost task assigned to them as a group, is to observe and comment on the actions and motives of the protagonists. Through their conversation, they introduce Fancy to the readers, that she is the daughter of the head gamekeeper Geoffrey Day, and that she, a very pretty young lady — yet unmarried, is coming as the new school-mistress. The shoes which Robert Penny has forgotten to deliver to her, bring her reference to their talks. It is just by seeing her shoes that a tender feeling steals Dick's heart. As soon as the choir visits her and then the young vicar on Christmas night, the tranter observes that she is going to be troublesome for him, 'Now putting two and two together, that is, in the form of that young female vision we zeed ;Just now, and this young tenor-voiced parson, my belief is she'll wind en round 29

her finger, and twist the pore young feller about like the figure of 8 — that she will, my sonnies.' Later on, it comes true, Mrs. Robert Penny is first to observe that the parson, during Church services, looks at Ms. Fancy Day 'In a warmer way than Christianity asked for,' The rustics feel sympathy for her because she has to work even though her father has a good shot in the looker. They are the people with open eyes and ears. They can see everything from Inside out. Tranter Dewy observes the activities of his son and declares, 'I'm afraid Dick's a lost man.' He is aLmost certain that the object of Dick's thoughts is none other than Fancy Day. Dick's looking in the void, his taking extra care about dressing up, again and again gazing at the clock and his too much talking about her, all make Reuben suspicious of his being in love. The villagers look interestingly at the lives of the protagonists. V-hen Geoffrey Day refuses to accept Dick as his son-in-law and Fancy shuns eating, they all become anxious. From everyone, Mr. Day receives the reports that she will not live very long in this manner. His assistant Enoch tells him what the Baker told him, 'that the bread he've left at that there school-house this last month Would starve any mouse in the three creations.'^ Her loss of

h. Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy (Penguin Books, London, 1985) , P. 67. " 5. Ibid., p. 188. 30

health soon becomes the concern of every villager and they begin to abuse V.r. Day for treating her rather harshly, informing the reader of her tactics to make her father accord his consent to let her marry Dick. The vicar's decision of replacing the choir with the barrel-organ, comes to light through the rustics themselves. ^/»hen they come to knov that Farmer Shiner is responsible for their removal from Church- gallery, they could smell his m.otive. Reuben Dewy comments, 'Ay, and I see what the pa'son don't see, l«/hy, Shiner is for putting forward that young woman that only last night T was saying was our Dick's sweetheart, and making much of her in the sight of the congregation, and thinking he'll win her by showing her off.' Moreover, Kr. Penny thinks Vaybold not altogether clean when Fancy is concerned, ''Tis my belief that though Shiner fired the ballets, the parson made 'em. Ky wife sticks to it that he's in love wi' her.''

The rustics also play the role of critics and commenta­ tors. They often pass comments on the ways and actions of the protagonists, Vr. Haybold, the new vicar, is the victim of their criticism and he receives some very harsh comments from them. They are critical of his way of delivering sermons and call him 'a poor gawk-hammer,' They are of the

6. Under the Greenwood Tree, p. 117. 7, Ibid.. p, 118. 31

view that his sermons are well-'written but not well-spoken. The vicar's strictness about Church-business and his insistance on introducing some changes in it, was chiefly responsible for the criticisK, levelled at him. Here is a piece of their conversation about Kaybold :

'•Tis his goings-on, souls, that's what it is. The first thing he done when he came here was to be hot and strong about Church business.'

'The next thing he do is to think about altering the Church, until he found 't would be a matter o' cost and what not, and then not to think no more about it.'

'And the next thing was to tell the young chaps that they were not on no account to put their hats in the Christening font during service.'

'And then 't was this, and then 't was that, and now ' t is —' 'Now 'tis to turn us out of the quire neck and o crop.'

8. Under the Greenwood Tree, pp. 99-100, 32

Hiamour is one of the major traits of Thomas Hardy. With a sympathetic attitude to"wards hiiman frailties, he sees life as it is -with all its perfections and imperfections, -wisdom and folly, tears and smiles. That is -why he could introduce a delicate and delightful humour in his novels. David Oecil thinks that 'the mood which inspires them is simple, genial enjoyment — the countryman's slow relish of the absurd for 9 its own sake.' The rustic people never say or do anything specifically with a purpose of sounding funny, it is almost an unconscious humour. Laughters are provoked by their appearances, movements, talks and at times by their witty remarks too. The choir's interview with the vicar, the descriptions of the gamekeeper's house and of wedding scene are very interesting episodes. A scene between Dick and Fancy in which Dick has to take tea in saucer, is very humourous. Hardy never intends to expose the absurdities or inconsistencies in the conduct of his rustic character. Humour chiefly arises from their simple ways and m.anners. In fact, it is the beautiful smile of a carefree life. The m.ost beau­ tifully sketched comic scene in Under the Greenwood Tree is the choir's interview with the vicar. The choir-members disliking the vicar's decision of displacing them to introduce new barrel-organ, decide to protest against it. They plan to

9. David Cecil, Hardy the Novelist (London, 195^), p. 9^. 33 go to him and ask to let them stay till Christmas and then they \'Jill quit in a more dignified manner. They march to the gates of the vicar without turning their faces in order to look solemn and stern. The tranter, as their representa­ tive, enters the house and asks him to give them some m.ore time. VJhile describing the choir's feelings for music, he gets very enthusiastic and in his enthusiasm., he moves closer and closer to I'r. Kay bold and jams him between his easy chair and the table. In the midst of all this, the vicar's pen rolls down. 3y the noise of chairs and other articles, moved sideways to secure the object, the waiting choir-miembers outside could only assume the beginning of a fight. So they all j)eep through the door :

Thus, when Vr, Maybold raised his eyes after the stooping he beheld glaring through the door Kr. Penny in full-length portraiture. Mail's face and shoulders above I'r. Penny's head, Spinks's forehead and eyes over Tail's crown, and a fractional part of Eowm.an's countenance under Spinks's arm — crescent — shaped portions of other heads and faces being visible behind these — the whole dozen and odd eyes bristling with eager inquiry.

10. Under the Greenwood Tree, p. 115. 3h

To add to his embarrassment they allude to the bleeding cut, he had received while shaving in the morning and start telling him their rustic methods to stop the bleeding. Then, there is very ridiculously furnished house of Geoffrey Day. There are tv;o sets of each and every article of furniture. The second set, a forethought of her mother since her very birth­ day is meant for Fancy Day. It comprises txvo green-faced eight-day clocks ticking alternately, a couple of kitchen dressers with cups, dishes and plates, two family Bibles, two warming pans, and two intermixed sets of chairs etc. The rustic people sound very innocent when they try to tease Fancy before the wedding saying that sometimves marriages cannot take place because the grooms do not appear. Dick's delayed arrival, caused by the unexpected swarm of bees, is greeted with an amusing comment from grandfather James, 'Well, bees can't be put off. Carrying a woman is a thing you can do at 11 any moment, but a swarm o' bees won't come for the asking.' Grandfather James is very funnily attired. He, a mason, carries in his large pockets the whole substance of his meals — small tin-canisters of butter, sugar, tea, papers of salt and pepper, bread, cheese and meat, Hardy's humour is quaint and rustic, seldom witty but never sarcastic. The rustics of the novel are illiterate but self-respect-

11. Under the Greenwood Tree, p. 215. 35

Ing people. They are not ambitious, never soar high, but neither do they bear ill-treatment. On Christmas night, when Farmer Shiner insults the choir-group, all its menibers get furious, in revenge they play their instruments so loud as to drown his voice. It "was not done out of malice; rather it was to give him a lesson that the choir could not be insulted on Christmas night. But the next day, the tranter invites Shiner to his party 'to put en in humour again.' Same thing happens when the parson decides to remove the choir-band. It hurts their self-respect. They are ready to quit, but will quit like men. On the first Sunday after the replacement, they all go to the Church like other villagers. Under the Greenwood Tree was intended to be the story of old Mellstock choir-band. The choir-groups consisted of half a dozen to ten players and numerous singers. It was a labour of love for them as there was almost no profit in it. After weeklong hardwork, they used to go to the Church on foot on Sundays to play the band. The Kellstock choir group presents before us the personages who could 'starve to death for music's sake.' Music possesses a significant place in their life. Old septagenarian William Dewy, instinctively comes to the fore­ front to lead the band. His son Reuben and grandson Dick are also the members of the choir. The tranter thinks that music is sweet for a mature man, only when he has faith in it. The choir-members are convinced that music has the power of making 36

its appeal to the very soul of man and is capable of iroving it. Mr. Penny, at the tranter's party, narrates the incident when he first heard a particular tune "Dead Karch". It made his hair creep and "whenit was over, he was sweating heavily. But Michael Kail seeks a peculiar comparision when he discovers 'a friendly tie' between music and eating. He remembers how once during his meal, he heard a band playing on the street and he couldn't help chewing to the tune. To sing from gallery seems to them their sole right; none from the other Church-goers is entitled to accompany them. Therefore when some school-girls join them on Christmas morning, it breaks their concentration making them infuriated at this undesirable intrusion. Robert Penny frowns, " 'Tis the gallery have got to sing, all the world knows. IVhy, souls, what's the use o' the ancients spending scores of pounds to build galleries if people down in the lowest depths of the Church sing lil-:e that 12 in a moment's notice." Equally unbearable to ther. is the fact that Shiner, due to his personal interest in Fancy, wants them to quit the Church. They cannot believe that music can be secondary to anything.

The villagers are God-fearing, religious people. The elders will not let the youngsters' dance on the Christmas night, though they could after twelve o' clock. They are

12. Under the Greenwood Tree, p. 73. 37

sensitive enough to criticise the manner of Maybold's deliver­ ing his sermons. But they don't like to be strict about attending services and sermons regularly. For this reason mainly, they are all praise for the former parson who never troubled them with untimely visits and never insisted them to attend the Church. He even exempted Mail's late wife from coming to Church as she was too old. Moreover, they praise him for 'not wanting any of us to come and hear him if we were all on-end for a jaunt or spree, or to bring the babies to be christened if they were inclined to squalling. There's good in a man's not putting a parish to unneccessary trouble.' This very reason caused their dislike for Maybold as he keeps on about their being good and upright. Hardy in his preface to the novel in I896, criticised the displacement of choir- bands from village-Churches as it further reduced the villa­ gers' interest in Church-business :

One is inclined to regret the displacement of these ecclesiastical bandsmen by an isolated organist (often at first a barrel-organist) or harmonium player; and despite certain advantages in point of control and accomplish­ ment which were, no doubt, secured by install­ ing the single artist, the change has tended to

13. Under the Greenwood Tree, p. 101. 38

stultify the professed aims of the clergy, its direct result being to curtail and extinguish Ik the interest of parishioners in Church doings.

Thomas Hardy did not mean his rustic characters to occupy the foreground. That's v;hy he created them as a group. They, generally, have no individuality. In Under the Greenwood Tree, it is slightly different because of a rather •weak-plot. In it, two or three of the rustic folks make their presence felt. Reuben Dewy the tranter, draws much attention with his conversation that is full of observa­ tion, humour and at times of sense too. He is a man of experience when his wife criticises Kail for his coarse stories, he says that truth is always coarse, '... all true stories have a coarse touch or a bad moral, depend upon't. If the story-tellers could ha' got decency and good morals from true stories, who'd have troubled to invent parables?' He is the voice of the group and takes the initiative of going to the vicar as its representative. Reuben is a responsible and cautious father too. He constantly observes Dick. I'Jhen he finds Dick in love, he gets worried but restrains himself from interfering as he knows that 'the sooner begun, the sooner over; for come it will.' He prefers these

1^. Under the Greenwood Tree, p. 33. 15. Ibid., p. 87. 39

affairs to right themselves. He meddles only when it becomes necessary and then he points out to Dick that he is paying more attention to Fancy than is good for him, and that her being richer makes a financial rift between the tv.'o. Reuben is a ^vorldly man and knows a lot about the nature of maidens. Telling Dick of Fancy's flirtatious nature, he makes a very amusing observation when he says, "Mow Dick, this is how a maiden is. She'll swear she's dying for thee; and she is dying for thee, and she'll die for thee; but she'll fling a look over t'other shoulder at another young feller, though never leaving off dying for thee just the same." But Dick's inefficiency in knowing Fancy's drift, surprises Heuben a great deal, he bursts in anger, "... if you can't read a maid's mind by her actions, nature d'seem to say 17 thou'St ought to be a bachelor." Such a man as he so'jnds here, is a very timid husband. His wife always criticises him and his family for being unrefined and coarse, and for being "vulgar sv;eaters." She is very proud of her family and dominates Reuben so much that she makes him ready for the party, cuts his whiskers short and sees that he should not look discreditable there.

One of the most memorable character of Hardy is

16, Under the Greenwood Tree, p. 139. 17. Ibid., p. 139. ^

Thomas Leaf, the simpleton. He is known as 'a no head-man' in the parish. He has a skeletonic stature with thin looks and considerable long height. He is a weak-minded fellow and accepts his frailty as a fact of life. Sometimes it seems that 'not only the whole !''ellstock choir hut Thomas Leaf himself takes pride in Leaf's feeble mindedness." " He feels happy and not humiliated when the parishioners call him a headless man. The villagers sympathise with him for he can­ not help being a silly man. He accompanies the choir to the vicar and there the tranter tries to j'ustify his presence by telling Kay bold that inspite of being a headless fellow, he has some positive qualities — he is an excellent treble, an honest man and also a neat and clean chap. Later on, he comes to Vr, Day's house on Dick-Fancy's wedding day with the hope that if he washed and put on clean clothes, he may be allowed to attend the cerem.ony, but he gets greatly disappoin­ ted v;hen the tranter refuses to let him join. We sjTnpathise with him as does Reuben who recalls him at an after thought. Thomas Leaf always laments the death of his younger brother and feels that had he lived on, he would have been a great help to his mother. He rememibers Jim's birthday, who died at a very young age of only 'four hours and twenty minutes,

18. A.J. Guerard, Thomas Hardy, p. 125. k1

poor Jim.' 'A vas born as might be at night; and 'a didn't last as might be till the morning. No 'a didn't last. Kother called en Jim on the day that would ha' been his Christening- day if he had lived; and she's always thinking abont en. You see he died so very young.' 1 9 One cannot help feeling amused at such lamentation but with a sigh of sympathy for the poor fellow.

Mrs, Jane Day, Fancy's step-mother is distinguished for her eccentric behaviour. Geoffrey Day is sure that she is a queer woman who ought not to get married to none at all. But she marries twice. Her husband finds her whims incurable but sympathises with her for ''tis trying to a female, especially if you've been a first wife, as she have.' Krs. Day is very conscious of what people will think of her household possessions if not well-presented. So she will not let Dick finish his dinner on worn-out table-cloth with her second-best knives and forks. She changes them all in the middle of the dinner. The next thing, she replaces is the old tea-things with a tea-service in white china and a brilliant silver tea­ pot. After her vagaries are over, she appears as an excellent woman with much common sense. She does not attend Fancy's marriage ceremonies as it was her day for cleaning drawers

19. Under the Greenwood Tree, p. 10 5. 20. Ibid., p. 12^. h2

and cup-boards, saying, "If there's a work to be done, I 21 must do it, wedding or no." Her whimsical attitude makes her singular among Hardy's rustic crew and one cannot help saying with Geoffrey Day, "Doom is nothing beside an elderly 22 woman quite a chiel in her hands."

Mr. Day himself, with his eloquent silences, becomes an individual in the rustic people's group. His neighbours are fully alive to his silence, they would say, 'He can hold his tongue well. That man's dumbness is v/onderful to listen to.' 2"-^• He tolerates his wife's eccentricities with patience but could not help telling Dick, "... wives be such a provo^ king class of society because, though they be never right, 2lf they be never more than half wrong.' Besides them, there is Robert Penny, a man of very short stature. He, a shoe­ maker, takes his profession very seriously. He can recognize the shoes, he makes, anywhere and at any time. Once he identi­ fied a dead body by its family boot. Penny makes an Interes­ ting comparison between Fancy Day's shoes and the deformed last of her grandfather's shoes, saying, "To you, nothing, but''tis father's voot and daughter's voot to me, as plain as houses." 25 Penny is very conscious of his small size, l-fliile

21. Under the Greenwood Tree« p. 223. 22. Ibid. . p. 127. 23. Ibid., p. 119. !2^. Ibid., p. 125. 25. Ibid., p.^ 5^. ^3

dancing in the Christmas party, he looks ridiculous trying very hard to look taller by straightening his back and head. Mrs. Penny hurts his feelings very much again and again by calling hfc "a little small man" and telling of her dis­ appointment on first seeing him when she was waiting for her lover John v7ildx-?ay on a midsummer-eve. Robert mildly protests, "You needn't be so mighty particular about little and small." But they live like other married couples, contented with their life. Then, there is Mrs. Elizabeth Endorfield. 'an exceedingly and exceptionally sharp woman in the use of her eyes and ears,' but she herself presents her powers as something mysterious and tells Fancy that little birds come to tell her things about people. Those who are slightly acquainted with her, take her as a witch for her Satan-like appearance and a pointed chin. She always wears red cloak; lives in a solitary place and never goes to Church. But for those who know her better, she is si-ply "a deep body." ^rs. Endorfield "is not witch at all, but a woman of sufficient common sense to be amused by her 27 diabolic reputation. " 'fJhen she suggests Fancy to bewitch her father for getting his consent, she employs the charm of her common sense. She tries to clarify herself :

26. Under the Greenwood Tree, p. 8^. 27. A.J. Guerard, Thomas Hardy, p. 92. ¥f

This fear of Lizz — whatever 'tis — By great and small, She makes pretence to common sense, And that's all.^^

Anyway, in her short appearance, she charms the reader and for a while, he is left spell-bound. These are the major among minor characters of Under the Greenwood Tree,

Under the Greenwood Tree is supposed to be the happiest of Hardy's work. It proclaims the main theme of Hardy's fiction — a clash between agrarian and ijrban ways. Its rustic characters and rural atmosphere sound a prelude to his subsequent V/essex novels. Perhaps this novel would have been still greater if Hardy had paid more attention to the J'ellstock choir-group and had not let it pass as a burlesque. The defeat of the choir represents the defeat of the old, stable order. But towards the end, Fancy's acceptance to have traditional wedding customs suggests the author's insistence upon having a balanced attitude and not to let the old customs die. Hardy seems to believe in living life nat-orally. And to live naturally means to live in conformity with one's biological and geographical environment. In Under the Greenwood Tree. Hardy tried to stick to this doctrine. As

28. Under the Greenwood Tree, p. 186. ^5

he was a native of Dorset, he knew all about the hardships of the lahonr-class. Therefore, he protested against romantic adherence to old rural culture. In his essay The Dorsetshire Labourer in I883, Hardy made his point clear:

Progress and picturesqueness do not harmonize. They [the labouring classj are losing their individuality, but they are widening the range of their ideas, and gaining in freedom. It is too much to expect them to remain stagnant and old-fashioned for the pleasure of romantic spec­ tators.

29. Cit. from the'Introduction to the novel'by David Vfright, p. 20. -- CHAPTER III

FAR mm THE MADDIT'G CRO'./D

Thomas Hardy's next novel, Far From the Madding Crowd, published in 18/*+, brought him Immediate success. This novel, as Desmond Hawkins puts it 'marks the point where Hardy struck the true vein of his talent .... and at every turn it shows signs of a mature writer at the full extent of his power". Hardy chose its title from Thomas Gray's "Elegy V/ritter. in a GoLintry Churchyard". The title itself shows the novelist's rejection of modern materialistic life. In his Wessex novels, Hardy romanticized an almost untouched side of English life. He laid his stories in a remote agricultural and pastoral district of South-Vfestern England, among peasants who think even Bath City to be a distant and alien world. Andrew^ Enstice comments, "This detailed description of the surroundings, when they might seem not to warrant such compre­ hensive treatment, is carried throughout the novel, expanding and emphasising the agricultijiral world in which the story is sot "

The immobile rural existence is what the novelist took to paint in Far From the Madding Crowd. Unlike Under the Greenwood Tree, Hardy does not bring the rustics into the main story, but assigns them roles of observer and commentator.

1. Desmond Hawkins, Thomas Hardy (London. 1950), p. 13. 2, Andrew Enstice, Thomas Hardy ; landscapes of the Mind CllacmllTan, London, 1979), p. 56. ^7

He altered them from characters to characteristics, highligh­ ting only those eccentricities, which can provoke mirth and laughter. The rustic characters of Far From the Kadding Crov^d are portrayed as living and breathing realities. To enhance the rustic atmosphere, Hardy depicted very realistic scenes from agricultural life. Referring to Hardy's rustic scenario in the novel, A.J. Guerard aptly observes :

Far From the Madding Crowd at its best creates a pastoral world of antique simplicity, a fitting background for the changeless drama of love and betrayal, of faithful shepherds and glamourous faithless soldiers, At its least interesting it provides a detailed record of agricultural processes in Dorset in the seventh decade of the nineteenth century.-^

This comment of Guerard gives the outline of the theme too. A general theme of Hardy's novels is the triangle in love-affairs — of one or more men in love with a woman or vice-versa. In Far From the Madding Crowd, the ambitious but capricious heroine Bathsheba is loved and pursued by three suitors. It also presents the contrast of a patient and

3. Albert J. Guerard. Thomas Hardy ; The Novels and Stories (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 19^9), p. 7^. hQ generous devotion "with selfish and rinserap-ulo-us love, and violent devotion. Gabriel Oak, the silent lover, is always present in the story and from the very beginning, it seems clear that he is the man for Bathsheba. He falls in love and soon proposes to her when he was a well-known farmer and she was almost unknown. But fate and chance join hands aga­ inst Oak's little hopes and reverse the positions of the two. Dramatically enough, Oak loses all his sheep and farm, and is left a penniless fellow. Destiny makes Bathsheba the mistress of her uncle's farm. Oak's tale of misfortunes does not stop here, and he has to serve Bathsheba as her shepherd. Though he himself is out of the race now, he has to witness the other two lovers, namely — Farmer Boldwood and Sergeant Troy — courting her. Farmer Boldwood 'one of the few thoroughly interesting male figures in Hardy,is an / If almost complete artistic success'. Boldwood, a middle-aged victim of sex repression, was aloof from women to the extent that he knew nothing about feminine charms until he receives an unintentional valentine from Bathsheba and falls madly in love with her. He vehemently forces her to marry him or at least give her consent. Meanwhile she meets and falls in love with the flambuoyant Sergeant Troy. She ignores Oak's all friendly advice and warnings, and marries Sergeant

k, F.R. Giordano, "I'd Have My Life Unbe"(The University of Alabama Press, Alabama, 19oM-), p. 101. ^9 stealthily. Her preference of the glamorous, more polished, but evil-hearted soldier over the manly, loyal and dumb rustic brings chaos in her life and she soon realizes her mistake. He squanders aviay her money and deserts her after Fanny Robin's death. Bathsheba comes to kno^** that Troy left Fanny Hobin to die in childbed to marry her. Due to the mistaken identity, he is supposed to have dro^^ed. Boldwood's hopes are rekind­ led. He again compels Bathsheba to give her consent. She has to accept his proposal. Just after this Troy reappears and claims her to be his wife. Boldwood, impelled by a furious longing for her, shoots him, and he himself becomes lunatic. After sometime, Oak decides to leave Bathsheba's farm. It is only at this stage that Bathsheba discovers that she cannot run her farm without Oak and finally she marries him. This, though a worn-out love-theme, possesses some of the best features of Hardy's previous works.

Discussing the nature of Hardy's plots and characters, David Cecil observes, "Grand, passionate and simple are the themes which inspired him; grand, passionate and simple are the characters in which his creative power shines the 5 brightest," This remark is very much true of Far From the Madding Crowd. Its theme is artistically developed and the characters are excellently delineated. Each and every

5, David Cecil, Thomas Hardy ; The Novelist (London, 195V), P. 90. 5b

character of the novel perfonns his or her part well. Bathsheba, londoubtedly, dominates the scene, the whole story revolves roiand her. Adventurous and educated Troy makes a contrast to the simple but sober and sincere countryman-Oak. No less remarkable are the rustic characters of the novel. In fact, they are at their lest in the Far From the Madding Crov;d. Besides other functions they perform in the novel, they are used to create the required farming and pastoral atmosphere. Desmond Hawkins holds that Hardy was never as successful with his rustic characters as he is in this novel, "The rustic characters, relieved of prim.ary responsibility as actors and grouped as a sort of Greek chorus, foreshadow Hardy's later use of this device but were to be surpassed in any subsequent work. "

Hardy wrote Far From the Madding Crowd in pastoral style that serves his purpose well, and he could catch and portray the glimpses of rustic life. The introduction of scenes like those of corn-market, lambing-time, sheep-washing, sheep- shearing has a serious implication. 3uch episodes give the labourers opportunity for their choric ruminations. Through these scenes, one can easily be acquainted with the agricul­ tural skills and traditions of the age when they were on

6. Desmond Hawkins, p. 36. 51

gradual decline. The whole context makes 3athsheba's bitter choice crystal clear that a man of city can never be fit for fanning life.

The most important function of the rustic characters in the novel is to provide comic relief. Far From the "adding Crowd possesses a 'wealth of tickling and splendid himour. The band of labourers Joseph Poorgrass, la^oan Tall, Mark Clark, Jan Coggan, the old Kaltster, yoimg Calne 3all etc. is an achievement of Hardy. They make fun of their own faults and follies in a frank, humourous and proud way. Instead of getting perplexed, they accept ther. with delight and playfulness like Thomas Leaf of Under the Greenwood Tree, who likes and even feels pride in being called a fool. Here it is Joseph Poorgrass-, a terrible blusher and a super modest man who knows not whether Bathsheba is a beauty or not as he could never look at her. He admits simply, ' .^ii, now. If so be 'tis like that, I can't look her in the face. lord no : 7 not I heh - heh-hehl Such a shy man as I 'oe! '^e tells the villagers about his mother's anxiety for his defeat and about his going into the world, among women to cure his too awkward modesty. Poorgrass is timid and fearful too and he usually forgets the right way of writing Js and Es. Then

7. Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd (Penguin Books, 1987), P. 92. 52

there is Laban Tall vho is afraid of his v;ife, and who is known as 'Susan Tali's husband'. Bathshe'oa's maid Karyann who despite of her middle age, is unmarried because she did not want a poor husband, and rich men refused her. Now, as she knows that she cannot get any good man, she asks fellow labourers to seek a husband for her, 'Do anybody know of a crooked man, or a lame, or any second-hand fellow at all that Would do for poor me? A perfect one I don't expect to get at o my time of life'. The rustics are quite sim.ple-minded follcs and they care least for cleanliness. VJhen Cak goes to the malthouse for the first time, a villager tries to dust the ash from the liquor cup as he is a new comer. Oak's asking him not to do so brings him at once close to the company. Dirt in 'its pure state' is not objectionable to them. Mark Clark gives him bread and beacon, saying : 'Don't ye chaw quite close, shepherd, for I let the beacon fall in the road outside as I was bringing it along and may be 'tis rather gritty. There, 'tis clane dirt; and we all know what that is, as you say, and you bain't a particular man we see. Shepherd.'^

8. Far From the T^addlng Crowd, p. 203. 9. Ibid., p. 105. 53

He also has a remedy to avoid the grittiness and suggest Oak not to let his teeth meet and he will not feel the sandiness, 10 and remarks ''tis wonderful what can be done by contrivance 1' Hardy's hx:inour is genial and full of observation, it is never bitter or penitrating, 'his are the jokes and anecdotes that enliven the evenings in cottage and village inn, and like 11 theirs, his primary aim is simply to make us laugh."

Apart from the presentation of the life and nature of rustics in the Wessex world, Hardy's manner of introducing them is very interesting. He introduces 'the ancient malt­ ster's son as 'a young man of sixty-five' and grandson as 'a child of forty'. The description of Laban Tail's wife who •called herself five and twenty, looked thirty, passed as thirty-five, and was forty', also is very amusing. Hardy never lets even the slightest comic aspect of a situation pass unobserved. One such comm.ent com.es from >!ark Clark on Oak's ghastly grim.ace while playing flute, ''tis a pity that playing the flute should make a man look such a scarecrow' . I'ore humourous is the scene in which the news of Bathsheoa's sheep breaking the fence on Sunday and ' blaiting themselves' is brought to her. The various ways in which they deliver it is very simple and interesting :

10. Far From the Madding Crowd, p. 105. 11. David Cecil, Hardy - the Novelist, p, 9^. 5U

' Sixty 1' said Joseph Poorgrass. 'Seventy!' said Foon. 'Fifty-nine I' said Susan Tail's hus'oand, 'Sheep have broken fence', said Fray. 'And got into a field of young clover' said Tall. 'Young clover I' said I'oon. ' cloven' said Joseph Poorgrass. 'And they be getting blasted', said Henery Fray. 'That they be', said Joseph. 'And will all die as dead as nits, if they hain't got out and cured I' said Tall. Joseph's countenance was drawn into lines and puckers by his con­ cern. Fray's forhead was wrinkled both perpendicularly and crosswise, after the pattern of a porticullis, expressive of a double despair. laban Tali's lips were thin, and his face was rigid. Matthew's jaws sank, and his eyes turned whichever May the strongest muscle happned to pull them.

12. Far From the Madding Crowd, p. 187. 55

The minor characters of the novel are a group of humble, illiterate labourers who by right should have no time for fanciful passions such as courting, visiting friends an>i places, reading, or even learning a new card game etc. Sick­ ness and injuries of any kind seem the nice opportunity for doing such things to these people. Joseph Poorgrass could *> read Pilgrim's Progress due to some trouble in his leg, and Mark Clark learnt All Fours in whitlow. Similarly, Cain Ball manages a few days' visit to Bath City due to a felon upon his finger, and Jan Coggan tells that his father had to 'put his arm out of joint to have time to go courting'. They do gossip during their work, but if they want to do anything odd such as above said things, a brief illness is the suitable time. Humour in this novel, is in abundance and is at its best.

The rustics in Far From the Madding Crowd do not have much to do and they mostly remain in the background. Still they perform their roles as onlookers and critics of the actions and motives of the main characters. Their remarks and reactions are very helpful in understanding their character. Bathsheba's vanity is a common topic of their conversation and her flirting nature seems inherited when Jan Coggan tells about her father who could only love his wife after taking off her wedding ring and calling her by her maiden name so that he might fancy her his beloved and not wife. The villagers 56

perceive Farmer Boldwood's advancement towards Bathsheba with keen interest. V/hen they see the two together, they decipher it as a sure matrimony. At the same time, Henery Fray v/onders, 'I don't see why a maid should take a husband when she's bold enough to fight her own battles, and don't want a home: for 'tis keeping another woman out'. -' The labourers were doubtful of her ability in being her own bailiff and Henery Fray who desires to have the job himself, criticises her bitterly. They were unable to understand the use of a new piano for a farmer- woman. The minor characters of the novel do silently watch the entrance of Sergeant Troy and his stealing the show. Even then the rustics suppose Bathsheba sensible enough not to go too far with him. Her secret visit to Bath just to meet ^roy elicits their bitter criticism as they don't have nice opinion about him. Later on, when Troy is supposed to have drov/ned and Boldwood reseeks opportunity to marry Bathsheba, Troy is seen by some villagers in the neighbouring village. The sympathetic villagers dare not tell the news either to Boldwood or to Bathsheba lest they should ruin their chances of happi­ ness. In that episode, they reveal their sympathetic nature at its best, they express their love and respect for Bathsheba and Boldwood and severely condemn Troy for his villainous character. One of them says :

13. Far From the Madding Crowd, p. 201. 57

'I "Wish we had told of the report at once. More ham may come of this than we know off. Poor Mr. Boldwood, it will be hard upon en. I wish Troy was in — Well, God forgive me for such a wish I A scoundrel to play a poor wife such tricks. Fothing has prospered in Weatherbury since he came here.'

And when they see Troy himself near ^Idwood's house, they knowing his intention, become concerned for the good of their employers and decide to inform the two of it..

'•Tis a thing which is everybody's business. Vfe know very well that master's on a wrong track, and that she's quite in the dark, and we should let'em know at once.'

Laban Toll goes to the party to tell Bathsheba of the news, but finding it a mirthless party, he could not dare :

'They were all in such a stir, trying to put a little spirit into the party. Somehow the fun seems to hang fire, though everything's there that a heart can desire, and I couldn't

1^. Far From the Madding Crowd, p. ^31. 15. Ibid., p. V32. 58

for my soul interfere and throw damp upon it - if 'twas to save my life, I couldn't'. *^

It is this attitude of sympathy in their nature, which the high-society people lack; it adds charm to their character.

The rustics of Far From the Maddine: Crowd are very innocent people. At times, they unintentionally create chaotic conditions for the central figures and cause whirls in the story. Like Bathsheba's maid servant - Liddy who is more a friend to her, and who suggests Bathsheba to send the anony­ mous valentine to Farmer Boldwood with the inscription "^•lArlRy i'E". It breaks the serenity of the fellow and he who by noXV was absolutely indifferent to her presence In the VJeatherbury as a new Farmer-woman, develops a profo^jnd passion for her. At last, he is left as a lunatic. In the same way, Joseph Poorgrass's carelessness adds more complications in Bathsheba's life. If it were not for his stopping for a mug of ale v;hile bringing the corpse of Fanny ?.obin, many Incidents would not have taken place in the life of the protagonists. Due to his stopping, Fanny's burial has to be postponed, leav­ ing BathshelDa alone with the coffin and providing her with the opportunity to seek out the nature and cause of Fanny's death. After a bitter arguement, Sergeant Troy deserts her on this

16. Far From the l^adding Crowd, p. ^33. 59

very night. Again it is Poorgrass's forgetful nature that she has to return from the sheep-fair, accompanied by Farmer Boldwood who again puts his proposal before her and compels her to agree. And she has to give her consent to rr.arry hin, though only after six years. !To doubt these are hard "'.•/orving, sincere and faithful workers, but due to their inherent Ignorance, they fail when they are needed most. "'.^.en Bathsheba's wheat-rick caught fire, they all get confused, running here and there, without knowing what to do. 3amething happens or the night of the fierce stom when all of them get so drunk that they can not offer even a helping hand to Oak who saves Bathsheba's unprotected ricks of corn alnost alone. Their innocence is not altogether chaotic. Sometir.es, it is pleasant too. The way, Caine Ball continues to keep the whole company in suspense while relating his experiences in Bath City, is very amusing. Jan Goggan and Joseph Foorgrass behave in a very funny manner during the performance at the sheep-fair :

At the turnpike scene, where Bess and Turpin are hotly pursued at midnight by the officers, and the half-awake gatekeeper in his tosselled nightcap denies that any horseman has passed, Coggan uttered a broad chested 'V/ell 60

donel' which could be heard all over the fair above the bleating, and Poorgrass smiled delightedly v/ith a nice sense of dramatic contrast between our hero, who coolly leaps the gate, and halting justice in the form of his enemies, who must needs pull up cumbersomely and wait to be let through. At the death of Torr. T.lng, he could not refrain from: seizing Coggan by the hand, and whispering, with tears in his eyes, 'Of course he's not really shot, Jan - only seemingly!' And when the last sad scene came on, and the body of the gallant and faithful 3ess had to be carried out on a shutter by twelve volunteers from among the spectators, nothing could restrain Poorgrass from lending a hand, exclaiming as he asked Jan to join him, ''Twill be something

to tell of at V/arren's in future years, 17 Jan, and hand down to our children'.

17. Far From the Madding Crowd, p. Uo^. 61

The rustics have such simple and pure hearts and are far from the intricacies of life. They are not learned even, and probably, the most learned of these here, is Joseph Foor- grass who can quote scriptures anytime and who proudly says "t'^y scripture manner which is my second nature", but who does not know how to turn Js and Es and used to inscribe XOr^HS instead of JAI^'ES on Farmer James Everdene's Vfeggon.

Thomas Hardy had an intimate insight in the life and characters of his native people. 3.C. Chew believes him to be 'essentially rustic, primitive and pagan' and in his i^orks. Hardy employed his knowledge of village customs, 'oeliefs, superstitions and also of the local manner of reading time and the changing moods of weather. But 'he reproduces only such portions of a village's multifarious activities as are needed for his theme'. The dealings in corn-market, the detailed description of sheep-washing, sheep-shearing, shearing supper and of bee-hiving, the long smock frocks, the harvest hone, and to take the valentines as serious thing all these things show the V/essex-customs and Wessex mind. The Weatherbury people who usually do not go outside their parish, still believe in ghosts, omens and devil, and their daily meetings in the malthouse add to the local colour of the setting. Joseph Poorgrass, once returning at mid-night, could

18. 3.C. Chew, Thomas Hardy : Poet and Novelist (New York, 1929), P. 105. 62

not have a gate opened and thinking it a work of the Devil, he kneeled down and said all prayers, he knew. He himself remembers the incident and says, 'Ky heart died within me, that time; but I kneeled down and said the Lord's Prayer, and then the Belief right through, and then the Ten Command- fn ents, in earnest prayer. But no, the gate wouldn't open: and then I went on with Dearly Beloved Brethein, and, thinks I, this makes four, and 'tis all I know out of book, and if this don't do it nothing will, and I'm a lost man. Vfell when I got to saying After Ke, I rose from my knees and found the gate Would open...'''^ These common beliefs were so deep-rooted in the V/essex-soil that even education could not uproot them as can be seen in the case of the protagonists. They do take part in these things on the pretext of 'just for fion's sake'- as Grace Kelbury in The VJbodlanders participates in Kidsunmer eve ceremony with other village girls, './interborne and Dr Fitzpiers too play the part of suitors in it. In the same way, Bathsheba in Far From the Madding Crowd, practises divination with the Bible and key to find out who she would marry to. To look for omens and bodements is a part of the day to day life of the peasants. Maryann is filled with suspicion on the breaking of the key and wishes good for Bathsheba. The villagers do not have watches or clocks and they employ primitive means of stars, Sun and moon to read time. In the like manner. Oak guesses the coming storm by

19. Far From the Madding Crowd« p. I08-9. 63

noticing unusual happening in the environrreat the humble toad in search of shelter and black spiders dropping from the ceiling but above all the terrified flock of sheep warn Oak to safeguard Bathsheba's unprotected property of corn, tod Jan Coggan is an expert in reading the footprints of the horses. He can even recognize the horse by his foot-carks.

By their appearance, behaviour and by the manner as well as the c6ntent of their conversation, they look very absurd and silly but despite of all these, they, occasionally, say quite sensible things. At such times, they seem 'rforldly-wise people; 'when they advise sor:eone, it is their experience that speaks. Coggan who knew all about Oak's soft feelings for Bathsheba, always tries to soothe him when he gets disturbed about her. On Bathsheba's secret visit to Bath to see Troy, he calms love-sick Oak, saying, ' Dont take on about her, Gabriel. Vuiat differsncG does it make whose sv/eetheart she 20 is, since she can't be yours?' He advises Oak to be civil outwardly to Troy after his marriage with Bathsheba, for he may take charge of her farm, and become their master, "^.ven Penny^-zays who is a man of villainous natijre, suggests Troy not to go to Boldwood's Christmas party and stir Bathsheba's life. He also tells Troy that it m.ay bring hiFi into legal trouble too. He says, ''Tls a very queer corner that you have

20. Far From the Kadding Crowd, p. 281. 6if got into, sergeant. You see, all these things will come to light if you go back, and they ^-/on't sou^id well at all. Faith if I was you I'd even bide as you be a single man of the name of Francis. Au good wife is good, but the best wife is pi not so good as no wife at all.'" Liddy too, is ready with suggestions to offer to 3athsheba. V/hen 3athsheba decides to marry Oak, anil tells Liddy that Oak is going to take dinner with her, without telling her about the carriage, Liddy reacts with a quick concern, 'But is it safe, Tna'am, after what's been said? A woman's good name is such a perishable article that '^^

Hardy sometimes, perhaps, in his enthusiasm, forgot that they were after all ignorant and illiterate labourers, and made them say very incredible things as when they try to say subtle things or delicate metaphors. It seems then, as if Hardy had put his ov/n v;ords in their mouths. One c3.n not believe Jan Coggan teasing Laban Tall for his being under strict domination of his wife, with the comment, Tew Lords, new laws, as the saying isl' Even Liddy announces the arrival of the labourers on Pay-day thus, 'The Philistines are upon usl' The comment of the ancient maltster who is too illiterate to count his age, on uprooting of an apple tree and the transformation of a well into a pump too, is incredulous,

21. Far From the Kadding Crowd, p. ^-26. 22. Ibid., p. ^63. 65

he says, 'How the face of the nation alters ^rA v/]iat we live to see now-a-daysj' Except some remarks here and there, they best represent the rustic labourers of that tir^e.

In Far From the Maddin,'^ Crowd, Hardy presents an insight into the religious life of rustics. It very successfully reveals their views on religion, church and parsons. In fact, parson's teachings have little to do with their views. He is a gentleman for then if he helps there in hard tidies and does not insist then on perfowning religious deeds. Through these people, Hardy contrasts the manner and status of the village parson with the parson of a Bath City church. Caine Ball v;ho visits Bath, observes that 'the new style of pa'sons v^ear moustaches and long beards' v/ith gold rings in his fingers while their parson thirdly does not even possess 'a single one even of hunblest tin or copper' leave alone gold rings. Caine also talks about different doctrins prevailing in Bath and he goes to "igh Church and High Chapel both :

'.'/ell, at High Church they pray singing, and worship all the colours of the rainbow; and at High Chapel they pray prea- ching, and worship drab and white-wash only'

23. Far From the Kadding Crowd, p. 28O. 66

Sometimes, the villagers become very fussy about religion as regarding the serenity of an oath. Joseph Poorgrass '.vhorr. i'r Ronald Blythe in his Introduction to the novel calls ' the I'alaprop of the Church of England' , makes the junior shepherd boy Caine Ball terribly uneasy telling him :

'Caine Ball, you be no longer a babe and suckling and you knov; •t-;hat taking an oath is. 'Tis a horrible testament mind ye, which you say and seal with your blood-stone, and the prophet Matthew tells us that on whomsoever it shall fall It will grind him to powder',

Here is another instance of their being ridiculously serious on religious miatters when, Joseph Poorgrass, on his way "oack to the parish with the carcass of Fanny Hobin, stops at an inn to drink with Jan Coggan and I'ark Clark. He half-heartedly asks their leave not with the sense of duty Jbut because he does not want to offend religious doings :

'I've been troubled with weak moments lately, 'tis true. I've been drinky once this month

2^-. Far From the Madding Crowd, p. 281. 67

already, and I did not go to church a- Sunday, and I dropped a curse or two yesterday: so I don't want to go too far for my safety. Your next '^orld is your next vorld, and not to be squandered offhand.'

Hardy expressed rustics' view on religion as they think a'X)ut it and its various doctrines, in the novel. They don't like to change their faith just because they v/ere born in it. Jan Coggan, Kark Clark and Joseph Pborgrass discuss about these things with all their simplicity and innocence of thought . Here is rather a long piece of their conversation, but it sums up their outlook :

'But I've never changed a single doctrine : I've stuck like a plaster to the old faith I was born in. Yes; there's this to be said for the Church, a man can belong to the Church and bide in his cheer­ ful old inn, and never trouble or worry his r.ind about doctrines at all. But to be a meetinger, you must go to chapel in all winds and weathers, and make yourself as frantic as a skit. Kot but that

25. Far From the Madding Crowd, p. 3^5. 68

chapel-members be clever chaps enough in their v;ay. They can lift up beautiful prayers out of their own heads all about their families and ship^iJracks in the newspaper'. 'They can - they can', said Kark Cl?.rk, with corroborative feeling; 'but we churchmen, you see, must have it all printed aforehand, or dang it all, we should no more know what to say to a great gaffer like Lord than babes unborn' . 'Chapel-folk be more hand-in-glove with then above than we', said Joseph thoughtfully. 'Yes', said Coggan, 'We know very well that if anybody do go to heaven, they will. They've worked hard for it, and they deserve to have it, such as 'tis. I hain't such a fool as to pretend that we who stick to the church have the same chance as they, because we know we have not. But I hate a feller who'll change his old ancient doctrines for the sake of getting to heaven. I'd as soon turn King's evidence for the few pounds you get. '//hy neighbours, when everyone of my taties were frosted, our Pa'son Thirdly 69

•were the man who gave me a sack for seed, though he hardly had one for his own use, and no money to buy'em. If It hadn't been for him, I shouldn't hae had a tatie to put in m.y garden. D'ye think I'd turn after that? No, I'll stick to my side; and if we be in the wrong, so be it; I'll fall with the fallen !'^^

Hardy's minor characters are regarded as a sort of chorus of agricultural labourers- very ready with advice, very sincere and sympathetic to the miseries of others, but very much helpless to act. They have their ovm measures of Judgement. All Veatherbury folk soon accept Bathsheba and Oak, but they have severe doubts about Troy and could never take him as one among them. The way they clear Pennyways off the charges of theft, is very innocent. After the shearing- supper, they notice that not a single thing on the table is missing and they pronounce it as 'an honest deed.' They all are very sincere workmen too. They are on their feet whenever they are needed. They all, except Henery Fray who wanted to be the baliff himself, have developed a kind of respect and regard for Bathsheba for being a brave and bold v/oman farmer.

26. Far From the Madding Crowd, p. 3^5-^6. 70

Laban Tall is full of praise for her when he says, '... she's never been anything but fair to ne. She's hot and hasty but she's a brave girl who'll never tell a lie however iruch the truth may harm her, and I've no cause to wish her evil'. Due to their sympathy for Boldwood, they decide not to go to his trial as 'it will disturb his mind more than anything to see us there staring as if he were at a show', but they all wish for his life with all their hearts.

Hardy never intended to draw his minor characters as individuals or to give them more place than is required. That is v;hy they are not full-drawn portraits, but in order to personify some eccentricities, he could not help their being sharp by nature. Far From the Padding Crowd presents some of the memorable characters of Hardyean Vfessex-world. Ii>e that exceedingly amusing but incredible Joseph Poorgrass vho can never recover from his blushes, but he still thanks the Providence for not being worse than he already is. .^d Jan Coggan who is a regular chief witness of the marriages and the head god-father at baptisms not only in Vfeatherbory but in neighbouring parishes also , he is one of the comic characters of the novel. Ih: order not to insult the generosity of Levi Everdene who allowed him to drink as much ale as he could, he

27. Far From the Madding Crowd, p. ^-30. 71

used to eat a lot of salt-fish before going to his place. Coggan is a good narrator too; he can tell interesting stories about all the parishers. One incident that he tells about Poorgrass, is the example of Hardy's best humour, that how once Poorgrass got lost in jungles and yelled for help and mistaking an Owl's "'.'Jhoo-whoo' to a man's voice, he replied, 'Joseph Poorgrass of Weatherbury, Sirj" Coggan can keep secrets too and is very helpful to Oak. 'men Oak and Bathsheba decide to have the most simple and quiet marriage, he suggests Oak not to go to Krs. Tall because she has a loud mouth. He himself tackles her and asks her to send laban Tall to the church, 'Mind, het or v;et, blow or snow, he must come, 'lis very particular indeed. The fact is, 'tis to witness her sign som.e law-work about taking shares wi' another fartner for a long span o' years. There, that's what 'tis and now I've told 'ee, Kother Tall, in a way I shouldn't ha' done if I hadn't loved 'ee so hopeless well.' '^ Then, there is always choking Gaine Ball, victuals do always go wrong way with him. Small, little Liddy is a dutiful maid to Bathsheba and affirms what she says just to please her. But she shows her hurt pride when Bathsheba vehemently \-/ants her to say that Troy is not a bad man, she says, 'I don't want to repeat anything but I don't wish to stay with you. And, if you

28. Far From the Madding Crowd, p. ^62. 72

please, I'll go at the end of the harvest, or this week, or today ... I don't see that I deserve to be put upon and stormed at for nothing J' 29 Her behaviour on Pay-day, s-ans up her nature '-'hen she tries to look a privileged person by sit­ tin'tgo near Bathsheba.

The rustic characters in Far From the Xaddin? Cro'^d have becone a little rore individualized than their co-'.mter- parts in the earlier novels, ks a group they share conirion virtues or vices but as individuals, their actions, speeches and gestures signify their personal traits. The raral setting provides excellent background for the rustic characters as they cannot flourish in any other environment except within the limits of Vfeatherbury. R.H. Hutton in his review in Spectator rightly observed these poor men to be 'quizzical critics, inaccurate divines, keen-eyed men of the world, who talk a semi-profane, semi-Biblical dialect full of veins of hurcoiir which have passed into it from a different sphere.'

29. Far From the Kadding Crowd, p. 25^. 30. Thomas Hardy ; The Critical Heritage, p. 23. CHAPTER IV

THE RETUM OF THE NATIVE

The publication of The Return of the Native in 1878 was a milestone in the literary career of Thomas Hardy. The novelist's share in reviving and rebuilding dying rural tradi­ tions and values, v?hich he started with Under the Greenwood Tree was completed by now. In The Return of the Native, the role of minor characters is still more curtailed, but the local colour, indeed, is more prominent. John Woodcock in his introduction to the novel admires Hardy for writing on common rustics, and places only those of his works among his best ones, that deal with the Wessex-people, "... his best were those in which as in The Return of the Native^ he combined a basic appreciation of rural life and its attendent rustic personalities with a study of the shoddy hopes and half-articulated ideas generated in that perilous ambiance of shabby gentility,,.' The novel presents Joys and sorrows of furze and turf-cutters' daily life as well as of those who do not fit in the frame of Egdon Heath. Hardy, in this book, depicts the hopeless contrast in the temperament of educated and uneducated country-folks.

1. Thomas Hardv, The Return of the Native (Penguin Books, 1985), p. 1^. 1^

The novel is a m-ach complicated love-story. It is somewhat different from traditional love-stories in which men used to meet and woo women. In his endeavour to centre the action around his heroine, Hardy here shows Eustacia Vye pursuing two men one after another. The first one is V/ildeve who is fickle like her, and who deserts her to marry Thomas in. Thinking him unworthy of herself Eustacia tries to forget htm but as soon as she comes to know about the postponement of his marriage, she decides to recapture him. Diggory Venn, the devoted lover of Thomasin, asks Eustacia to set V/iideve free for Thomasin's honour. Eustacia who endures him just because of 'the want of an object to live for', shuns him only when she hears of Clym's arrival from Paris. She falls in love not with him but with the opportunity to live in Paris. Nrs. Yeobright who doubts the sincerity in her affection, makes every effort to discourage Clym's interest in her. But he goes away from his mother instead of leaving Eustacia. Eustacia hates the heath as much as he loves it and her sole purpose of marriage is to get out of it anyhow, while Clym had a plan to establish a school for poor labourers of the Heath. He works hard to fulfil his dream but has to give up his plans due to weak eye-sight and is content with the job of a turf-cutter. Eustacia who has an admiring devotion to her husband for the superiority of his manners and intellect, is greatly disappointed because she had expected him to 15

introduce her to the pleasures and charms of the world and to the dazzling delights of Parisian life. The rift between them gets wider with the death of Mrs, Yeobright. Eustacia leaves him to live at her grandfather's place. Now, V/ildeve tries to rekindle their old relationship and persuades her to elope with him. On the decided night, Eustacia, in a state of turmoil, drowns herself. In his attempt to save her, Wildeve also dies. After a long wait, Venn marries Thorcasin and Clym takes to preaching.

The Return of the Native as its title suggests depicts the dilemma and psyche of a man who returns disillusioned from the glamourous life of high-class society and tries to do something useful for the people, he knows best. Clym represents the difficulties faced by the educated rustics who are at home neither in the monotonous life of villages, nor in the sophisticated life of cities. His job at the Diamond's shop in Paris seems to Clym as the most depressing one 'the idlest, vainest, most effeminate business that ever a 2 man could be put to.' Like the villagers of our country who quit their native place and family business as soon as they get a little education, Clym too used to scorn the simplicity of the Heath-men :

2, The Return of the Native, p. 229, 76

•i-Jhen I first got a^.vay from home I thought this place \^as not worth troubling aoout, I thought our life here was contemptible. To oil your boot instead of blacking them, to dust your coat with a switch instead of a brush: was there ever anything more ridiculous.'

But when he had spent sometime in Paris, he got disillusioned. He could never feel himself a part of the pompous life. He expresses himself :

'I found that I was trying to be like people who had hardly anything in common with myself, I was endeavouring to put off one sort of life for another sort of life, which was not better than the life I had known before. It was simply different'.

In The Return of the Native. Hardy got an opportunity

3. The Return of the Native, p. 229. h. Ibid, p. 229. 11

to illustrate the impact of modern ed-ucation over the simple- natured yokels, that how it leaves them emotionally and socially split. Their own people treat them as strangers and douht their intentions. In the novel, we find all major characters isolated from their fellow hijman beings. Chiefly Clym and Eustacia are the representative of Hardy's view of modern men - saddened and worn out by the fatal disease of thought. V/ildeve is the instance of half-bred and half- cultivated rustic mentality. In contrast to these there are Diggory '^emi and Thoraasin Yeobright whom-education could not uproot from their soil. They are most closely associated with the Heath. Thomas in is an innocent country girl, just above the rank of furze and turf-cutters. Diggory for his active part in the novel is called the 'trigger to the events' Mr. Andrew Enstice regards him as 'the voice of the heath, rather than of humanity'. But the illiterate rustics are full of human sympathies. The caring and sharing attitude which is lost from the rich people due to the l*npact of education and capitalistic outlook, is in abundance in these poor creatures. Though they got no formal education, still they are better educated than their superiors because they know how to bear the vicissitudes of life.

5. Andrew Enstice, Thomas Hardy ; Landscapes of the Hind C'Kacinillan, London, 1979), ^yj^^\ 78

The minor characters are more passive in The Return of the Native than in the previous novels. The furze and turf-cutters Grandfer Cantle, Christian Cantle, Timothy Fairway, Humphrey, Oily Dowden, Susan Nunsuch and, of course, two youngsters - Charley and Johnny Nunsuch form a subtle background for the main characters. Their main part is chorus-like even then they gear up the action and affect the lives of central personages. Their participation is involved, but objective; they help in the advancement of the story, but are unable to change the course of things. The minor rustics of the Heath like other Hardyean rustics are entrusted "With the same part of observers, critics and commentators; they are same enduring unassuming and unalterable human beings. But in this grim story, humour is not given much space. Instead of it, many glimpses from their daily life, prevailing common beliefs, customs and traditions are scattered through out the novel.

Tihougy h acting within their limits, the minor characters are able to move story and make knots in it. By their unintended actions and inactions and untimely revelations, they create havoc for the chief characters. If it were not for Johnny Nunsuch's telling Venn of Eustacia and Wildeve's secret meeting after the postponement of Thomasin and Wildeve's marriage, Venn could not have given so many turns to the story. 79

The workers have no active part in the novel but unknowingly they convey something, they know, or do something which makes the situation grim and it takes a lot more action to set it right again. It happens so when Mrs. Yeobright entrusts Christian with hundred guineas to deliver them to Clym and Thomasin each fifty of them. But he foolishly tells Wildeve about the money he is taking for his wife. V/iideve tempts Christian to try his luck with dice and wins over all the guineas. Now Venn has to mend Christian's folly and he gets them back from Wildeve but being unaware of Clym's share in it, gives them all to Thomasin. Krs. Yeobright blames Eustacia for receiving gifts from Wildeve, It leads to such a bitter arguement between the two that they could never unite. Thus, at the root of the tragedy lies Christian's negligence. Later on, it is Fairway's sluggishness in delivering Clym's letter to Eustacia in time, that fails Clym's attempt for reunion and this delay proves fatal for her. Even if the rustic people try for the happiness of main characters, they in their ignorance invite disaster upon them. Charley who loves Eustacia blindly, in his enthusiasm to see her entertained, lights the bonfire for her, but he never knew that it will call V/ildeve who comes for the last time to Eustacia and persuades her to elope with him. Inspite of this inborn carelessness and over-enthusiasm, no one can feel contempt or 80

anger for them. Because it is well-known that they cannot •wrong any one intentionally.

The usual part Hardy gives to his minor characters is of onlookers and.of critics. They are to stand in the background and occasionally, they come forward to comment on 'the great racketing vagary' of main characters' life. The furze- cutters introduce all central figures; they inform of Thomas in and Wildeve's marriage and of Mrs. Yeobright's unhappiness on it; they announce Clym's home-coming on Christmas; Eustacia's peculiarity and her beauty forms a part of their conversation. They also criticise Thomasin for getting entangled with a man like V/ildeve, 'A pretty maid too she is, A young woman with a home must be a fool to tear her smock for a man like that'. It is their opinion that Clym. himself should have married her. with After Thomasin's marriage, they couple him/Eustacia in their minds, as a pair made for each other, Humphrey says, "... she and Clym Yeobright would make a very pretty pigeon-pair — hey? If they wouldn't I'll be dazed I Both of one mind about niceties for certain and learned in print, and always thinking about high doctrine there couldn't be a better couple if they were made o' purpose.'' However, their opinion about these two-different natured persons turns false. Though

6. The Return of the TTative. p. 7h. 7. Ibid., p. 163. 81

they do marry, they cannot keep it together. But the group is unable to see Clym's purpose in his staying back at the Heath when he was doing well in Paris. And when Clym himself tells them about opening a school for the labourers, they apprec/iat the thoughtfulness of Clym but cannot help pitying him as^hey know that 'he'll never carry it out in the world. In a few weeks he'll learn to see things otherwise'. And he could not establish a school though for different reasons. After the death of Eustacia and Wildeve, they again think it appropriate that Thomasin should marry Clym and not Venn. They do play their part whatever little Hardy wants them to do.

For comic relief, Hardy entirely depends upon his minor characters. But The Return of the Native is too grim for humour and, in fact, there is no need for any kind of humour in it. Bonamy Dobree's comment on Hardy's humour sounds appropriate for this novel, 'But in the pieces that are most Hardesque, there is, though still predominently humourous, something slightly grim and more than grotesque, a reminder that though the earth is our mother, she is also our grave; that the grin 'upon the living face is not very different 9 from the grin within the skull'. The most comic but pathetic character of the novel, is Christian Cantle. Hardy deals with him in a ha If-playful mood. And it is a quaint

8. The Return of the Native, p. 229. 9. 'Thoinas Hardy' by Bonamy Dobree, English Critical Essays. XX cent. (Oxford, "1950), p. 3^6. 82

mixture of chagrin and jocularity when christian comes forward as 'a no man' :

'Yes, I be he; and it makes nie sfeared', said Christian 'D' ye think ' tvill hurt me? I shall always say I don't care, and swear to it, though I do care all the while'.

'Ivo, that's true. But 'tis a melancholy thing, and my blood ran cold when you spoke, for I felt there were two poor fellows where I had thought only one, 'Tis a sad thing for ye. Christian. How's know the women won't hae thee I' ' 1' ve asked 'em' 'Sure I should never have thought you had the face. Well, and what did the last one say to ye? Nothing that can't be got over, perhaps, after all?' '"Get out of my sight, you slack-twisted, slim-looking, maphrotight fool", was the woman's words to me.'

10. The Return of the Native, pp. 75-76. '-'J

Now, the reader is at a loss whether to smile or be serious at this innocent self-revelation. But one cannot help smiling at Grandfer Cantle's comparing himself with Clym, 'And yet not my own doing, and I feel no pride in it.... Yes, Master Cantle always was that, as we know. But I am nothing 11 by the side of you, Mister Clym'. Their appearance, ways of dressing up, of talking, of entering a place, even their manner of smiling are amusing. Reuben Dewy in Under The Greenwood Tree used to 'smile at the horizon' and in The Return of the Native, the yokels smile at every article to express their friendliness towards the owner at Wiideve's place. Humour, in the novel, is scarce, but here and there are scattered some pieces that amuse the readers.

Age and life have taught these illiterate people virtues of stoicism. They take occasions of happiness or sorrow with indifference. Births, weddings, deaths and festivals all are a part of life. There is nothing too great or too sad about them, therefore, one should take them alike. They can tease Grandfer Cantle and joke with him when Mrs. Yeobright was on her death-bed. For old people, dancing at the weddings seems cruelsome and Fairway even prefer to attend funerals than weddings :

11. The Return of the Native^ p. 196. Qh

'True. Once at the "woman's house you can hardly say nay to being one in a jig, knowing all the time that you be expected to make yourself vjorth your victuals'.

'You be bound to dance at Christmas because 'tis the time o' year; you must dance at weddings because 'tis the time o' life, A.t christenings folk will even smuggle in a reel or two, if 'tis no further on than the first or second chiel. And this is not naming the songs you've got to sing ... For my part I like a good hearty funeral as well as anything. You've as splendid victuals and drinks as at other 12 parties, and even better,'

These simple-hearted people do care and respect each other's sentiments. They make jest of others and mock them but it is never with malice. It becomes quite clear in their attitude towards Christian. Sometimes, Grandfer gets hurt but Fairway soon calms him down. The country-people are full of sympathy for their fellow human beings, and this aspect of their nature impressed Hardy very much. The villagers are ever ready with

12. The Return of the Native, p. 72. 85

a helping hand whenever they are needed. Then it may be a matter of drawing Captain's backet frcxn the well; or of Mrs. Yeobright's sickness: or it-mey be the drowning of Eustacia and Wildeve, they all will be there.

Thomas Hardy in The Heturn of the Native has reduced the role of minor characters to a great deal, but he gives more detailed descriptions of their day-to-day life, especially of their Sunday-routines. Stinday is a day for late rising, for bathing, for hair cutting etc. The labourers after a week-long hard-work, do not want to get up early on Sundays oust for church-going. Though Reuben Dewy's great Sunday-bath humourous is treated as one of the best/pieces, it shows that Sunday is a day which one can spend at his leisure. On Egdon Heath 'the local bar be ring was done at this hour on this day; to be followed by the great Sunday wash of the inhabitants at noon, which in its turn was followed by the great Sunday dressing an hour later. On Egdon Heath Sunday proper did not begin till battered specimen of the day,' ^

Besides Sunday-routine, the novel is full of different rustic customs and modes of entertainment, such as - the Fifth of November bonfires, m\mmers' show, dancing, raffle and

13. The Return of the Native^ p. 227. 86

May-Day celebrations. Thomas Hardy gave a long account of mumming, a traditional pastime. It is interesting to note what innovations the sisters and svjeethearts of the performers introduce in their dresses and 'the girls could never be brought to respect traditional in designing and decorating the armour; they insisted on attaching loops and bows of silk and velvet in any situation pleasing to their taste.' Besides these zealous improvements, the girls add jealous ones too. If one player's beloved makesnew changes in his dress, another's will do some more. As a result, there retrains no difference between the Christian and Turkish knights, even 'on a casual look, Saint George himself might be mistaken for his deadly enemy, the Seracen.' The saddest part of it is that they cannot even refuse to accept the changes in their dresses. On Egdon Heath, paganism still lingers. The rustic people celebrate the changes in Nature. Hardy writes, 'in these spots homage to nature, self-adoration, frantic gaities, fragments of Teutonic rites to divinities whose names are forgotten, seem, in some way or other to have survived medieval doctrine'. In such activities, villagers gather and spend their time in merry-making.

^h•, The Return of the Native, p. I78 t5. Ibid., p. 179. 16. Ibid., p. If52. 87

The country-people have their own methods of curing some common diseases and they do it everywhere in the vorld perhaps. They seldom consult professional medical-men for their ailments. Hardy who forgot nothing of village life to infer in his novels, cared to write about this aspect too. Susan Nunsuch prepares posset for her ailing son. For ill­ ness and ailment, they rely on local remedies or try necro­ mancy. The treatment for adder's bite is to rub the wound with the fat of other adders. The rustic-men fry three adders after removing their heads and opening their bodies. Thus, they get their oil which they anointed on the wound of Mrs. Yeobright. The doctor later tells about this home-made medicine, 'Well, it is very ancient remedy the old remedy of the viper-catchers, I believe. It is mentioned as an infallible ointment by Hoffman, Kead and I think- Abbe Fontana. Undoubtedly, it was as good a thing as you could do ...' 17

Such local remedies are at times very useful, but when it comes to witchcraft, it becomes sheer superstition. Supers­ titious practices are not uncommon features of Hardy's Vfessex. In The Return of the Native, Eustacia Vye has to pay for the oddities of her behaviour for which she is suspected to be a witch. Susan Nunsuch and other yokels get doubtful of her strange ways from the beginning; her separate and lonely

• 17. The Return of the Native, p. 367. 88

bonfires; her long, solitary, but aimless walks on the Heath; her aloofness from her fellow human beings provide enough cause to them. Koreover, she never tries to contradict this notion, Susan Nunsuch even pricks her vith a long needle to dravi her blood in the church so that she may put an end to Eustacia's bewitching to her children. Though Eustacia is surprised to hear of the witchcraft attributed to her, the rustics would give her no concession. For example whenever Johnny Nunsuch feels unwell, Susan thinks it Eustacia's doing. Once she gets so infuriated that she prepares a wax image of Eustacia, dresses it like her and then puts several pins in it. After that she puts it on the flames to melt down. Hardy comments that it was 'calculated to bring powerlessness, atrophy, and annihilation on any human being against whom it was directed. It was a practice well known on Egdon at that day, and one that is not quite extinct at the present day.' Susan does this at the time when Eustacia was broken and greatly tense, just after it, she commits suicide. Though she was unaware of Susan's act, it still remains a question what Hardy actually wanted to suggest by placing the tvo deeds together. Moreover, it is a very common belief at Egdon Heath that no male child takes birth on moonless nights, 'No moon, no man'. It is so deep rooted in the minds of these simple folks that Christian's mother used to ask whether it

18. The Return of the Native, p. ^-22. 89

was a night with moon or no, everytime she had male-child. 'A'hen Christian refers to it, the villagers get convinced of the cause of his misfortune. Another notion is that the ghosts do not visit married people but come to the single sleepers. Interestingly, Diggory Venn, the reddleraan is regarded as a red ghost for having become red-skinned due to his profession. Even more, the mothers used to threaten their kids that the reddleraan will take them in his bags. Lionel Stevenson's remarks on superstitions and local beliefs in The Return of the Native is suggestive :

Hardy inserts them not merely for local color or as curiosities of folk­ lore. The Guy Fawkes Day bonfire and the Christmas mummers' play go back to immemorial pagan rituals and Susan Nunsuch's melting of a wax-model of Eustacia is a form of black magic that is world-wide'.''^

Hardy seems to have an affinity with the customs, traditions, superstitions and pagan rituals of his Vtessex because he never shows his contempt for them. They were the things which he had seen since his childhood and he describes

19. Lionel Stevenson, The English Novel ; A Panorama. (London, Constable and Co,, 1960), p. ^ 90

them as one who had enjoyed them and is quite familiar v/ith then. He was deeply attached to the rural ways which he celebrates in his novels.

The heath-workers are illiterate, uneducated and unsophisticated people. They are the sort of people who will prefer to sip mead one by one from the beaker itself than from separate glasses, and who can swallow feathers along with the victuals. Among this group of furze and turf cutters, Christian Cantle, Fairway and Grandfer Cantle are Hardy's traditional individual minor rustic characters, who can be seen in other novels with different names, but in The Return of the Native, Hardy introduced a country-youth-Charley and a kid Johnny Kunsuch too with some individuality. All other minor characters are unnoticeable. The most queer of all is Christian Cantle. He is a descendant of Thomas leaf and Joseph Foorgrass, 'a faltering man, with reedy hair, no shoulders and a great quantity of wrist and ankle beyond his clothes'. Due to his unfortunate build, he is a chicken- hearted fellow. He is always afraid of something or the other. Even the dance of furze-cutters on the night of Guy Fawkes' day, makes his blood run cold; on every little sound he begins to beckon angels to guard his bed; he hides

20. The Return of the Native, p. '75, 91

himself from every new comer. Due to his frailty, he is extremely superstitious. He feels as if everything is an omen against him and it will affect him adversely. He is terrified of death too, that it will be painful for him. Though he tries to sound bold enough, his fear is outspoken, »I bain't afeard at all, I thank Godl I'm glad I bain't, for then 'twon't pain me ... I don't think I be afeard or if I be I can't help it, and I don't deserve to suffer. I wish 21 I was not afeard at all!' Christian, perhaps, likes to be noticed, therefore, he begins to mourn at his misfortime amidst the talks. However, lack of confidence too has made him too desperate to believe in any kind of fortune for hirself. That is why when he wins the gown-piece in raffle, he begs Wildeve for the dice. He is thrilled at his little victory. Wildeve sensing it, befools him by telling the stories of lucky people who became rich through gambling. Thus making Christian sure that he too is a lucky man, he compels him to play with Mrs. Yeobright's money and at the end of gambling, he leaves Wildeve, yelling and cursing. The whole episode sounds very pathetic in the light of the fact that Christian pary:bles with because Wildeve has put in his mind that/money he can marry any woman. Christian, on the whole, is a pitiable character, though sometimes his self-depreciation becomes unbearable.

21. The Return of the Native, p. 100. 92

A contrast to Christian Cantle, is his father, Grandfer Cantle, too active and full of life at the age of seventy. He is always ahead others at dancing, singing, or at any occasion of merry-making - 'the first in every spree that's goingl' He even needs no companion for dancing; with his stick in hand, he indulges in 'a private minuet'. Grandfer takes things in a careless and jovial manner. It is not a boast when he says, '... when a weak old man would cry his eyes out, Jown it: I am up for anything.' He enjoys life so much that he was among the first ones to arrive at Mrs, Yeobright's party as he could not afford waiting 'till half the game was over I''^ Grandfer boasts of being the finest and smartest man in his youth in the whole of South Wessex; and that he was never afraid of anyone except Boney, i.e. Napolean Buonaparte. He in his playful manner, suggests Christian either to marry or be a soldier becatise ''tis a scandal to the nation to do neither one nor t' other, I did both, thank God I Neither to

raise men nor to lay 'em low that shows a poor do-nothing 25 spirit indeed' .

Fairway is on the line of Reuben Dewy, Mark Clark, Jan Coggan etc. He is the leader of labourers in every

22. The Return of the Native, p. 69.

23. Ibid,. p. 78.

2lf. Ibid., p, 196. 25.' Ibid.. p. If67. 93

activity. For Christian, he is a master man, an omniscient one, and Christian asks him silly questions about his fears. After knowing Christian's misfortune he encourages him, 'Well, there's many ;)ust as bad as he. Wethers must live their time as well as other sheep,..' He is a practical sort of man who takes things as they are. Vihen other country­ folks show their unwillingness for going to greet Thomas in and Wildeve, he says, 'When folks are just married 'tis as well to look glad o't, since looking sorry won't unjoin 'em'.^'^ Fairway like others of his creed, has interesting stories to tell; and this he continuously does during the hair cutting while his victims sit in the open air hatless and coatless, and 'to flinch, exclaim or move a muscle of the face at the small stabs under the ear received from those instruments, or at scarifications of neck by the comb, would have been thought a gross breach of good manners, considering that Fairway did for po it all/nothing'.

Hardy seldom paid attention to child characters beyond naming them. But in The Return of the Native, he perhaps, felt need to have a child character who could relate important matters in his prattles, and who could be taken as a victim of bewitching. Therefore, he brings forth Johnny Runsuch

26. The Return of the Native, p. '^'J, 27. Ibid, p. ^"^^ 28. Ibid., p. 228. 9^

who helps Eustacia in keeping her bonfire alive and she lets him go after VJildeve's arrival. By chance, Johnny sees them together and hears a part of their conversation which he confides in Venn. Johnny 'Munsnch is a weak, little boy and his ailing constitution worries Susan Runsuch. Johnny is very helpful to >-'rs. Yeobright on her way back from Clym's home - a broken and exhausted lady. She could have been saved, if Johnny had not forgotten to inform others about her. He, however, conveys her last words to Clym and tells him what exactly happened to her; how she reached his house, and knocked, but his wife did not open the doors for her; and how she had to return emotionally and physically tired; and that there was another man in the house beside him at that time. All these things were a blow to Clym and they infuriate him. He has an arguement with Eustacia, as a result of which Eustacia leaves hin, Johnny Nunsuch was the kid who is supposed to be the victim of Eustacia*s witchcraft.

The last of the country-folks is the innocent country- lad Charley with whom Eustacia plays the cruel trick. She, in her own way, bribes him by letting him hold her hand in the exchange of his role in the mummers' play. Though she was not consciously responsible for it, as it was Charley's demand for which he even feels grateful to her everafter. Charley gets a job in her grandfather's stable and takes every pain to make her comfortable after her return to Captain Vye's place. He is the first to sense the suicidal impulses 95

in her and checks her once by removing Captain's pistols. How onv/ards, he assumes 'a guardian's responsibility for her welfare'.^^ He strives hard to see her happy. The way he cares her when she comes shattered from Clym's house, is very moving; her death draws life from him and he secluds himself from the pleasures of life. Hardy, in Charley, depicts that rustics are not always stoics and feelingless beings. They too can have tender feelings, and some of them are not hard stuffs like Mark Clark or Fairway. Charley is not demanding; his is 'a hopeless worship from afar off, something to remember in the years that will come,..'-^ He satisfies himself with a lock of her hair to keep in her memory.

Though the rustic characters in The Return of the Native play minor part, their presence deepens our insight into the life of the Heath. The Heath in itself has something myster­ ious about it; it is more than a mere background to the novel; it is a power that is not totally indifferent from its dwellers, But the Heath has no charm, no future, neither any promising occupation for educated persons. Glym who tried to be a teacher, had to rest contented as a furze-cutter. His return to his native land is a return to nothing. But the novel V- provides a comparative study of town life and its people with the country-side and its simple-hearted people. The contrast

29. The Return of the Native, p. U02. 30. Patrick Braybrooke, Thomas Hardy and His Philosophy (Russell & Russell, New ibrk, 1969), p. 33. 96

between the two is crystal clear. No other novel of Hardy by now, dealt so much with the daily life of the working- class people, Braybrooke lamenting their minor role in the novel, observes :

It is possibly a little sad that we have so little comparatively of this kind of intimate stndy of rather primitive co-ontry people. But Hardy is not writing a study of these simple people, he is writing about a complex kind of woman, ,,..

31, P. Braybrooke, Thomas Hardy and His Philosophy, p. 26, CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIOIT

Hardy's rustics, as we have seen in the preceding chapters, are never intended to be major figures in his novels. Under different names in successive novels, they remain the same unalterable, simple-hearted laymen as we find them In the different parts of rural Wessex. They are immortal like the Wessex region and their presence in the novels adds verisimili­ tude to the story. Our study is an attempt to illustrate their roles in these novels and to show the various changes which Hardy introduced in his presentation of these characters. As scientific innovations of later 19th century altered and ended life style of rural England, the country-folks started leaving villages and could be seen on the streets of big cities to arouse curiosity of city-people. Thomas Hardy showed thgt the rustics had their own rich cultural heritage along with the simple, sympathetic and sincere hearts behind their coarse ways of life. Humorous simplicity and unsophisticated modesty of Hardy's rustics form a subtle background for Hardy's rural setting.

The three novels, discussed in this study, suggest a landmark in Hardy's literary career. Each of them was sufficient to secure Hardy's place as a novelist of Wessex. It is true that there were other factors responsible for the 98

success of these works but the rustic colour given by the minor characters, is not insignificant. In Under the Greenwood Tree Hardy presents personages, ways and the customs that were common among the choir-groups of villages. The only event that takes place in the novel, is the substi­ tution of a harmonium in the parish-church for the old- battered instruments of choir-band. Hardy depicted this event as an urban attack on rural values and traditions, and highlighted the importance of music for the simple artisan class of society. Music and dance are the only entertain­ ment available to them; and the rustics have a deep attachment with these. Because Hardy himself was a part of his village- choir, the delineation of choir-group in Under the Greenwood Tree becomes more realistic. In Far From the Madding Crowd, though the action is not centred around them, yet they appear to be more individualized. Like the Greek chorus, they are important remaining apart from the main story. And they are used to fill in the gaps of the story. The best part of the novel is its genial humour. In The Return of the Native the rustics are dragged into the background and play their parts as observers and commentators. Instead of portraying them through conversation, Hardy presented a detailed and close account of their life. 99

Hardy, again and again, has depicted his rustics coming into the contact of city-people. As a result of this contact, undreamt problems shoot up and shatter the quiet and peaceful routine of the peasants. Modem civilization in its train brought ambition, lust for power and domination, greed for money, and craving for sensual love and cheap entertainment. It destroys the simple faith of the rustic-folk. In Tess. it •was the greed of Tess's mother that led her to Alec's farm for her utter ruin. And the way V/ildeve tempts poor Christian Cantle to play dice with Mrs. Yeobright's money, tells its own tale. The rustics who are not influenced by modern civiliza­ tion, are happier and more contented than their educated fellow beings. There is no disturbance in the life of the members of what Hardy calls 'the Philosophic Party' in The Mayor of Casterbridge. They are true 'sons of soil', steeped in customs and traditions, handed down to them by their ancestors. These laymen are not ambitious, and their little hopes and aspira­ tions never reach beyond the Wessex horizon.

Thomas Hardy is often criticised for the obscurity of his dialect, and also for making them say unnaturally clever things. In fact, the use of dialect adds charm to his works and increases the rusticity of the setting. Hardy modified it slightly without doing any harm to the genuine V/essex tone. 100

The language in which the rustics converse, is coarse, rough, not poetic, but it comes from their hearts. They convey their feelings and express their views on life and its major issues in a far more pure manner than their educated counter­ parts, because they are away from the artificiality of urban society. It is the gist of their own experiences of life, which they express, not the well-known bookish ideas. Their talks are full of Biblical references because they had very sound knowledge of the Bible, and most of the humour in Hardy's novels depends upon their use of scriptural language.

Hardy's rustic characters observe and comment very readily on the tragic incidents in the life of the protagon­ ists, but they keep themselves detached from their lives. The minor characters are unchangeable and are not ready to change even. It becomes quite evident in Two on a Tower. VJhen the parson asks them to try a new tune, the villagers instantly deny to alter an old-established note. The rustics represent the unshakable mankind. Perhaps, to confirm this point. Hardy introduced almost the same old and middle-aged men and mere simpletons in each of these novels. Old William Dewy, ancient maltster and Grandfer Cantle are very lively and interesting. It is not easy to differentiate these characters outside the pages of these novels. Reuben Dewy, Robert Penny, Jan Coggan, Mark Clark, Fairway, Humphrey 101

etc, may have different names but they all look alike. Same is the case with female minor characters. Hardy is supposed to have a strong grasp over female psychology, but interest­ ingly his minor women characters are least noticeable. They are dull and monotonous,

Hardy's minor characters are sometimes treated roughly by their author, yet they are unavoidable in the Wessex novels. They, form a unique society and symbolise the unalterable pattern of mankind. Tragedy does not occur with everyone; very few people meet with accidents, and one or two among thousands of people make history. Others come and go with­ out leaving any sign for posterity. Through his rustics, Hardy seems to convey his impression that the individual shall suffer and die, but mankind will last forever. 102

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. PHI>^AHY SOUHCBS (Novels and Other Vforks)

Hardy, Thomas Desperate Hec-edies ; a novel. London, 1920.

Under the C-ree''^ood Tree or The Me lis to ck Quire ; a Rural Fainting of the "Dutch School. London, Pensuin Books. 19-3 5.

A Pair of Blue Eyes : a Novel. London, Penguin Books, 1986.

Far From the HaddinR CrovJ'd. London, Penguin Books, 1987.

The Hand of Sthelberta -. a Comedy in Chapters. London, 1920.

The Return of the Native. London, Penguin Books, 1985.

The Trumpet - Va.jor : a Tale. London, 1920.

A Laodicean ; a novel. Ne-^ York, 1920.

T'^o on a To^>ver : a romance. New York, 1920.

The Mayor of Casterbridge ; the Life and Death of a Man of Character. London, 1920, 103

Hardy, Thomas The Woodlanders. New York, Harper and Brothers, 1958,

'iessex Tales. London, 1912.

A Group of Tloble Dames. London, 1920.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles : a Pure Vfoman Faithfully Presente'd. London, Kacmlllan, 1950.

Life's Little Ironies. London, 1920.

Jude the Obscure. London, I'acmillan, 1951

The We11-beloved. London, 1920.

We ssex Poems and Other ' Verses , London, , 1920,1

PoeiTis c) f the Pas t and Pre sent 1920.

The Dynasts ;: a Drama of the !Tai3oleonic Wars. 1910.

3. SECONDARY SOURCES

Abercrombie, L. Thomas Hardy t A Critical History. London, Kartin Seeker Ltd., 1935. Bailey, John. An Essay on Hardy Cambridge, 1978. I0h

Barrle, J.r. 'Thomas Hardy, the Historian of Vfessex' Contemporary Review. July, 193^.

Beach, J.'•'«'. The Technique of Thomas Hardy. Chicago, 1922.

Blunden, S. Thomas Hardy. Kacmillan, 1962.

Braybrooke, P. Thomas Hardy and His Philosophy. New York, Russell & Russell, 1969.

Brown, Douglas. Thomas Hardy. London, 1961.

Cecil, Lord David. Hardy, the Hovelist : An Essay in Criticism. London, Constable and Company, T3W.

Chase, ¥1. Thomas Hardy From Serial to Novel. New York, Russell and Russell, 196^.

Chew, S.C. Thomas Hardy t Poet and Novelist. New York, 1929.

:hild, H. Thomas Hardy. London, 1916.

Cox-j R.G. (ed.) Thomas Hardy : The Critical Heritage, London, Butler and Tanner, 1970.

Dobree, Bonamy. 'Thomas Hardy' in English Critical Essays XX Cent. London, Oxford University Press, 19^1^

Duffin, H.C. Thomas Hardy : a Study of the 7/essex Novels, Manchester, 1937. 10 5

Enstice, A. Thomas Hardy : Landscapes of the yind. London, Kacmillan, 1979.

Firor, R.^. Folkv/ays in Thomas Hardy. London, 19^2.

Giordano, F.H. "I'd Have My Life Unbe" : Thomas ^^ardy's 3elf-Destructive Characters. Alabama, The University of Alabama Press, 19°'^-.

Gittings, R. Young Thomas Hardy. London, Heinemann, 1975.

Guerard, A.J. Thomas Hardy ; The TJovels and Stories. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 19^9.

Hardy, "Barbara. The ApproTjriate Form. London, 196i+.

Hardy, Evelyn. Thomas Hardy : a Critical Biography. London, 195*+.

Hardy, F.E. The Life of Thomas Hardy. London, l-'acmillan, 1965.

Ho-.ve, I. Thomas Hard:, London, 19o

Hav;kins, Desmond. Thomas Hardy. London, Arthur Barker Ltd. 1950.

yillgate, K. Thomas Hardy ; His Career as a Novelist. London, 1961.

Southerington, F.R. Hardy's Vision of Man. London, Chatto and V/indus, 1971. 106

Ste venson, Lionel. The English Novel ; a Panorama. London, Constable and Co. 19cO.

Watt, Ian (ed.) The Victorian Novel. Oxford, 1967.