The Connotations of Setting in Thomas Hardy's the Return of the Native (1878)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Tiny Creatures, Trophic Pyramids and Hardy's <I>The Dynasts</I>
STUDENT ESSAY COMPETITION TINY CREATURES, TROPHIC PYRAMIDS AND HARDY’S THE DYNASTS ELLE EVERHART Thomas Hardy has a tendency to focus on the small. Occasionally stopping narr- ative, he will pay detailed attention to the physical environment and the small, often unnoticed, creatures that populate it. This connection to the natural stretches across Hardy’s fiction and his poetry, including his epic verse drama The Dynasts, published in the early years of the twentieth century. Through the surrounding prose, dialogue, and the characters themselves, The Dynasts demonstrates Hardy’s assertion that the natural world is inseparable from the humans that exist within it. In this piece, I address these creatures and argue that we can read Hardy’s narratives through the ecological concept of the trophic pyramid, a hierarchy that attempts to structure energy flow through a particular ecological system. Reading Hardy’s narratives in this way allows us to envision the theoretical orientation of these creatures in relation to their human counterparts and further imagine their position in the overall structure of the narrative environment. Keywords: The Dynasts, Animal Studies, Ecology, Trophic Pyramids, Ecocriticism NSECTS AND OTHER small nonhuman animals rarely receive any critical attention. Creeping and crawling their way through any number of literary texts, I these tiny creatures remain untouched, unnoticed, and unloved. Their presence, though, reminds us of the physical earth we inhabit and the living beings we are related to, including the little animals that we (more often than not) tend to forget. Thomas Hardy’s work often pays close attention to such tiny creatures, pulling the focus away from the central human characters to examine the impact of these humans (and “the human” more generally) upon the lives of the animals that make their home in his narrative universe. -
Thomas Hardy and His Funerals
THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF LIFE WRITING VOLUME IX (2020) LW&D132–LW&D150 Till Death Did Him Part: Thomas Hardy and His Funerals Charles Lock University of Copenhagen [J.M. Barrie] was especially tickled by Hardy’s preoccupation with plans for his own burial—plans, continuously changed. ‘One day Hardy took me . to see the place where he’s to be buried, and the next day he took me to see the place where he would like next best to be buried. Usually he says he is to be buried between his wives; but sometimes, so many inches nearer the first; sometimes, so many inches nearer to the second.’ Cynthia Asquith, Portrait of Barrie (London: James Barrie, 1954), p. 107 The wrongness of two funerals and the wretchedness of Florence’s later years bring a sombre end to any account of Hardy. Claire Tomalin, Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man (London: Penguin, 2006), p. 377 ABSTRACT This essay considers Hardy’s two funerals—for his ashes at Poets’ Corner, for his heart at Stinsford—in the light of their consequences for life-writing: the absence of a single resting-place, and the narrative demands of synchronicity in telling of two funerals. This division of the body was the consequence of an extraordinary lack of precision in Hardy’s own will, the composition, wording and interpretation of which are examined here in some detail. Attention is also paid to the single grave at Stinsford that holds the remains of Hardy and both his wives in diverse modalities of the invisible. Keywords: Thomas Hardy, wills and testaments, ashes, funerals, heart-burials European Journal of Life Writing, Vol IX, 132–150 2020. -
A Return to Nature
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives A Return to Nature A Critique of the Pastoral in Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native By Hege Christine Sørensen Isaksen Master’s Thesis Department of Foreign Languages University of Bergen May 2015 Summary in Norwegian Denne avhandlingen er en økokritisk studie av hvordan Thomas Hardys verk The Return of the Native (1878) fungerer som en kritikk av den pastorale sjangeren. Analysen baserer seg på en tolkning der Return er skrevet innenfor den pastorale sjangerens rammeverk, og der Hardys kritikk er skjult i selve sjangeren den kritiserer. Min påstand er at denne kritikken retter seg mot romantiseringen av den kultiverende bonden, som utnytter naturen til sin egen fordel, heller enn mot den oftere kritiserte mangelfulle evnen til å erkjenne den hardtarbeidende bondens evinnelige slit. Tilnærmingen til analysen baserer seg på en retning innenfor økokritikken kalt dypøkologi (deep ecology), slik den ble introdusert av Arne Næss. Næss vektlegger spesielt at ”[t]he flourishing of human and non-human life on Earth has intrinsic value”, og ”that the value of non-human life forms is independent of the usefulness these may have for narrow human purposes” (Naess, 1989). Som et annet element i analysen tar jeg utgangspunkt i at Hardys landskap Egdon Heath er en egen karakter og aktør, som gis aktørrettigheter til å handle for både seg selv og på vegne av sine menneskelige motstykker. Forholdene og sammenhengen mellom landskapet og Hardys menneskelige karakterer er videre analysert i detalj, der karakterene Clym Yeobright, Diggory Venn og Eustacia Vye vies ekstra oppmerksomhet. -
16 May 2019. Dorchester Civic Society
16 May 2019. Dorchester Civic Society Dorchester and the boundary of the proposed Dorset and East Devon National Park: why Dorchester and its landscape setting should be included within the proposed National Park. 1. Introduction. 1.1. ‘’Dorchester Civic Society exists to stimulate people’s interest in the town and its setting; promote high standards of architecture, urban design and planning; safeguard buildings and areas of historic interest; and promote civic pride.’’ The Society, therefore, has a considerable interest in safeguarding the town and its landscape setting both now and for future generations. 1.2. The Dorset and Devon National Park Team submitted its bid to the Glover Review of Designated Landscapes in December 2018. The Team has presented a good in-principle case for designation without, at this stage, specifying a boundary [other than showing the original 1945 proposal comprising the current AONB and the area termed ‘Egdon Heath’ – which was not included in the designated AONB]. Dorchester is not within the present AONB boundary [although part of Poundbury is included]. The Society would argue that National Park boundaries should be drawn wider than AONBs as their purposes are different – National Parks are larger areas suited to tourism and public recreation, whereas AONBs are designated more specifically to protect their natural beauty. 1.3. Should the principle of designation be accepted, the Dorchester Civic Society would wish to see Dorchester and its surrounding landscape setting included within the proposed area. This note sets out the way in which Dorchester lies – historically, culturally and geographically – at the heart of the proposed National Park. -
The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy the Return of the Native Thomas Hardy
The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy PREFACE The date at which the following events are assumed to have occurred may be set down as between 1840 and 1850, when the old watering place herein called “Budmouth” still retained sufficient afterglow from its Georgian gaiety and prestige to lend it an absorbing attractiveness to the romantic and imaginative soul of a lonely dweller inland. Under the general name of “Egdon Heath,” which has been given to the sombre scene of the story, are united or typified heaths of various real names, to the number of at least a dozen; these being virtually one in character and aspect, though their original unity, or partial unity, is now somewhat disguised by intrusive strips and slices brought under the plough with varying degrees of success, or planted to woodland. It is pleasant to dream that some spot in the extensive tract whose southwestern quarter is here described, may be the heath of that traditionary King of Wessex—Lear. July, 1895. “To sorrow I bade good morrow, And thought to leave her far away behind; But cheerly, cheerly, She loves me dearly; She is so constant to me, and so kind. I would deceive her, The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy And so leave her, But ah! she is so constant and so kind.” BOOK ONE — THE THREE WOMEN 1—A Face on Which Time Makes but Little Impression A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment. -
Pessimism in the Novels of Thomas Hardy Submitted To
PESSIMISM IN THE NOVELS OF THOMAS HARDY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS BY LOTTIE GREENE REID DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ATLANTA, GEORGIA AUGUST 195t \J p PREFACE "Of all approbrious names,11 saya Florence Emily Hardy, "Hardy resented most 'pessimist.1Hl Yet a thorough atudy of his novels will certainly convince one that his attitude to ward life is definitely pessimistic* Mrs. Hardy quotes him as saying: "My motto is, first correctly diagnose the complaint — in this caae human Ills —- and ascertain the causes then set about finding a remedy if one exists.1'2 According to Hardy, humanity is ill. In diagnosing the case, he is not much concerned with the surface of things, but is more interested in probing far below the surface to find the force behind them. Since this force in his novels is always Fate, and since he is always certain to make things end tragi cally, the writer of this study will attempt to show that he well deserves the name, "pessimist." In this study the writer will attempt to analyze Hardy1 s novels in order to ascertain the nature of his pessimism, as well as point out the techniques by which pessimism is evinced in his novels. In discussing the causes of pessimism, the writer ^■Florence E. Hardy, "The Later Years of Thomas Hardy," reviewed by Wilbur Cross, The Yale Review, XX (September, 1930), p. 176. ' 2Ibid. ii ill deems it necessary to consider Hardy's personality, influences, and philosophy, which appear to be the chief causes of the pes simistic attitude taken by him. -
Dorset Coast Thomas Hardy Walks Holiday
Dorset Coast Thomas Hardy Walks Holiday Destinations: Dorset Coast & England Trip code: LHTHY-4 Trip Walking Grade: 3 HOLIDAY OVERVIEW Thomas Hardy understood, knew, and was loyal to Dorset, the countryside where he was born and lived most of his life. Dorset’s wild uplands and quiet villages, tucked away beneath the Downs, have changed very little since Hardy’s day. We walk through Hardy’s landscapes and see it much as he would have seen it, and the paths we take are the ancient byways followed for generations by people going about their ways. These are the paths Thomas Hardy walked and the characters in his novels trod. An exploration on foot of Hardy’s ‘Wessex’ is surely one of the best ways of discovering Hardy’s land and work. WHAT'S INCLUDED • Great value: all prices include Full Board en-suite accommodation, a full programme of walks with all transport to and from the walks, plus evening activities • Great walking: explore Hardy's Wessex in the company of our experienced leader • Accommodation: our Country House is equipped with all the essentials – a welcoming and relaxing lounge and dining area, a drying room for your boots and kit, and comfortable en-suite rooms www.hfholidays.co.uk PAGE 1 [email protected] Tel: +44(0) 20 3974 8865 HOLIDAYS HIGHLIGHTS • Discover the beautiful homeland of Thomas Hardy and the landscapes that inspired him • Walks explore Hardy’s Wessex and his inspiration for novels such as Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Woodlanders • Admire the scenes of Hardy’s Egdon Heath, Mistover Knap, Rainbarrow, Mellstock, and Abbot’s Cernal • Follow in the footsteps of Hardy’s characters such as Tess of the D’Urbervilles. -
Thomas Hardy
THOMAS HARDY GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE "l I T HEN Thomas Hardy died last January in his quiet Dorset V V home, he passed from a countryside that had loved him companionably; from a nation which had delighted to honour him (he had r.eceived the Order of Merit in 1910, and Oxford, Cambridge and Aberdeen had given him doctorates); from a circle of famous writers who had long since acknowledged his quiet deanship; and from a whole world of thoughtful readers to whom Sue and Ethel berta and Elfride and Bathsheba and Tess, Jude and Henchard and Clym Yeobright and Gabriel Oak, had become their living fellows . 'mid this dance Of plastic circumstance. At the funeral service in Westminster Abbey the wise and the simple, high men and humble, came to do reverence to the dignity and sincerity of the life of this great genius. Sir James Barrie w,as there, who wept as he placed Mrs. Hardy's sheaf of lilies on the grave. Rudyard Kipling was there, and John Galsworthy, Arnold Bennett, John Masefield, Bernard Shaw, Alfred Housman, John Drinkwater and Sir Edmund Gosse. The Prime Minister was there, and Ramsay Macdonald. The dead man's nearest ones -his widow and his sister, accompanied by his old Stinsford friend and physician, Dr. Mann-were the chief mourners. The beautiful ceremony ended with the singing of Hardy's favourite hymn Lead Kindly Light-the same hymn which, sung by "the little, attenuated voices of the children", had so moved Bathsheba in Far from the Madding Crowd. The interment was over, the Dead March from Saul was played, and Hardy's ashes rested beside the other tenants of Poet's Comer. -
THOMAS HARDY the V Ariorun1 Edition OF
THE VARIORUM EDITION OF THE COMPLETE POEMS OF THOMAS HARDY THE V ariorun1 Edition OF THE Complete Poems OF THOMAS HARDY EDITED BY James Gibson M THE VARIORUM EDITION OF THE COMPLETE POEMS OF THOMAS HARDY Poems 1-919, 925--6, 929-34 and 943, Thomas Hardy's prefaces and notes © Macmillan London Ltd Poems 920-4, 927-8, 935-42 and 944-7 © Trustees of the Hardy Estate Editorial arrangement © Macmillan London Ltd 1976, 1979 Introduction and editorial matter ©James Gibson 1979 Typography © Macmillan London Ltd 1976, 1979 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1979 978-0-333-23773-1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. ISBN 978-1-349-03806-0 ISBN 978-1-349-03804-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-03804-6 The Variorum Edition first published in 1979 by MACMILLAN LONDON LIMITED 4 Little Essex Street London WC2R 3LF and Basingstoke Associated companies in Delhi, Dublin, Hong Kong, johannesburg, Lagos, Melbourne, New York, Singapore and Tokyo Typeset by WESTERN PRINTING SERVICES L TO, BRISTOL Contents LIST OF MANUSCRIPT My Cicely 51 ILLUSTRATIONS page xvii Her Immortality 55 INTRODUCTION XIX The Ivy-Wife 57 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS XXXlll A Meeting with Despair 57 NOTES FOR USERS OF THE Unknowing 58 VARIORUM XXXV Friends Beyond 59 To Outer Nature 61 Domicilium 3 Thoughts of Phena 62 Middle-Age Enthusiasms 63 Wessex Poems and Other Verses In a Wood 64 Preface 6 To a Lady 65 The Temporary the All 7 To a Motherless Child 65 Amabel 8 Nature's Questioning 66 Hap 9 The Impercipient 67 In Vision I Roamed 9 At an Inn 68 At a Bridal 10 The Slow Nature 69 Postponement 11 In a Eweleaze near Weatherbury 70 A Confession to a Friend in Trouble 11 The Bride-Night Fire 71 Neutral Tones 12 Heiress and Architect 75 She at His Funeral 12 The Two Men 77 Her Initials 13 Lines 79 Her Dilemma 13 I Look Into My Glass 81 Revulsion 14 She, to Him I 14 Poems of the Past and the Present She, to Him II 15 Preface 84 She, to Him III 15 V.R. -
The Family Trap in the Return of the Native
Colby Quarterly Volume 10 Issue 8 December Article 3 December 1974 The Family Trap in The Return of the Native Anne Z. Mickelson Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/cq Recommended Citation Colby Library Quarterly, series 10, no.8, December 1974, p.463-475 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Colby Quarterly by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Colby. Mickelson: The Family Trap in The Return of the Native Colby Library Quarterly Series X December 1974 No.8 THE FAMILY TRAP IN THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE By ANNE Z. MiCKELSON ~~All are caged birds," wrote Thomas Hardy, "the only difference is in the size of the cage."l The remark helps to explain why we are beginning to link Hardy's vision of the world to Writers of the Absurd, like Beckett, but with a differ ence. In Beckett's solitary world, man is as insignificant as in Hardy's. Characters wait for a Gadot who never comes, or pass their time in an urn, or are up to the neck in sand. But where Beckett's people have come to accept this as a natural state of affairs in a universe which makes no sense, Hardy's men and women still struggle. Desperately, stoically they attempt to break through a maze of traps - family, sexual, marital, and societal - one very often leading into the other like in those Chinese puzzle boxes of varying size, only to find that there is no exit. -
Thomas Hardy S Epic-Drama: a STUDY of the DYNASTS
Thomas Hardy s Epic-Drama: A STUDY OF THE DYNASTS by Harold Orel UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS HUMANISTIC STUDIES, NO. 36 LAWRENCE, KANSAS UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS ^PUBLICATIONS HUMANISTIC STUDIES^ NO. 36 THOMAS HARDY'S EPIC-DRAMA: A STUDY OF THE DYNASTS THOMAS HARDY'S EPIC-DRAMA: A STUDY OF THE DYNASTS by Harold Orel UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS LAWRENCE, 1963 © COPYRIGHT 1963 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PRESS L. C. C. C Number 63-63211 PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. BY THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PRESS LAWRENCE, KANSAS TO M. D. W. Preface THIS BOOK was written because of my admiration for Thomas Hardy's The Dynasts, and because of my feeling that the last word has not yet been said about it. What I want to do is reemphasize the meaning behind Hardy's descriptive epithet, "epic-drama," To that end, I have retraced Hardy's career up to the moment he renounced the writing of novels and became a full-time poet. Poetry, for Hardy, was always the highest form of art; it was the kind of literature he wanted most to create. For years he had been contemplating a large work, a poem on the epic scale, which he needed time to write. It may be no exaggeration to say that his entire life led up to The Dynasts, and that for him it represented the supreme artistic work of his career. Since The Dynasts has often been considered primarily in terms of its philosophy, although Hardy declared vehemently on several occasions that his poem should be judged on artistic grounds, it has seemed worthwhile to reexamine the views that Hardy held on the nature of the universe and whatever gods exist. -
The Return of the Native Read by Nicholas Rowe CD 1 CD 2
COMPLETE CLASSICS UNABRIDGED Thomas Hardy The Return of the Native Read by Nicholas Rowe CD 1 CD 2 1 The Return of the Native 6:50 1 The front of the house was towards the heath... 7:06 2 The most thoroughgoing ascetic could feel that he had... 4:46 2 She looked wistfully at him with her sorrowful eyes... 7:03 3 Chapter 2 5:59 3 ‘No sooner was Andrey asleep...’ 8:00 4 The reddleman looked in the old man’s face. 6:48 4 Chapter 6 6:15 5 Chapter 3 7:53 5 The handkerchief which had hooded her head... 7:43 6 ‘The king’ call’d down’ his no-bles all’...’ 8:58 6 Her grandfather had turned back again... 8:01 7 ‘Well, I can’t understand a quiet ladylike little body...’ 8:24 7 ‘Did you indeed think I believed you were married?’ 6:30 8 Christian drew a deep breath... 7:08 8 Chapter 7 7:11 9 The vagary of Timothy Fairway was infectious. 8:04 9 Where did her dignity come from? 7:21 10 Chapter 4 9:53 10 Chapter 8 10:01 11 Chapter 5 3:30 11 Chapter 9 2:30 Total time on CD 1: 78:19 Total time on CD 2: 77:49 2 3 CD 3 CD 4 1 It was sometimes suggested that reddlemen were criminals... 8:03 1 That night was an eventful one to Eustacia’s brain... 4:19 2 The reddleman, stung with suspicion of wrong to Thomasin... 10:06 2 Chapter 4 6:13 3 Chapter 10 8:59 3 It might be that Joe, who fought on the side of Christendom..