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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
December 2001
Introduction
This essay will explore characterisation in an extract from The Return Of The Native
(reproduced here as an appendix). It aims to validate literary critics’ more
impressionistic and intuitive readings1, by using stylistic analysis to find precise
evidence for three of their assertions. Namely that:
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
One sub-chain of the lexical cohesion of Egdon is that of its wildlife and botany, in
this extract the blades of grass (29), masses of furze and heath (30), the grass riband
(31) etc. This sub-chain extends beyond description however, to Hardy’s main
imagery for characterisation. There is only one example in this extract: “the fantastic
figures of the mumming band whose plumes and ribbons rustled in their walk like
autumn leaves” (27). But it is rife through the novel as a whole, in images such as
when Eustacia “descended on the right hand side of the barrow, with the glide of a
water drop down a bud” (???????, 63) or repeated descriptions of Thomasin as a bird.
For Hardy, character is unavoidably tied to landscape.
1.2 The landscape as a character: pathetic fallacy
As noted by countless critics, Hardy makes Egdon Heath “a place perfect
accordant with man’s nature” (?????????, 56) by giving it human
attributes. There are several explicit instances in the novel; heath-
bells perform verbal processes “it was the single person of
something else speaking through each at once”.(106), young
beeches undergo “amputations, bruises, cripplings and harsh
lacerations” while “Each stem . . . moved like a bone in its socket”
(268/9). Though straight quotation cannot convincingly demonstrate
pathetic fallacy in this extract, it can be detected with stylistic
analysis. Take the divided opinions of the heathfolk:
senser mental process phenomenon
West Egdon believed in Blooms-End time
East Egdon (believed) in the time of the Quiet
Woman inn
The senser in both these clauses is held to be the places themselves, not “the people of
West Egdon”. This is unremarkable in itself - the use of this construction to describe
an area’s public opinion is relatively common - but in the context of the novel subtly
contributes to the sense of pathetic fallacy.
More clearly, stylistic analysis supports the impression that the landscape is a near-
human agent that, alongside fate, controls characters’ lives. The protagonists’ power
over their own actions is minimised by the structure of sentence 31:
(contentious element) mat.pro medium-t circ.
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
Why has Hardy used this material process, that provides uneccessary information
about “walking and talking” when he could have used a simpler process such as They
walked for half-an-hour to the spot in the valley where. . . or even They went to the
spot in the valley where . . . ? This figurative use of “brought” has greater implications
than merely adding variety to Hardy’s language. Grammatically, “Half-an-hour of
walking and talking” is used as a noun phrase in the subject position of the clause, that
would often contain a medium-initator or an agent. The importance of this
reconfiguration lies in it placing “them”, the mummers, in the position of the affected
element. “Half-an-hour-of walking and talking” is almost synonymous with
circumstances in general, which have brought them to the location where dramatic
events unfold. So this construction heightens the sense that the mummers are
manipulated by forces outside their control.
Eustacia’s closing scene contains a vivid image of the heath’s power over her; she
falls “as if she were drawn into the Barrow by a hand from beneath”. (???? 420). That
the heath is against her can be ascertained from the processes and participants of the
extract. In relation to the heath she is dehumanized, described in terms of her disguise,
the Turkish Night (sentence 72), and as body parts: Her boots being thinner than
those the mummers carried, the hoar had dampened her feet and made them cold. The
heath is one of the few, very specialized circumstances, that place Eustacia in the
position of medium-target. The dark image of the heath is also exemplified in a lexical
chain of types of darkness that frequently runs alongside the cohesive chain of heath
vegetation:
Heath Vegetation Darkness
the blades of grass seemed to move on with the shadows of those they
surrounded (29)
The masses of furze and to the right and left were dark as ever (30)
heath
a huge pyrocanth now darkened the greater portion [of
the front of the house] (46)
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
surrounded”. This could be paraphrased as It seemed possible that the shining facets
of frost upon the blades of grass moved on with the shadows they surrounded.
1.3 The Personification Of The Moon As A Dramatic Device
The heath’s opposite in the extract, the moon, also appears to be personified. For
example:
agent mat pro. circumstance
the moon . . . threw a spirited and enticing brightness upon the fantastic figures of the
mumming band (27)
This clause fits Toolan’s categorisation most comfortably if the moon is regarded as
an agent, as a human intentional actor who acts upon a given medium. The verb
“throwing” is an intentional action, and one most commonly used in association with
human beings. If the moon is not categorised as an agent the clause must contain two
mediums, and as “a spirited and enticing brightness” is certainly the “done-to”
element, the moon seems most sensibly categorised as a medium-iniator, another
category that Toolan reserves for human initiators of a process. The element of this
clause that is directly relevant to the plot, the position of the real human agents the
mummers, is relegated to a circumstance, further enforcing the sense that Hardy’s
interest lies in his depiction of scenery. For further evidence consider sentence 46: the
front [of the house], upon which the moonbeams directly played. In this intransitive
material process, the medium filling the subject position is certainly active, intending
and dynamic. It is far more akin to a medium-iniator than a standard medium, so is
definitely personification.
The personified moon seems connected to Eustacia. Like her, it opposes the heath,
attempting to bring brightness to it: “a mere half-moon was powerless to silver such
sable features as [the furze and heath’s] (30)”. Hardy uses similarly energetic and
positive evaluative adjectives and adverbs in descriptions of them both. The
moonlight is spirited and enticing (27) while Eustacia is enterprising (45) and does
things boldly (11) and decisively (21). The moon, implicitely, provides Eustacia with
her dramatic energy. In the rest of the novel there are many references to her “pagan
eyes” (118) and the heathfolk’s assumptions that she is a witch.
1.4 The purpose of the mummers as one element of “local colour” rather than
psychologised characters representing “real” human beings
The stylistic features of the extract define the mummers as a group rather than as
individuals with distinct personalities. Their first dialogue (sentences 2-5) discusses
their conflicting time systems, but the resultant effect is not one that stresses divergent
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
opion but sameness, albeit a rather chaotic sameness. This is because each speaker
follows an identical pattern:
Carrier Relational Attribute. Circumstance
Process
These initial lines of direct speech are also dehumanising because there is no framing
clause before or after each mummer speaks, obscuring individual identities. We can
only identify “Here’s Charley at last! How late you be, Charley” (13) as a declaration
by its grammatical markers; commas and exclamation marks. Which, or how many
mummers made the statement seems to be irrevelant.
What is the purpose of their initial lines of direct speech? They contribute
nothing to the plot, nor the actual information about time systems provided directly in
sentences 6 to 10. Hardy is content to leave their actual words aside in later
conversations, reporting them as indirect speech <GET EXAMPLE!!!!>, or even pure
narrative reports of discoursal acts, the content of which we can gather from the
dialogue that immediately follows (sentences 83-85). Direct speech is, therefore, not
used because what is said is particularly of interest, but for two dramatic purposes.
Firstly, it brings a sense of immediacy to the narrative, an in media res style
immersion rather than being told a story. It counterbalances what may be seen as
unnecessary orientation in sentences 6-10. Secondly, the exact reproduction of the
mummer’s dialect is vital to Hardy’s construction of local colour. The mummers
dialogue is consequently full of idiomatic turns of phrase. Take for example the use of
“be” instead of “are” in sentence 85.
A final element that defines the mummers as elements of local colour rather
than characterisation is the way in which Hardy records their reciting the mumming
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
play (sentences 95, 98, 102, 107, 110 and 114). This is direct speech, but marked out
as lines of verse. Unlike other forms of Victorian intertextuality – chapter epigrams or
quotations from poetry or other prose – these lines do not seem to contribute to the
tone of the plot. Instead, they emphasise the realism of the passage. The highly
unrealistic action of setting this dialogue into lines of verse draws attention to the fact
that these lines belong to a play that exists outside this text, the actual words of an old
custom, with the unfortunate side-effect of drawing attention to the extracts own
textuality as well.
2 Eustacia Vye is simultaneously an isolated outsider and a figure
who asserts great power and influence upon the other characters.
2.1 Evidence that Eustacia is the most significant character
To prove my secondary assertion it is vital to appreciate that Eustacia is the most
significant protagonist. Her perception is secondary only to the narrator’s. In fact, the
distinction between their discourses is sometimes ambiguous. Hardy switches subtly
between pure narrative and free indirect discourse to allow us to engage with
Eustacia’s desires and anxieties, in what seem to be her own words, while maintaining
his position as an omniscient narrator who can see the flaws in her schemes.
The first instance of Hardy using free indirect thought to create, as Toolan puts it
“character-alignedness” (117) is sentence 12: “Her grandfather was safe at the Quiet
Woman”. Superficially this seems to express pure narration, it simply tells us where
her grandfather is. However, the statement does not fully make sense unless it is
attributed to Eustacia. There is no reason for her grandfather to be safer in the local
public house than elsewhere; the novel has expressed no reason previously for her
grandfather to be in any danger. What it means, in fact, is that her grandfather was
safe from noticing her escapades because he was at the Quiet Woman. In other words
it is Eustacia that is “safe”. This is a conceivable anxiety for Eustacia’s, and since it
follows closely from a description of her perception, watching the assemblage through
a hole (11), it seems attributable to her. Hardy uses free indirect thought rather than
standard indirect thought – Eustacia thought that she was safe from discovery because
her grandfather was at the Quiet Woman – because it is subtler and more economical.
Also, we cannot detach it entirely from the third person narrator, implying that the
storyteller shares her point of view to some extent.
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
The use of free indirect thought is more obvious in sentences 34 and 35, though the
presence of the narrator is more keenly felt:
What was Wildeve? Interesting, but inadequate. Perhaps she would see a sufficient hero
tonight.
The first sentence, especially, is attributable to Eustacia. Hardy dismissed Wildeve
chapters ago as “one in whom no man would have seen anything to
admire, and in whom no woman would have seen anything to
dislike” (????. 93). Eustacia, however, who has had an affair with
Wildeve but detested his inability to take her to a world of fashion or
high romance, is far more likely to regard him as “interesting, but
inadequate”. The tone reflects her elevated view of herself and
melodramatic nature. The question-answer structure and ellipsis of
pronouns - he was “interesting, but inadequate” - indicate a mental
process, a character probing themselves to understand their own
motivation. The second sentence is more ambiguous however. The
prospect of seeing “a sufficient hero” that night is congruent with
Eustacia’s romanticising nature and explains her motivation in
embarking on the adventure, but it also has elements of the
narrator’s voice, tantalisingly indicating (and therefore heightening
the drama of) imminent plot developments. The sentence is perhaps
best seen as an amalgam of the two voices – Eustacia’s discourse
and the ironizing tone of a narrator who already knows that her
“sufficient hero” will lead her only to tragedy. Hardy has used the
ambiguity between pure narrative and free indirect discourse
(identified by Toolan, 113) to create an interesting literary effect. We
can empathise with Eustacia while simultaneously understanding
that her actions are mistaken.
3.1 Eustacia as an outsider
That Eustacia is an isolated outsider, a “lonesome dark eyed-creature” is
stressed by the narrator throughout the novel. In this extract a sense of exclusion is
attached to the door of Bloom’s End. This is not clear from a straightforward reading
but then, as David Lodge states “the significance of repetition in a given text is not
conditional on its being consciously and spontaneously recognised by a majority of
intelligent readers” (?????, 78). There are a surprisngly large amount of cohesive
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
statements relating to the door. My analysis identified eleven clear instances, the
largest chain of lexical cohesion for any nominal entity other than Eustacia:
i) It became at once evident that the dance was proceeding immediately within the
surface of the door (47)
ii) The brushing of skirts and elbows, sometimes the bumping of shoulders, could be
heard against the very panels (48)
iii) “Is there no passage inside the door, then?” asked Eustacia (51)
iv) The door opens right upon the front sitting-room, where the spree’s
going on” (53)
v) “we cannot open the door without stopping the dance” (54)
vi) they always bolt the back door after dark (55)
[lexical cohesion, though looser than the other instances, as the back door, by
its own modifier, must be seen in relation to the front door]
vii) imagined by these outsiders . . . from the occasional kicks of toes and heels
against the door (61)
viii) said Saint George, with his ear to the panel (71)
ix) said the Valiant Soldier, looking through the keyhole (74)
x) said Eustacia authoritatively, as she paced smartly up and down from door to gate
to warm herself. (79)
xi) Father Christmas advanced, lifted the latch, and put his head
inside the door. (91)
The frequency of repetition is not significant in itself. As Lodge states “the most
frequently recurring word in a given text is not necessarily the most significant word”
(?????, 78). It is vital the unity of this extract, however. Eustacia’s exclusion from the
rest of Egdon heath society often involves her watching others from a hidden position
– see sentence 11, but now she appears to be attempting to transgress the boundary,
represented by the door, between their customs and her.
As vii) shows, the world behind the door is one that inspires Eustacia’s
dreams, one that she considers from another mummers’ perception looking “through
the keyhole”. v) indicates that she is anxious about opening the door in such a way as
will destroy what is inside. Eustacia’s power lies in her position outside social
convention – she can only speak “authoritatively” in x) when she is firmly outside
Bloom’s End. The sense of transgressing boundaries is enhanced by a lexical chain
relating to entering, that is connected to the door and sometimes overlaps such as v)
and xi).
3.2 Eustacia as a powerful figure
Eustacia’s power is explicit in the narration. Her actions are accompanied by heroic
evaluative adverbs: boldly (11) decisively (21), triumphantly (22) and authoritatively
(79). She capably handles the demands of her adventure, expressed by the narrator’s
obligation modality: Dash being all that was required to carry her triumphantly
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
through, she adopted as much as was necessary. Eustacia asserts her authority inside
her speech. Her speech, though sometimes superficially expressions of fact, is often
evaluative. Her claim “I know the part as well as he”, for instance, demonstrates her
self-confidence. However, the real sense of Eustacia’s power is more deeply ingrained
in the text, in her participant roles.
36 material process verbs refer to Eustacia (excluding when she is incorporated as
part of a group). The majority, 23, express processes in which she is dominant. In 19
she is a medium-initiator, in four the agent. Eight of the processes dominated by
Eustacia are transitive, establishing her as the causer of events that affect other entities
or objects. The affected instances are in two cases abstractions, in two objects and in
four human beings. As Toolan has suggested, “experiential structures with the
sequence agent-material-process-medium-target, where both participants are human,
may be somewhat exceptional” (???? 93), so Eustacia’s power over the mummers is
significant:
Agent Mat. Pro. Medium-t
a cousin of Miss Vye’s come to Charley’s place
take
In all but the last sentence the process is metaphorical, and the medium-target in
sentence 15 is not strictly Charley but “the position that Charley fills”. In sentence 18
Eustacia is represented by a series of agent metonyms (through the evaluative
adjectives – graceful, elegant, dignified – only serve to increase the sense of sexual
potency at the root of much of her power over the mummers). Even so, Eustacia
constantly filling this dynamic participant role, affecting a whole group rather than
individuals. Additionally, she twice plays anotherpowerful role as an instrument or
force that affects one or more mummers:
the other mummers were delighted with the new knight
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
Eustacia is taking her dream too seriously. The first relational process, “He was there,
of course”, leaves no room for the possibility that the reality of the situation may be
different to her imagined one. It is enforced by a strong expression of probability
modality: of course. One clause later her extended imaginings are prefaced by another
piece of probability modality: Perhaps.
Just as the mummer’s investigation of Eustacia’s identity placed her in a less
powerful position, so her investigation for Clym’s true identity weakens her at the
hands of circumstance. The prospect of comparing her dream of Clym with the reality
relegates her to a subjected medium-target: She was troubled by Yeobright’s presence.
Importantly, Clym is not represented as powerful in his position as a force in this
clause, just “his presence”. Sentence 104 contains an enormous noun phrase
representing circumstance as a whole – the concentration upon her part necessary to
prevent discovery, the newness of the scene, the shine of the candles, and the
confusing effect upon her vision of the ribboned visor which hid her features – which
bear Eustacia down into the subjected position of medium-target: left her. One of the
extract’s few negative mental process phenomenona follows; Eustacia was unable to
perceive who were present as spectators. Whereas Eustacia’s cognition about fantasy
romance is fluent and melodramatic, such as in the free indirect thought of sentences
39-41, her perception of the real world is thwarted: “she could faintly discern faces,
and that was all” (105). Eustacia’s inability to reconcile her Romantic aspirations
against reality leads to her death at the end of the novel.
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
past tense in which the rest of the extract is written to the simple present – explain
why Hardy is often regarded as a pessimistic writer:
GENERIC SENTENCES ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Sentences 42 and 43, both generic, emphasise Eustacia’s heightened view of romance. It follows her
melodramatic language – “twelvemonth regulation of fire”. She elevates her position, of having passed
to courtship without acquaintance, by using an evaluative adjective to describe herself as being on a
“royal road”. <This ties in with etiquette cohesion>.
Sentences 42 and 43, both generic, emphasise Eustacia’s heightened view of romance. It follows her
melodramatic language – “twelvemonth regulation of fire”. She elevates her position, of having passed
to courtship without acquaintance, by using an evaluative adjective to describe herself as being on a
“royal road”. <This ties in with etiquette cohesion>.
Conclusion
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
19. “It don’t matter—if you be not too young,” said Saint George.
20. Eustacia’s voice had sounded somewhat more juvenile
and fluty than Charley’s.
21. “I know every word of it, I tell you,” said Eustacia decisively.
22. Dash being all that was required to carry her triumphantly through, she adopted as much as
was necessary. 23. “Go ahead, lads, with the try-over. 24. I’ll challenge any of you to find a
mistake in me.”
25. The play was hastily rehearsed, whereupon the other mummers
were delighted with the new knight. 26. They extinguished
the candles at half-past eight, and set out upon the heath
in the direction of Mrs. Yeobright’s house at Bloom’s-End.
27. There was a slight hoarfrost that night, and the moon,
though not more than half full, threw a spirited and enticing
brightness upon the fantastic figures of the mumming band,
whose plumes and ribbons rustled in their walk like
autumn leaves. 28. Their path was not over Rainbarrow now,
but down a valley which left that ancient elevation
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
a little to the east. 29. The bottom of the vale was green
to a width of ten yards or thereabouts, and the shining
facets of frost upon the blades of grass seemed to move
on with the shadows of those they surrounded. 30. The masses
of furze and heath to the right and left were dark as ever;
a mere half-moon was powerless to silver such sable
features as theirs.
39. He was there, of course. 40. Who was she that he danced with?
41. Perhaps some unknown woman, far beneath herself in culture,
was by the most subtle of lures sealing his fate this
very instant. 42. To dance with a man is to concentrate
a twelvemonth’s regulation fire upon him in the fragment
of an hour. 43. To pass to courtship without acquaintance,
to pass to marriage without courtship, is a skipping of
terms reserved for those alone who tread this royal road.
44. She would see how his heart lay by keen observation of
them all.
47. It became at once evident that the dance was proceeding immediately
within the surface of the door, no apartment intervening.
48. The brushing of skirts and elbows, sometimes the bumping
of shoulders, could be heard against the very panels.
49. Eustacia, though living within two miles of the place,
had never seen the interior of this quaint old habitation.
50. Between Captain Vye and the Yeobrights there had never
existed much acquaintance, the former having come as a
stranger and purchased the long-empty house at Mistover
Knap not long before the death of Mrs. Yeobright’s husband;
and with that event and the departure of her son
such friendship as had grown up became quite broken off.
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
51. “Is there no passage inside the door, then?” asked Eustacia
as they stood within the porch.
52. “No,” said the lad who played the Saracen. 53. “The door
opens right upon the front sitting-room, where the spree’s
going on.”
54. “So that we cannot open the door without stopping the dance.”
55. “That’s it. 56. Here we must bide till they have done,
for they always bolt the back door after dark.”
57. “They won’t be much longer,” said Father Christmas.
58. This assertion, however, was hardly borne out by the event.
59. Again the instruments ended the tune; again they
recommenced with as much fire and pathos as if it were
the first strain. 60. The air was now that one without
any particular beginning, middle, or end, which perhaps,
among all the dances which throng an inspired fiddler’s fancy,
best conveys the idea of the interminable—the celebrated
“Devil’s Dream.” 61. The fury of personal movement that was
kindled by the fury of the notes could be approximately
imagined by these outsiders under the moon, from the
occasional kicks of toes and heels against the door,
whenever the whirl round had been of more than customary velocity.
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
92. “Ah, the mummers, the mummers!” cried several guests at once.
93. “Clear a space for the mummers.”
94. Humpbacked Father Christmas then made a complete entry,
swinging his huge club, and in a general way clearing the
stage for the actors proper, while he informed the company
in smart verse that he was come, welcome or welcome not;
concluding his speech with
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
111. This was the lad who had first recognized Eustacia;
and when she now, as the Turk, replied with suitable defiance,
and at once began the combat, the young fellow took especial
care to use his sword as gently as possible. 112. Being wounded,
the Knight fell upon one knee, according to the direction.
113. The Doctor now entered, restored the Knight by giving him
a draught from the bottle which he carried, and the fight
was again resumed, the Turk sinking by degrees until
quite overcome—dying as hard in this venerable drama
as he is said to do at the present day.
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
129. It was, however, not with those who sat in the settle that
Eustacia was concerned. 130. A face showed itself with marked
distinctness against the dark-tanned wood of the upper part.
131. The owner, who was leaning against the settle’s outer end, was Clement Yeobright,
or Clym, as he was called here; she knew it could be nobody else. 132. The spectacle
constituted an area of two feet in Rembrandt’s intensest manner.
133. A strange power in the lounger’s appearance lay in
the fact that, though his whole figure was visible,
the observer’s eye was only aware of his face.
134. To one of middle age the countenance was that of a young man,
though a youth might hardly have seen any necessity
for the term of immaturity. 135. But it was really one of
those faces which convey less the idea of so many years
as its age than of so much experience as its store.
136. The number of their years may have adequately summed
up Jared, Mahalaleel, and the rest of the antediluvians,
but the age of a modern man is to be measured by the
intensity of his history.
137. The face was well shaped, even excellently. 138. But the mind within was
beginning to use it as a mere waste tablet whereon to trace its idiosyncrasies as they
developed themselves.
139. The beauty here visible would in no long time be ruthlessly
over-run by its parasite, thought, which might just as
well have fed upon a plainer exterior where there was
nothing it could harm. 140. Had Heaven preserved Yeobright
from a wearing habit of meditation, people would have said,
“A handsome man.” 141. Had his brain unfolded under sharper
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
153. The effect upon Eustacia was palpable. 154. The extraordinary
pitch of excitement that she had reached beforehand would,
indeed, have caused her to be influenced by the most
commonplace man. 155. She was troubled at Yeobright’s presence.
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
Sources Cited
Abrams, M.H. 1999 A Glossary of Literary Terms Orlando: Hardcourt Brace College
Publishers
Woodcock, George ed Hardy, Thomas 1985 The Return Of The Native (1878)
London: Penguin
Lodge
Toolan
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
(the sense of free indirect discourse is most explicit in sentence 41, that
expresses Eustacia’s anxiety about Clym dancing with another woman by using
the pronoun “herself”)
Various sentences seem to follow Eustacia’s point of view, when she is stood outside Bloom’s End and
when she is observing the guests having been “slain” in the play. Most of these (sentence 47 –48) are
pure narrative. Sentence 123 and 124 cannot be Eustacia’s free indirect thought, as human beings do
not produce an internal running commentary of what they are doing and seeing, but the viewpoint here
is undoubtedly Eustacia’s. The following conjucture about the fireplace and Clym, including an
allusion to Rembrandt, are more attributive to pure narrative and the narrator’s cultural allusions than
Eustacia.
There are 26 prepositional phrases, circumstantial to the actual processes and participants. Some of
these are extraneous.
The next evening
in the same spot
On Egdon
from scattered points
through the hole
within his visor
at half-past eight
upon the heath
in the direction of Mrs Yeobright’s house at Bloom’s End
to the front of the house
before the open porch
immediately within the surface of the door
against the very pannels
within the porch
after dark (???)
into this corner (??)
through the keyhole
from door to gate
at one end of the room
During her declamation (???)
within the chimney opening
among the flitches
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
Certainly don’t need to know that Mrs Yeobright’s house is “at Bloom’s End” – it had been there when
used frequently as a setting over the previous 184 pages. Constant orientation forces us to think about
landscape; the narrator is constantly enforcing our sense of the spatial relations of his setting. Adds
little to plot – the actions and development of character etc.
Pathetic fallacy is used to describe the wind on the heath. The sound from the
heath-bells : “it was the single person of something else speaking through each at
once”.(106). [also sense of unified self]
Hardy uses extreme pathetic fallacy here - probably the best example in the
book. Weather and nature on the heath are often given human characteristics -
the young beeches undergo “amputations, bruises, cripplings and harsh
lacerations”, they “bleed”, while “Each stem was wrenched at the root, where it
moved like a bone in its socket...as if pain were felt”. Their physical turmoil
mirrors that of Clym’s mental anguish (268/9).
Here, as with the rest of the novel characters lives are mirroring the atmosphere
and weather on the heath, e.g: storms have followed turbulence. This more than
plain pathetic fallacy - it makes nature reflect human nature. Here, the weather
has intensified in line with character’s anxieties. This overpowering discomfort
brings a feeling of foreboding.
• “The sun had branded the whole heath with his mark, even the purple heath
flowers having put on a browness”. Sense of burning (“kiln”), extremity. There is
also pathetic fallacy here, most notably in the description of “his mark”. (337)
• Pathetic fallacy, again: “a perpetual moan which one could hardly believe to be
caused by the air”. (340)
Pathetic fallacy: “I admire its grim old face”. Thomasin is at one with the heath.
(414)
Enormous pathetic fallacy and personification of heath: “oozing lumps of fleshy
fungi”. “this season lay scattered about the heath like the rotton liver and lungs
of some colossal animal” cf: “colossal” is used in “colossal prince of the world” to
describe fate. (420)
Semantically, the mummers actually fill the position of some kind of recipient here.
The clause can be paraphrased, with only a very slight shift in meaning, as the moon
threw a spirited and enticing brightness to the fantastic figures of the mumming band.
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Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
•The mummers are increasingly marked out as individuals during their interaction
with Eustacia, however. That Eustacia, “in general won the mummers to the opinion
that they had gained by the exchange, if the newcomer were perfect in his part”, does
at least seem to be narrative reportage of a discoursal act, even if it is collective,
vague (“in general”) and the most distancing fashion in which an author can convey
a thought process.
Saint George’s comment that the new Turkish Night may be too young is followed
with, by means of explanation: “Eustacia’s voice had sounded somewhat more
juvenile and fluty than Charley’s”. It is difficult to ascertain who this should be
attributed to – on the one hand it simply conveys events in a tone of pure narration,
but must also represent Saint George’s motivation – and therefore part of his thought
process – for making the comment.
Hardy’s characters often criticised as being generic, but the mummers are especially
so.
•The mummer’s opening conversation (sentences 2 to 5) is reported as direct speech,
their dialect recreated exactly inside quotation marks. However, A similarly
anonymous piece of unframed direct speech is used in sentences 66 to 68. Here
however it seems to merely serve the purpose of providing variety for Hardy’s
descriptive style. The speaker is simply explaining plot orientation that is as relevant
to the reader as it is Eustacia.
•Early in the extract, Hardy creates the impression that the mummers are not defined
by personal cognitive processes but by entrenched opinions. The first comments on
their internal workings are that
25
Candidate 316773 First Stylistics Assessed Essay: A Stylistc Analysis Of Hardy's Characterisation In
The Return Of The Native
Important sense of the vitality of non-conformity, even here where so much emphasis
is on romanticising local customs.
While Eustacia is isolated from the polite-manners of the “well-to-do” members of the party inside, she
contols convention and etiquette as far as the mummers are concerned.
Eustacia’s vitality allows her to break local custom. Saint George’s first evaluative statement: “It
doesn’t matter” is in a sense willingness modality. He is willing to break the convention – that only
local boys perform the mumming play – because it is her.
Eustacia is the first protagonist whose direct speech receives a framing clause (sentence 14). This
emphasises Eustacia’s dual identity, by referring to her as “The Turkish Night”. Though the framing
clause is pure narrative, the impression of the Knight talking through his visor is a shift from Eustacia’s
point of view to that of the mummers.
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1
George Woodcock's introduction to the Penguin Classics edition provides a summary of critical opinion.
2
A term from literary criticism for "the detailed representation in prose fiction of the setting, dialect, customs, dress, and
ways of thinking and feeling which are distinctive of a particular region" (Abrams 1999, 145). The vivid recreation of a
bygone age and its local quirks is certainly a key element of The Return Of The Native.