The piping of the shepherd : meaning as myth in the pastoral novels of Thomas Hardy

5-b-

I

Ih ^e -Pj-pl ⁿ g-of -th e-Shcpherdi-üeEl-Lng as-Mytb-1n-t-h ^{e- P as-tore}

J-Nsvels-sf

Ihs-mas-Ha¡dy'

by Dav I

d

^J

B.A.(Hons)

Blggs (Adelalde)

Subm i

fted for the

^{degree of} Master

of Arts in

^the

Deparfment

of

^{Eng I I sh}

UniversitY of

^Adelaide

FebruarY, ^{1 9BB.}

CO NT_ENT S

Summary

Declaration

Ack now I edgements

Abbreviations

lntroduction

Part 1: Hardvr s_Thouqht-and_Art

1 : Dualisn__and_Ha¡dy rs_Thought

D i st inct ion Between l.'lan and Dua I i fy and the ^Recogn lt ion Transcendence of ^Dua I I sm

viiv vlr

vllt

Nature

of

^{Amb i va I ence}

13 16 26 34

40 41 46 55 60 60 66 2 : _Na r r atjye_f n_Ha r dy ^I s_Noyels

lmpress i on ism and''Presence Selt î ng

Narratorts ^KnowIedge Narrati ve and Character

Descr I pt i ons of Character by Narrator Poinf of View

3z Nleanino in Hardvrs Novels Presence and lvleaning

Story and Mean i ng

D i scourse

Narrative 0rgan I sation Narrat i ve ^Commentary Descripfion

Story, ^D iscourse, and filean i ng

P a r I -2 ^{z _T h e_P a s to r} al- NoyeJs-of-Tþog ^{a s-H a r} dy

4z Under the Greenwood Tree

Un der-the-Greenj¿osd-Tree as ^{Pasf ora I} Dick and Fancy

Maybold and the Qulre

The Rural Conrmunity as Nature Nature

I'larrator and Characters The _Quire

Fancy Maybo I

lnvasi ^don

71 71 74 1B 79 B2 B4 B5

91 91

95 99 101 108 112 113 115 118

as a It4yth of Socíal Relations 120

!: -Far-fron-th ^{e-Ma d} ding-Crou-d

Far-frorn-tbe-Meddj¡g-Crgif d as ^{Pastora I} Sett i ng and the Rura I -Urban ^Contrasf 0akts ReIatIonship to Nature

Schematic Portrayal of ^Character

Bo I dwood

Bathsheba Tr oy

0akSympathy versus ^Judgement

é

:

The-Return-e.fjhe-NEt-Lve

The Refrrrn of the Native and Pastoral l: Schematic Reading

Lawrence and Egdon

Character and Nature

I I : ^rrA lternati verr ^Read lng Heath and Narrator

Heath and Characfer Eustac Ia

Clym Venn

Pagan i sm of th e ^{Nove I}

7 : _Thc-[qqdla ^{n d e r s}

The-Wqod-LEnders as ^{Pastora I}

H i

ntock

and

the

^Dua

I

^{PersPect í ve}

Literal

Symbo I i c

Characfer

as

Reason-Pass lon Gi

les

Winterborne

Edred

Fltzplers

Grace Me I bury

The rrUnfulfl _I

led

lntentlonrl

Cqn cluslqn

Sc_Lest_Bibl-Lsgraphy

l: Works by Thomas Hardy

2z Biographlcal

3: Book Length Studies 4: Co I I ect Ion s of ^Es says

5z lndividual ^Essays 6z 0ther Works Cited

128 128 110 133 137 139 143 150 156 160

168 168 170 170 175 182 183 184 185 192 197 202

206 206 207 209 210 212 213

221

223 229

241

253 253 254 255 258 258 262

IV

SUMMARY

The a lm of the thes i s i s to demonstrate how

narratlve technîques ln the pastoral novels of Thomas

Hardy suggest in iti al schematic read ings wh ich on close

ana I ys i s have the status of myth rather than truth. ^The argument fal ls into two parts.

Firsf, ¡t is suggested that the underlylng basls of the schemes of the novels ls to be found ln the ^apparent dual lsm of Hardyrs thought, whích on closer readlng is seen to be a representation of all-pervaslve conf lict rather than an account of its orlgin. The dual ism of the

human perspective is seen to be a function of ^manfs

I lmited knowledge, the notlon of consclousness as foreign to the nafura I wor ^I d be I ng transcended by the notion of evolution of the rrlmmanent _{lq/¡ I} lrr. The narrative

techn I ques of Hardy ^t s narrator are then shown to re I y on

a subjectlvlty which denies essentlal coherence ln the texts. The contradlctory aspects of narration undermine

apparently clear schematic readings of the texfs and lead

to a recognitlon of essential confl ict in the world ^of the novels. The in ltial readlng retalns the status of myth as a representation of conf llcf ln slmple binary ferms, the read I ng process thus be I ng ana I ogous to the growth of Hardyrs frphi losophyrr.

The second part of the thes i s cons I sts of read I ngs

of ^{Hardy I} s ^ttpastora lrr nove ls (Iln_de¡_the_Green![a-ed_TrcC, Ear-f¡oro-1.¡[e-Ma ^d d.Lng-Cr-at-d, Ihe-BetLr-l[-af-the-Na11ve, ^{a n d}

The_l,loodlanders), demonstraf ing the breakdown of ln itial schematic readlngs in terms of nature ^and culture,

slmpl icity and sophisticafion, and passion and reason.

The dual ism wh ich underl les these ^read ings and suggests classl flcatlon of the novels as pastoral is also ^shown to ^become more explicitly central to the texts as ^the analogous divlsions in the earlier novels are undermined.

The readlng of Ihe-ftsodlan-de¡s shows lt to be explicitly concerned with mants apparent dualism in terms ^of

consclousness and unconsclousness, and with the fai lure of this concept to account for suffering ln terms ^of origln. ln the flnal analysis the novels suggest that manrs reasoning is incapable of explanatlon, but ^is capable only of representatlon.

V¡

Thls thesls contalns

no

materlal

^wh

lch

has been

accepted

for the

award

of

any

other

degree

or

dlploma ⁱⁿ any

Unlverslty.

To

lhe best of

my knowledge and bel

lef,

¡t contalns

no

materlal

^prevlousl

y

^publ lshed

or

^wr

ltten by

any

other

person, except where due

reference ls

^made

ln the text.

I

consent

to this thesls

belng made

avallable

photocopy ¡ ng and ^I oan i

f

accepted

for the

^{award of}

degree.

Slgned ^Da te _!_t _2. ^{/ frÐs.}

for

the

VÎ i

ACKNOITED.GEUENIS

I

would I

lke to

thank

the staff of the

Department of

Engllsh for thelr help during

research

for this thesis.

ln partlcular, I

wish

to

express ^my

gratitude to

^my

superv

lsors, Dr.

^Dav

ld

^Sm

lth

and

Mr.

Tony ^{S I}

ade, for thelr patlent

asslstance and

advice,

and esPeclal

ly for thelr

own

contlnulng

enthuslasm

for Hardy. I also

^thank

other

^members

of

staf

f for thelr general

^f

riendllness

^and

for

^{the I}

r

^comments on aspects

of parts of

th i

s

^{thes I} s.

My deepest thanks

are to

my ^w i

fe,

^{He I}

en, for

her

patlence and

lnterest, both in dlscusslng

^{Hardy and ln}

of fer ^I ng much construct i ve cr

it

^{I c I sm}

of the

thes I

s.

^Most

of

al

I I

thank

her for lntroduclng

^me

to

Hardy.

viii

ABBRET I ATIQNS

Al

I

references

to

Hardyts novels

are to

^The-Neu

Ues sex-Edit-Lqn_of-the-Nayels-af-fhsne.S-Hêf

dy,

^ed

.

^{P. N.}

Furbank

et al,,

14 vo

ls

^{( London: Macm i I lan}

,

¹⁹⁷⁵⁾

.

^Th is

edltlon

was

flrst published ln

^paperback

by

Macmlllan in

1974-5, ôñd

it

should be noted

that the paglnation of

the two forms var

les,

^{a I} though

the texts are the

^same.

References

to the poetry are fo

The-Qamp.lete-Pqcns gf-Thomas-Hardy,

êd.

^James Gibson (London: Macmlllan,

1976), and

are by

poem-

rather than

page-number.

The

following abbreviations are

^used:

CP

EMC HE

Ju ^de

Lj-f€

Mavo r

RN

Tess

TM

TI

UGI

-

-

The-cemp.lcf e-Poe¡ns-of-Ih-amas-Hardy -

-

^F ar_fron_thc_Maddlng-eroud

--

The_HEn-d_qf_Ethe1þe¡ta

--

Judclhe_QÞsc-ure

F I orence ^Em I I

y

Hardy, Thc_Llfe_qf_Ihomas Har-dv-l840-1929 (London: Macml I

lan,

^{1962) .}

-

-

Thc-Maye-c-af-Casf e¡þr-Ld ge -

-

The_Retur¡_af_tic_Nat-Lve

-

-

Tess_of_the_-d ^t g¡þery]l_les

--

The_frt¿üpet_MaJor

--

The_Heodlan ^d e.rs

-

-

^Und e¡_the_ç¡9e!tr.qe_d_kee