Novel 1 Ma

MA English Part 1
Paper 3 (Novel) All Important notes

Pride and Prejudice All Important Questions
 Irony in Pride and Prejudice
 Jane Austen’s Art of Characterization
 Jane Austen’s Limited Range
 Pride and Prejudice: Title
 Theme of Love and Marriage in Pride and Prejudice
The Return of the Native All Important Questions
 Egdon Heath and its Significance
 Hardy’s Philosophy or Tragic Vision of Life
 Main themes in “The Return of the Native”
 Role of Chance and Coincidence in “The Return of the Native”
 Role of Chance and Fate in the Novel “The Return of the Native”
 The Role of Fate in “The Return of the Native”
 Thomas Hardy Philosophy of Life
A Tale of Two cities All Important Questions
 A Tale of Two cities As a Historical Novel
 Main Themes in the Novel "A Tale of Two Cities"
 Symbolism in the Novel A Tale of Two Cities
Adam Bede All Important Questions
 The Character sketch of Hetty Sorrel
 George Eliot As a Psychological NovelistGeorge Eliot’s Art of
Characterization
 Themes in the Novel “Adam Bede”
Notes Prepared By Prof. Tahir Islam

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Pride and Prejudice

All Important Questions
Irony in Pride and Prejudice
Irony is the very soul of Jane Austen’s novels and “Pride and Prejudice” is steeped in irony of
theme, situation, character and narration. Irony is the contrast between appearance and reality.
As one examines “Pride and Prejudice”, one is struck with the fact of the ironic significance
that pride leads to prejudice and prejudice invites pride and both have their corresponding virtues
bound up within them. Each has its virtues and each has its defects. They are contradictory and
the supreme irony is that intricacy, which is much deeper, carries with it grave dangers unknown
to simplicity. This type of thematic irony runs through Jane Austen’s entire novel.
In “Pride and Prejudice” there is much irony of situation too, which provides a twist to the
story. Mr. Darcy remarks about Elizabeth that:
“Tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me…”
We relish the ironical flavour of this statement much later when we reflect that the woman who
was not handsome enough to dance with was really good enough to marry. He removes Bingley
from Netherfield because he considers it imprudent to forge a marriage alliance with the Bennet
Family, but himself ends up marrying the second Bennet sister.
Collins proposes to Elizabeth when her heart is full of Wickham and Darcy proposes to her
exactly at the moment when she hates him most. Elizabeth tells Mr. Collins that she is not the
type to reject the first proposal and accept the second but does exactly this when Darcy proposes
a second time. The departure of the militia from Meryton was expected to put an end to Lydia's
flirtations, it brings about her elopement. The Lydia-Wickham episode may seem like an
insurmountable barrier between Elizabeth and Darcy, but is actually instrumental in bringing
them together. Lady Catherine, attempting to prevent their marriage only succeeds in hastening
it.
Irony in character is even more prominent than irony of situation. It is ironical that Elizabeth
who prides herself on her perception is quite blinded by her own prejudices and errs badly in
judging intricate characters. Wickham appears suave and charming but is ironically unprincipled
rouge. Darcy appears proud and haughty but ironically proves to be a true gentleman when he
gets Wickham to marry Lydia by paying him.
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The Bingley Sisters hate the Bennets for their vulgarity but are themselves vulgar in their
behaviour. Darcy is also critical of the ill-bred Bennet Family but ironically his Aunt Catherine is
equally vulgar and ill-bed. Thus, the novel abounds in irony of characters.
The narrative of “Pride and Prejudice” too has an ironic tone which contributes much verbal
irony. Jane Austen’s ironic tone is established in the very first sentence of the novel.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be
in want of a wife.”
As Dorothy Van Ghent remark, what we read in it is opposite – a single woman must be in want
– of a man with a good fortune. There is much verbal irony in the witty utterances of Mrs.
Bennet. He tells Elizabeth:
“Let Wickham be your man. He is pleasant fellow and would jilt you creditable …”
In the words ‘pleasant fellow’ is hidden a dramatic irony at the expense of Mr. Bennet, for
Wickham is destined to make a considerable dent in Mr. Bennet's complacency.
Jane Austen did not show any cynicism or bitterness in using her irony to draw satirical portraits
of whims and follies. Rather her irony can be termed comic. It implies on her side an
acknowledgement of what is wrong with people and society. It is interesting to note that
ironically, in “Pride and Prejudice”, it is the villainous character Wickham and lady Catherine –
who are responsible for uniting Elizabeth and Darcy.
She uses irony to shake her major figures of their self-deception and to expose the hypocrisy and
pretentiousness, absurdity and insanity of some of her minor figures. It is definitely possible to
deduce from her works a scheme of moral values. Andrew II Wright rightly points out that irony
in her hands is ‘the instrument of a moral vision’.
Jane Austen’s Art of Characterization

The range of Jane Austen’s characters is rather narrow. She selects her characters from among
the landed gentry in the countryside. She omits the servants and the labourers. They appear
wherever they are needed but they are usually not heard. Aristocracy also is hardly touched and
if taken, it is only to satirize. Lady Catherine in “Pride and Prejudice” is arrogant, pretentious,
stupid and vulgar. Austen finds herself at home only with the country gentry and their usual
domestic interests.
In spite of such a limited range , Austen never repeats her characters. Lord David Cecil says:
“In her six books, she ever repeats a single character … There is all the difference in the world
between the vulgarity of Mrs. Bennet and the vulgarity of Mrs. Jennings.”
Though these characters are so highly individualized , yet they have a touch of universality. Thus
Marianne becomes the representative of all romantic lovers while Wickham represents all
pleasant-looking but selfish and unprincipled flirts.
Austen usually presents her characters dramatically through their conversation, actions and
letters. Darcy and Wickham, Lydia and Caroline are much revealed through their actions, while
Collins and Lydia are revealed through their letters. A direct comment is sometimes added. The
mean understanding of Mrs. Bennet and the sarcastic humour of Mr. Bennet have already been
revealed in their dialogues before the direct comment of the novelist. Similarly before she tells us
about Mr. Collins, we have already become aware from his letter that he is not a sensible man.
Though Jane Austen does not conceive her characters in pairs yet her characters are revealed
through comparison and contrast with others. Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennet balance each
other in their vulgarity and match-making drills. Wickham serves a contrast to Darcy while
Bingley is a foil to him. Elizabeth’s is compared and contrasted with Jane and Caroline Bingley.
Austen builds character through piling an infinite succession of minute details about them. In
“Pride and Prejudice”, the Elizabeth-Darcy relationship is traced through minute details, details
which look trivial and insignificant in the first instance but whose significance is realized only
after reading the novel.
Austen is a great realist in art. Her characters are creatures of flesh and blood, pulsating with
vitality. She studies her characters kindly but objectively. Regarding their appearance, she treats
them quite generally, fixing them with a few bold strokes. She is constant in providing details
about their outlook, attitude, manner and accomplishments.
Austen’s characters are neither embodiment of virtue nor pure villains but real human beings
both pleasant and disgusting. Elizabeth is perceptive but her perception is sullied by her initial
prejudices. In contrast Wickham has so much charm that it is rather difficult to detest him.
Jane Austen’s minor figures are flat. They do not grow and are fully developed when we first
meet them. As the action progresses our first impressions of them get confirmed. Mrs. Bennet
seems to be stupefied and vulgar right from the first scene. Her appearance at the Netherfield
Park or her reaction to Lydia’s elopement confirms her stupidity and vulgarity. This is true of
almost all of her minor figures.
But her major characters are ever changing, ever growing. Usually self-deceived in initial stages,
they are capable of understanding, growth and maturity. They are complex, dynamic and
intricate. Her heroines, blinded by ego, vanity or over-confidence, commit gross errors and suffer
bitter reverses. But by virtue of their insight they are gradually disillusioned and, thus, grow.
Minor or major all characters created by Jane Austen may be described as round inasmuch as
they are all three-dimensional. E. M. Forster brings out this point quite admirably:
“All her characters are round or capable of rotundity … They have all their proper places and
fill other several stations with great credit … All of them are organically related to their
environment and to each other.”
Thus touched by the magic wand of Jane Austen’s art, even the fool and bore of real life became
amusing figures. The pompous stupidity of Mrs. Collins and the absurdity and vulgarity of Mrs.
Bennet should in real life, prove as irritating to us as to Elizabeth and Darcy. But even these
characters become such a rich source of mirth and entertainment.
Still there are a few characters that do not look enough life-like or relevant. Mary Bennet fails to
impress, nor is she even vital to the story. Jane Fairfax in “Emma” is shadowy. Margaret is
“Sense and Sensibility” never comes to life. But these minor failures do not detract much from
her reputation as one of the greatest delineators of characters.
Jane Austen’s Limited Range

Jane Austen as a novelist has stringently set her limits which she seldom oversteps. She was
amazingly aware of which side her genius lay and she exploited it accordingly without any false
notions of her capabilities or limitations. As Lord David Cecil points out, she very wisely stayed
"within the range of her imaginative inspiration."
Her imaginative inspiration was as severely limited as, for example, Hardy's or Arnold
Bennett's.
Her themes, her characters, her background setting -everything has a well-etched range within
which she works, and works exquisitely. Jane Austen herself referred to her work as
“Two inches of ivory.”
In a letter to her niece, Fanny Knight, Jane Austen wrote,
“Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on.”
Although she works on a very small canvas, yet she has widened the scope of fiction in almost
all its directions. Her stories are mostly indoor actions where only family matters are discussed.
However, her plots are perfect and characterization is superb.
Critics have labeled her novels belonging to a narrow range of themes and characterization.
Even in her limited world, Austen restricts herself to the depiction of a particular class of country
gentry. She excludes the matters of lower class and hardly touches aristocracy. For instance, she
has discussed Lady Catherine only for the purpose of satire. The same sort of story is repeated,
subject matters are very much the same in all her novels, confined to the landed gentry –
Servants, laborers and yeomanry rarely appear in her novels.
Her nephew James Austen-Leigh, alludes to her limited range:
“She was always careful not to meddle with matters with which she did not thoroughly
understand”
There is no terrible happening in Jane Austin’s novels. Everything happens in a civilized manner.
The extreme severity in “Pride and Prejudice” is elopement of Lydia with Wickham.
Charlotte Bronte was constrained to observe about Jane Austen:
Charlotte Bronte believes that Jane Austen is not concerned with the deep morals and she is an
author of the surface only:
“Her business is not half so much with the human heart as with the human eye, mouth, hands and
feet.”
Andrew H. Wright points out that there is very little religion discussed in her novels, politics is
not mentioned too. There are no adventures found in her books, no abstract ideas and no
discussion of spiritual or metaphysical issues.
Macaulay declares that her characters are commonplace,
“yet they are all as perfectly discriminated from each other as if they were the most eccentric of
human beings.”
Sir Walter Scott appreciates the precision of her Art and its merit:
“That young lady has a talent for describing the involvement of feelings and characters of
ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I have ever met with.”
G.H. Lewes pays glowing tribute to her:
“First and foremost, let Jane Austen be named, the greatest artist that has ever written....”
Pride and Prejudice like her other novels has a narrow physical setting in which she lived. The
story revolves around Netherfield, Longbourn, Hunsford, Meryton and Pemberley. It seems to be
an irony of the history that when the Romantic Poets were discovering the beauties of nature,
Jane Austen confined her characters within the four walls of the drawing room. Her heroines also
famously never leave the family. Edward Fitzgerald states:
“She never goes out of the Parlour.”
Jane Austen’s limitations stemmed from the choice of her themes: love, marriage and courtship.
All of her six novels deal with same theme of love and marriage. There are pretty girls waiting
for eligible bachelors to be married to.
Another limitation is the feminization of her novels. Men do not appear except in the company of
women. All the information about Darcy is proved through Elizabeth’s point of view. Hence, the
reader looks at Darcy through Elizabeth’s eye however her novels are profound in the
psychological delineation of her characters. She is able to capture superbly, the subtlety of
thoughts and reflexes of her characters. We can sum up above discussion in the words of
Virginia Woolf:
“Jane Austen is the mistress of a much deeper emotion than appears on the surface.”
Pride and Prejudice: Title

Pride and Prejudice was first written in 1797 under the title “First Impressions”. It was later
revised and published under the title “Pride and Prejudice” in 1813.
In the novel, first impressions do play an important part: Elizabeth is misled in her judgment and
estimation of both Darcy and Wickham. Her regard and sympathy for Wickham and her hostility
and prejudice against Darcy are due to the first impressions. But when we study the novel deeply
andseriously we can easily see that the title “Pride and Prejudice” is more apt and more befitting
to it. The first impressions which the character gets of each other take up only the first few
chapters. The novel is more about the pride of Darcy and the prejudice of Elizabeth and the
change of attitude in Darcy and Elizabeth’s correction of her first impression.
At the apparent level, we see that Darcy embodies pride – he is possessed by family pride. As
Wickham tells Elizabeth that he has a “filial pride”, in his “father and brotherly pride in his
sister Georgiana” Darcy himself says that his pride consists in caring for none beyond his own
family circle, thinking mean of all the rest of the world.
There is no doubt that Darcy is a proud man. Nothing can excuse his remark about Elizabeth,
“… tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me”
nor, indeed, the statement that
“my good opinion once lost is lost forever”.
His first appearance is insolent and we tend to agree with Mrs. Bennet’s complaint that
“He walked here and he walked there, fancying himself so very great”.
The set-down comes at Hansford personage, which is the climax of Darcy’s pride and
Elizabeth’s prejudice. In this scene, Darcy lays his proud heart at her feet and learns what she
thinks of him. He admits that he remained blind to the faults of Lady Catherine and Miss Bingley
and was thinking mean of those beneath him in social standing.
Elizabeth feels that Darcy is all pride. Having been prejudiced against him by his refusal to
dance with her, she willfully misinterprets all his utterances, all his actions. Her prejudice clouds
her usually clear judgment and she listens to Wickham’s biased account of Darcy with complete
belief and declares Darcy to be ‘abominable’ (thoroughly unpleasant). Blinded by prejudice she
rejects his proposal.
It is at Rosings that their process of self-discovery starts. At Netherfield Park,Elizabeth’s family

– her mother and her sisters have seemed vulgar and ill-bred . At Rosings, Darcy is embarrassed
by the vulgarity of his aunt Lady Catharine and realizes that refinement of manners is not the
monopoly of the elite. His lesson is complete by Elizabeth’s rejection of his proposal and her
rejection makes him realize his misplaced pride. This excessive love for Elizabeth forces him to
write an explanatory letter to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth’s moment of self-awakening comes on receiving of Darcy’s letter. Learning the truth
about Wickham, she realizes her own blindness and prejudice in judging Darcy and Wickham on
mere first impressions. Now she is also able to see the validity of some of his objections to Jane
and Bingley marriage. At Pemberely, she learns about Darcy’s austerity of manner. Now the
Lydia-Wickham episode brings the final reconciliation. This overwhelms Elizabeth and she
recognizes that Darcy is exactly the man who, in disposition and talents, will most suit her.
However, to say that Darcy is proud and Elizabeth is prejudiced is to tell but half the story. The
fact is both Darcy and Elizabeth are proud as well as prejudiced. The novel makes clear the fact
that Darcy’s pride leads to prejudice and Elizabeth’s prejudice stems superiority and refinement
and this leads him to have a general prejudice against people beneath him in the social hierarchy.
Elizabeth’s prejudice on the other hand stems from his pride. Both suffer from the faults of pride
and prejudice, but they are also the necessary defects of desirable merits: self-respect and
intelligence.
It is true that Jane and Bingley are not the part of the theme of Pride and Prejudice but their love
is an important link in the novel and without it the story cannot be complete. Jane is the
specimen of faultless beauty and she is free from willing to see good in everyone. Similarly
Bingley is easy going and friendly. Both Jane and Bingley are simple characters and are not
sufficiently profound. It is the intricate characters of Darcy and Elizabeth that hold our interest
and exemplify the title of the novel, “Pride and Prejudice”.
Darcy and Elizabeth are of course, the pivotal characters but the subsidiary characters also tend
to demonstrate further aspects of the main themes. Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a hilarious
caricature (extremely funny) of the same faults of pride and prejudice. Mr. Collins is a mixture of
obsequiousness and pride. He is a sycophant, and out and out flatterer of Lady Catherine. Mrs.
Bennet has a pride in her daughters and in her stupidity develops a prejudice against Darcy. Miss
Bingley herself and her sister Mrs. Hurst are the mixture of pride and impertinence.
The title Pride and Prejudice is thus, very apt and points to the theme of the novel. The novel
goes beyond a mere statement of first impressions and explores in depth the abstract qualities of
pride and prejudice. This theme is worked out not only through the characters of Darcy and
Elizabeth but also through various minor characters. It is a title which does complete justice to
the theme and subject of the novel.
Theme of Love and Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular novels of Jane Austen due to its multi-
dimensional versatility of themes. Andrew H. Wright remarks:
“She (Jane Austen) develops themes of the broadest significance; the novels go beyond social
record, beneath the didactic, to moral concern, perplexity and commitment”
One of the most important themes of Pride and Prejudice, love and marriage, is also the central
theme of the novel. The oft-quoted opening sentence of the novel demonstrates this basic theme:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be
in want of a wife”
Though, marriage is the end of Jane Austen’s novel, yet it evolves more than the conclusion of a
simple love story. There is a depth, variety and seriousness in Jane’s treatment of these topics.
Marriage was an important social concern in Jane Austen’s time and she was fully aware of the
disadvantages of remaining single. In a letter to her niece, Fanny Knight, she wrote:
"Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor - which is a very strong argument in
favour of matrimony."
The only option for unmarried woman in Jane Austen’s time was to care for someone else’s
children as Jane Austen herself did; as there were no outlets for women.
The novels of Jane Austen’s – especially “Pride and Prejudice” – dramatize the economic
inequality of women, showing how women had to marry undesirable mates in order to gain some
financial security.
The theme of love and marriage is one of the major themes in “Pride and Prejudice”. Through
five marriages, Jane Austen defines good and bad reasons for marriage. Charlotte – Collins,
Lydia – Wickham, Jane – Bingley and Elizabeth – Darcy are the four newly-weds. The old
marriage is that of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet.
Mrs. and Mr. Bennet are poles apart in their natural attitude. Mr. Bennet is sharp and witty. Mrs.
Bennet is vulgar and discreet. Together they constitute a very ill-matched couple.
“Her father, captivated by youth and beauty … had married a woman whose weak
understanding
and liberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her.”
Mr. Bennet married for beauty. Soon he realized that Mrs. Bennet, due to her intellectual
bankruptcy and narrow vision, would not make him an ideal wife.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet never enjoyed the marital bliss of emotional and intellectual understanding.
The gulf between them had widened. Mr. Bennet becomes lazy and irresponsible and an odd
mixture of ‘sarcastic humour, and caprice’. He mocks Mrs. Bennet and exposes her to the
scorn of their five daughters. The disadvantages of such marriage attend the daughters also.
Elizabeth and Jane become what they are almost. Mary becomes a vain. Lydia grows into a
selfish and deceitful flirt who elopes with a selfish and corrupt rake. The stupid and weak-
spirited Kitty follows Lydia's example and flirts with the military officers.
Charlotte and Collins are the first to get married. Collins, after, having a very good house and
very sufficient income, intends to marry. He visits the Bennets to choose a wife among the
Bennet girls. He sets out in detail his reasons for marriage:
“First … it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances to set the example of
matrimony in his parish. Secondly … it will add very greatly to my happiness, and thirdly … that
is particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of
calling patroness”
Mr. Collins does not have any respect and affection for the girl he intends to marry. So, Elizabeth
declines the proposal. Collins shifts contentedly to Charlotte who is herself eager to accept his
proposal.
“Mr. Collins … was neither sensible nor agreeable … But still he would be her husband …
marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated
young women of small fortune.”
Obviously Charlotte also does not think of love. She accepts Mr. Collins under economic
pressure, knowing that she is going to marry an ass. Elizabeth is shocked at Charlotte’s
engagement. Charlotte defends herself by saying:
“I am not romantic you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home.”
The next to be married are Wickham and Lydia. They elope before they get married.
Compatibility and understanding are once again absent. Lydia is captivated by the external
glamour of Wickham’s personality. She thinks, she is in love with him but she is only infatuated.
“They were always moving from place to place in quest of a cheep situation, and always
spending more then they ought. His affection for her soon sunk into indifference; hers lasted a
little longer.”
Jane and Bingley are sincerely in love with each other. Between them exists a great emotional
compatibility. By nature, both are sweet and gentle, free from malice, ill will, affectation and
duplicity, calm, unsuspecting, simple and willing to forgive readily. There is every likelihood
that they will lead a happy married life.
Still, their marriage is timidly weak. Bingley is too weak-willed that in spite of loving Jane
deeply, he does not take any initiative. Their temperamental harmony lacks the strengthening
support of intellectual understanding and maturity.
“Still they will be happy because Bingley is too good to offend consciously and Jane is too good
not to forgive even any offense.”
Elizabeth marries last and most desirably. When Darcy makes his first proposal, he had no
doubts of a favorable answer. He acted as if he was offering prize which no sensible woman can
refuse.
All the other characters believe Darcy to be a prize and that Elizabeth is falling for his wealth.
Elizabeth rejects his proposal but accepts it for the second time.
Elizabeth and Darcy begin with prejudices and gradually move towards understanding. Elizabeth
helps Darcy to shed his pride and be really the gentleman. Darcy in turn acts nobly and
generously to win her love. Mutual affection and regards developed between them that form the
basis of a sound marriage.
“It was a union that must have been to the advantage of both”
Elizabeth has to assure that she loves and respects Darcy. Love and respect count most in a
marital union, and having secured both, Elizabeth does not make any false or exaggerated
statement when she says half-mockingly:
“It is settled between us already that we are to be the happiest couple in the world.”
Thus it is true that the chief preoccupation of Jane Austen’s heroines is getting married and life is
a matrimonial game as women in her times had no other option of business or profession open to
them. However, marriage is not treated merely as a romantic end. Rather it is dealt with a depth
variety and seriousness to highlight ‘good’ marriage based on mutual understanding, love, good
sense and respect.
The Return of the Native

Egdon Heath and its Significance
One of the most prominent figures in Hardy’s The Return of the Native is not a human character,
but the physical landmark- Egdon Heath. The heath's central role is obvious from the beginning.
The novel opens with an extensive description of the heath at dusk. Hardy begins by saying:
“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”.
Even though the main story focuses on the relationships between Eustacia Vye, Clym Yeobright,
Wildeve and Thomasin, the Heath is the central figure. Many of the events occur on or around
Egdon Heath, and equally as important- all of the characters have their own special relationship
with the heath.It is “A Face on which Time makes but little Impression”. The nature of human
beings is fleeting and insignificance as compared to the permanence of the heath. Avrom
Fleishman in "The Buried Giant of Egdon Heath" regards Egdon Heath as a figure "in both
narrative senses of 'figure,' as a person and as a trope".
Hardy says:
“The heath becomes full of watchful intentness. When other things sank brooding to sleep, the
Heath appeared slowly to awake and listen”
The Return of the Native has been called “The Book of Egdon Heath”. Hardy does an award-
winning job at extensively describing Egdon heath for his readers. He even brings the heath
alive:
“The somber stretch of rounds and hollows seemed to rise and meet the evening gloom in pure
sympathy, the heath exhaling darkness as rapidly as the heavens precipitated it.”
The heath proves physically and psychologically important throughout the novel: characters are
defined by their relation to the heath, and the weather patterns of the heath. Indeed, it almost
seems as if the characters are formed by the heath itself: Diggory Venn, red from head to toe, is
an actual embodiment of the muddy earth; Eustacia Vye seems to spring directly from the Heath,
a part of Rainbarrow itself, when she is first introduced; Wildeve's name might just as well refer
to the wind-whipped heath itself. But, importantly, the Heath manages to defy definition. It is, in
chapter one, "a place perfectly accordant with man's nature." The narrator's descriptions of the
Heath vary widely throughout the novel, ranging from the sublime to the gothic.
Hardy’s description of the Heath has “a symbolic overtone with philosophy”. “It had a lonely
face suggesting tragical possibilities” It neither ghastly, not hateful, common place, tame, but it
is like man slighted and enduring. Egdon is the premier and most extended instance of Hardy’s
habitual personification of Nature. Hardy himself lived on the fringes of Egdon Heath and was
perfectly with this environment. In no other novel of his does background come up as lively and
breathing as The Return of the Native.
“Egdon is a protagonist of Return of the Native”, says Walter Allen. Egdon influences all the
characters moving them to love or hate, to despair or to the philosophic mind and they are
described in relation to their environment. When Clym moves out of his mother’s house, the fir
and beech trees are described to be
“suffering more demage than during the highest winds of winter … the wasting sap would bleed
for many days to come”.
The two most resistatant characters to the Heath are clearly Eustacia and Wildeve; their intense
disgust is revealed in their conversation:
“You hate the Heath as much as ever; that I know”
“I do … ‘Tis my cross, my misery, and will be my death.”
It is ironic when Eustacia says that she is setting for his fatal journey. We also get an insight to
the way Eustacia is feeling through the storm when Hardy says,
“Never was harmony more perfect than that between the chaos of her mind and the chaos of the
world without.” Hardy describes her as “the raw material of a divinity”
Whose
“celestial imperiousness, love, wrath, and fervour had proved to be somewhat thrown away on
netherward Egdon.”
Clym, unlike, Eustacia, is the product of Egdon and its shaggy hills are friendly and congenial to
him. Heath swallows him up and absorbs him into its furze and other creatures.
The way Hardy describes Clym when he is out on the Heath working is like something from
Snow Wight, with “Amber coloured butterflies” and the “Emerald-green grasshoppers.” If
Clym is the child of heath, Eustacia is haunted by the heath, the reddleman haunts the heath. He
knows every nook and corner of heath. The heath does irreparable damage to Mrs. Yeobright and
kills her. Thomasin thinks it an impersonal open ground. She calls it “a ridiculous old place.”
But confesses that she could live nowhere else.
At the very last, Egdon is shown to be inhospitable to man, as remarks D.H. Lawrence:
“Egdon whose dark soil was strong and crude and organic as the body of a beast”
The dark-spirit of nature seems to be ready to engulf the whole scenario.
When human figures do finally appear, they seem insignificant against the backdrop of the
indifferent, ruthless, Egdon Heath. Many times during the course of the story, for instance, Clym
will be shown to appear like a tiny insect moving across the face of nature. These elements—the
heath as a setting and a symbol, and the way the main characters are shown in relation to their
surroundings—demonstrate Hardy’s theme:
“Man lives his life in a universe that is at least indifferent to him and may be hostile."
Hardy’s Philosophy or Tragic Vision of Life

Hardy, the novelist, was essentially a poet and an artist rather than a philosopher. Hardy was
primarily a story-teller and should be viewed more as chronicler of moods and deeds than a
philosopher. He repeatedly affirmed that the 'Views' expressed in his novels were not his
convictions or beliefs; they were simply "impressions" of the moment. In The Return of the
Native, Hardy proves a dismal view of life in which coincidence and accident conspire to
produce the worst of circumstance due to the indifference of the Will.
In order to understand Hady’s philosophy, we should have a fair idea of Hardy’s biography.
Hardy lived in an age of transition. The industrial revolution was in the process of destroying the
agricultural life, and the subsequent shifting of population caused a disintegration of rural
customs and traditions. It was a period when fundamental beliefs — religious, social, scientific,
and political — were shaken to their core and brought in their stead the "ache of modernism."
The new philosophies failed to satisfy the emotional needs of many people. As a young man,
Hardy read Darwin's Origin of the Species and Essays and Reviews (the manifesto of some
radical clergymen), both of which influenced Hardy’s attitude toward religion profoundly. He
found it difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile the idea of a beneficent and benevolent,
omnipotent, and omniscient deity with the fact of omnipresent evil and the persistent tendency of
circumstances toward unhappiness.
Hardy's novels can be best understood in the light of the author's fatalistic outlook on life, for
Hardy fluctuates between fatalism and determinism. Fatalism is a view of life which
acknowledges that there is some malignant power that controls the universe, and which is out to
thwart and defeat men in their plans. It is especially hostile to them who try to assert themselves
and have their own way. Determinism, on the other hand, acknowledges that man's struggle
against fate is futile and man is but puppet in the hands of destiny. In Tess of D’urbervilles, we
are told that,
“Justice was done, and President of Immortals (in Aeschylean phrase) had ended his sport with
Tess.”
In The Return of the Native, Hardy again reminds us that,
“What a sport for Heaven this woman Eustacia was!”
In Hardy's novels, then, Fate appears in the form of chance and coincidence, nature, time and
woman. None is Fate itself, but rather all of these are manifestations of the Immanent Will.
Fateful incidents are the forces working against men in their efforts to control their destinies. In
addition, Fate appears in the form of nature as a powerful agent that affects the lives of the
characters. Those who are most in harmony with their environment can find some solace, but
those who are indignant and rebellious; it destroys all their happiness.Eustacia suffers in The
Return of the Native, because of her direct confrontation with Edgon Heath, which symbolizes
nature. In the end Eustacia laments:
“How I have tried and tried to be a splendid woman, and how destiny has been against me. I do
not deserve my lot…I have been injured and blighted and crushed by things beyond my control.”
Hardy remarks:
“ What of Immanent Will and its designs? It works unconsciously as heretofore, Eternal
artistries in circumstance.”
In Hardy's considered view, all life is suffering. Man suffers from the moment of his birth upto
his death. Happiness is only occasional; it is never the general rule:
"Happiness is but an occasional episode in a general drama of pain".
There is none who gets more than he deserves but there are many who get much less than what
they deserve. Not only man suffers, but all life suffers. Suffering is writ large on the face of
nature. A ruthless, brutal struggle for existence is waged everywhere in nature. All nature is red
in tooth and claw and life lives upon life. Thus all life, including human life, is subject to this law
of suffering and none can escape the operation of this law.
Hardy’s characters are also a prey to irony of circumstance. Right things never happen at the
right time: they happen either not at all, or too late, when their happening brings nothing but
misery and suffering in their train. The heroines of Hardy, like Tess and Eustacia, as well as his
male characters, like Clym, Henchard, Angel, Alec are all the victims of the irony of
circumstance. In ill-conceived scheme of things there is nothing but “strange oschestra of victim
shriek and pain.”
Almost all of the Hardy’s characters are susceptible to this omnipresent evil power.
In The Return of the Native, Hardy suggests the philosophy of Rustic Resignation. Man must be
resigned to one’s lot. It is useless to complain or resist for nothing can refom “ill-conceived
scheme of things.” If he is rash, hot-headed and obstinate, like Henchard or Eustacia, he can
bring about his own downfall. On the other hand, if he is contended and resigned to his own lot
like Thomasin, he can make much of his limited opportunities.
Summing up, Hardy’s philosophy in The Return of the Native is certainly ‘twilight’ and gloomy
one but it is not too much pessimistic or nihilistic, for nihilism implies negation of life, a wish
not to have been born at all. It is only in his last novel “Jude of Obscure” that some cynicism
enters, and Hardy becomes pessimistic otherwise he is an acute realist.
“My practical philosophy” , says Hardy, “is distinctively meliorist” , an honest facing of human
suffering.
“If a way to the better there be, it implies good look at the worst.”
Main themes in “The Return of the Native”
The Heath
The heath is more than just a dramatic backdrop to the action; it is an integral part of the plot and
character development, and a constant thematic symbol. Hardy devotes the novel's entire first
chapter to describing the timeless landscape of Egdon heath. What defines it most of all is its
timelessness - it is much bigger than any human drama, and hence might its natural forces
swallow those humans.
The heath can also be viewed as an antagonist in the story, working against the key characters to
bring about their tragic fates. Mrs. Yeobright , exhausted by her long toil to Clym ’s house,
collapses in the darkness on her return, and is bitten by a snake. Wildeve and Eustacia both
drown as they plan to flee the heath forever. Clym becomes a preacher, extolling the virtues of a
world beyond the heath. Only
Thomasin and Diggory, who are truly at ease with their surroundings, endure. The heath is a
place for lasting sentiment, not fiery passion or intellectual ideals. Those who are able to tune to
its rhythms and pace remain. Those who feel they can live beyond its power are destroyed by it.
Eustacia views it as an explicit antagonist - "Tis my cross, my shame and will be my death" -
and yet falls in attempting to defeat it. Most of all, the heath is an expression of Hardy's tragic
sense, which suggests that time and the world have little use for the squabbles of humans and
will thereby negate their efforts time and again.
Superstition
Superstition permeates the text, and is connected with the death of Eustacia and possibly Mrs.
Yeobright. In the most basic sense, superstition exists through the heath locals. So tied to nature,
they are naturally drawn more towards pagan rituals than towards the transcendent message of
Christianity. They judge their lives according to the cycles of the heath, and hence believe that
strange forces beyond their understanding rule the world.
Many locals, Susan Nunsuch most of all, believe Eustacia is a witch. Susan brings a fearful
dimension to their charge, both stabbing Eustacia with a pen and then later making a wax effigy
that she burns. Hardy was cautious to avoid being labelled immoral, and so he never extrapolates
on Susan's suspicions, which could be based in the possibility of Eustacia's sexuality. Both of
Susan's actions are based around witch-lore. A witch would supposedly not bleed if pricked, and
an effigy works akin to a voodoo doll, by transferring pain to another.
Eustacia's death also evokes witch-lore, since a suspected witch was thrown in water. If she
floated, she was vindicated, and if she drowned, she was proven witch. Tragically, Eustacia
floats but it brings her no benefit, since she dies. In surviving and dedicating himself to
Christianity, Clym suggests Hardy's dismissal of such lore, though the author never goes so far
as to outright denounce any of the ancient superstitions suggested in the text.
Tradition
One of the novel's inherent conflicts is that between the declining, traditional attitudes of Dorset
and the modern world that was replacing it. Hardy’s work often highlighted the waning traditions
and ideals of his age, and there are many examples where custom and folklore feature as central
to the narrative. Part of the novel's appeal is the way it records these dying customs.
For instance, Diggory Venn’s trade as a reddleman represents the dying skills of the region:
He was one of a class rapidly becoming extinct in Wessex, filling at present in the rural world
the place which, during the last century, the dodo occupied in the world of animals. He is a
curious, interesting and nearly perished link between obsolete forms of life and those which
generally prevail.
Though Diggory does dismiss the traditional fears - that a reddleman stole children - he
nevertheless dedicates himself to this ancient trade.
Hardy also records the decline in church attendance in rural regions like Egdon, and discusses
the history and function of the mummers. In terms of the latter, he explains how repeated
tradition can lead to perfunctory execution and reception, as opposed to the true passion of a
regenerated custom.
There are some customs that Hardy connects to more ancient customs. Hardy believed the
November 5th bonfires were a continuance of Druid tradition more than a commemoration of
Gay Fawkes. Further, the May Day celebration seems to have a primal draw, since it is those
which finally bring Thomasin and Diggory together.
Education
The Return of the Native presents a range of views on education without ever delivering a final
conclusion in the issue.
As an extraordinary resident of the heath whose intelligence allowed him to explore the greater
world, Clym is a strong proponent for education. In fact, he wants to explore a new type of
education with the residents of the heath, and is drawn home for that purpose. However, he
confronts both reticence and outright opposition to these noble plans, and ends up as a preacher -
a vocation more associated with tradition than modernity - than as a teacher. To some extent,
Clym is oblivious to the nature of those he wishes to educate. They are not only not ready for his
ideas, but are also fundamentally opposed to them.
Captain Vye gives a reflective instance of their skepticism when he describes education as
valuable only towards encouraging the young to engage in offensive graffiti.
In fact, Hardy explores how Clym's natural good-looks stand in opposition to these modern ideas
of education exemplified in his intellect:
He already showed that thought is a disease of flesh, and indirectly bore evidence that ideal
physical beauty is incompatible with emotional development and a full recognition of the coil of
things.
It is only really within the spiritual world that he is finally able to find solace. His ideal of
"instilling high knowledge into empty minds" is unrealistic to the point of arrogance, an indicator
that his learning has not helped him to connect with his fellow man. Even as preacher, his "moral
lectures" maintain a didactic air that repulses some listeners. He continues to speak but not to
listen, which gives an implicit criticism of the educational instinct.
Clym’s most significant education is what he learns on the heath - that the world is controlled by
large forces beyond our understanding.
Romantic love
The quest for romantic love amongst the nature-centered heath affects many characters, Eustacia
most of all. She is desperate to discover the passion of romantic love. Early in the text, she
expresses that she seeks, "A blaze of love, and extinction, [which] was better than a lantern
glimmer of the same which should last long years”. She wants a quick burst of passion, rather
than the pragmatism of a sustaining respect and passion. This desire helps explain her tragic
demise - she is too quick to romanticize a situation, ignoring its reality. She ignores the fact that
Wildeve mostly repulses her, to twice become attracted to him, and ignores Clym's stated
intentions to justify her acceptance of his proposal. This conflict creates a sense of dissatisfaction
that has tragic consequences.
Clym is attracted to Eustacia on so many levels, but ultimately chooses a respectable, simple life
with her. The passion and romanticism that defined him on his return is quickly traded for a more
pragmatic personality that disappoints Eustacia. His tragic flaw here is his blindness to what she
needs, and they both pay for it.
Finally, Thomasin begins with a romantic passion for Wildeve, but ultimately realizes the greater
wisdom of pragmatism. When they finally marry, she is no longer enamored with him, but rather
has matured to realize that she must protect her reputation over her romantic pride.
The Oedipus complex
Clym has an intense and turbulent relationship with his mother, which evokes the Oedipus
complex, so-named by Freud because of the ancient play Oedipus Rex. Simply put, the Oedipus
complex describes an unhealthy love-hate attraction between a mother and son.
Mrs. Yeobright has clearly had great ambitions for her son. We see her disappointment when he
reveals that he has left Paris to return to Egdon. She cannot appreciate his return to Egdon as a
step forward; instead, she vicariously considers it as sign of failure, asking him, "But it is right,
too, that I should try to lift you out of this life into something richer, and that you should not
come back again, and be as if I had never tried at all?"
This vicarious association further explains her contempt for Eustacia. She cannot understand that
he is attracted to her instead of finer Parisian ladies. The relationship between Clym and his
mother starts to sour after he begins to court Eustacia. He chooses to give Eustacia a gift – a
charnel pot unearthed from the burial mound – which was originally intended for his mother.
Though all of these attitudes can be explained, they together suggest an intimate and intense
connection.
Clym is aware of the challenges to his happiness, and refers to the competing areas of his life as
"antagonistic growths." Interestingly, his relationship with his mother is the first he lists, before
his wife and vocation. He is forced into making a choice between Eustacia and his mother, and
the regrets over this situation lead to a romantic demise for almost all involved.
Constancy
In the novel, characters who display constancy are rewarded. Like the unswerving firmness of
the Egdon landscape, those who remain true to their ideals endure. Diggory Venn, as example, is
unwavering in his love for Thomasin. He adapts his lifestyle and means of income to win her
affections, and patiently remains her faithful champion. Similarly, Charley the stable boy does
not waver in his affection for Eustacia. He gives her his mummer’s role, and later cares for her
despite her attitudes towards him. Even the dim-sighted Clym can perceive Charley's love for his
wife. Similarly, the heath folk are characterized by their adherence to unchanging tradition and
folklore. They accept the heath as timeless and constant, and their kind perseveres for that
reason.
The characters more defined by transient, changing passions - Wildeve, Eustacia, and Clym - all
suffer a tragic end. The heath, with its constancy, has little use for such dynamic human passions.
Role of Chance and Coincidence in “The Return of the

Native”
Chances and coincidences play a vital role in all the novels of Hardy. In the work of no other
novelist do chances and coincidences exercise such a conspicuous influence on the course of
events. The unexpected often happens and always it is the undesirable and unwanted. Such
chance events are heavy blows aimed at the head of Hardy's protagonists and they send them to
their doom.
While a character is certainly responsible to a large extent, chances and coincidences often
operate as the deciding factor. Hardy believed that there is some malignant power that controls
the universe, and which is out to thwart and defeat men in their plans. It is especially hostile to
them who try to assert themselves and have their own way. He couldn’t believe in a benevolent
Providence; events were too plainly ironical so they must have been contrived by a supernatural
power. He found it difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile the idea of a beneficent and
benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient deity with the fact of omnipresent evil and the persistent
tendency of circumstances toward unhappiness.
Hardy shows a persistent and bitter preoccupation with the sorrow of life. We certainly cannot
deny the littleness and sordidness of human life. He attributes the tragedy to an “Unsympathetic
First Cause”. The Return of the Native shows man as the helpless plaything of invisible powers,
ruthless and indifferent. The characters have no such thing as free will.
The whole plot of The Return of the Native is tinged with fateful incidents and accidents.
1- Johnny Nunsuch has overheard the conversation between Eustacia and Wildeve. Johnny then
meets the reddleman Diggory Venn purely by chance. The reddleman learns from the boy the
emotional attachment of Eustacia with Wildeve. The reddleman decides to serve Thomasin’s
interests by dissuading Eustacia from Wildeve. But he is scolded by her and feeling dejected and
failed, goes to Mrs. Yeobright to renew his offer of marriage to Thomasin. Mrs. Yeobright uses
this offer to threaten Wildeve to marry Thomasin. This whole series of events are caused by
chance and fate only started by Johnny, the boy.
2- Just as Eustacia’s affection for Wildeve begins to wane, an exciting prospect, Clym
Yeobright, diamond merchant in Paris, returns to Egdon. His visit prompts Eustacia to facilitate a
meeting between them, which eventually results in a mutual attraction. Eustacia makes her
disinterest known to Wildeve who finally marries Thomasin. Eustacia is disappointed to discover
that Clym has rejected his cosmopolitan lifestyle, however, hopeful that she can change his
mind, agrees to marry him. Mrs. Yeobright disapproves both these marriages.
3- By a sheer accident, Christian Cantle who is carrying Mrs. Yeobright’s money meets a group
of village folk who take him to a raffle where, by a sheer stroke of luck, he wins a prize and
encouraged by his good fortune plays a game of dice with Wildeve. Cantle first loses his own
money and later stakes Mrs. Yeobright’s and loses the entire amount. The reddleman appears and
invites Wildeve for another bout. This time luck favors the reddleman and he wins all the money
from Wildeve. He delivers the whole money to Thomasin, not aware of the fact, that half the
money was to be handed to Clym. Mrs. Yeobright fails to receive any acknowledgement from
Clym and becomes dejected.
4- That Clym becomes semi-blind when he was hoping to launch his educational project, is a
sheer accident which leads to disastrous results. Clym is compelled to become a furze-cutter. The
humble occupation chosen by Clym is regarded by Eustacia as humiliating. When Wildeve asks
her if her marriage has proved a misfortune for her, her reply is
“The marriage is not a misfortune in itself. It is simply the accident which has happened since
that has been the cause of my ruin.”
5- When Eustacia goes to a village festival in order to relieve the tedium of her life, she meets
Wildeve purely by chance and this leads to their dancing together. She contemptuously describes
herself as a furze cutter’s wife. Later he escorts her on her homeward journey, but slips away at
the sight of Clym.
6- Again it is purely by chance that Wildeve visits Eustacia at home exactly at the moment Mrs.
Yeobright knocks at the door; she has come hoping for a reconciliation with the couple. Eustacia,
however, in her confusion and fear at being discovered with Wildeve, does not allow Mrs.
Yeobright to enter the house: heart-broken and feeling rejected by her son, she succumbs to heat
and snakebite on the walk home, and dies.
7- It is by sheer chance that Wildeve becomes the recipient of a legacy which makes him rich,
and this leads to the renewal of Eustacia’s love for him.
8- It is just a chance that Johnny repeats the dying words of Mrs. Yeobright, exactly at the
moment that Clym reaches the cottage. Thus he comes to know the role played by Eustacia in
Mrs Yeobright’s death. This leads to the separation of Clym and Eustacia after a violent quarrel.
9- It is just a chance that Clym's letter of reconciliation does not reach Eustacia in time.
10- It is by chance the Charley, in order to please the despondent Eustacia, thinks of lighting a
bonfire. She had nothing to do with bonfire. Wildeve seeing the fire comes to Eustacia and she
plans to fly away from the Heath.
11- Finally, it so happens that on the night of Eustacia’s escape, the weather assumes a menacing
aspect. The night becomes dreadful because of rain and storm. Eustacia seems to drown herself
and Wildeve dies in the rescue attempt. Thus Eustacia laments over her fortune in the words:
“How I have tried and tried to be a splendid woman, and how destiny has been against me. I do
not deserve my lot…I have been injured and blighted and crushed by things beyond my control.”
Conclusion: Hardy certainly makes his story implausible by his excessive use of chance and
coincidence. He is intent to show that the stars in their courses fight against the aspiring. The
Return of the Native is certainly marred by an exorbitant use of this device. Rightly does a critic
say,
“The plot of the novel lacks the terrific and terrifying logic of cause and effect that marks the
plots of the greatest tragedies.”
Role of Chance and Fate in the Novel “The Return of

the Native”
The Role of Chance
Chance plays an important role, even an exaggerated role, in the novels of Thomas Hardy. Many
things which are mysterious and sudden, which cannot be accounted for in any natural way, take
place. The unexpected often happens and always it is the undesirable unexpected. Such chance
events are heavy blows aimed at the head of Hardy's protagonists and they send them to their
doom. Hardy's plots are dominated by chance events. This is also true of the Return of the
Native. In this novel also there are many things which happen at the wrong moment, when they
are least expected to happen, and the result is sorrow, suffering, and tragedy for all concerned.
For example,
(1) Clym's coming across Eustacia by chance as he returns home with his mother and Thomasin,
leads to their sad and tragic love.
(2) It is just a matter of chance that Diggory is a few minutes late in coming to propose for
Thomasin's hand. Wildeve reaches before him and is accepted. Had Diggory reached earlier, he
would have married Thomasin and Wildeve would have married Eustacia. Much sorrow and
suffering would have been avoided in this way.
(3) It is by chance that Christian meets some friends and goes with them to the Quiet Woman. It
is by chance that he wins at the game of dice. The result is that Wildeve comes to know that he
has Thomasin's guineas on him, and he wins all of them from him.
(4) It is just a chance that Wildeve comes to Eustacia's house exactly at the moment that Mrs.
Yeobright also reaches there.
(5) It is just a chance that Clym moves, and mutters "mother", in his sleep, just at the moment
Mrs. Yeobright knocks at the door. The result is that Eustacia supposes that her husband is
awake, and so she does not herself open the door. This leads to the death of Mrs. Yeobright, and
the separation of Clym and Eustacia after a violent quarrel.
(6) It is just a chance that Johnny Nunsuch repeats the dying words of Mrs. Yeobright, exactly at
the moment that Clym reaches the cottage of Susan Nunsuch.
(7) The chance meeting of Wildeve and Eustacia in the fair leads to their dancing together, and
the renewal of their love.
(8) It is just a chance that Clym's letter of reconciliation does not reach Eustacia in time.
Thus it becomes clear that the plot of the riovel is heavily overloaded with chance events. Too
much depends on chance. This introduces an element of artificiality into the novel. Indeed, this is
one of the pieces of criticism levelled against the novel as a work of art.
The Role of Fate

Thomas Hardy expresses a fatalistic view of life in his tragic novel The Return of the Native. He
depicts human actions as subject to the control of an impersonal force- destiny or fate. Chance ad
coincidence drives the life and man has no right to change its way. In this aspect we find that the
vision of life that Hard gives in The Return of the Native is essentially tragic and in
characterization Hardy is similar to the Greek tragedians.
The character in Hardy’s novel does not have control over their lives. Hardy believes that
characters are governed by fate.
It is fate that brings Eustacia and Clym together. Eustacia hears from Charley that the Chris mas
mummers will be performing at the Yeobrights', and she schemes to meet Clym by performing
as a mummer. Clym also takes advantage of fate to meet Eustacia. He learns from Sam that
Captain Vye's bucket has fallen and that the heath-men are convening to fetch his bucket. Clym
joins the rescue team so that he might meet Eustacia.With the passing of time Clym proposes to
Eustacia. She asks for time to think it over and begs him to talk about Paris.
She tells him that she will marry him if he will take her back to Paris. Clym is destined to do far
greater things with his life than staying on the heath, Eustacia believes, although Clym disagrees.
Eustacia suddenly decides to marry him
Clym feels that he has to use his services for the people in Egdon Heath. He has vowed to stay
on the heath and become a schoolteacher. In order to be of some service to the people, he wants
to stay in the Heath. His misfortune, semi blindness disables him from executing the educational
project.
Clym is very much attracted by the charm and beauty of Eustacia. Ignoring his mother’s strong
opposition he takes a cottage at Alderworth, several miles away from Blooms-End. But the utter
incompatibility of temperaments had foredoomed their marriage. Accidentally he loses his
mother also. That means Clym’s misfortune drives him to a painful life.
The heroine of the novel, Eustacia was fully aware of the beauty, which nature has bestowed
upon her. She didn’t care about what people may tell about her. She can’t bear the loneliness that
heath has. She says, “Tis my cross, my shame and will be my death”. Eustacia dreamed of a life
in Paris. She hopes that if she marries, Clym he may take her to Paris. She has fascination for the
pompous city life. But Clym on the other hand wants to settle in Edgon.
So she had to stay in Heath. In the later part of the novel she tries to escape from the Edgon
Heath with the help of Wildeve. Coincidentally Clym writes Eustacia a letter begging her to
return to him - but he sends the letter too late. Eustacia does not see the letter before she leaves to
flee with Wildeve. If she had, she might have no die like this.That means her death in Heath was
also predestined.
Mrs Yeobright vehemently opposes the plans of Clym to start a school. She wants Clym to go
back in Paris because there he has a respectable job. She had brought up her with great care and
devotion. She also strongly opposes not to marry Eustacia. She says, “Is it best for you to injure
your prospects for such a voluptuous, idle woman as that?” But nothing could restrict her son
from staying in the Heath or marrying Eustacia.
She was shocked, for example, by the sight off her son dressed as a furze cutter. She could not
believe her eyes. She had thought it was only a diversion or hobby for him. Again she resolves to
reconcile with her son. But she never gets the chance to reconcile with her son and she dies. That
means none of her effort can restrict her misfortune. Clym is devastated by the deaths of his wife
and mother, believing that he drove them to their deaths. He thinks that fate is cruel to him, for
taking his life in this direction. From the above discussion we can say that man is thus posited to
be the source of the cosmic but the cosmic is considered to be too complex for human
understanding.
The Role of Fate in “The Return of the Native”

Thomas Hardy expresses a fatalistic view of life in his tragic novel The Return of the
Native. He depicts human actions as subject to the control of an impersonal force- destiny or
fate. Chance ad coincidence drives the life and man has no right to change its way. In this aspect
we find that the vision of life that Hard gives in The Return of the Native is essentially tragic and
in characterization Hardy is similar to the Greek tragedians.
The character in Hardy’s novel does not have control over their lives. Hardy believes that
characters are governed by fate.
It is fate that brings Eustacia and Clym together. Eustacia hears from Charley that the Chris mas
mummers will be performing at the Yeobrights', and she schemes to meet Clym by performing
as a mummer. Clym also takes advantage of fate to meet Eustacia. He learns from Sam that
Captain Vye's bucket has fallen and that the heath-men are convening to fetch his bucket. Clym
joins the rescue team so that he might meet Eustacia.With the passing of time Clym proposes to
Eustacia. She asks for time to think it over and begs him to talk about Paris.
She tells him that she will marry him if he will take her back to Paris. Clym is destined to do far
greater things with his life than staying on the heath, Eustacia believes, although Clym disagrees.
Eustacia suddenly decides to marry him
Clym feels that he has to use his services for the people in Egdon Heath. He has vowed to stay
on the heath and become a schoolteacher. In order to be of some service to the people, he wants
to stay in the Heath. His misfortune, semi blindness disables him from executing the educational
project.
Clym is very much attracted by the charm and beauty of Eustacia. Ignoring his mother’s strong
opposition he takes a cottage at Alderworth, several miles away from Blooms-End. But the utter
incompatibility of temperaments had foredoomed their marriage. Accidentally he loses his
mother also. That means Clym’s misfortune drives him to a painful life.
The heroine of the novel, Eustacia was fully aware of the beauty, which nature has bestowed
upon her. She didn’t care about what people may tell about her. She can’t bear the loneliness that
heath has. She says,
“Tis my cross, my shame and will be my death”
Eustacia dreamed of a life in Paris. She hopes that if she marries, Clym he may take her to Paris.
She has fascination for the pompous city life. But Clym on the other hand wants to settle in
Edgon. So she had to stay in Heath. In the later part of the novel she tries to escape from the
Edgon Heath with the help of Wildeve. Coincidentally Clym writes Eustacia a letter begging her
to return to him - but he sends the letter too late. Eustacia does not see the letter before she leaves
to flee with Wildeve. If she had, she might have no die like this.That means her death in Heath
was also predestined.
Mrs Yeobright vehemently opposes the plans of Clym to start a school. She wants Clym to go
back in Paris because there he has a respectable job. She had brought up her with great care and
devotion. She also strongly opposes not to marry Eustacia. She says,
“Is it best for you to injure your prospects for such a voluptuous, idle woman as that?”
But nothing could restrict her son from staying in the Heath or marrying Eustacia. She was
shocked, for example, by the sight off her son dressed as a furze cutter. She could not believe her
eyes. She had thought it was only a diversion or hobby for him. Again she resolves to reconcile
with her son. But she never gets the chance to reconcile with her son and she dies. That means
none of her effort can restrict her misfortune. Clym is devastated by the deaths of his wife and
mother, believing that he drove them to their deaths. He thinks that fate is cruel to him, for taking
his life in this direction. From the above discussion we can say that man is thus posited to be the
source of the cosmic but the cosmic is considered to be too complex for human understanding.
Thomas Hardy Philosophy of Life

Hardy: An Artist and Not a Philosopher
Hardy was an artist and not a philosopher. He repeatedly affirmed that the 'Views' expressed in
his novels were not his convictions or beliefs; they were simply "impressions" of the moment.
His writings were all, 'mood dictated', merely, 'explorations of reality', and so it would be wrong
to expect any systematized philosophy of life. But when certain impressions persist and are
constantly repeated in the creative works, diaries and letters, of a writer, the readers may be
pardoned, if they take them to be his convictions. Moreover, Hardy is so often passing from
particular facts to life in general that we may safely take some of his views to be his philosophy
of life.
Suffering: A Universal
In Hardy's considered view, all life is suffering. Man suffers from the moment of his birth up to
his death. Happiness is only occasional, it is never the general rule. As he says in "Vie Mayor of
Casterbridge', "Happiness is but an occasional episode in a general drama of pain". There is none
who gets more than he deserves but there are many who get much less than what they deserve.
Not only man suffers, but all nature suffers. Suffering is writ large on the face of nature. A
ruthless, brutal struggle for existence is waged everywhere in nature. All nature is red in tooth
and claw and life lives upon life. Thus all life, including human life, is subject to this law of
suffering and none can escape the operation of this law.
Imperfections of the First Cause: Human Suffering
But what is the cause of this universal suffering of man and nature alike. In Hardy's view the real
cause is the, "imperfection of the laws that may be in force on high." Thus human suffering is
the result of the imperfections of the First Cause, the power that caused or created this sorry
scheme of things. He rejects the orthodox Christian belief that this power is benevolent, all
merciful, omnipotent and omniscient. He cannot reconcile the fact of universal, undeserved
suffering with the omnipotence and benevolence of God or the First Cause. He indignantly asks,
"What makes suffering and evil, necessary to its omnipotence ?" He regards this power as
blind, indifferent, if not actually hostile, and unconscious and immoral. He uses 'it' and not 'He'
for this power. This power has no sense of right or wrong, love or hate. In this blind,
unconscious, impersonal working, it does not, and cannot, take into account human wishes and
aspirations. Hence its working often causes men .much pain and suffering.
Nature as Instrument of the First Cause
This power manifests itself in a number of ways. Sometimes, it expresses itself through some
force of Nature. Usually Nature in Hardy remains indifferent to, and unconscious of, the
suffering of Hardy's character. For example, Tess' suffering goes unheeded in Nature. She is
violated in the lap of Nature, but all Nature remains unconcerned and indifferent. But sometimes,
Nature seems to work against the characters of Hardy, or we, in our sympathy for them, feel
nature to be hostile. The Return of the Native is a tragedy of character and environment; Egdon
Heath plays a prominent part in the novel and is largely responsible for the tragedy. In the Mayor
of Casterbridge,
the very stars seem to be hostile to Henchard. The fair organised by him, with such generosity
and care, is ruined by untimely unexpected rain. The vagaries of weather ruin him financially
and make him a bankrupt. Bad weather had been foretold and on that basis he made reckless
purchases. But the weather cleared and he had to sell at far lower prices. Then quite
unaccountably the weather changed again. There was rain and hail and Henchard was a financial
wreck. Nature, thus, seems to be the instrument of some hostile power working against
Henchard. It is in this sense that Nature is fate in Hardy's novels.
The Irony of Circumstance or Life

Sometimes, the ruling power on high expresses itself through the irony of circumstance. By irony
of circumstance, Hardy simply means that in this ill-conceived scheme of things the contrary
always happens. We except one thing and get its exact opposite.
This results in much undeserved suffering. Right things never happen at the right time : they
happen either not at all, or too late, when their happening brings nothing but misery and suffering
in their train. The heroines of Hardy, like Tess and Eustacia, as well as his male characters, like
Clym, Henchard, Angel, Alec are all the victims of the irony of circumstance. The wrong man
comes first, and when the right man comes it is too late. Thus Tess remained a vague, fleeting
impression to Angel Clare, till she had been violated by Alec, and it was too late for them to live
happily together.
Elizabeth-Jane consents to take up Henchard's name, and then he suddenly discovers that she
was not his daughter:
"77ie mockery (irony) was, that he should have no sooner taught a girl to claim the shelter of
his paternity than he discovered her to have no kinship with him. This ironical sequence of
things angered him like an impish trick from a fellow-creature. Like Prester John's his table
had been spread, and infernal harpies had snatched up the food."
He had planned and schemed for months to have Jane as his daughter and now the fruition of the
whole scheme was such, "dust and ashes" in his mouth.
Elizabeth-Jane, too, is the victim of this very irony of fate, for, "Continually it had happened
that what she had desired had not been granted her, and that what had been granted her she
had not desired."
In fact, Hardy's characters in general, and not in one or two novels alone, are the victims of this
irony. Their intentions and aspirations are constantly frustrated, as if some hostile power were
working against them.
The Role of Chance and Fate
There is a great difference between chance and irony of circumstance. Chance is entirely
unexpected or accidental and has no relation either to character or to the course of action, while
the essence of irony of fate or circumstance is its opposition to the whishes or merits of a
particular character. Chance may sometimes work in favour of a particular character, but in
Hardy's works it always operates against them, for it is caused by the same indifferent, even
hostile, First Cause. Thus Chance is another agent chosen by the Supreme to express itself.
Chance or accident plays an important part in life and so in the novels of Hardy. The unexpected
and the undesired always happens. Thus Tess suffers because the letter she had written to Angel
on the eve of their marriage never reaches him. By chance it slips beneath the carpet and is not
found. Many such accidents or chance events also happen in Mayor of Casterbridge. The
coming of Farfrae in Casterbridge just at the time when Henchard was being taken to task for the
sale of bad wheat, the sudden arrival of Newson in Casterbridge for the second time, the entirely
unexpected appearance of the old furmity-seller in Casterbridge to drive the last nail in
Henchard's coffin, etc., are a few of the chance events that create the impression that Hardy
believed in the operation of fatal forces hovering all around us and driving us to our doom.
Chance or accident is thus an essential element in Hardy's philosophy of life.
Love: A Potent Cause of Suffering
Love is another force which causes suffering in the world of Thomas Hardy. The women-folk,
specially, are its chosen victims. As we are told in Tess, the cruel cause of things has hardened
them with the powerful sex-instinct which they have never desired nor welcomed, and as a result
of which they have to writh feverishly and pass sleepless nights. Love causes untold suffering to
Elizabeth-Jane, to Tess, to Eustacia, to Bathsheba and to all other female characters of Hardy.
Human Freedom of Action: Its Limitations
Character may be destiny in Shakespeare, but it is certainly not so in Hardy's world-view. In

Hardy's philosophy, character is responsible for suffering only to a limited extent. Inherited traits
and inborn instincts determine the actions of a person to a very great extent. Even if he wishes,
he cannot act against them. Moreover, Hardy agrees with Schopenheur in believing that, "a
person can do what lie wills, but he cannot will what he wills."
Thus man is not a free agent and is not responsible for his actions to any great extent. He has
only a very limited freedom of action.
Ways for the Amelioration of Human Lot
(1) Tact: But within these limits he can do much. If he is rash, hot-headed and obstinate, like
Henchard, or Eustacia, he can bring about his own downfall. On the contrary, if he is wise and
tactful, like Elizabeth Jane, or Thomasin, he can make much of his limited opportunities.
Anyhow, it is his duty to adjust himself to his environment. He must not exult when fortune
smiles upon him for at best it is only a short interlude, and may be followed by sudden and
devastating misfortunes. And at such times, he must remember, like Elizabeth-Jane, that there
are many others who have not got what they deserved or desired.
(2) The Rustic Philosophy of Resignation: Man must be resigned to his lot. It is useless to
complain, for no complains can reform this ill-conceived scheme of things. It is equally futile to
pit overselves against the inexorable, pitiless laws that govern our destiny, for if we do so we are
sure to be pounded to atoms. We must learn the lesson of resignation, and we can do so only
from primitive communities living in the lap of nature. The Wessex rustics when confronted with
overwhelming misfortunes are never frustrated. They merely exclaim, 'it was to be', and go about
the daily business of their life with renewed courage. Hardy is all admiration for such heroic
souls, and prefers a simple life in their midst to an artificial life in a big city.
(3) Social Reform and Loving-Kindness: But this does not mean that in Hardy's view man should
make no attempts to ameliorate his lot. Hardy distinguishes between the natural and the social
environment. While man can do nothing to change the natural environment, and must submit
passively to it, he can do much to change his social environment through wise social reforms.
Marriage laws, for example, should be liberalised in favour of the weaker sex. Unfortunate
women, like Tess, who are more sinned against than sinning, should be accepted by society. No
stigma should attach to them, for they are essentially pure. A spirit of "loving-kindness" should
pervade all human relations and then all would be well. Life is suffering, but man should not
increase its misery by this cruelty to his fellow-men, to women, and to the lower creatures.
Conclusion : Hardy's Humanism
Such is Hardy's philosophy of life. It is certainly a gloomy one, for he regards life as suffering
and man as a puppet in the hands of Destiny. But it cannot be called pessimistic, for pessimism
implies negation of life, a wish not to have been born at all. It is only in his last novel,
Jude the Obscure, that some cynism enters and Hardy becomes pessimistic. Otherwise, Hardy is
a humanist, a poet who wants man to turn from nature to his own kind, for,
"There at least discourse trills around, There at least smiles abound, There sametime are
found, Life-Loyalties."
A Tale of Two cities

A Tale of Two cities As a Historical Novel
Limited view of the French Revolution:
A TALE OF TWO CITIES is a historical novel pertaining to the period before and during the
French Revolution. CHARLES DICKENS had always written one historical novel, Barnaby
Rudge which dealt with the period of English History. By the time, he wrote A TALE OF TWO
CITIES he was vitally interested in history. In FR, he found a subject worthy of his broad
conceptions a great nation ripening its own destruction – literally France of course, but by
implication England, too. However, it must be kept that CHARLES DICKENS’s novel doesn’t
by any means depict the enormous sweep and drama of the French Revolution in all its
complexity.
CHARLES DICKENS has condensed the basic threat of the Revolution and the basic lesson that
can be drawn from it by depicting the effects of the Terror, or the revengeful side of the
revolution, on small group of people who get involved in these public events against their will. A
number of sources supplied to Dickens the inspiration of his story of the FR. The main source
was Carlyle’s French Revolution which Dickens had studied many times. In this book, he found
a perfect source for the principal historical scenes and events that he needed for his purpose. The
basic idea for the plot was derived by Dickens from a play called the Frozen Deep by Wilkie
Collins. A novel called Zanoni written by Lytton in a similar context also supplied help to
CHARLES DICKENS. The core of the story of the play is the sacrifice which a character called
Wardour makes in order to save the life of Aldersley. When this play was staged the role of the
self-sacrificing lover was played by Dickens himself with great zest and passion. Dickens
transferred the involvement which he had experienced in the acting of The Frozen Deep to the
writing of A TALE OF TWO CITIES. Dickens has identified himself completely with the part
played by Sydney Carton in the story. This is one aspect of the link between the novel and the
personal feelings of the author.
Crisis and Revolution in his personal life:

While A TALE OF TWO CITIES was maturing in his mind, Dickens was passing through a
series of dramatic personal events. His married life with Catherine had never been happy since
the marriage took place. There were two reasons for this unhappiness. One was incompatibility
with his temperament. Second was that Dickens was deeply interested in a girl before and during
the marriage. In his early youth, he had successfully courted a young girl named Maria Beadnell,
but she died causing a great shock and grief to Dickens. Later his feelings were taken up by an
actress named Ellen Ternan who played the role of Clara in the Frozen Deep with Dickens.
Catherine could no longer bear this relationship and got separated. Such was the personal crisis
in his life which were externalized into A TALE OF TWO CITIES. The French Revolution
which deeply affected the destiny of the characters in A TALE OF TWO CITIES overtook
Dickens as a man, as a husband and as a lover. A TALE OF TWO CITIES enabled Dickens to
combine his bent toward social criticism and warning with the technique and point of view of the
historical novel, and it also enabled him to find an escape from the torments of his personal
struggles and at the same time expose those pains in a symbolic form.
Elements of a tragedy:
It is not a full historical or personal novel. It is basically a tragedy written in the background of
French Revolution. It depicts the fortunes and misfortune of some individuals who are drawn
into the public events. It is impossible to take the French Revolution as the theme of the novel.
Despite all its melodramatic, injustice, barbaric and historical scenes of the Revolution, we can,
unhesitatingly, state that A TALE OF TWO CITIES is a genuine and realistic tragedy. A true
tragedy in literature depicts suffering and misfortune and shows human beings struggling against
the whirlpools of life. Pathos is the chief emotional effect of a tragedy, but not pathos alone
because pathos alone means sentimentality. In a tragedy, the feeling of pathos is essentially noble
and capable of rising to great heights. A true tragedy produces an exhilarating effect upon the
reader by showing the lofty and heroic side of human nature while also taking cognizance of the
mean, evil and wicked manifestations of human nature. Pity and Fear are the two dominant
emotions aroused by a tragedy, but a true tragedy must effect a catharsis of these and kindred
emotions.
Though a novel written with a great deal of objectivity and detachment is yet one having a great
personal and autobiographical significance. It was written at the time when Dickens was passing
through a great crisis and a mental struggle in his life. The crisis and the mental struggle are
reflected in the troubled lives of the characters. The revolution in Dickens’ own mind shows him
struggling with himself not only as a man but also as an artist in order to evolve a new method
and technique of expression. So far his life as a man is concerned, three of the main characters,
namely Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton and Lucie Manette become projections of Dickens
himself. At the time this novel was written, Dickens wanted an escape from the torments of his
personal struggle and this novel helped him.
Limitations of A TALE OF TWO CITIES as a historical novel:

A TALE OF TWO CITIES does have obvious limitations as a historical novel. It attempts no
really panoramic view of either the English or The French political world of those critical years
(1775-1793). Barnaby Rudge was even more comprehensive in nature as a historical novel. In A
TALE OF TWO CITIES, CHARLES DICKENS depicts the beginnings of popular discontent in
France; the rising dissatisfaction of the people, the turmoil caused by public fury, and the
excesses and barbarities committed by the revolutionaries during the years of the FR. CHARLES
DICKENS gives us no connected account of the FR, its progress, and its culmination. He gives
us brief and shattered accounts of some of the principal episodes. He doesn’t give us systematic
analysis of the causes of the FR, but he manages to convey to us all the horrors of the FR.
Similarly, he takes no notice of the historical personalities and their contribution such as
Mirabeau and Napoleon. Nor did he attempt to do what Tolstoy might have attempted. Dickens’s
main concern so far as FR is concerned, was to show that extreme injustice leas to violence and
violence then leads to in human cruelty as shown by the Reign of Terror in France. In the first
part, Dickens’s sympathizes with the poor and downtrodden, but at the end these people become
the villains who therefore repel him.
Historical scenes in A TALE OF TWO CITIES:
Dickens’s first reference to the outward causes of the FR comes in the chapter, “The Wine-
Shop” in which he uses the symbol of the mill to convey the grinding poverty though which the
people of Saint Antoine are passing. Other chapters such as, “ Monseigneur in town ”, “
Monseigneur in the country ” and “The Gordon’s Head ” Monseigneur, Marquis Evremonde
symbolizes the entire privileged class and his assassination by Gaspard, Gaspard’s hanging and
the registration of the Evremonde family and of the spy, John Barsad are the pointers in the same
direction. One of the best-known episodes of the French Revolution is then briefly described by
Dickens in the Chapter; “Echoing Footsteps” That episode is the storming of the Bastille
Madame Defarge’s cutting off the head of the governor with her own hands prepares us for the
excess which will be committed by the revolutionaries. But the real brutalities and excesses are
described at the end when the prisoners in La Force are waiting to be cut off, a frightening
description of the weapons by the revolutionaries on the grindstone and the awful working of the
La Guillotine (The National Razor which shaved close). None of the great historical leaders are
mentioned, only the executioner Samson is mentioned. In the final part of the novel, Dickens has
followed Carlyle very closely. However, Dickens’s debt to Carlyle is much greater than has been
indicated above. Dickens’s accounts of trials, prison procedures, the tumbrels and the guillotine
have all come from Carlyle.
The interweaving of personal life with the FR:

A TALE OF TWO CITIES essentially the story of a group of private individuals, but this story
has been told against the background of the French Revolution which shook France in the years
1789-93. Dickens’s main achievement lies not only in giving us graphic and stirring accounts in
the manner of Carlyle, but also in interweaving the personal lives of a group of private characters
with the events of the FR. (a brief summary that how the characters are slowly drawn into the
FR. The real identity of Charles Darnay, wrongs done to Dr. Manette by Evremonde family.
Their sexual harassment of a girl and Dr. Manette’s evidence so that he had to stay under prison.
Why Madame Defarge is revengeful because she is the sister of the girl raped by the Evremonde
family. Etc. describe Darnay’s visit to France, the arrest and acquittal of Darnay linked with the
revolution, the death sentence against Darnay, the substitution of Sydney Carton and conclusion
of the whole incident.)
The Tragedy of Dr. Manette:
This man was a promising young physician, leading a quiet and peaceful life with his wife in the
city of Paris. His life was blighted by the cruelty of the two Evremonde brothers who took him to
attend upon a young girl and her dying young brother. Give his story of suffering…to the end…
Sufferings of Lucie and Darnay : Life is not very kind to Lucie and her husband either. Lucie lost
her mother when he was still a child. She had never seen her father who lay in the Bastille. She
falls in love with Darnay and marries him though she doesn’t leave her father. Describe their
sufferings. Lucie’s sufferings as a wife and daughter. Darnay’s trial at the Bailey and later
imprisonment at the Bastille and his rescue etc.
The Tragedy of Sydney Carton: Describe his profligate and depressed life. He himself says to
Lucie, “I am like one who died young .” He is a frustrated individual who sinks lower and lower
in life and who is without any hope of improvement. Describe his resurrection and sacrifice for
Darnay.
The Tragedy of People in General:

The grim instance of Marquis’ running over a child, the drinking of spilled wine. The storming
of the Bastille, Defarge’s cutting the governor’s head, the sharpening of the weapons, the
carmagnole and the National Razor and all tragic incidences. (Describe them in detail from the
precious answers.)
Dickens’ own Tragedy:
Finally, this novel also conveys indirectly and in a veiled manner the tragic conflict that had been
going on in Dickens’ own mind just before he wrote this novel. In 1855 he separated from his
wife because of his love for Ellen Ternan, an actress.
The Moral and the theory of revolution: Although Dickens doesn’t present any systematic theory
of revolution, he certainly reveals a well-defined attitude towards the revolution and seems to
have formed certain definite views about it. In writing this novel, he was he was very particular
about integrating the personal lives of his characters with wider pattern of history. It is the
principal scheme of the novel to show the individual fate mirroring the social order. The lives of
both Dr. Manette and Sydney Carton are parables of the revolution, of social regeneration though
suffering and sacrifice. (Describe suffering of Manette and sacrifice of Carton and theme).
According to one critic, there is no other piece of fiction in which the domestic life o a few
simple private people is in such a manner integrated and knitted with the outbreak of a terrible
public event, so that one seems to be a part of it. Although Dickens was obsessed with the
revolution and its massacre, but he was no revolutionist. It is true that certain Marxist critics have
treated A TALE OF TWO CITIES as the text of revolutionary intentions. A revolution,
according to Dickens, fills prisons, just as the just social order fills them. Madam Defarge is the
ultimate personification of the FR in A TALE OF TWO CITIES; and she is a person whose
uncontrolled desire for revenge has changed her into a monster or pure evil.
The final struggle between her and Miss. Pross is a contest between the forces of hatred and of
love. It is love that wins when Madam Defarge is self-destroyed thought the accidental shooting
off her own pistol. This incident shows that Dickens feels no sympathy for the revolutionaries of
Madame Defarge type. The actual fact is that Dickens regarded the revolution as a monster. The
scenes painted in A TALE OF TWO CITIES are a nightmare it is Dickens’s own nightmare. He
teaches us that violence leads to violence, that prison is the consequence of prison and that hatred
is the reward of hatred. If all French noble men had been as willing to give up their class
privileges as Darnay and if all French intellectuals had been so as keen to expose social abuses as
Dr. Manette, there might have been no revolution or at least no revolution of this intensity. His
conclusion about the
French Revolution in the final chapter is as follows:
Crush humanity out of shape and once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into
the same tortured forms. Sow the sameseed of rapacious license and oppression over again and
it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
Main Themes in the Novel "A Tale of Two Cities"

Resurrection and Renunciation:
A TALE OF TWO CITIES is rich in meaning and significance because it deals with several
themes all of which have been skillfully coordinated and integrated with another. Some of these
themes are obvious and others are less obvious and need careful examination. Dickens shows
grand objectivity of historical events, but also shows personal projection in the novel.
However, A TALE OF TWO CITIES is a highly impersonal work with multiplicity of themes.
Resurrection is indeed the central theme of A TALE OF TWO CITIES. Resurrection here takes a
variety of forms, and almost at every stage, we witness some manifestation of it. Resurrection
has, of course, a religious connotation and generally calls up the image of Jesus Christ rising
from his grave on the third day of his Crucifixion. But here resurrection requires a secular
meaning. In addition to its religious meaning. Related to this is the theme of renunciation.
Dickens makes use these twin themes in a very elaborate manner. Dickens derived both of these
themes from Wilkie Collin’s play, The Frozen Deep in the performances of which Dickens
himself had taken part as an actor.
The resurrection of Dr Manette: First Resurrection:

The theme of resurrection is introduced at the very beginning when Mr. Lorry, who is traveling
by the mail-coach top Dover, sends a message to Tellison’s Bank through the messenger, Jerry
Cruncher. The words of Mr. Lorry‘s message are “Recalled to Life”. (Give summary of Dr.
Manette’s story) Mr. Lorry begins to feel drowsy and it seems to him that he is going to Paris in
order to dig out a dead man from the grave where he had been long buried. When Lorry meets
Dr. Manette, it is truly a resurrection or rebirth after death for Dr. Manette. Second Resurrection:
Normal life and living with his daughter, starting his medical practice and his giving up the habit
of shoe-making and the return of sanity is his second resurrection.
Charles Darnay’s Resurrection:

Give Darnay’s account of Old Bailey where Dr. Manette, Lucie and Carton are present and
Darnay is resurrected because of Sydney Carton from a serious crime of treason against England.
Darnay’s second resurrection: When he is caught in Paris and is prisoned for fifteen months at La
Force and is resurrected by the influence of Dr. Manette. (Give account of case and the
prevailing condition of Paris after the revolution). Darnay’s third resurrection: which is the most
important. Dr. Manette’s written paper discovered from his cell is read out in the court and
Darnay is sentenced to death, but his death is replaced by Sydney Carton, a kind fellow. (Give an
account his story at the prison). This is his third resurrection. This time he has almost been taken
out of his grave.
The Resurrection of Carton:
Though Carton dies, but he achieves a resurrection in two senses: Firstly, his death constitutes a
spiritual resurrection for him. By this sacrificial death, Carton who has been leading a life of
profligacy, is morally regenerated. This moral regeneration or redemption is a kind of
resurrection for him. Secondly, when Carton conceives his bold plan to save Darnay’s life, the
words of the Christian Burial Service are echo in his ears, “I am the Resurrection and the life,
saith the Lord: he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live: and whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die .” Carton had heard these words at the time of his
father’s funeral, and these words now come to him as a promise that the man who believes in
Lord Jesus Christ never dies. These words echo in his ears when he is actually going to be
executed. Thus, Carton dies, feeling sure that he will find himself alive in another world. Carton
dies with the certainty of resurrection.
The Grotesque resurrection of Cly:

There are comic and serious resurrections. Resurrection in this novel assumes some comic and
grotesque forms also. Roger Cly, a spy, is believed to have died and been buried in the graveyard
of Saint Pancras’s Church, but later we find him alive in Paris at his old occupation of spying. So
a man who was thought to be dead, came to life is also a kind of comic resurrection. His normal
funeral ceremonies were performed and he was buried to avoid the wrath of certain person who
had become hostile to him in London.
The comic resurrection of Solomon (Barsad):
Another comic example of resurrection is Barsad – Miss Pross’ brother whom she had almost
given up as dead, but he appears in Paris. Miss Pross unexpectedly sees him and is astonished,
though he feels greatly embarrassed to be recognized by her.
Jerry Cruncher – A Resurrection Man:

Another example of the grotesque type of resurrection is to be found in the nefarious business
which Jerry Cruncher is pursuing in order to supplement his income. He and his associates dig
out newly-buried coffins from their graves and take out the dead bodies in order to sell them to a
surgeon for medical purposes. Young Jerry has espied his father at this kind of work and he too
aspires to become “A resurrection man.”
Resurrection in the sense of Political and Social regeneration:

Finally, resurrection, for the purpose of this novel, may also be taken to mean political and social
regeneration. The French People having been oppressed and exploited for centuries have been
clamoring for a new political and social order without any success. Ultimately they rise in revolt
against the established authority and try to being about sweeping reforms. Of course, their action
involves unheard-of-criminal acts. The moral of the French Revolution, according to Dickens is
that the upper classes everywhere should take a warning from what happened in France and
should mend their ways in order to see that the poor are contented and happy.
Renunciation as a theme:
The other theme, less prominent but more valuable, is renunciation. It is through a renunciation
of his claim to the family estate and the family title that Charles Darnay attains a heroic stature in
our eyes. When Charles Darnay was still a child, his mother had imposed a duty on him and he
had bravely promised to keep faith with her. On growing up, he decides to give up his claim to
the family inheritance because he realizes that the family to which he belongs had done many
wrongs to the poor people. To him the family inheritance signifies, “a crumbling tower of
waste”. This act of his shows his generous heart, a spirit of self-sacrifice indicative of his
humanitarian instincts.
Social injustice, violence, bloodshed and imprisonment as themes of the novel:
Among the various themes of this novel is the social injustice. This theme is related of course, to
the French Revolution which was largely a result of those oppressive classes. The first glimpse
of social injustice is given in the chapter called the Wine-Shop. When the wine from the broken
cask is spilled on the ground symbolize bloodshed in the streets of Paris and the hunger and
poverty of the people who rush to drink it.
The incident of the child being run over by Marquis’s carriage. He scolds the people for not
caring about their children and spins a coin for the bereaved father as if for the compensation of
the death of the child. The most shocking example of social injustice is the prolonged
imprisonment of Dr. Manette has recorded the circumstances under which he was made a
prisoner is hair-raising. A TALE OF TWO CITIES is deeply colored by Dickens’ early
experiences in life and by what was happening to his emotional life when he started writing this
novel. Early in his life, he had been a miserable witness to the imprisonment of his father which
had left an unforgettable impression upon his mind. Prison and Imprisonment are two themes
always present in various novels of Charles Dickens. Almost everybody in A TALE OF TWO
CITIES is in prison.
Doubling as a theme:
The two lovers of Lucie seem to symbolize the duality in Dickens’s own heart. Darnay and
Carton who physically resemble each other were self-projections by Dickens. These two men
represent the two different sides of Dickens’s literary personality. Darnay represents the light,
sunny and optimistic aspect of Dickens’ personality who goes to France to help Gabelle without
releasing the dangers he will face there. And Carton, on the other hand, represents the dark
aspect of Dickens who loves Lucie but denies her by describing her as “a golden-haired doll”
and he fails to claim her. Dickens’ own optimistic mood is reflected in the novel. Doubling is
also a theme in the sense that everything in the novel is double.
Double appearances, madness and sanity recurrences, the double arrest of Darnay, his double
resurrection and Darnay’s and Carton’s love for Lucie is also a triangle. Doubling is a technique
of symbolism in the fantasizing of reality, reappears throughout the book. The most obvious
example is physical resemblance of Darnay and Carton. These two personalities represent two
different worlds the social and collective on the one hand and the individual and subjective on
the other. Madame Defarge is an instructive example of Dickens’ attempt throughout this novel
to identity fantasy with reality, as in his own life. This is Dickens’ most personal novel in one
way and the most impersonal in the other.
Symbolism in the Novel A Tale of Two Cities

Symbolism is an important literary tool used by novelists and poets. A symbol is a sign or a
representation standing for something else by association. It embodies an idea or object and it
signifies something deeper while some symbols are peculiar to a particular novelist, others are
universal as they mean the same everywhere. Whatever the type of symbol used, a symbol
signifies a deeper meaning and it conveys what an entire poem or novel cannot do. As an
expression of an artist’s vision, philosophy and ideas, it becomes an embodiment of his passions
and foreboding, his feelings and desires.
Meaningful Symbols
A Tale of Two Cities is a symbolic novel with great depth and significance. The symbols are
used abundantly and they are not at all superflous as they add depth and meaning to the novel.
Dickens’ symbols are a part of his plot and they do not stand out. They dominate the whole novel
and suggest a deeper significance to ordinary things. They are suggestive of much more than
what is apparent. The title itself is as meaningful and symbolic as the two cities which are
juxtaposed by means of symbols and images.
Since A Tale of Two Cities is a narration of private lives against the background of the
Revolution, Dickens makes use of various symbols -personal and conventional – to heighten the
horror of the Revolution and to express his vision of Life through symbols. Inanimate objects,
characters and ideas are used as symbols and images to expound his ideas in an imaginative way.
The Woodman and the Farmer
From the first chapter onwards, we come across symbols which signify a deeper meaning. The
woodman and farmer working side by side, silently and quietly, symbolise Fate and Death
respectively. They are not mere workers but embody the idea that Fate and Death, symbolised by
the Farmer and the Woodman, are quietly working together in France to bring about death and
bloodshed. Together the chopper and tiller are going to change the destinies of those around
them. They are going to sow the seeds of bloodshed and death (Revolution) and finally bring
about death (chop heads)
Symbolic Journey
Chapter two plunges us into a symbolic journey on the mail coach for Dover. The uphill and
labourious journey is symbolic of difficult times in France and England. The mutinous horses
signify that a change is impending — rebellion is around the corner. The mail, its horses and
occupants are suspicious – apprehensive, thus creating an aura of darkness and death we get a
feel of things to come-the Revolution with its bloodshed and butchery.
Images of Ghosts
The ominous and mysterious note continues in the following chapter as Jarvis Lorry visualizes
meeting a ghost, he has dug out of the grave. This image of ghost creates an atmosphere of
mystery about this ghost, who has been “Recalled to Life.” It also prepares us for the theme of
Resurrection which dominates the novel. This symbolic expression of ghosts occurs again and
again. This is what oppression does to people – years of stay in the Bastille makes Dr. Manette
appear ghost-like; it is as if he has been dug from the grave. Later, when Charles is imprisoned in
France, he feels that the other prisoners have been humbled so much that they appear to be
ghosts of their former self. The revolutionaries have degraded the aristocrats to such an extent
that they too appear ghostly. It is as if there is death all around. Images of ghosts symbolise
death.
Wine
The novel is replete with vareity of images and symbols in practically every chapter. Another
recurrent symbol is that of wine and the wine shop.
In the chapter, “The Wine Shop,” a cask of wine spills on the street and this red coloured wine
stains the streets. When the hungry and thirsty people on the streets rush to drink the wine, their
feel, hands and mouth get stained. The image of wine symbolises bloodshed on the streets of
Paris. There is a foreboding that the people will be party to this bloodshed and massacre. Thus,
the spilling of wine stands for blood and bloodshed i.e. the French Revolution. The wineshop too
is mentioned again and again as its owner is the leader of the Revolutionaries. The wineshop,
thus, becomes symbolic of the Revolution.
Blood
Thus, wine and blood are abundant!}’ Used as symbols of the Revolution. The colour red, loo is
used freely in this context. Gaspard writes the word “Blood” on the wall. The Marquis watches
the blood-red sun setting in the horizon. His burning chateau looks red as blood – Gaspard’s
child is over run by the Marquis and there is blood all around. The revolutionaries sharpen their
weapons to shed blood. The recurrent use of blood as a symbol of the Revolutions heightens the
nightmarish quality of the Revolution and makes us realise that though Revolutions are born out
of oppression and suffering, the result is bloodshed. The aristocrats suck the blood of the poor
and the poor lust for the blood of the aristocrats once they revolt. The result is a blood-bath.
The Grindstone
Another symbol of the Revolution is the grindstone. Though it is originally used to crush wheat,
it symbolises the crushing of humanity. Poor labourers and children are made dull and lifeless by
this crushing machine. Though it grinds wheat, multitudes are left hungry. However, during the
Revolution, it is used to sharpen weapons which are used to kill the aristocrats and other
enemies. Thus, it becomes a symbol of torture, cruelty, destruction and bloodshed.
La Guillotine
Equally symbolic of cruelty and bloodshed is La Guillotine or the National Razor which is used
for beheading the condemned. The graphic description of La Guillotine heightens the horror of
the Revolution and becomes symbolic of cruel fate and violent death. It symbolises the
degeneration of the human race as it replaces the cross. It signifies a new brutal world full of
excessive violence and bloodshed. The guillotine mercilessly and brutally exterminates the
aristocrats whose tyranny was symbolised by the Bastille.
The Bastille
The Bastille too is used as a symbol of tyranny during the Reign of Terror. It is linked to the
images of blood and the Revolution and it houses those who have annoyed the aristocrats. Dr.
Manette was imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years for being a champion of the poor
peasant girl. Therefore, it is a symbol of tyranny in the eyes of the revolutionaries. The cruel and
callous Governor, who watched the prisoners shut in solitary cells for years, is slaughtered to
death by Madame Defarge after the Fall of the Bastille.
The Fall of the Bastille symbolises the fall of the aristocracy and an end to the oppression of the
masses by the tyrannical aristocrats who uphold cruelty, unfairness and exploitation. The Bastille
is symbolically meaningful as major events connected with Doctor Manette take place here.
The Carmagnole
Another symbols related to the Revolution is the Carmagnole, the song-dance of the
revolutionaries. The dance gnash their teeth in unison and this symbolises common ideals of
violence and death. This gruesome dance has a nightmarish quality about it as the revolutionaries
express their ubilation in this dance. This frenzied dance highlights the horror of the bloodthirsty
mood of the revolutionaries. It is worse than a battle as it symbolises violence.
Knitting
The violent, vengeful and bloody mood of the revolutionaries is further depicted through the
symbol of knitting. Madame Defarge is forever knitting the names of the enemies of the
Revolution. Knitting acquires a sinister and ominous note as it embodies the ruthlessness,
revenge and cruelty of the revolutionaries.
There seems to be no end to her stony-faced and incessant knitting. It gives a presentiment of
disaster – as if nothing can stop the revolutionaries. Knitting thus symbolises cruel fate, death
and violence.
Echoing Footsteps
Thus, the Revolution is symbolized by images of blood, knitting, La Guillotine etc. It is so

widespread that the echoing footsteps of the Revolution are heard in England by Lucie. She hears
echoing footsteps and feels scared about the future. Sydney Carton also comments that a great
crowd will come into their lives. The footsteps of the revolution finally enter. Lucie’s life like a
tempest and the stampede makes them all suffer. Thus, the echoing footsteps are symbolic of the
frenzied and violent Revolution.
Images of Stone
Dickens portrays the meaninglessness of the monstrous and nightmarish Revolution. Not only
through the symbols of blood and violence, but also by means of images of stone. Marquis
Evremonde’s chateau is made of stone “as if the Gorgon’s head had surveyed it, when it was
finished two centuries ago.” The Gorgon, a monster of Greek mythology was such that all who
looked at it turned into stone. The stone chateau is like the Gorgon’s head as it made Evremonde
stone-hearted and indifferent. He has no compunctions about exploiting his tenants and he
resembles the stone faces on the chateau. After his death, it is as if another stone face has been
added to the chateau. Later, the revolutionaries too become stone-hearted and callous.
Water and Fire
Besides using images of stone, Dickens also uses water and fire as symbols. Water symbolises
time and life. Dickens writes : “The water of the fountain ran, the swift river ran, the day ran
into evening, so much life in the city only ran into death according to rule”, the water ran in
the city and village, both. Later, again the sea is used metaphorically. After the Fall of the
Bastille, “The Sea Still Rises.” The sea is symbolic of the Revolution which rises higher as it
looks for fresh victims. The rising of the sea is followed by “The Fire Rises”. This symbolises
the fire and passions of the revolutionaries as they ignite the chateau.
Characters as Symbols
Dickens also uses characters as symbols. His characterisation ranges from the road mender to the
Marquis, from figures who symbolise a class to private individuals like the Manettes who are
compelled to be a part of history and public events.
Names of Characters
First and foremost, the names of characters have been used symbolically While Lucie means
luminous, Evremonde means every man and Manette may be construed phonetically originated
from the word ‘man’. Ironicalli he has beer, reduced to a number. Stryver is called a lion because
of his ego and greed. He takes credit for his success which is due to Sydney. Sydne; is called a
jackal as he is clever and intelligent. He is like a jackal that has the leftovers of the lion.
Abstract Qualities
Besides names, the characters are symbolic of specific characteristics and abstract qualities.
Lucie gives light and love to everyone around her and she symbolises compassion and
sweetness; Charles embodies patience and fortitude; while Jarvis Lorry symbolises selfless
service and humanity Stryver stands for selfishness and ego; Monseigneur symbolises decayed
aristocracy and Marquis d’ Evremonde is a symbol of inhumanity and cruelty; while Miss Pross
embodies love and affection, Madame Defarge is a symbol of hatred, evil and vengeance. Her
encounter with Miss Pross is symbolic of the triumph of love over hatred, good over evil.
Sydney as a Symbol of Sacrifice
Sydney, too is a symbol of love and sacrifice. He dies for Charles and humanity. In doing so he
is resurrected and he resurrects others. His prophetic vision of the future, in the end, is symbolic
of love triumphing over hatred, of France seeing an end to suffering and bloodshed, of rising out
of the abyss to see better days. His death embodies the idea that the solution lies in moral
regeneration, warmth and love.
Resurrection as a Symbol
Thus, Resurrection becomes a major theme and symbol. Sydney says, “I am the Resurrection. I
am the Life”. He resurrects Charles twice; Dr. Manette, too is resurrected mentally by Luice’s
love; Sydney, is resurrected spiritually by Lucie’s compassion. Jerry Cruncher, too, is resurrected
at the end. The novel is replete with images of Resurrection.
But what stands out at the end is Sydney‘s sacrifice. He becomes a symbol of love. Through him
it becomes a story of rebirth. His death inspires man to be morally regenerated. He embodies
rebirth through love and expiation.
Characters are Parables of the Revolution
Thus, A Tale of Two Cities is a symbolic novel with symbolism integrated into the structure of
the novel. It has a variety of symbols and images, all of which highlight Dickens’ message. By
focussing on the meaningless horrors of the Revolution and the private lives of his characters, he
expresses view that public and private distances are so deeply interlinked that man is a part of
history and there is no escape.
In fact, the lives of Dr. Manette and Sydney mirror the social order and they are mirrored by it.
Their lives are parables of the Revolution, social regeneration, suffering and sacrifice. The
Doctor’s release symbolises the start of a new order, released from its suffering and finding its
identity in a new and just world.
Conclusion
To sum Up, Dickens has used symbols artistically and significantly in A Tale of Two Cities. The
symbols are a part of the plot and they are so well integrated with the theme of Revolution,
resurrection and love that they make the novel rich in meaning, significant and dramatic.
Adam Bede
Q-1 George Eliot: The Character sketch of Hetty
Sorrel.
Q-2 Hetty Sorrel has been described as a central
figure, justify?
Q-3 Character sketch of Hetty Sorrel.
Hetty Sorrel is a beautiful girl. She is the niece of Martin Poyser, the husband of the immortal
Mrs Poyser. According to George Creeger, Hetty is a perfect representative of the Loamshire-
Hayslope world.
Moreover in her case the landscape (nature- background) keeps on changing in keeping with the
changes in her fortunes and career. In the novel, George Eliot's presentation of nature-
background is strictly utilitarian, as is that if Hardy in Tess of the D'urbervilles.
Hetty Sorrel is the niece of Martin Poyser, the husband of the immortal Mrs.Poyser. She lives at
the Hall Farm with her uncle and aunt, because her mother is dead and there is none else to take
care of her. Adam Bede is, by and large, the story of her suffering, and hence Henry James is
right in considering her to be the central figure in the novel, and one of the most successful
female figures of the novelist.
She is a young girl of seventeen, of exceptional physical charms. The novelist has tried to convey
the full flavour of her various beauties but through a series of sense-impressions:
" It is of little use for me to tell you that Hetty's cheek was like a rose-petal, that dimples played
about her pouting lips, that her large dark eyes hid a soft roguishness under their long lashes,
and that her curly hair, though all pushed back under her round cap while she at work, stole
back in dark delicate rings on her forehead, and about her white shell-like ears, it is of little use
for me to say how lovely was the contour of her pink and white neckerchief."
Hetty is beautiful, but her beauty is deceptively soft. She has the softness, and beauty and
fertility of Loamshire, but also its core of hardness. Mrs- Poyser is able to see through it and
perceive the core of hardness that lies within. She admired Hetty's beauty, but she saw her faults:
"She's so better than a peacock, as'ud strut on the wall, and spread its tail when the sun shone if
all the folks; the parish was dying"
, she complained to her husband. The hardness which Mrs- Poyser had noticed in her niece.
Like young, beautiful girls of seventeen in general, Hetty was frivolous and vain. She was quite
conscious of the fact that she had a number of admirers and this made her vain and self-centred.
Hetty Sorrel is a vain, dairy maid who hopes to gain a higher place in society by using her
beauty. Infact her dreams were all of luxuries and finery.
Hetty is not only vain but also coquettish. She knew that Adam was the best and most suitable of
her admirers, but she had no wish to marry him for he was poor and unable to provide her with
the fineries which she loved, but still, she encouraged him. She turn to Adam and agree to marry
him, when she had lost all hopes of Arthur's ever returning to her, and when she also knew that
Adam was doing well, that he was on the way to prosperity, and that he would be able to offer
her the comforts she yearned for. She thinks of her own well-being, of the gratification of her
own desires, and no thought of Adam's happiness enters into her head, so egocentric and self-
centred is she.
Even during their first meeting, Arthur's attentions intoxicate her and transport her to a world of
dreams and fantasy. Henceforth, she thought more if Arthur Donnithorne than of Adam and his
troubles. When Hetty realized that Aurthur loved her, she became thoroughly conscious of her
own beauty. The scene in her bed- chamber showed her at her vainest. Dinah's serious talk upset
her, not because she responded to it, but because she had the timidity of a luxurious, pleasure-
seeking nature which shrinks from the hint of pain.
But poor, beautiful Hetty was destined to face great pain and her lovely dreams ended in tragedy.
The parting with Arthur was a double pain to her. She was driven to desperation and
contemplation of suicide by fear of shame and disgrace.
She gave birth prematurely to her child in the house of a stranger, Sarah Stone, the next evening,
feverish and half-crazy; she went out and tried to escape from her shame by abandoning her baby
in the woods. Its crying haunted her and she returned but too late.
At the trial her stubborn silence arouses great indignation; she is found guilty of child -murder
and is condemned to death. At the last moment Aurthur arrives with a document, showing that
her sentences has been commuted to transportation, and we are told that Hetty is released after
eight years and that she die on her way back home.
Loamshire-Hayslope world is rich, fertile and beautiful world. In this beautiful and fertile world,
the kittenish Hetty has lived a sheltered life, entirely free from the cares and worries which are
the common lot of humanity. The result has been that she has grown up without maturity. The
process of maturity is a process of continuous contact with the misery and wretchedness of life,
but poor Hetty has known no such contacts, she has had no experience of sorrow and suffering,
the result has been that she has remained a willful child, without any experience of real life, yet
required to act in a responsible and mature way in an adult world.
In the end, we can say that, the novelist has been too hard upon Hetty as she was destined to face
great pain and her lovely dreams ended in tragedy.
Q-1 George Eliot As a Psychological Novelist

Q-2 George Eliot's gift of psycho-analysis in the novel?
George Eliot is a great psychological novelist. She is one of the ' founding- fathers' of the
modern psychological novel. As a psychological novelist it was her endeavour to represent inner
life. She depicts the inner struggles of her characters and thus lays bare their souls before her
readers.
From the psychological point of view, in George Eliot novels, the characters develop gradually,
as we come to know them. They go from weakness to strength or from strength to weakness. In
Adam Bede she has very beautifully presented the psycho-analysis of the characters of Arthur,
Adam and Hetty. She analyses, their motives, impulses, mental processes, inner conflicts, their
souls' study, and development in their characters. Thus she discusses her characters inside out.
The result of such clear understanding of the inner man is that her characters are all
psychologically consistent. They have inner consistency which is lacking in the characters of the
other Victorian novelists. Further, this psychological insight also enables the novelists to sketch
successfully the growth and development of a character.
George Eliot is an "intellectual novelist". She has written the novels principally from the inside
of her character, not from the outside, as most of her contemporaries and predecessors had done.
Her novels are remarkable for their psychological realism and this is her peculiar contribution to
the English novel. The great psychological novelist analyses the motives, impulses and mental
processes which moves her characters to act in a particular way. Thus she 'dissects' the soul of
her characters and brings out inner struggle. As Robert Browning shows this struggle, in his
dramatic monologues in poetry, in the art of novel. Samuel Richardson, George Meredith along
with George Eliot are the pioneers of psychological dissection.
She is more interested in the inner drama of her characters than the outer actions. She moves in
the depths of mind and heart and thus draws her characters inside out. Therefore, her major
characters are not formed, like Dickens and Thackeray's rather they develop with the story, as a
reader gets familiar with them.
Her power of psycho-analysis and her understanding of human mind and motives are clearly
discernible in Adam Bede. The admired parts of the novel are those in which Eliot gives deep
insight into her characters and brings their conflicts to light. For this reason, Adam Bede is
regarded as one of the first psychological novels. There are certain glimpses of her observance,
intellect and wisdom, scattered throughout the novel, in the form of sentences like
"When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of but are
severity."
George Eliot's grip of psychological essentials enables her to draw complex characters much
better than her predecessors. She has psychological and emotional realism which is more
important than factual realism of the ordinary novelist. It is this grasp of psychological essentials
which gives her characters their reality. George Eliot knows very well that
“man is a strange combination of vice and virtue."
She searches the intensity and ratio of these two aspects in her characters. In some characters the
"defect" arises from their virtue, as in the case of Arthur Donnithorne. He is a noble man, who
wishes to be praised and admired for his gentleness, everywhere. He has the soft corner for
beauty and Hetty's innocent charm attracts him. His very fault is that, he tries to suppress, and
resist the temptation, which results only in its becoming more vigorous. Eliot has beautifully
handled the struggle of Arthur's mind and heart. She detects various confusing and fighting
elements in Arthur's mind, such as; his genuine regret, his fear of disapproval and his false hope
that in the end everything would be alright, at least with him things must always come right.
Eliot says:
"It is the favorite stratagem of our passions to show a retreat and to turn sharp sound upon us at
the moment we have made up our minds that the day in our own".
Eliot beautifully expresses the fact that an ordinary weak man cannot bear the acute stress and
tension of realizing his sin. Hetty, no doubt, was an extraordinary charming beauty, yet she was
an ordinary timid village girl, with her irrational dreams and longing for a life of aristocratic
lady.
She is safe and secure within her Hayslope world, but as soon as she leaves it, she is exposed to
sufferings of shame and guilt. Her weak nerves refuse to bear this weight and she goes in
suppression, withdraws to admit or deny her sin.
Her power of describing mixed characters extends to mix States of mind. She is particularly good
at showing how temptation triumphs. No other English novelist has given us so valid a picture of
the process of moral defect, as Donnithorne's gradual yielding to his passion for Hetty. A critic
says:
"George Eliot can follow the windings of motives, through the most tortuous labyrinths, for
firmly grasped in her hand is always the central clue".
George Eliot achieved her greatest success in drawing complex characters. Novelists who
concentrate on the outside aspects of characters generally fail in the portrayal of complex
characters. George Eliot being a a psychological could successfully draw complex characters.
She has a power of analysis of causes and motives. For example, in the chapter called “A
Journey of Hope", Eliot spent for more time in Hetty's poor brain and heart than Hetty spends
on roads in her unwise search for her runaway lover. This is psychology. Eliot is very deft in her
psychological approach.
When George Eliot's characters think, we share their thoughts. For example, when Adam
accidentally comes upon Arthur and Hetty embracing in the woods, Hetty scurries away, and
Arthur, with deliberate and elaborate carelessness, saunters forward to Arthur. George Eliot
looks into the minds of these common people and reveals their thinking, feelings, sufferings and
frustrations. Her portraits are all primarily portraits of the inner man. Eliot reveals another
psychological reality that everyone either consciously or unconsciously, strives after the “ideal
goodness". Adam is shown good but his goodness is not an ideal one.
Adam was in love with Hetty and thought that she could never be wrong. But when he comes to
know about her faults and sufferings he feels genuine sympathy for her and suffers with her.
Thus, Eliot shows him reaching ideal goodness, through the power of love.
George Eliot's novel "Adam Bede" is the first psychological novel. It is her highest
achievement in drawing complex characters and to understand the inner action. She thoroughly
incarnates herself into her characters and brings their subconscious and even the unconscious to
light. We can say that George Eliot's gift of psycho-analysis in the novel "Adam Bede" is really a
peculiar among the Victorian Novelists.
George Eliot’s Art of Characterization

George Eliot is a great psychological novelist. She is one of the 'founding fathers' of the modern
psychological novel. As a psychological novelist it was her endeavour to represent inner life.
She depicts the inner struggles of her characters and thus lays bare their soul before her readers.
From the psychological point of view, in George Eliot novels, the characters develope gradually,
as we come to know them. They go from weakness to strength or from strength to weakness.
George Eliot like a lot of other women writers, depended largely upon her own experience. And
it is to this experience and to her life in the English Midlands that she returns again and again for
her material. Although in her later novels George Eliot does draw characters belonging to the
upper class. Wordsworth influenced her profoundly. She echoes Wordsworth's interest in rustic
life and uses the dialect spoken by the humble rustics to make her portrayal of character more
realistic.
George Eliot's full scale characters are all drawn from her family circle, close friends and
acquaintances. This is clearly noticeable in her early novels. The main persons in the first novel, '
Scenes of Clerical Life' are portraits of real people whom she had been acquainted with or heard
about.
George Eliot looks into the minds of these common people and reveals their thinking, feelings,
sufferings and frustrations. Her portraits are all primarily portraits of the inner-man. Her novels
are remarkable for their psychological realism, and this is her peculiar contribution to the English
novel.
Such is her realism in the presentation of character, that after the publication of Scenes of
Clerical Life in 1857, her readers of Warwickshire were astonished to find that the characters of
her novels were people they had known and who were their neighbours. She had been greatly
influenced and dominated by her father, and Adam Bede and Caleb Garth are strongly
reminiscent of Robert Evans, the upright workman. He, like Adam Bede, was well known for his
trustworthiness, high character and extraordinary strength. He had immense knowledge of
plantation, timber and mines.
George Eliot spent the first thirty years of her life in the Midlands where she has enough
opportunity to study the mannerism and life of the lower classes. We have it in her own words
that she had lived among craftsmen, farmers, tradesmen, mechanics, farriers, butchers, gardeners
and innkeepers, so her characters also belongs to the various professions. For example, Adam
Bede is a carpenter, Dinah Morris works in a factory, Hetty Sorel is a pretty but vain dairy-maid.
When we glance over the whole range of George Eliot's characters, we come to the conclusion
that she was exceptional in the portrayal of female characters. The rendering of Hetty Sorel in
Adam Bede is a triumph. Hetty Soral is a beautiful, vain, dairy-maid who hopes to gain a higher
place in society by using her beauty.
Dinah Morris is one person who penetrates through her surface beauty and perceives the
weakness of Hetty's character and she tries to prepare her for the possibility of pain and trouble
in her life. There have been biographical surmises that the plain looking George Eliot was
punishing himself through the sins of the beautiful Hetty. There are heavy, ironical paragraphs
describing the beauty of women like Hetty, and the havoc they cause in the lives of men.
The rustic characters in the early novels, especially, can be compared in their eccentricities and
grotesqueries to the rustic characters of Thomas Hardy.
The chorus of lively rustic characters plays an important part in her novels. In Adam Bede the
community of Hayslope plays the part of the chorus. At the twenty-first birthday celebrations of
Captain Donnithorne, Mr Poyser keeps referring with apprehensive irritation to the Squire, and
the rumours about the mysterious tenants. All this reaches a climax when the old Squire
approaches the Poysers with a proposal and is routed by Mrs. Poyser. At the same feast the
Captain announces that Adam is being given the position of the manager of the woods. Adam
makes a fine speech but of much greater interest are the opinions of those present.
For example, in the chapter called "A Journey in Hope, Eliot spends for more time in Hetty's
poor brain and heart than Hetty spends on road in her unwise search for her runaway lover. This
is psychology. Eliot is very deft in her psychologicl approach. When George Eliot's characters
think, we share their thoughts, for example, when Adam accidentally comes upon Arthur and
Hetty embracing in the woods, Hetty scurries away, and Arthur, with deliberate and elaborate
carelessness, saunters forward to Adam.
The characters of George Eliot's are real, living breathing human beings. They are warm, full of
vitality, with human desires and weaknesses.
Themes in the Novel “Adam Bede”
Honor
Honor is an ancient theme with special resonance in medieval times, which is fitting in a novel
set in a town that has an almost feudal landlord. There are two types of honor in this novel: that
of females, and that of males. Female honor is fairly passive and relies entirely on chastity. If
women lose this chastity, they are helpless to regain their honor. Male honor is more complicated
and more active. Honor is tied up in their profession, land, and overall identity. When Adam runs
away as a young boy because of family unhappiness, he chooses to return partially in order to
maintain the honor of his family by keeping it economically afloat. He knows that the only way
to provoke Arthur to fight is by insulting his honor, so instead of reproaching him, he calls him a
coward.
Love
The novel includes a few examples of true love based on mutual attraction. One positive example
of mutual love is the relationship between Adam and Dinah at the end of the novel. But it takes
others around them to work out their feelings for them, showing that it is not only mutual love
that is important, but also a mutual love that is recognized and supported by both of the families
of the lovers. Indeed, society matters for love; in other relationships, the complicating factor is
always socioeconomic class, because the novel is set in a time period when marriage was more
of a contract than a romantic affair.
This problem extends to both men and women. Adam Bede is expected to marry Mary Burge
merely because it would be an advantageous business proposition. Afterwards, he could become
partners with her father, a man who had been his boss. What is more, there are two class-related
barriers to a love affair between Arthur and Hetty. The first is obvious: Arthur cannot easily
marry someone so far below his social class. The second is more subtle: it is unclear whether
Hetty would be as attracted to Arthur if it were not for his wealth. When she does dream of their
future together, she imagines the luxuries that he could provide her with, rather than the life that
they could have together. There is even an impediment to Adam's courtship of Hetty, a pair who
might seem to be of the same social stratum. Before his promotion to steward of the forest, some
townspeople say that Adam is reaching too high trying to land the niece of a large dairy farmer.
Nature
Nature is a constant presence in all of Eliot's novels. Unlike many romantic novelists, she does
not make the weather correspond directly with her principal characters' moods or feelings.
Rather, she comments on the sort of injustice that the weather always seems to be at its most
beautiful when man is going through a particular hardship. This disconnection of natural life
from human life is part of Eliot's literary doctrine of painstaking realism. Rather than have the
weather reflect her characters' feelings, she quite accurately has her characters mark their
memories and experiences in the context of their actual environment. Adam marks his movement
from happiness to adulthood by the beech tree that he contemplated moments before seeing
Hetty and Arthur kiss under it. Hetty marks her homeward journey not to return to the family
farm, but to regain some scenery that is familiar to her. Dinah and Adam always refer to his
interception of her in Snowfield and their agreement to marry as "the meeting on the hill."
Industry
Eliot wrote Adam Bede at the time that the Industrial Revolution was beginning to change the
face of life in Britain. More and more ingenious inventions meant that farmers were caught up in
industry, and many moved away from their small towns into bigger cities. The village that Eliot
portrays is a holdout against this new lifestyle, but the presence of new industry is indicated by
the mill that Dinah works at when she is home. Eliot comments that Dinah is drawn to this town
as well as to the industrial town of Leeds which, along with Manchester, was at the forefront of
the Industrial Revolution. Dinah is drawn to such towns because of the great misery in them.
Eliot seems to side with many poets and authors in lamenting the onset of industry insofar as it
alienates people from nature. Eliot personifies the spirit of Leisure in contrast to this new
industry, describing him as a portly old gentleman with excellent digestion.
Motherhood
As a novel which centers on an infanticide by a mother, Adam Bede is necessarily preoccupied

with motherhood. The most obvious example of a strong mother figure is Lisbeth Bede, who
loves her son, Adam, almost too much. She is constantly worried about where he is, what he is
doing, and whether he has had enough to eat. Her constant nagging, which irritates Adam, also
ashames him. Lisbeth's relationship with Seth is a much easier one, perhaps because she loves
him just a little less--and therefore nags him just a little less. It is important to note that neither
Hetty nor Dinah has a mother anymore. Both of them were orphaned and live with their uncle or
aunt, respectively. The lack of a mother figure affects each of them profoundly.
Dinah quickly grows into a mother figure herself, looking after and waiting on others before
herself. Seth describes a young boy even climbing into her lap to be held during one of her
preaching sessions. Hetty, in contrast, lacking strong guidance, grows up vain and petty. When
she has a child of her own, admittedly under extremely tough circumstances, she kills it by
burying it.
She does have some motherly feelings, however, noting that she could not bear to look at its
"little hands or little face" before she buried it. She imagines that she continues to hear it crying.
This is why she returns to the spot where she buried it, and this is why she is apprehended as a
criminal.
Sacrifice
Because religion (in particular, Christianity) is of such importance in this novel, the issue of
sacrifice--and its nobility--comes up quite often. The character most inclined toward sacrifice,
Dinah, is also the most religious. Dinah is content to spend her life serving others if she thinks
that she can bring them some comfort. This notion of sacrifice is parodied by Mrs. Poyser, who
thinks that Dinah takes the idea to an extreme. Mrs. Poyser is upset that Dinah moves back and
forth between different parishes, trying to calculate in which one the life is hardest so that she
can choose the one needing the most help. Her aunt says of Dinah that she would only marry if
the man were a Methodist and lame, consistent with her doctrine of help and sacrifice. Dinah
must struggle against her conscience in order to allow herself to marry Adam, because she thinks
that she loves him too much--it would be too little of a sacrifice. Eliot makes it clear that this
argument (if not Dinah's whole perspective on sacrifice) is somewhat ridiculous, and besides,
Dinah changes her mind in a short time and agrees to marry Adam. Eliot suggests that sacrifice is
worthwhile for the most part, but not to an extent whereby it prevents overall personal happiness
or other goods such as the creation of a family.
Female Identity and Autonomy
The issue of female identity is often at the forefront of George Eliot’s novels, even in one named
after a man, such as Adam Bede. Of course, in the mid-Victorian period Eliot was writing in a
male-dominated world; for instance, she saw a need to assume a male pen-name in order to
protect her identity and popularize her writing. Among the most memorable characters in the
novel are women with strong voices who are attached to men.
The most confident female character is Dinah Morris, who asserts her identity to Lisbeth Bede in
Chapter Ten, announcing: "I am Dinah Morris and I work in the cotton-mill when I am at home."
Dinah is also a confident and effective female preacher. Her resistance to marriage because she is
worried that it will curtail her religious teaching is resolved by Eliot in a manner calculated not
to upset the male hierarchy. It turns out that Dinah was not in fact prevented from a traditional
marriage by religiosity, but rather by the fact that no man that she truly loved had yet asked her
to marry him. Indeed, she quiets into a typical housewife at the end of the novel, even consenting
to discontinue her preaching because the Methodist men have decided that it is not a good idea.
Another strong female voice in Adam Bede is Mrs. Poyser. She is much more intelligent than her
husband, and she has much more control over their farm than he does. She inevitably has her
"say out," which involves working up her courage to tell her hated landlord what everyone in the
community thinks of him. She prefaces this opinion with, "Then, sir, if I may speak--as for all
I'm a woman, and there's folks as thinks a woman's fool enough to stan' by an' look on while
the men sign her soul away, I've a right to speak..." Still, Mrs. Poyser's marriage to Mr. Poyser
gives her an added ethos in contrast to that of an outspoken maiden or, in Victorian fiction, the
stock character of a dangerous widow.
Hetty Sorrel, in contrast to these stronger women, lacks the power or the initiative to speak up
for herself. Hetty does not speak very much, and her preferred method of seduction is to burst
into tears rather than to have a conversation. She pays dearly for this quietness, because she is
not able to ask for help when she becomes pregnant. When she finally admits to Dinah in the jail
cell that "I did it," this first instance of her assertion of agency comes far too late.

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MA English Part 1

Paper 3 (Novel) All Important notes

Notes Prepared By Prof. Tahir Islam

Pride and Prejudice

“Tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me…”

Jane Austen’s Art of Characterization

Jane Austen’s Limited Range

"within the range of her imaginative inspiration."

“Two inches of ivory.”

In a letter to her niece, Fanny Knight, Jane Austen wrote,

Her nephew James Austen-Leigh, alludes to her limited range:

Macaulay declares that her characters are commonplace,

G.H. Lewes pays glowing tribute to her:

“She never goes out of the Parlour.”

Pride and Prejudice: Title

“… tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me”

nor, indeed, the statement that

“my good opinion once lost is lost forever”.

It is at Rosings that their process of self-discovery starts. At Netherfield Park,Elizabeth’s family

Theme of Love and Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

support of intellectual understanding and maturity.

The Return of the Native

“You hate the Heath as much as ever; that I know”

“I do … ‘Tis my cross, my misery, and will be my death.”

The dark-spirit of nature seems to be ready to engulf the whole scenario.

Hardy’s Philosophy or Tragic Vision of Life

In The Return of the Native, Hardy again reminds us that,

“What a sport for Heaven this woman Eustacia was!”

"Happiness is but an occasional episode in a general drama of pain".

Main themes in “The Return of the Native”

as to outright denounce any of the ancient superstitions suggested in the text.

valuable only towards encouraging the young to engage in offensive graffiti.

The Oedipus complex

Role of Chance and Coincidence in “The Return of the

Role of Chance and Fate in the Novel “The Return of

The Role of Fate

The Role of Fate in “The Return of the Native”

“Tis my cross, my shame and will be my death”

was also predestined.

Thomas Hardy Philosophy of Life

Imperfections of the First Cause: Human Suffering

Nature as Instrument of the First Cause

The Irony of Circumstance or Life

The Role of Chance and Fate

Love: A Potent Cause of Suffering

Human Freedom of Action: Its Limitations

Character may be destiny in Shakespeare, but it is certainly not so in Hardy's world-view. In

Ways for the Amelioration of Human Lot

Conclusion : Hardy's Humanism

A Tale of Two cities

Crisis and Revolution in his personal life:

Limitations of A TALE OF TWO CITIES as a historical novel:

Historical scenes in A TALE OF TWO CITIES:

The interweaving of personal life with the FR:

The Tragedy of Dr. Manette:

The Tragedy of People in General:

Dickens’ own Tragedy:

Main Themes in the Novel "A Tale of Two Cities"

The resurrection of Dr Manette: First Resurrection:

Charles Darnay’s Resurrection:

The Resurrection of Carton:

The Grotesque resurrection of Cly: