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Category: Novels

  • Significance of the title of Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

    Significance of the title of Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

    Far From the Madding Crowd is a phrase that occurs in Thomas Gray‘s Elegy written in the Country Churchyard. This Elegy pays a tribute to humble and homely ancestors of village-people, who lie buried in the country church-yard. The phrase occurs in the following stanza:

    Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife;
    Their sober wishes never learn’d to stray;
    Along with the cool, sequester’d vale of life
    They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

    The title suggests that the novel deals with the life of country people. The latter lead a calm and quiet existence far removed from the din, hustle and bustle, and the feverish activities of town life. They are either farmers, laborers, or shepherds. Most of them are illiterate or half-educated. They keep the noiseless tenor of their life because they are neither as ambitious nor as corrupt or dishonest as city-bred people. They lead a happy, contented, and quiet life.

    Most of the characters are homely and simple-minded. Some are pure rustics, like Joseph Poorgrass, Laban Tall, Cain Ball, and Henery Fray. They are illiterate, superstitious, and clownish. They remind us of Shakespeare’s rustics and jesters. Among major characters Oak is an idealized rustic; Boldwood and Bathsheba are farmers. The only exception is Sergeant Troy who is a sufficiently educated man and whose polished ways present a sharp contrast to the rustic behavior of other characters.

    The novel refers to scenes and activities associated with rural or pastoral life. Thus, we have references to lambing, sheep-washing, Sheep-shearing, sheep-fairs, and shearing-feasts. The novel is throughout pervaded by a pastoral atmosphere. Indeed, it would not be wrong to describe it as a Pastoral Romance.

    The title might also have a deeper meaning. It may suggest that human nature is the same everywhere. Thus, though the characters live in the countryside, far from the madding crowds of big towns and cities, they are torn by the same passions, which work havoc with city-bred people. This is to say, the same emotions sway their minds that inspire people elsewhere. Thus, these characteristics are not proof against love, jealousy, or vanity. Oak and Boldwood have both to suffer because Bathsheba does not respond to their love. Bathsheba marries Troy because she feels jealous of the other beautiful woman whom Sergeant Troy intends to marry. Boldwood shoots Troy dead because he (Boldwood) does not approve Troy’s employing force in compelling Bathsheba to accompany him. Fanny Robin meets with a tragic end because she is deserted by her lover.

    Thus we can say that Far From the Madding Crowd is an apt and appropriate title. It suggests, at first sight, that the novel will deal with country people and rural life. The novel thus has been rightly named because it refers to the joys and sorrows of the humble and homely countrymen.

    Also read; An Impression about Maud Gonne in the poem “No Second Troy” by W.B.Yeats

  • Discuss “Sons and Lovers” as a Bildungsroman or Kunslerroman novel

    Discuss “Sons and Lovers” as a Bildungsroman or Kunslerroman novel

    “Sons and Lovers” is “A Portrait of the Artist as a Youngman” by D.H.Lawrence. In it, he transmutes autobiography into objective fiction and organizes his accounts of a potential artist from infancy to maturity by racing the growth of his dual self-both artistic and human. Middleton Murray has emphasised that, owing to what is called mother fixation, Lawrence himself was never able to make a happy emotional adjustment with other women. He was a tortured soul throughout the full 45 years of his life, and what he suffered, and what he thought and observed under the stimulus of suffering, can very well be guessed from a study of “Sons and Lovers”.

    The same psychology is evident in Paul Morel, the hero of the novel. He is an artist, and speaking psychologically, we may say that in art he finds compensation for his psychological traumas. Too sensitive and nervous to find joy in the external world, he finds self-fulfilment in the world of art and nature. Right from the dawn of life, Paul is prone to depression. Disharmony in his parents’ marital life produces in him a neurotic strain and makes him hypersensitive. “His neurotic refusal of life is the direct result of his parents’ failure.” To see them fighting bitterly, Paul is overpowered by the “horror of the sudden silence, silence everywhere.” His tortured soul is soothed only when he hears them coming up, together.

    Paul suffers from utmost diffidence, shudders to face the outer world, and eventually leans on his mother more for the warmth of life. He thus proves to be an introverted and self-conscious personality. To him, the touch of any external reality, school, rustic and vulgar manners of the miners, his interview at the Jordan’s, library, etc., is an agonising experience. Lawrence comments on his plight at the Jordan’s-“Charles I mounted his scaffold with a lighter heart than did Paul Morel as he followed his mother up the dirty steps to the dirty door”.

    Paul is a young man of an artistic nature. But this remains suppressed owing to the inability to establish a sane human relationship. He cannot help his mother’s soul-sucking love. The ability to look deep into his own consciousness cannot compensate for his inability to grow as an independent individual. Paul’s love for Miriam is a desperate attempt to free himself from the excessive attachment to his mother. He has to reconcile himself to her excessive spirituality, but he demands fleshly love of her. The disparity weighs heavily on his psyche. He loves his mother deeply but sometimes hates her for her antagonism toward Miriam. The demands of Clara, the sex symbol for Paul, are too much to be met by him, to inspire the imaginative artist in him, and to lead him to the “inner reality”. Miriam’s presence, however, exercises a very stimulating effect on his mind. It impels his imagination and stirs him into creative activity. In her contact, Paul gains insight and life warmth. Miriam urged this warmth into intensity like a white light. In breaking with Miriam, Paul severs himself from his inspiration and it virtually marks the death of the artist in him.

    Paul’s artistic disposition finds an outlet in his drawings and paintings. Paul has an artistic bent of mind as evident in his love for nature and flowers. The painting of his ‘landscape’ gets the 1st prize at the Nottingham Castle Exhibition and is bought for 20 guineas. He is gifted with a rare insight and his paintings are a manifestation of his lifelong quest for ‘inner reality’.

    The pursuit of art and intellect, such as French, algebra, or poetry, brings him inner satisfaction, and so does the world of nature. He would breathe a flower as if they loved each other. He has a rare insight and penetration and can see into the heart of things. He can paint the soul and not merely the externals. He is so engrossed in his work while working at a sketch that he becomes oblivious to his surroundings. To Miriam, he talks endlessly of his sketches, about his “love of horizontals”. He is grateful to the girls working at the factory who present him with the paint tubes. Paul appreciates that they have recognised his keen interest in painting. Later, after the death of his mother, when his zest for life has virtually cooled down, Paul returns to cheap novels and becomes indifferent to his painting. Thus, these intellectual activities are an internal part of his existence.

  • Character of William Morel in D.H.Lawrence’s novel “Sons and Lovers”

    Character of William Morel in D.H.Lawrence’s novel “Sons and Lovers”

    William Morel is the eldest son of Gertrude and Walter Morel in D.H. Lawrence’s novel “Sons and Lovers”. He was just seven when he was first introduced to us. He is ‘a very active lad, fair-haired, freckled, with a touch of the Dane or Norwegian about him’. Though very young, he has a definite air of distinction around him. When he goes to school, he is at the top of the class and is said to be the smartest boy. At thirteen, he finds a job in the co-operative office. He also goes to night school; by the time he is sixteen, he is the best shorthand clerk and bookkeeper in the office. He is an active boy and has won several medals and prizes. He learns dancing and makes friends with several girls, who often come to his house enquiring after the young Mr Morel. He is a gifted boy, and the driving ambition of his mother sets him on the path of steady progress. At nineteen, he gets a job in Nottingham at thirty shillings a week, and after a year, he secures a position in London at a hundred and twenty a year. This achievement is outstanding for one who begins merely as a miner’s son.

    William is brought up in the strife-ridden atmosphere of the Morel household. He understands and shares what Mrs Morel suffers. He is a witness to the brutally violent treatment of his mother at the hands of his father. He is also repelled by his father’s gross animality and the coarseness of his manners. Since his mother loves him so well, his father, red hot with jealousy, often bullies him. As a result, William develops a deep hatred for his father. Growing up to be a strong young man, he openly shows hostility to his father. Once, when he finds his mother badly beaten, he threatens to strike him and teach him a lesson. But for the intervention of Mrs Morel, he would have done so. He feels annoyed with his mother for her intervention. “But why don’t you let me settle him? I  could do easily,” he says to her.

    His inordinate love for his mother balances William’s loathing for his father. He loves her dearly, for she is so ladylike, so tender and fascinating. Even though he is a small child at the fair, he buys her two egg cups with moss roses on them. He says he likes them, but the fact is that he has bought them to please her. And after she leaves the fair, he cannot enjoy himself. Much later, when he is in London, he gets a chance to go on a trip in the Mediterranean at quite a small cost. But he rejects the offer so that he can visit his home and see his mother. Love for his mother is at the uppermost level in his mind.

    Mrs Morel, disillusioned and disgusted with her husband, turns to her eldest son for love and fulfilment. She showers all her love on William and thus gradually possesses his soul. The relationship between the two soon assumes an Oedipal complexion. During William’s childhood, this love sustains him, but as he grows up and feels the necessity of establishing a sexual relationship with other girls, its damaging influence soon becomes evident. Mrs Morel is highly jealous of and openly rude to the girls who call her house to meet William. She does not approve of his dancing, either, and he has to dance despite his mother. In London, he is captivated by the beauty of Gyp and very much wants to marry her. Yet, he cannot give himself fully to his sweetheart because of his deep attachment to his mother. Mrs Morel disapproves of his choice and advises him not to go after her. He feels he has gone too far to leave her at this stage. At the same time, he realises his life is ultimately rooted in his mother, and he cannot wrench himself away from her. This causes an acute conflict in his mind. And under its unbearable burden, he gets full of despair and often talks of dying.

    During the summer of the last year of his life, the letters he wrote from London are desperate and unhappy. They acquire a definite feverish tone. When he comes home on a short visit, he is more gaunt than ever and is silent and reserved. He tries to look gay and cheerful, but this unnatural posture tells on his health. Slowly, he breaks down under its strain. A few days after his return to London, he is taken seriously ill. He falls into delirium and dies. The responsibility for cutting short such a brilliant career undoubtedly lies with Mrs Morel, unwilling to loosen her hold on his soul.

  • Reflexive novel: Definition, Meaning and Examples

    Reflexive novel: Definition, Meaning and Examples

    The reflexive novel is a novel in which the author calls the reader’s attention to the fact that he or she is writing (or has written) a novel. Thus, what Roland Barthes would call a ‘writerly’ novel.

    A classic and early example of such a work is Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy(1760–67), an attempt at autobiography in which virtually no progress is made. Sterne uses many devices to show a discrepancy between reality/life and art, and that it is impossible to provide a coherent and rational picture of anything as complex as life and reality.

    Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews (1742) and Tom Jones (1749) are other reflexive novels of that period. In the 19th c., most novelists tried to give form, shape, and rationality to their versions of reality. However, this often tended to falsify reality in the cause of artistic and aesthetic coherence. Periodically, novelists were aware of the inherent shortcomings of the endeavour to impose form on the disorderly or chaotic.

    In the 20th century, numerous novelists developed various forms of reflexive novels. James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) is an outstanding example. So is Andre Gide’s Les Faux-monnayeurs (1926). Since the 1950s, we should also mention the work of Vladimir Nabokov, Flann O’Brien, William Burroughs, Christine Brooke-Rose, Samuel Beckett, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Thomas Pynchon, and John Fowles. This fiction is sometimes called ‘self-conscious’ or ‘self-referential’.

    Also read: What is Touchstone Method?