Introduction main part

2.2 The Occupations of Wessex

Besides the pictures of the landscape and the environment, the novel also contains vivid descriptions of the rural occupations of Wessex. There are some rural occupations in Wessex.
In the opening chapter, we see the occupation of Tess’s father, John Durbeyfield. John is a peddler man. He haggles from Shaston to Marlot. It can be seen in the following quotation:
An empty egged basket was slung upon his arm, the nap of his hat was ruffled, a patch being quite worn away at its brim where his thumb came in taking it off. (Hardy, 1991: 27)
When Tess has become an unmarried mother, she comes to a resolve to undertake outdoor work in her native village. She becomes an agricultural labourer in Marlott. Here, Hardy describes the operations of the mechanical reaper in the following⁵:
The machine had begun, and a moving concatenation of three horses and the aforesaid long rickety machine was visible over the gate, a driver sitting upon of one the hauling horses, and an attendant on the seat of the implement. Along one side of the field the whole wain went, the arms of the mechanical reaper revolving slowly, till it passed down the hill quite out of sight. (Hardy, 1991: 116)
Hardy also describes the work done by the men and the women who pick up the heaps to bind them into sheaves as seen in the following quotation:
The reaping-machine left the fallen corn behind it in little heaps, each heap being of the quantity for a sheaf; and upon these the active binders in the rear laid their hands – mainly women, but some of them men in print shirts, and trousers supported round their waists by leather straps, … (Hardy, 1991: 116)
Then, Hardy also shows the readers how Tess works here, especially her binding of the sheaves as seen in following the quotation:
Her binding proceeds with clock-like monotony. From the sheaf last finished she draws a handful of ears, patting their tips with her left palm to bring them even. Then stooping low she moves forward, gathering the corn with both hands against her knees, and pushing her left gloved hand under the bundle to meet the right on the other side, holding the corn in an embrace like that of a lover. She brings the ends of the bond together, and kneels on the sheaf while she ties it, beating back her skirts now and then when lifted by the breeze.
From Hardy’s description of the work, the readers can feel Hardy’s minuteness of observation. Hardy’s description of the milking of cows at Talbothays diary owned by Mr.
Richard Crick again shows the accuracy and minuteness of his observation.
The milkers formed quite a little battalion of men and maids, the men operating on the hard-teated animals, the maids on the kindlier natures.
After Tess had settled down to her cow there was for a time no talk in the barton, and not a sound interfered with the purr of the milk-jets into the numerous pails, except a momentary exclamation to one or other of the beasts requesting her to turn round or stand still. The only movements were those of the milkers’ hands up and down, and the swing of the cows’ tails. Songs were often resorted to in dairies hereabout as an enticement to the cows when they showed signs of withholding their usual yield; and the band of milkers at this request burst into melody - in purely business-like tones,… the result, according to their own belief, being a decided improvement during the song’s continuance⁶.
In fact, Mr. Crick’s diary is a large one. There are nearly a hundred milchers on the dairy-farm; and of the herd, the master-dairyman milks six or eight with his own hands. These are the cows that milked hardest of all. Songs are often resorted to in dairies as an enticement to the cows when they show signs of reluctance to be milked as the cows are usually very responsive to music and song. Men also work for collecting the meadows, digging the little waterway clear for winter irrigation and repairing their banks which are trodden down by the cows.
The occupations at Flintcomb-Ash too are described with a characteristic thoroughness. Hardy shows us the work of swede-grubbing:
The upper half of each turnip had been eaten off by the livestock, and it was the business of the two women to grub up the lower or earthy half of the root with a hooked fork called a hacker, that it might be eaten also. (Hardy, 1991: 360)
Then, Hardy also shows us the work of swede-trimming:
… Tess slaved in the morning frosts and in the afternoon rains. When it was not swede-grubbing it was swede-trimming, in which process they sliced off the earth and the fibres with a billhook before storing the roots for future use. (Hardy, 1991: 362)
This work is followed by red-drawing in the barn which is fearful hard work in winter. It is shown in the following quotation:
Putting on their gloves all set to work in a row in front of the press, an erection formed of two posts connected by a crossbeam, under which the sheaves to be drawn from were laid ears outward, the beam being pegged down by pins in the uprights, and lowered as the sheaves diminished⁷.
The day hardened in colour, the light coming in at the barndoors upwards from the snow instead of downwards from the sky. The girls pulled handful after handful from the press; (Hardy, 1991: 366)
Besides swede-grubbing, swede-trimming and red-drawing in the farm, there is also threshing. Hardy gives the description in the following:
It is the threshing of the last wheat-rick at Flitcomb-Ash Farm.
He travelled with his engine from farm to farm, from county to county, for as yet the steam threshing-machine was itinerant in this part of Wessex.
The rick was unhaled by full daylight; the men then took their places, the women mounted, and the work began. Farmer Groby—or, as they call him, ‘he’—had arrived ere this, and by his orders Tess was placed on the platform of the machine, close to the man who fed it, her business being to untie every sheaf of corn handed on to her by Izz Huet, who stood next, but on the rick; so that the feeder could seize it and spread it over the revolving drum, which whisked out every grain in one moment. (Hardy, 1991: 404-405)
The old men on the rising straw-rick talk of the past days when they had been accustomed to thresh with flails on the oaken barn-floor, when everything, even to winnowing, was affected by hand-labor, which, to their thinking, though slow, produced better results. But now this work is done by a machine. Tess is working at a new threshing machine which is under the charge of an itinerant engineer who travels with his engine from farm to farm, and from county to county, because the threshing machine is as yet not owned by many farmers. Tess’s work on the threshing-machine is the hardest she has to do in all her life. While the other women working with her can stop to drink ale or tea, or to exchange a few gossiping remarks, for Tess there is no respite. Here, Tess works in a non-stop, continuous labour throughout the day. She works like a slave. Her work at the threshing machine is harder than that of any other labourers on the field⁸.
The ceaselessness of this work made her wish that she had never come to Flintcomb-Ash. The machine at Flintcomb-ash is like a monster that must be fed and maintained. We can see the evidence of this in the following quotation:
…the engine which was to act as the primum mobile of this world.
It was the engine-man.
The portrait of the engineer, who travels with his steam engine, is full of gentle satire and calls up the picture of a reluctant being from the nether regions, arrogantly conscious of the “primum mobile” of the small agricultural world for one day the machine exercise a fierce tyranny over the farm people. They are pushed to the limits of endurance to satisfy its demands. Thus, the machine is an omnipotent presence, demanding to be to at all times. The workers have lost their identity and their ability to communicate when the machine is working at full tilt.
The description is in contrast to that of the situation in Talbothays Dairy. Contrast to the machine in Flinbcomb-Ash, which seems difficult to control, the pastoral workings of the dairy at Talbothays seem far more enjoyable and happier.
This is not to say that the dairies without modern machinery; it has modern butter churns, powered by hand and horsepower, but nothing like the steam threshing machine. Hardy describes the work in all its details. Hardy’s familiarity with such a wide range or rural occupations shows him as a true son of the soil and a genuine lover of the countryside and country folk. Although descriptions of the landscape and the occupations do interrupt the onward march of the story, they are vital ingredients in the creation of the environment and atmosphere which are also so necessary in a Wessex novel.
Hardy has come now to be universally recognised as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. Indeed, he is one of the greatest novelists in the whole range of English Literature. Some critics have even called him the Shakespeare of the English novel. Let us here consider the various merits and demerits of his art and then form our own estimate of his true greatness as a novelist.
The Classification of Hardy’s Novels
Hardy’s first novel the Desperate Remedies appeared in 1871, and thereafter novels after novels flowed from his pen in quick succession. His-last novel, Jude the Obscure, which was published in 1895, was vehemently criticised as being immoral. This hostile reception made him give up novel writing for good, for exclaimed he, “a man would be a fool, to deliberately stand up to be shot at.” The Mayor of Caslerbridge, The Return of the Native, Tess of the D’urbervilles and Jude The Obscure are regarded by universal consent as his masterpieces, and they have been compared to the four great Shakespearean tragedies. Prof. L Abercrombie has divided Hardy’s novels in to two groups — the dramatic and the Epic. Dramatic novels are those in which our interests is divided between a group of character whose actions and interests clash with each other, such conflict forming the main point of the novel. The Return of the Native and Far From the Madding Crowd are dramatic, for in them the chief interest arises from a clash between the main characters. In the epic novels the interest of the novel centres round the life of a single character. The background is vast and imposing and there is no sub-plot. Tess of the D’urbervilles obviously belongs to the second class, for in this novel the action centres round a single character, a milk-maid, whom Hardy calls a “pure woman”. The Mayor of Casterbridge shares the qualities of both these kinds. Hardy was a born poet and even his novels are the works of a poet. Poetic scenes of great power abound, and they have earned for Hardy World-wide acclaim and popularity.
Hardy as a Regional Novelist
Hardy is a regional novelist. He is the creator of “Wessex” a small tract of country consisting of six odd countries in South England. His knowledge of this limited region is as thorough as that of Scott of his beloved Scotland and that of Wordsworth of the Lake District. “Wessex” appears and reappears successively in one novel after another and it is seldom that he strays out of it. But his treatment of this locality is not narrow or provincial. He has raised it to the level of the universal. Wessex scenes and sights are made a part of universal nature and his characters are at one with humanity as a whole. Wessex heaths and woodlands have an epic grandeur and his principal characters have the greatness of epic heroes and heroines. He has thus imparted a new emphasis and significance to the regional novel which had already been dignified by the Bronttes⁹.
His Theme
But above all Thomas Hardy is the creator of the philosophical novel. Uptil now the English novel was a vehicle of social criticism. Man in society had been its theme so far. But Thomas Hardy uses the novel to inquire into the cause of things. His novels are questionings about life. He constantly inquires about the why and whereof of things and constantly attacks accepted beliefs. Man’s predicament in the universe is the theme of Tliomas Hardy’s novels. He has no faith in the benevolent and omnipotent God of Christianity. He conceives of the First Cause as blind, indifferent and unconscious. Man suffers owing to the imperfections of the powers on high. The Return of the Native is a tragedy of character and environment but even here chance and fate play an important role in bringing about the tragedy. Character is responsible for the tragedy only to a very limited extent. Thus his conception of tragedy differs radically from that of Shakespeare. His characters suffer for no fault of their own, but because they happen to inhabit a blighted planet. In Tess of the D’urbervilles, Tess suffers even though she has done no wrong. She is essentially a pure woman more sinned against than sinning. She has no ‘tragic-flaw’ in the sense in which all the tragic heroes of Shakespeare have it. In this way, Hardy is the father of a new form of tragedy. He has given to the English novel depth, richness and significance.
The Creator of the Democratic Novel¹⁰
To Thomas Hardy must go the credit of having democratised the English novel. Aristotle had taught that the hero (at least the tragic hero) of an epic, drama, or novel must belong to the highest rank of society so that his fall from his previous greatness may rouse the emotions proper to tragedy. Writers in general followed this precept of Aristotle. Witness, for example, the great tragic heroes of Shakespeare. But the heroes and heroines of the great Hardian tragedies are all drawn from the lowest rank of life. Hcnchard, the hero of The Mayor of Casterbridge, is a haytrusscr, Tess is a milkmaid, Giles is a cider-maker and pine-planter, Gabriel Oak is a shephard and Clym is a furze-cutter. He has thus completely broken away from tradition and his novels do not suffer in any way. He has revealed the essential nobility and grandeur of the soul of humble humanity that remains unknown in country isolation. Tess, though an humble milk-maid, has the nobility and grandeur befitting an empress. Hardy’s tragedy is as great an apotheosis of the human spirit as the tragedy of Shakespeare.
Hardy: Treatment of Sex
Hardy has broken new ground in another respect also. He was the first English novelist who dared to make a woman who had sinned, or who was an adulteress, the heroine of his novels. Tess is a woman with a past, yet Hardy has made her the heroine of Tess of the D’urbeivilles. Similarly, Sue Bridehead, heroine of Jude the Obscure, is an adulteress. Hardy thus shocked Victorian notions of morality and was vehemently criticised as being immoral and a corrupter of the people. His books were burnt. But he did not yield; he rather chose to give up novel-writing when the bitter attacks of his critics were too much for him.
Characterisation
Characterisation is an important aspect of the art of a novelist and Thomas Hardy is a master of the art of characterisation. Some of his characters are among the immortal figures of literature. They remind us of the immortal creations of Shakespeare. He chooses his characters from the lower strata of society because he believed that while the character and actions of people from high society are concealed by conventions, the rustics are free from any such control. Hence in their case character is fully revealed and can easily be portrayed. Thus Thomas Hardy excels in the portrayal of simple, elemental natures. His female characters are better and more forceful than his male characters, because women are more elemental, nearer to nature, than men. Thus his range of characterisation is limited. AH his important characters belong to Wessex and to the lower strata of society. When he strays out of Wessex or attempts to portray complex characters drawn from the upper classes of society, he fails miserably. But this does not mean that his characters have only a topical or local interest. He deals with the universal passions of man and so his characters are universal in their interest. They appeal to people in all ages and countries. One has to think only of Henchard, Clym, Tess, Eustacia, Giles, Marty South, etc., to realise the truth of his statement.
Thomas Hardy’s characters are all human beings, with common human weaknesses and virtues. They are neither saints nor angels, nor unredeemed villains. His characters may have some faults; they may sin but they are never mean. We never hate them, we love them despite their faults. They are grand even in the faults they might commit. They have conscience, and they are torn within themselves when they do some wrong. Henchard is jealous and revengeful, his wrongs are the result of impulse, never the result of calculated malice. Whatever we may call him, we can never call him mean. Similarly, Tess has sinned, but she is essentially a pure woman whom we pity, and whose heroic struggle against heavy odds we admire¹¹.
Minor Characters
Hardy’s characters may be divided into two broad classes —major and minor. His major characters include such unforgetable. and forceful figures as Henchard, Farfrae, Elizabeth-Jane. Clym, Eustacia, Giles, Marty South, Bathsheba, Gabriel Oak, Tess, Angel Clare, Sue, Jude, etc. His minor characters are sons of the soil, real children of the earth. They are representatives of antiquity. They perform the function of the Greek Chorus in the novels of Hardy. They comment on action and people and tell us of what has happened off the stage. They are the main source of humour in his novels. They provide a norm by which to judge the main characters of his novels. Often they are the spokesmen of Hardy himself and express his views on life. They appear in groups and generally remain in the background. They may be likened to the clowns of Shakespeare or to his rustics. They, too, are unforgetable and unique in their own way and constitute much of the charm of his novels. When they are absent, as from Tess, even the best of his novels lose something owing to their absence.
Plot Construction
Hardy’s novels are masterpieces from the point of view of plot construction as well. They have an architectural finish and symmetry. The architectonics of Hardy have been praised by all who have studied him. The forethought, the careful planning, the pattern and design, the majesty and grandeur of the plots of his novels, is explained by his early architectural training. They are all massively built. As an edifice rises brick by brick, joined together by mortar according to a particular plan, so are Hardy’s plots constructed scene after scene, and his wessex and his philosophy are the cement that weilds the scenes into a single whole. Digressions are there, still everything develops according to a preconceived design. There is no looseness, unfinished odds and ends.
The Faults of His Plots
But his plots are old fashioned. They are all love stories. The wrong man meets the wrong woman or vice versa and thus complications arise leading the characters to their doom. The “eternal triangle”, is always there. Moreover, they follow the old fashioned dramatic plot-pattern in the convention of Fielding. There is action, sensation and thrill; but there is no such introspection, or psychol-analysis as we expect from a modern novelist, and as we get in the novels of writers like Henry James. While Hardy is a modern as far as the thought content of his novels is concerned, he is conventional and old fashioned in his plot construction. Moreover, his plots turn too much on chance and coincidence. This is unrealistic and jars upon the reader’s sense of probability.
Style
The style of Hardy has come in for a great deal of criticism. Mr. Erza Pound accused him of writing with a blunted pencil. Others have called him pedantic for his use of obsolete, dialectic words and such words and expressions drawn from the terminology of the arts and the sciences, as are unlikely to be familar to the average reader. He has been condemned for his faulty grammar —for his split infinitives, unrelated participles, and the misuse of articles and prepositions. These arc serious faults, no doubt, anil it is right that they should be pointed out. But the fact remains that Thomas Hardy’s style is the best suited for his purposes. It is a poetic style. He has an almost Shakespearean felicity of expression, and has the rare, and invaluable nack of using the best word for his purpose. At every step his style reveals the sincerity of the man. He uses obsolete words and expressions, and scientific terminology only because he wants to be exact and convey his sense to the readers as accurately as possible. He is master of the use of similes and metaphors. When at his best, images after images come out of his pen as sparks from a chimney fire. His rustics speak their own dialect, but they use it most forcefully and effectively. Hardy instinctively chooses the best possible vehicle of expression for them and for himself¹².
The Modern Note
Then, there is the reference to the market in Chaseborough, a market town two or three miles distant from “The Slopes”, Alec’s residences. Tess usually goes to the market town with other women every Saturday night. They usually spend their time at the market by dancing with their men-friends, and will return in the night or in the small hours of the next morning. It is after her return from this market that Tess is seduced by Alec. The reference to this market can be seen in the following quotation:
The chief pleasure of these philosophers lay in going every
Saturday night, when work was done. (Hardy, 1991: 87)
There is a reference also to the Candlemes Fair which is an important occasion for agriculturists. It is at this fair that new engagements are entered into for the twelve months following the ensuing Lady-Day. It is a peaceful February Day. The reference can be seen in the following quotation:
…the day which was of great import to agriculturists—the day of the Candlemes Fair. (Hardy, 1991: 360)
The description of the landscape, occupations, rural superstitions, markets and fairs of Wessex in the novel are so vivid and realistic that the readers can see and get clear insight into the imaginative reality of Wessex.