Thomas Hardy’s “On The Western Circuit”

After reading Thomas Hardy’s “On The Western Circuit,” I could not narrow down my views of the novel enough to come up with a topic of interest to write about.  After some research, I found out that Thomas Hardy was part of the Naturalist movement during his time, which gave me a starting point.  The following are interesting references that helped narrow my ideas for this blog:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/naturalism
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570473/thomas_hardy.html
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570473/thomas_hardy.html
And of course, the e-text

Different from the Romantics before his time, Hardy’s faith was not affirmed by the supernatural symbols or the explicit “signs” of god.  Being the age of industrial maturity, life’s experiences was heavily influenced by the materialistic surroundings.  As technology and science advances, the movement is more towards realism, where what is to be proven is through the five senses.  The title “On the Western Circuit” itself portrays the modernistic nature of the time.  The complex story unfolds under a crowded atmosphere of a dizzying technology that Hardy depicts as the mechanical workings of the revolving “circus” merry-go-round:

Their motions were so rhythmical that they seemed to be moved by
machinery. And it presently appeared that they were moved by machinery
indeed; the figures being those of the patrons of swings, see-saws, flying-leaps,
above all of the three steam roundabouts which occupied the centre of the
position. It was from the latter that the din of steam-organs came. (Hardy 1)

You can tell from this passage that life in the city was not simple, but very fast moving and complex.  And this imagery may well be the very depiction of the inner thoughts and emotions of the people at the time.  No longer is farming or “the simpler things in life” a goal of England’s people.  Instead, due to the nation’s growth, the wants and desires have expanded towards the aristocracy, high regards to education, and prosperity gains.   Even Charles of the story demines his absent minded wife when he learns of her illiterateness:  “To his surprise she had progressed but a few lines, in the characters and spelling of a child of eight, and with the ideas of a goose… ‘Anna,’ he said, staring; ‘what’s this?’” (Hardy 8)  Anna herself proclaimed of her shortcomings as she protest to tell her future husband the truth when mistress Harham inquires her so:  “‘O mis’ess, dear mis’ess—please don’t tell him now!’ cried Anna in distress. ‘If you were to do it, perhaps he would not marry me;” (Hardy 7).  In addition, mistress Harham’s jealousy pity on her maid expressed her value on intelligence:  “‘O!’ she groaned, as she threw down the pen. ‘Anna—poor good little fool—hasn’t intelligence enough to appreciate him! How should she? While I—don’t bear his child!’” (Hardy 7)  It is clear that education and material wealth plays a big part in what is defined as success or happiness in modern England.  Even though Charles may have portrayed a glimpse of  noble sacrifice for true love (“He said that in offering to wed her he had, at first, contemplated the step of retiring from a profession,”  its authenticity was defiled as he justified the crux to his reason:  “He felt sure that, with her powers of development, after a little private training in the social forms of London under his supervision, and a little help from a governess if necessary, she would make as good a professional man’s wife as could be desired, even if he should rise to the woolsack” (Hardy 7).

Although much emphasis was placed on the visual imagery of the surroundings, I believe that Hardy’s main focused was to show the complex emotions involved with the experiences of imperfect love, which was contrasted the Romanticist definition of love.  Particularly in this work, Hardy shows three transpiring emotions:  the quick first impressions love (between Charles and Anna’s first encounter), the more deep spiritually developed love (between Charles and Harham’s correspondence), and the disconnected and unfulfilled love (between Anna and Charles and between Charles and Harham).  No longer is there the “happily ever after” love that exists with traditional poets before his time.  Hardy wanted to change this, and also change the direction of poetry, in order to express what was missing in the art, and that is the imperfections of life.

It seems that every author is influenced by his/her religious background and that their work ultimately tries to show their perspective and understandings of life.  For Hardy, his faith lies not in signs or supernatural experiences of God, but rather the natural causes and effects of nature.  The story is like a fable, in that there lays the simplest teachings of morality.  As a result of characters selfish greed (Anna’s selfish desire to keep Charles, Mistress Harham’s superficial love interaction through the letters with Charles, and Charles selfishness for both lust and true love), each resulted in bearing the worst consequence.  Charles, with an empty soul, has the responsibility to take care of the ill educated Anna that stemmed from his short-lived lust.  Mistress Harham must bear for the rest of her life a love that will never be but in her dreams and the letters through her correspondence with Charles while returning to her husband, who knows no “language of love making.”  In addition, she blames herself for Charles “ruin.”  Charles himself accepts this as his punishment as he states “It serves me right!” (Hardy 9).  And Anna is worst of all, in that even though she gained Charles for the rest of her life, she has not gained his heart and ironically, is even ignorant of the fact:

‘What are you doing, dear Charles?’ she said timidly from the other window,
and drew nearer to him as if he were a god.
‘Reading over all those sweet letters to me signed “Anna,”‘ he replied with
dreary resignation. (Hardy 9)

In “On the Western Circuit,” Hardy shows how each and every consequence is the result of a previous action whether intentional or not.  All three main characters in the story have some moral sense.  However, they are unable to win over their human desires to do what is right.  It is themselves that they love more than anything else and their fate is a consequence of the distrust, falsified identify, and selfish desires that have stemmed from the nature of their “mechanical” society.  Once again, I believe the title was named to give multiple meanings.  The obvious is that the name represents a symbol of the superficial materialistic nature of modern England.  The other is that it represents a symbol of the complex and unhealthy spiritual nature of the people as a result of the England’s “Western Circuit.”  In this piece, Hardy does a good job of portraying modern England, inside and out, while introducing the new concepts of love that is so different from the popular Romantic poets.