Analysis of Thomas Hardy's Wessex Tales
...k that Napoleon might have landed on their shores and was surveying the land planning to take it over, as the character Solomon Selby says happened, is not so far fetched. Selby says, “It was, as I need hardly tell ye, the time after the first peace, when Bonaparte was scheming his descent upon England.” The people in the story raised sheep for a living. They often slept outside with their sheep, keeping watch over them. Selby says, “The flocks my father had charge of fed all about the downs near our house, overlooking the sea and shore each way for miles.” This description of the landscape where the story takes place helps the reader see how the boy could clearly have seen any foreign thing or person that might have come to its shores. In the “Fellow-Townsmen,” Hardy describes the character Lucy Savile in these lines, “The face that confronted Barnet had a beautiful outline; the Raffaelesque oval of its contour was remarkable for the an English countenance.” The reference to the Raffaele Era is a description that would only be recognized by those who know of the Raffaelite movement. The people of the 1800’s could easily recognize the reference to the Raffaelite artistry. Also, in “Fellow-Townsmen,” Hardy describes the landscape of the harbor where a boat capsized leaving one woman, Mrs. Downe, dead and another alive, Mrs. Barnet. In his description he says: “…A sudden blast of air came over the hill… and spoilt the previous quiet of the scene. The wind had already shifted violently, and now smelt of the sea. The harbour-road soon began to justify its name. A gap appeared in the rampart of hills which shut out the sea, and on the left of the opening rose a vertical cliff, coloured a burning orange by the sunlight, the companion cliff on the right being livid in shade.” His description makes the drowning scene believable; it makes the capsizing of a boat possible because only here could such an accident happen. Thus, the background provided by Hardy made the actions believable. I chose “The Withered Arm,” as one of the stories that show how the village tradition of the times made the actions in the story more believable. The story starts out describing the country people as people who gossip, which helps the reader realize how beliefs, ritual and such practices of healing could have been passed down from generation to generation through gossip. One particular ritual for healing was to place a diseased body part on ‘the neck of hanged man’. It wasn’t so strange for Gertrude Lodge to try this when her arm was slowly withering away. However, if a doctor suggested this idea today, the doctor and the idea would be laughed at, but given the historical background of the traditions of the people in the story it was believable. I found an interesting twist in this story when Gertrude, a ‘lady,’ did not immediately seek help from Trendle the conjuror; Tendle, being known by the villagers, as the only one who could give help. It took her six years to go back to Tendle to find out what a cure might be. When she finally did, seek Trendle’s advice, she did not tell her husband that she was going to follow this advice, or that she had even sought advice from a conjuror. She feared his judgement as stated in this passage, “She dared not tell him, for she had found by delicate experiment that these smouldering village beliefs made him furious if mentioned….” Also she went to the hangman secretly instead of openly to the governor of the jail. The tradition of the times made the story believable because of the background that Hardy provided the reader. While reading, “The Distracted Preacher,” I found it quite humorous that the entire town was involved in the smuggling of brandy, while also being church going people. The smugglers were not the criminals of the town, but rather the respectable businessmen. The community was that of smugglers. This ...