English novels/ popular novels _ Far From The Madding Crowd _ plot construction

 

                   Far From The Madding Crowd

Thomas Hardy:      

       On June 2, 1840, Thomas Hardy was born in the lonely and silent hamlet of Higher Bockhampton, Dorsetshire situated in few miles away from the town of Dorchestor. Thomas Hardy was a Fragile Child.

Plot construction of the Novel:

        Thomas Hardy’s novels are masterpieces of constructive skill. His plots are generally closely knit and brilliantly constructed. Hardy’s early training as an architect enables him to build the plots of his novels in a skilful manner.

          Hardy’s stories have an arresting beginning, a swift movement, a satisfying climax and an effective ending.  There are, in them, no incidents or characters which are for their own sake.  This is to say, every incident, in them, carries the story forward and every character serves a definite purpose.

         Hardy’s plots deal with elements passions, love, hate, anger, jealousy, thirst of knowledge and hunger for respectability.  In the Return of the Native as well as Far From the Madding ‘crowd the plot is built round an erotic situation of a rather complicated nature.  In Far From The Madding Crowd, Oak and Boldwood love Bathsheba who loves ‘troy who has been previously loving Fanny Robin.       

Hardy’s plots are mechanically constructed. They lack sometimes, the elements of naturalness and spontaneity.  They seem to have been built in a very calculating and deliberate manner.

Far From The Madding Crowd has a well-constructed plot.  This novel is one of Hardy’s five great stories.  Duffin calls it “Hardy‘s first masterpiece”.   The plot is built round an erotic situation.  The central character, Bathsheba Everdene, is loved by three men Oak, Boldwood and Troy.

Chance plays a considerable part in this novel.  It is a malevolent chance that renders Oak penniless when his dog drives all his sheep down a precipice.  It is chance again which sends Fanny Robin to the wrong church on the day of her marriage.  Troy enters Bathsheba’s life by a sheer chance.  Similarly the Valentine sent by Bathsheba to Boldwood, by a chance, kindles a flame in Boldwood in which he is ultimately consumed. 

“Thomas Hardy’s plots” according to a well-known critic, “are self-supporting organic holes.  Every novel is an answer to the question, given certain characters in certain situations, and allowing the irony of fate what will happen what will become of them?”


v His training as an architect in early life enables Hardy to construct his plots skilfully.
v There are no characters or incidents in his novels that are for their own sake.
v His novels have a swift movement, a satisfying climax, and an effective ending.
v His novels contain admirable love-stories.  Generally in them, we have one woman loved by two or three men or one man loved by two or three women.
v Chance plays a get part in his novels.
v Hardy’s plots deal with elemental passions like loves, jealousy, greed, thirst for learning or hunger for respectability. 
v Hardy’s plots are perfectly, eve mechanically, constructed.
v Far From The Madding Crowd has a closely knit and brilliantly constructed plot.
v In this novel one woman, Bathsheba Everdene, is loved by three men Oak, Boldwood and Troy.
v Hardy makes a considerable use of ‘chance’ in Far From The Madding Crowd. 




           

v

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poem lines and critical appreciation of the poem Close to you

Image
    Poem lines Close to you : Close to you I have regained my name My name long hidden beneath the salt of distances I have regained eyes no longer veiled by fevers. And you laugh like a flame making holes in the dark Has given Africa back to me beyond the snows of yesterday Ten years of my love And marriage of illusion and wreckage of ideas. And sleep peopled with alcohol Ten years and the breath of the world has poured its Pain upon me Pain that loads the present with the flavour of Tomorrows And makes of love an immeasurable river Close to you I have regained the memory of my blood And necklaces of laughter around the days Days that sparkle with joys renewed.                                                ...
Read more

Critical appreciation of Derozio's poem "the Harp of India"

Image
  Critical Appreciation of Derozio’s poem “The Harp of India”                     This poem “ The Harp of India” mourns India’s loss of freedom to the British and hopes it would regain its past glory.   The harp is a musical stringed instrument, that Derozio uses to represent as India’s loss of art and literature.   The harp is left unplayed, because its strings are broken.   Even when there is a breeze that touches the instrument, it has no motion.   The ultimate use of an instrument is lost, there is no sound from it.   The instrument has been used by several poets in the past.   But now, it lays there like a statue, abandoned in a desert.   Many poets have become famous, by using harp in the past, in their poems.   The fame still exists through their network (poem) like fresh flowers that bloom in the poet’s grave.   Derozio ends the poem exclaiming...
Read more

Summary and analysis of "What the Tapster Saw"-African short story

Image
  Summary and Analysis of Ben Okri’s “What the Tapster Saw”                                                                            Ben Okri is an African writer who has developed a reputation as a leading poet and novelist in his home country Nigeria.  He is considered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial tradition.  He is generally considered a “postcolonial” writer.  Having been born in Nigeria, a former British colony, his artistic cultural output can be seen as a testimony to his awareness of a problematic historical legacy.  Another important aspect is the migrant status of Okri that is usually attributed to writers “that have migrated from countries with a history of colonialism”.  Living and working in the so-called “contact...
Read more