Sketch the Character
of Eustacia Vye.
The Wessex novels contain a wealth of material so far as the woman characters are concerned. Hardy shows immense power in the characterization of the woman characters in his novels. Indeed, it would be quiet right to call Hardy a specialist in women. Deep as is his understanding of the human nature as a whole, it is in the female personality that he is most learned. In sheer greatness she stands out with Sue and Tess. She has her affinities with Flaubert's Ema Bovary and Jane Austen's self deluded young women. She is born passionately romantic at odds with her environment, though Hardy did not try to depict her with the cruel exactitude of Flaubert.
The memorable Portrait of Eustacia Vye which Hardy builds up in chapter VII of 'The Return Of The Native' lends to her a certain splendor and glory to which her actions, behaviors and utterances do not conform. She does not, in the course of Hardy's narrative touch the heights to which Hardy elevates her in his description of her character and personality in the aforesaid chapter.
Physically, Eustacia is described as "full limbed and somewhat heavy; without rudiness as without pallor; and soft to the touch as a cloud". To see her hair is to imagine that a whole winter does not darkness enough to form its shadow. Her Pagan eyes were full with nocturnal mysteries. Her mouth seems formed less to speak than to quiver, less to quiver than to kiss. Someone might have added less to kiss than to curl. So fine are the lines of her lips that, though full, each corner of her mouth is as clearly cut as the paint of a spear. Her presence brings memories of such things such as Bourbon Rose, Tropical Midnights and Rubies. Her moods recall lotus-eaters and the march in "Athalie". Her motion suggests the ebb and flow of the sea and her voice reminds one of a musical instrument.
Eustacia says Hardy was "the raw material of divinity". Going on to strengthen her dignity, Hardy continues, "On Olympus she would have done well with a little preparation. She had the passions and instincts which make a model Goddess, that is those which make not quite a model woman". Eustacia Has a dignity which is rather unusual in her class. Perhaps this dignity was the gift of heaven. This "Queen of night" as Hardy calls her seldom scheme, but when she did scheme her plans and preparations showed rather the comprehensive strategy of a general rather than those small arts called womanish, though she could utter oracles of Delphian ambiguity when she did not wish to speak in a straightforward manner. In heaven she would have got a seat between the Heloises and the Cleopatras. She is likened to the Pagan goddess, Hectate. Hardy writes, "But celestial imperiousness, love wrath and fervor had proved to be somewhat thrown away on netherward Egdon. Her power was limited and the consciousness of this limitation had biased her development. Egdon was her Hades, and since coming there she had imbibed much of what was dark in its tone thought inwardly and externalyy unreconciled there to."
The Wessex novels contain a wealth of material so far as the woman characters are concerned. Hardy shows immense power in the characterization of the woman characters in his novels. Indeed, it would be quiet right to call Hardy a specialist in women. Deep as is his understanding of the human nature as a whole, it is in the female personality that he is most learned. In sheer greatness she stands out with Sue and Tess. She has her affinities with Flaubert's Ema Bovary and Jane Austen's self deluded young women. She is born passionately romantic at odds with her environment, though Hardy did not try to depict her with the cruel exactitude of Flaubert.
The memorable Portrait of Eustacia Vye which Hardy builds up in chapter VII of 'The Return Of The Native' lends to her a certain splendor and glory to which her actions, behaviors and utterances do not conform. She does not, in the course of Hardy's narrative touch the heights to which Hardy elevates her in his description of her character and personality in the aforesaid chapter.
Physically, Eustacia is described as "full limbed and somewhat heavy; without rudiness as without pallor; and soft to the touch as a cloud". To see her hair is to imagine that a whole winter does not darkness enough to form its shadow. Her Pagan eyes were full with nocturnal mysteries. Her mouth seems formed less to speak than to quiver, less to quiver than to kiss. Someone might have added less to kiss than to curl. So fine are the lines of her lips that, though full, each corner of her mouth is as clearly cut as the paint of a spear. Her presence brings memories of such things such as Bourbon Rose, Tropical Midnights and Rubies. Her moods recall lotus-eaters and the march in "Athalie". Her motion suggests the ebb and flow of the sea and her voice reminds one of a musical instrument.
Eustacia says Hardy was "the raw material of divinity". Going on to strengthen her dignity, Hardy continues, "On Olympus she would have done well with a little preparation. She had the passions and instincts which make a model Goddess, that is those which make not quite a model woman". Eustacia Has a dignity which is rather unusual in her class. Perhaps this dignity was the gift of heaven. This "Queen of night" as Hardy calls her seldom scheme, but when she did scheme her plans and preparations showed rather the comprehensive strategy of a general rather than those small arts called womanish, though she could utter oracles of Delphian ambiguity when she did not wish to speak in a straightforward manner. In heaven she would have got a seat between the Heloises and the Cleopatras. She is likened to the Pagan goddess, Hectate. Hardy writes, "But celestial imperiousness, love wrath and fervor had proved to be somewhat thrown away on netherward Egdon. Her power was limited and the consciousness of this limitation had biased her development. Egdon was her Hades, and since coming there she had imbibed much of what was dark in its tone thought inwardly and externalyy unreconciled there to."
