Summaries

Question 1

The past

Answer 1

• omnipresent
• the remnants of CB’s dark past (coliseum and skeletons) represent the present being haunted by the past, foreshadows MHs and LTs dark pasts coming to light
• past is intrinsically dark
• characters that try to hide their pasts face karmic punishment

Question 2

Love

Answer 2

Love changes people (for better or worse)

AO2: EJs presence causing MH to recover from sickness, DFs love for LT making him wish there were ‘no business in the warrld’
AO3:
AO5: characters are driven by ‘a passionate desire for full posession of another person’ - J Hillis Miller

Love is destructive

AO2: MH and LT destroyed by affair, ‘with no love you might calculate on ten’

Love can affect people’s perception of others

eg. comparison between DF, MH, LT and Jesus and disciples, women’s love for DF makes ‘crooked seem straight to their eyes’

AO1: love is temporary

Question 3

Nature

Answer 3

• nature acts as a malevolent force against MH
  eg. reverse pathetic fallacies seem to mock him at lowest moments
• karmic - MH is punished for working against nature, while DF is rewarded for working with it
  eg. DF constructing shelter out of tree branches at fair
• nature is an obstacle toward MHs happiness
  eg. ‘stumbled over the natural springes formed by brambles’

Question 4

Gender

Answer 4

• novel acknowledges injustice of women facing harsher criticism for promiscuity
  eg. LT dies after everyone tries to protect DF from skimmity ride, ‘a scandal, which did me no harm but was of course ruin to her’
• Hardy seemingly disagrees with MHs view of gender
  eg. ‘other ideas reigned then’
• EJ is the only female character that doesn’t die or experience a downfall
  Hardy seems to respect and relate to her due to her efforts to educate and improve herself - can only respect women when he sees himself in them, ‘he understands only the women he invents’

Question 5

Fate

Answer 5

• As MH achieved his position as the mayor by concealing his past, there seems to be a force that destines him to return to his original state
  eg. leaves CB in the same way he came
• ‘character is fate’
  both MH and DF acknowledge an omnipotent power controlling their fate, DF in his best moments eg ‘it’s ourselves that are ruled by the powers above us’ after being selected as mayor, MH in his worst eg ‘some power was working against him’ after bad harvest