Towards the end of the novel, I noticed that Hardy used many references to insects. If you noticed any as well, you can write where they are found and explain their significance here.
Towards the end of the novel, I noticed that Hardy used many references to insects. If you noticed any as well, you can write where they are found and explain their significance here.
“The silent being who thus occupied himself seemed to be of no more account in life than an insect. He appeared as a mere parasite of the heath, fretting its surface in his daily labour as a moth frets a garment, entirely engrossed with its products, having no knowledge of anything but the fern, furze, heath, lichens, and moss” (Hardy 251).
Hardy writes this quote as an observation of Mrs. Yeobright’s. So transformed is Clym that his mother does not even recognize the object of her observations to be her son. I believe Hardy compares Clym to insects for several reasons. First, bugs are slaves to instinct and circumstance, as the author believes human beings are. Second, the comparison conveys the monotony of Clym’s job. He must be a simple man indeed to be content with such an occupation. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the reference to bugs demonstrates how far Clym has fallen in worldly stature. He might as well now be a insect. His mother cannot even tell the little worker is of her own flesh and blood; his metamorphosis is complete, he is no longer a man of Paris, and Eustacia will not be the wife of a simple moth.
-Hayley W.
I don’t have anything to add….but Hayley that was deep…I like your comment about the bugs and Clym! I definitely agree!
-Kristen
“In front of her [Mrs. Yeobright] a colony of ants had established a thoroughfare across the way, where they toiled a never-ending and heavy-laden throng. To look down upon them was like observing a city street from the top of a tower. She remembered that this bustle of ants had been in progress for years at the same spot-doubtless those of the old times were the ancestors of these which walked there now” (Hardy 262).
This ant colony demonstrates the futility of Mrs. Yeobrights journey. She traveled far to reach her son only to suffer ultimate dissappointment and to die in what she would have felt as utter lonliness. These ants work diligently night and day as they have for years only to preserve a mound of dirt. They march to and fro with the greatest of work ethic, but they go to a meaningless end. Hardy compares them to a city, a place where humans march to and fro, bustling endlessly as a “heavy-laden throng.” This passage is a comment on the futility of life.
-Hayley W.
“She has been stung by an adder!” (Hardy 267).
(For practicality, I am going to count an adder as a bug, but I know it is a snake.)
Though Mrs. Yeobright does not die due to the direct side effects of the adder’s sting, Hardy makes a comment on destiny through this event. The author adds this seemingly meaningless snake bite in order to further his point that fate is uncontrollable. An adder does not sting out of hatred, it stings out of instinct. It stings because it is a animal, and it wants to protect itself. It cares not for justice fate is not a force to be controlled.
-Hayley W.
“He [Clym] unlocked the gate [to Bloom's End], and found that a spider had already constructed a large web, tying the door to the lintel, on the supposition that it was never to be opened again” (Hardy 288).
Since Hardy has already established Mrs. Yeobright’s life as futile, he may be subtly comparing her to this spider. The gate symbolizes her relationship with her son, a bond she thought severed and never to be repaired. But unlike the spider, Mrs. Yeobright will never find out her suppositions were incorrect. Her son did truly desire reconciliation. That gate may never be opened again. The reference to the insect once again evokes a sense of the futility of life. The spider spun its web on the certainty of false premises as did Clym’s mother, and the structure of her life was destroyed.
-Hayley W.
“All the life visible was in the shape of a solitary thrush cracking a small snail upon the door-stone for his breakfast…” (Hardy 294).
This image of a bird crushing a snail is dropped against the background of the still morning on which Clym goes to confront Eustacia, for he knows her secret. The new Mrs. Yeobright is as the snail- helpless against the unstoppable beak of fate. First her hard outer shell of dignity and pride will be utterly destroyed, and then, after losing all hope of escape, she will die. So far, all of the references to bugs I have found relate in some way to the inescapability and futility of destiny and circumstance.
-Hayley W.
“…at dusk, when soft, strange ventriloquisms came from holes in the ground, hollow stalks, curled dead leaves, and other crannies wherein breezes, worms, and insects can work their will, he fancied they were Eustacia, standing without and breathing wishes of reconciliation” (Hardy 312).
As Clym sits at his late mother’s house, he hopes Eustacia will return and ask for forgiveness. He actually has more chance of the bugs speaking to him than of reconciliation with his wife. The stirrings of life around Clym are reduced to the noises of the wind and insects. In the hum of nature he fancies he hears his wayward wife’s return. But the couple is as bugs splattered against a windshield. Their fates have been sealed by their predicament.
-Hayley W.
I’m not sure how well formulated the idea is, but I think the way that Thomasin is described as a bird fits in well with this page. Aside from Diggory, she is the only character in the novel that ends up truly happy. Birds eat insects. According to the many textual evidences of Ms. Whited, both Clym and Eustacia are likened to insects. In a way, Thomasin’s marriage to Wildeve injures Eustacia on some level. Does Thomasin’s higher rank on the food chain have something to do with the conclusion of the novel? Both of the insects are put down as the bird spreads her wings and soars?
~ Jeremy Thompson **
** Mr. Awesome
haley took them all. ugh.
-Janielle
Eustacia is described as being “like a tiger-beetle.” this describes Eustacia as hiding her true colors, but when she is in certain situations she flourishes, and her real attitude and personality (Hardy 81). -Tiffani