This page is about… Eustacia Vye. You can comment about her characterization, symbolism, etc. I would also like to know why none of the boys felt any sympathy for her.
-Hayley W.
This page is about… Eustacia Vye. You can comment about her characterization, symbolism, etc. I would also like to know why none of the boys felt any sympathy for her.
-Hayley W.
Ok, I’m confused. What is this topic about Ms. Whited?
~ Jeremy Thompson **
** Mr. Awesome
Characterization
Chapter Seven of book one, “Queen of Night,” paints the portrait of Hardy’s main character with exceptional clarity. She is likened to “Bourbon roses, rubies, and tropical midnights…” (Hardy 59). This quote summarizes her character quite succinctly. She is beautiful like a rose, but take care not to hold her too tightly, for she has thorns. She is rare like a ruby- her beauty, odd habits, and forwardness of mind are so uncommon in her village some think her a witch. In addition, she is like a ruby in that her character is much akin to the gem’s flame-like color since her passions swing so violently they burn those around her. Lastly, she is like a tropical midnight because she is mysterious and exotic (which adds to her rarity). Because of this chapter the reader gains great insight into Eustacia’s character, but the town in which she lived would have had no such explanatory guide. Her prolonged walks, silent manner, and self-isolation would have made her seem an enigma to her fellow townspeople.
-Hayley W.
Why would anyone like Eustacia Vye?
Hardy’s character is unlike any other that I have previously read about. She is ultimately selfish, fickle, proud, and aloof. To many it may seem she deserves her unhappy fate, the circumstances that led to her suicide. Yet Hardy mentions that even so “at times she was not altogether unlovable…” (Hardy 63).
Eustacia’s likability is obviously a controversial subject, seeing as how we ended up yelling about it last class period. Most of the girls felt sympathy for her when she died, and I believe this is because all people either are or want to be a bit like Eustacia. “To be loved to madness” is Eustacia’s greatest dream, and I would argue more than a few people -guys included- would aspire to her goal as well, though perhaps the latter part of her hope would be cut out. Eustacia is indeed a bit extreme, but the entirety of humanity longs for love, and we as a race have done, do, and will continue to do crazy things in order to satiate that craving, whatever the degree of intensity.
Furthermore, humans have a desire to be separate, to be different, set apart, or however you would like to phrase it. We want to be remembered as an individual, not as one of a pack. Eustacia is once again an extreme example of this basic want. She isolates herself because she believes she is different (and better) than the community in which she lives. Perhaps we do no all wish to live in such isolation due to self-acclaimed superiority, but I do think the majority, if not all, of humanity longs to be recognized as different and as special no matter how average of a Joe one is.
Lastly, Eustacia craves excitement. She wants more than what she has. She wants to travel, to live in the great city of Paris, to be a member of high society. She wants to be alive. Many such as she long to venture into the unfamiliar, but Eustacia was trapped by a barren country life. Her violent struggle to escape represents the common vein of discontentedness that runs through humans and what many feel about daily life- that it is boring.
Though Eustacia is obnoxious at times, many of the qualities of her personality represent longings common to all humans. Because the reader can identify with her, he/she can feel sympathy at her death and even go so far as to like her.
-Hayley W.
Physical Description
Hardy often mentions how beautiful Eustacia is, and he describes in detail characteristic of her physiognomy. Her hair “closed over her forehead like nightfall extinguishing the western glow,” her eyes were “Pagan” and “full of nocturnal mysteries.” The color of her soul was “flame-like.” Her mouth “formed less to speak than to quiver, less to quiver than to kiss.”
To add to that really long comment I would also say that the reader would not like Eustacia (or would like her even less) if she were not so beautiful. Most people have a natural tendency to let the physically attractive off the hook.
-Hayley W.
To be honest. I really did hate Eustacia. I thought she got what she deserved, in her death, and at no point did my dislike toward here change. Yes, she knowingly tortured Clym by withholding her information. And yes it was her fault that Mrs. Yeobright died. But with all of that, and my feeling about her, during the scene when she was confronted by Clym, I did have a little bit of sympathy for her. Though I was cheering for Clym at the beginning of the chapter, towards the end, when Eustacia finally broke down and “Shaking with sobs which choked her, she sank upon her knees” and finally confessed to Clym, I felt a little sorry for her. At the moment she seemed broken of pride and most everything I hated about her had been broken. She started to seem like a real person. But this once of sympathy was soon forgotten as the novel progressed and she became more like herself. By the way, its like the kind of sympathy one has for a hated enemy. You may think you hate a person, but you only do because of pride and selfishness in them. Behind all those things, there is still a human soul that needs love and sympathy. And Eustacia’s soul shows through for a fraction of a second in that chapter, so I had a little sympathy.
-Stephen
I had sympathy for the woman at first, when her thoughts were being described by Hardy. I identified my soul to hers. Then she opened her mouth, and I hated her from then on. She reminded me of a parasite the way she worked her seducive little self. Sapping the strength of all who came in contact with her. Once her host had been used up of all its passion and her interest in him was lessened, her mind discarded him like a candy wrapper. Clym was left a broken soul in the end, although he managed to make somewhat of a recovery. Wildeve’s dead. Even if she were still alive, she wouldn’t have cared for either. If they no longer satisfy her needs, she’ll simply continue searching for a new man to suck the heart out of and spit out when she’s done. I can’t have simpathy for one so selfish.
All of that aside, she is one of the most interesting characters I’ve ever seen in a novel. Her mind is explored very thoroughly and the way Hardy depicts her (as Hayley has shown above in great detail) is quite in depth. She’s an interesting little monster…
~ Jeremy Thompson **
** Mr. Awesome
I agree with Hayley. We (girls in particular) can relate to Eustacia’s desire to be desired and, well, her irrational, over-the-top emotional behavior. It does frustrate me how she only acts on her emotions. The girl has no sense of logic. But we actually knew that before she did anything stupid. In her description on p. 59, Hardy says she is “flame-like,” compares her voice to “the viola,” her motions to the “ebb and flow of the sea.” This surely foreshadows her flakiness, considering all of these objects fluctuate up and down without a moment’s notice. Plus Hardy frequently compares her to goddesses, and we all know from Greek mythology that their divinities were very Eustacia-esque, for lack of a better term. And guys, I think one reason you don’t like Eustacia because she is unattainable. She’s the pursuit you’ll never fully win over, and that irritates you. She is the Queen of Night, “the raw material of divinity,” “a model goddess” (58). Am I right, or am I right?
(( Brooke ))
This doesn’t have anything to do with Eustacia besides the fact that her husband became a furze-cutter. Here’s a link to a picture of some kids carrying furze.
http://public.gettysburg.edu/academics/english/hardy/novels/native/native3.html
(( Brooke ))
Also, here’s a pretty awesome link to a site dedicated to Thomas Hardy!
http://public.gettysburg.edu/academics/english/hardy/world.html
(( Brooke ))