oops again…Christine created this page.
I think that some of the themes of this book are isolation (which we discussed in class), interpretations of love (because every charactor has a different one), and misunderstandings.
Misunderstandings occured in the novel often and created conflict.
1. Mrs. Yeobright thought that her son ignored her when she went to visit them, even though it was Eustacia who would not let her in.
2. Eustacia and Clym both understood eachother about what they wanted out of their marriage. Eustacia wanted adventure (Paris) and Clym wanted a wife to settle down with.
3. Thomasin misunderstood Wildeve’s nature completely. (If anyone understood his nature they would never marry him)
4. I’m not sure if this can be labled a misunderstanding but Venn did not know that half of the guines were for Clym.
I want to elaborate on the theme interpretations of love… even though a page is already dedicated to this topic…
First, there’s Eustacia wacked-out view on love. Her philosophy? “A blaze of love, and extinction, was better than a lantern glimmer of the same which should last long years” (62). What a recipe for disaster! No wonder she was always looking for the next best thing, starting with Wildeve, then Clym, and back to Wildeve.
Next, poor Thomasin has her own thoughts on love. Although this change in the end when she marries Diggory, she is deeply affected by Wildeve’s flaky behavior towards her. She remarks, “I belong to one man; nothing can alter that. And that man I must marry, for my pride’s sake” (101). She feels as though love (in marriage, at least) is only out of neccessity or to save face. Also, she thinks she isn’t worthy of true love, the way Wildeve loves Eustacia.
I realize many other characters have their own interpretations, but these are the big ones I picked up on.
(( Brooke ))
I think one theme that people seem to be forgetting about has to deal with pride. In the Socratic discussions, everyone seemed to agree that Selfishness leads to unhappines for all of the characters, but no one seems to have mentioned that pride leads all of the characters into bad decisions as well. Here are some of the ways pride leads to bad decisions:
1. Eustacia has too much pride to continue her romance with Wildeve when she learns that Clym, who occupies a higher position in life, is returning to the heath.
2. Wildeve has too much pride to not marry Thomasin after he receives the letter from Eustacia rejecting him.
3. Thomasin has too much pride to not marry Wildeve after he has wronged her by not marrying her right away.
These are just some of the ways that pride plays a role in the novel. Add anything you can think of!- Tiffani
oops again…Christine created this page.
I think that some of the themes of this book are isolation (which we discussed in class), interpretations of love (because every charactor has a different one), and misunderstandings.
Misunderstandings occured in the novel often and created conflict.
1. Mrs. Yeobright thought that her son ignored her when she went to visit them, even though it was Eustacia who would not let her in.
2. Eustacia and Clym both understood eachother about what they wanted out of their marriage. Eustacia wanted adventure (Paris) and Clym wanted a wife to settle down with.
3. Thomasin misunderstood Wildeve’s nature completely. (If anyone understood his nature they would never marry him)
4. I’m not sure if this can be labled a misunderstanding but Venn did not know that half of the guines were for Clym.
-Christine
I want to elaborate on the theme interpretations of love… even though a page is already dedicated to this topic…
First, there’s Eustacia wacked-out view on love. Her philosophy? “A blaze of love, and extinction, was better than a lantern glimmer of the same which should last long years” (62). What a recipe for disaster! No wonder she was always looking for the next best thing, starting with Wildeve, then Clym, and back to Wildeve.
Next, poor Thomasin has her own thoughts on love. Although this change in the end when she marries Diggory, she is deeply affected by Wildeve’s flaky behavior towards her. She remarks, “I belong to one man; nothing can alter that. And that man I must marry, for my pride’s sake” (101). She feels as though love (in marriage, at least) is only out of neccessity or to save face. Also, she thinks she isn’t worthy of true love, the way Wildeve loves Eustacia.
I realize many other characters have their own interpretations, but these are the big ones I picked up on.
(( Brooke ))
Interesting website about Thomas Hardy’s views of “chance and change” and how is ideas are portrayed in ROTN.
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/hardy/prinselaar2.html
-Katie A.
I think one theme that people seem to be forgetting about has to deal with pride. In the Socratic discussions, everyone seemed to agree that Selfishness leads to unhappines for all of the characters, but no one seems to have mentioned that pride leads all of the characters into bad decisions as well. Here are some of the ways pride leads to bad decisions:
1. Eustacia has too much pride to continue her romance with Wildeve when she learns that Clym, who occupies a higher position in life, is returning to the heath.
2. Wildeve has too much pride to not marry Thomasin after he receives the letter from Eustacia rejecting him.
3. Thomasin has too much pride to not marry Wildeve after he has wronged her by not marrying her right away.
These are just some of the ways that pride plays a role in the novel. Add anything you can think of!- Tiffani