Happily Ever After?

The first page of the first printed version of "On the Western Circuit."

This image depicts one of the first editions of "On the Western Circuit," one of the four short stories of Thomas Hardy's that was studied in this course. While a contemporary audience is used to a magazine having glossy photographs in full color, such was not the case for Victorian-era magazines, as we can see in the above rendition from The English Illustrated Magazine.  Instead of photographs, the page has illustrations, contributed by Walter Paget.  The illustrations include an image at the top of the page, which depicts four Greek-style women, gathering at a fountain with beautiful floral designs in the background.  The image has a caption which reads: "Let not the flowers of spring pass us by, let us crown ourselves with roses before they be withered."  The first letter of the text itself, is also illustrated in detail, complete with other floral designs.

The choice of what seems to be the short story's epigraph, the caption of the image preceding the text, is actually a reference to a Biblical passage.  The phrase "Let not the flowers of spring pass us by, let us crown ourselves with roses before they be withered" appears in the Book of Wisdom, 2:7-8.  The selection of this is quite an odd one, as the Book of Wisdom is actually a part of the Biblical apocrypha, meaning only Catholics consider it part of the Biblical canon.  However, Thomas Hardy was not particularly religious, and even if he was, he would not have adhered to the Catholic Church.  Perhaps the decision to use this particular quote alludes to Hardy's cynicism about marriage: because marriage was primarily seen as an institution of the church and not of the legal/civil courts during the Victorian era.  It is entirely possible that Hardy's cynicism surrounding marriage might have tied into larger cycnicism surrounding the church as an institution, combining to create an overall despondent view of relationships in general, translating into Hardy's written work.

The first printed version of "Alicia's Diary" from The Manchester Times, 1887.

Contradictory to the document above, this first printing of "Alicia's Diary" has no illustrations, as it appears in a newspaper and not a magazine.  But similarly to countless other Victorian texts, this piece was published serially, and installments were split up into portions.  Therefore, the choice of how the work would be split up was strategic and absolutely essential to how the story would be told.  In this case, Hardy truly used the "cliffhanger" trope to keep the audience engaged, given that he concludes the first part of the serialized version soon after Charles declares his love for Alicia, when he leaves seemingly without a word.  This would have left a Victorian audience on the edge of their seats, wondering just what would happen next.

"Alicia's Diary" is perhaps one of the most cynical works discussed in this exhibit, largely owing to the relationship between Charles de la Heste and Alicia, and addresses the problems with infatuation in romantic relationships.  Caroline and Charles "fall in love" relatively quickly, and soon they become engaged.  But that all changes when Caroline brings Charles home, and he soon falls for Alicia instead, and sees his obligation to Caroline as a duty, as opposed to actually loving her.  This causes nothing short of an ordeal for all three of the people involved: Caroline falls ill, Charles contemplates what is truly right, and Alicia essentially despairs over her emotional and romantic upheaval.  Of course, at the end, they all pay the price, as Charles commits suicide, unable to commit to Caroline because he does not truly love her.  But Caroline marries another man, and Alicia is seemingly left alone with her sadness.  And this series of events is set up by the exposition in this first part, or "episode," of "Alicia's Diary."

What is important to note is the piece which appears in conjunction with "Alicia's Diary," titled "Healthy Homes: Hints by a Surveyor." This piece discusses the components of a healthy home, and it is implied the text would be written for a female audience.  Therefore, a woman who would be reading "Alicia's Diary" and witnesses the emotional upheaval that Alicia goes through would think, "I don't want that to happen to me."  And then the next piece they would read would be "Healthy Homes: Hints by a Surveyor," which essentially communicates, "If you don't want to turn out like Alicia, here is how you can make sure your home stays happy."  Nothing in a Victorian periodical is done by accident; how the piece is serialized, where the piece appears in print, and the pieces that precede and succeed it are all done deliberately and strategically.

Edith, one of the main characters of the piece, despondent in a chair

This image depicts Edith, one of the three main characters of "On the Western Circuit," at a turning point of the piece, where she discovers she has fallen in love with Charles Bradford Raye. Edith is pictured collapsed in a chair, likely weeping.  The audience cannot see exactly what Edith is doing because her face is obscured and her head is resting on her arm.  Her body language is sunken, as if weighed down by the implications of what she has done, and the fact that she can do nothing about it because of the way she feels.

Normally, falling in love with someone would be a joyous occasion, but in Edith's situation, it is anything but.  In Edith's case, she has been corresponding with Charles, but not of her own accord.  Her friend, Anna, met Charles and fell for him, and wanted to maintain written correspondence, but there was one problem: Anna is illiterate.  And so, to appease her, Edith is the one who writes letters to Charles, and through the process also develops romantic feelings for him.  Soon enough, their secret is revealed, and on their wedding night, Charles learns Anna's secret when he asks her to write something for him.  Thus, all three of the main characters are left in varying states of unhappiness: Anna genuinely loves Charles but she has lied to him and cannot express her love as eloquently as Edith can; Charles has essentially been tricked into marrying someone he does not actually love; and Edith is left alone without the man she loves, and she herself is trapped in a loveless marriage.

This case of mistaken identity leading to mistaken trust, betrayal, and falling in love through nothing but the written word is not unique to "On the Western Circuit." This theme is also explored in "An Imaginative Woman," where Ella Marchmill, who, similarly to Edith, is already married, falls in love with Robert Trewe, a poet and fellow tenant.  This leads her to take reckless actions such as pretending to be a man, and when her treachery is revealed, Trewe commits suicide.  Ella herself dies in childbirth later, leaving her utterly bland husband by himself to raise their children.  However, this punishment is quite apt for her husband, because maybe if he had treated her as something more than just an incubator and a babymaking machine, she would not have sought affection from another man in the first place.

However, though neither of these stories have anything remotely resembling a happy ending, they do communicate something that could be perceived as positive.  Quite clearly, Thomas Hardy believed in the sheer power of the written word, as evidenced by the above two stories.  The written word causes several people to fall in love with each other, but there is an added element of deception, and because of this deception, a happy ending is nothing short of impossible for the characters in his works.