A Laodicean (1881): Made of Money (I)

Abstract

What is most obviously missing in The Return of the Native is Hardy’s previous analytical use of architectural structure. Plainly there are buildings in the novel: the Quiet Woman, Blooms-End, Captain Vye’s cottage, Eustacia and Clym’s cottage; but they are seen only in terms of their function as dwellings, not in terms of their architectural qualities or the code of meaning that such a presentation would imply. This omission might be seen as a statement that, while Hardy assumes the necessary existence of some form of structure in order to shelter the characters from the weather, or to contain them within a narrative, he does not presuppose that socio-economic structure (or for that matter narrative and perceptual structure) has any place on the heath. But this would be to reduce The Return of the Native’s counter-text to another self-cancelling overthrow.

‘Cornegidouille! nous n’aurons point tout démoli si nous ne démolissons même les ruines! Or je n’y vois d’autre moyen que d’en équilibrer de beaux édifices bien ordonnés.’

(‘We shall not have succeeded in demolishing everything unless we demolish the ruins as well. But the only way I can see of doing that is to put up a lot of fine, well-designed buildings.’)

(Alfred Jarry, Ubu Enchaîné)¹