[Hardy-l] Father Time

[Kevin Taylor]

Jackie, I agree that Father Time (FT) is an odd Hardy character. I 
can't think of any other character in Hardy quite like this one: 
supernaturally old and wise, creepy in his way, neither a stoic rustic 
nor a passionate Hardy protagonist, but rather a dour figure who seems 
mostly a burden (though he is loved by Jude and Sue). He is present in 
the novel for such a short time, and his act is grotesque and rather 
unthinkable for a boy his age. The nearest analogue I know of is The 
Scarlet Letter's Pearl. It's been a looong time since I read that book, 
but she has a similar creepy effect--a preternaturally aged child who 
seems unreal and somehow condemnatory (Pearl has large eyes, which 
Hawthorne uses to great effect, indicating wisdom and judgment and 
sadness, as I recall).

I believe I read somewhere that Victorians thought childhood rather 
sinister, since it's a transitional period without any social utility? 
As if the Victorians didn't know quite what to do with them or place 
them within the social realm. Of course, many of them worked 
horrifically in the various new industries of the age, so they did find 
a terrible use for them after all.

I don't think FT's a result of out of wedlock pregnancy, though. One of 
the themes of the novel (along with Tess), I think, is the Apostle 
Paul's idea that sex creates an indissoluble bond between people, so 
that, for better or for worse, they are connected to their first mates. 
Hardy is protesting this point of view by showing how disastrously 
unhappy these unions can be, as with Tess-Alec, Jude-Arabella, and 
Sue-Phillotson. FT is very much Jude and Arabella's child. As Jude and 
Clym of Return of the Native are sort of evolutionary oddities towards 
a more tragic age, I would try to place him as a figure of things yet 
to come, that all humanity will have this cosmic tragic sense (ugh!). 
He could have been Jude's surrogate--achieving a Christminster 
degree--if not for his tragic view of life. FT shares, in a twisted 
way, Jude's concern to lessen the suffering of the world. But whereas 
Jude avoids stepping on the earthworms, FT decides to commit 
euthanasia.

I know I risk a firm drubbing saying this, but I find the children's 
deaths very overwrought and over the top--sort of makes me roll my 
eyes, even on a recent second reading. I think Hardy tries way to hard 
here. We don't have enough time or development of FT's character to 
care for him, and the disaster he wrecks sounds more of mental illness 
which he would haven been too young to have developed. Hardy's penchant 
for the grotesque, and his occasional over-plotting, mars this section 
(for me). Normally I enjoy his occasional "gurgoyles." Perhaps I'm just 
not as advanced as FT was...

Kevin T.