[Hardy-l] Father Time

[Will Stevens]

I find that I'm taking a slightly different line from other people. We're
well used to seeing children portrayed in fiction, but how was it when Hardy
was writing 'Jude'?

Of course, there were plenty of moral tales containing children, for the
instruction of children themselves, but these were formulaic, not realistic.
Dickens (e.g. in David Copperfield and Great Expectations) has some very
striking insights into a child's world, but in other books he too is
sometimes moralistic and formulaic. Most other 19th century novelists, to
the best of my recollection, tend to leave children strictly alone. How many
children can you think of in the works of Austen, Thackeray, Trollope?
(Admittedly, there are some in the Brontes and in George Eliot, but they
mostly strike me as being deeply unconvincing - mini-adults rather than
children.)

I think that we tend to view Father Time through a haze (!) of children as
portrayed by later writers: from about 1900, the portrayal of children
(indeed, the sentimental portrayal) of children has become a major part of
what the writers of fiction do.

I certainly agree that Father Time does come across as a mini-adult
('supernaturally old and wise'), but I suspect that this may be due to a
failure of technique, perhaps caused by the absence of literary models,
rather than to any conscious intention on Hardy's part.

Of course, the acid test would be to look at portrayals of other young
children in other works by Hardy. Off-hand, I can't think of any, but I
expect there are some which I have overlooked.

Will