“A letter for me?”
“Destiny and a Blue Cloak”, a short story published in 1874 in The New York Times and “An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress”, a novella written in 1878 for The New Quarterly Magazine, narrate the sad fate of two young women who are entrapped in patriarchal law and become the playthings of Provi...
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| Udgivet i: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/fathom, |
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| Hovedforfatter: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprog: | Anglais |
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FATHOM
2013
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| Online adgang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Summary: | “Destiny and a Blue Cloak”, a short story published in 1874 in The New York Times and “An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress”, a novella written in 1878 for The New Quarterly Magazine, narrate the sad fate of two young women who are entrapped in patriarchal law and become the playthings of Providence. The actual death of the protagonist of “An Indiscretion” echoes the social and symbolical death of the protagonist of “Destiny and a Blue Cloak”. The analysis of the theme of the letter in these texts implies studying its multiple meanings but also taking into account the relationships between body and letter. Indeed letters (in the sense of epistolary exchange) play a great role in the plot. Correspondence introduces an interplay between presence and absence and substitutes text for body. These letters which are secretly sent challenge patriarchal authority yet they are also accompanied by pacts and promises, words the characters are bound to, even when they are hastily chalked on a slate. It becomes obvious that “the letter killeth” as it finds itself linked to fate and death, a notion which gives its impetus to the plot of “An Indiscretion” but more generally to Hardy’s writing, itself the result of a deterministic and pessimistic vision, a form of programmatic writing. This impression is reinforced by the quotations heading each chapter, giving just another turn of the screw to tragedy and tightening the web of the text around the protagonist. |
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