The Intensity of Time and Experience

257 REVIEW THE INTENSITY OF TIME AND EXPERIENCE Bert G. Hornback. The Metaphor of Chance: Vision and Technique in the Works of Thomas Hardy. Athens, Ohlos Ohio UP, 1971*1 #7.00. Critics of Hardy's works have always felt compelled to comment on his use of chance. However, until Roy Morrell published The Will and the Way (Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, I965), little had been said that was either constructive or favorable. In general, it was assumed that Hardy used chance in cheap and sensational wayss as a way of achieving the unexpected, as a way of tangling and untangling plots, as a literary crutch. In The Metaphor of Chance. Professor Bert G. Hornback Joins those critics who in recent years have come to see that chance is functional in Hardy's works. In particular, he asserts that coincidence, which is produced by chance, is Hardy's way of expressing "the idea of the intensity of experience." Arguing that "coincidence is at the center of his vision and technique," Mr. Hornback sees the crises which result from co-incidents "as the essence of human existence." What matters is not the circumstance or the Juxtaposition of circumstances and events, but "the crisis which ensues" and the "truth that emerges from the Juxtaposition " which is, he says, "a terribly intense time, a moment reinforced by its extension in history." It is this extension in history, which is established through setting, that makes the action of the novel or poem representative action. Mr. Hornback calls this representativeness "myth." The significance of the action he calls "metaphor." When "compassion, love, and a sense of the necessity of heroism" mark Hardy's theme and technique, Hardy's vision results. What Mr. Hornback says about chance is certainly welcome at this time. It cannot be emphasized too much that chance is not merely a deus ex machina in Hardy's fiction and poetry. When Mr. Hornback refers repeatedly to the novels and poetry to confirm the truth of what he says, this too is welcome since the proof of any assertion about a writer's works must reside, ultimately, in the works themselves. However, when he places Far From the Madding Crowd and The Woodlanders among "the minor works," a weakness ïn his approach is hinted ats Mr. Hornback seems more intent on confirming and validating his thesis than explaining the novels and poetry. This is not to say a critic should be criticized for his contention that a novel is minor. However, when it appears that a novel is called "minor" because it does not fulfill a standard arbitrarily Imposed on it from without, that is another matter. A novel must be Judged in terms of its author's Intentions rather than its readers' expectations. (I am speaking now of content rather than aesthetics.) If in Far From the Madding Crowd Hardy uses setting that is - in Mr. Homback's words - "limited in its function and supports the action in only the most neutral way," it appears only 258 that setting is not being used to extend the present into the past. It does not follow that such use of setting contributes to making Far From the Madding Crowd a minor novel. Other weaknesses stem from this concern with the mythical and metaphorical aspects of "setting [which] stands for intensity, repetition, and coincidence." Intent on developing his thesis, Mr. Hornback ignores the variety of uses Hardy makes of chance. Accordingly, he ignores the fact that by chance disaster is often averted in Wessex and the intensity of the moment reduced, as when Bathsheba saves Gabriel's life; that by chance something frequently does not happen, as when Tess fails to become acquainted with Angel at Marlott; that what is often called chance in the novels is by no means chance. Ultimately, then, Mr. Hornback limits Hardy's use of chance by emphasizing some of its uses to the exclusion of others. In limiting what he seeks to prove, he suggests Hardy's achievement is less than it is. Then, too, each of the novels dealt with is dealt with somewhat unsatisfactorily . In emphasizing his thesis rather than the novels as organic wholes, a great deal...