Essay: Comparing Literary Styles in Hardy's and Wharton's Novels

This essay provides a comparative analysis of the literary styles and narrative techniques employed by Thomas Hardy and Edith Wharton, focusing on passages from their novels "Far from the Madding Crowd" and "The Custom of the Country," respectively. The essay begins with an introduction to both authors, highlighting their backgrounds and key works, followed by an overview of the selected novels. The main body delves into a detailed comparison of the authors' writing styles, examining their use of language, narrative perspectives, and literary devices, such as third-person narration, free indirect style, and reported speech. The essay also discusses the contrasting societies depicted in their novels, rural versus metropolitan settings, and the authors' approaches to character development and social commentary. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the importance of analyzing literary devices and narration techniques to understand an author's style and the nuances of their work. The essay concludes by reiterating the value of such analyses in appreciating the richness and complexity of literary texts.

Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Introduction to both the authors..................................................................................................1
Introduction to both the novels...................................................................................................2
Commentary on the language and writing styles of both the authors in the given novels..........2
Commentary on the narration and narrative techniques of both authors in the given novels ....3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Literature in the broader sense can be comprehensively referred to as a collection of
written work, but is more often also used in the context of writings especially taken into account
in the form of art, prose fiction, poetries, dramas, and so forth. In this context, novels are written
by authors and writers which also account to one of the most famous forms of literature. The
following paper is a comparative essay which is presented on the basis of two passages picked up
from two different books written by distinct authors. In this relation, this has given rise to the
emergence of difference within the writing styles, narration, narrative techniques and other
aspects related to the novel (Tjupa, 2014). A text is selected from each book and thereby, the
comparison is done between both of these texts in the given essay paper. The texts have been
picked from the books of Thomas Hardy and Edith Wharton named Far from the Madding
Crowd and The Custom of the Country respectively.
MAIN BODY
Introduction to both the authors
Thomas Hardy and Edith Wharton are two popular and renowned names in the domain of
literature. Both of these were exceptional as well as impeccable writers who had their own style
of writing, narration and their way with the usage of literary devices within the text. This makes
the writing styles of both the writers unique and distinct from one another. Below is a short
summary of their life and the famous works.
Thomas Hardy was a poet as well as an English novelist who lived from 2 June 1840 to
11 January 1928 (Gibson, 2016). The main theme which was commonly apparent within his
writing style and novels was romanticism. He was largely influenced by this concept. Thomas
Hardy wrote poetry all his life and considered himself to be primarily a poet. The first collection
of this poet was not published until the year 1898 (Ford, 2016). In the initial stage, Hardy gained
fame and popularity as the author of many novels like Far from the Madding Crowd of the year
1874, The Mayor of Casterbridge of the year 1886, Tess of the d'Urbervilles of the year 1891,
and Jude the Obscure of the year 1895. All throughout his life, the poetry written by Hardy was
acclaimed by many young poets who regarded him as their mentor. Post his death, his poems
were lauded by W. H. Auden, Philip Larkin, and Ezra Pound (Pettit, 2016). On the other hand,
Edith Wharton was an American novelist, designer and short story writer who lived from 24
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January 1862 to 11 August 1937. It has been analysed that during the year 1921, she became the
first woman to be winning the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in the context of her novel named The
Age of Innocence. In addition to this, during the year 1996, she was incorporated into the
National Women's Hall of Fame (Beer, 2018).
Introduction to both the novels
The paper is the comparison of texts from two novels written by the two authors who
have been introduced above. The Custom of the Country published during the year 1913 by
Edith Wharton starts with an amazing line of dialogue that transcends the readers instantly into
the middle of a conflict which goes like “Undine Spragg – how can you?”. The readers are
unknown to the character of Undine as well as the atrocity that she has committed. However,
with the cry of protest, the protagonist of this novel is introduced by her mother (Lauhakangas,
2020). This is a kind of outcry that every reader is likely to utter to themselves at regular
intervals of time as they follow the progression of Undine with respect to her goal to be accepted
by the society of New York. The novel is an account of her courtship, flirts, marriages, and
divorces. The novel portrays that Undine is entitled to get everything that she desires to,
irrespective of the extent to which it may seem impossible to be secured by her. However, it is
shown that no matter how much she gets, she is always desirous of getting even more. The main
implication of this novel all throughout is that Undine Spragg is rarely seen to be satisfied for a
long period of time (Goldsmith and Orlando, 2016).
The Custom of the Country was known to be published almost 40 years post the
publication of Far from the Madding Crowd of Thomas Hardy during the year 1874. Hardy
lived within as well as scribbled about his native place named Dorset (Hayes, 2020). On the
other hand, Edith Wharton who was an American lived within the bounds of France by the year
1913.
Commentary on the language and writing styles of both the authors in the given novels
The societies about which both of the writers scribbled in their novels were quite
distinct. While Thomas Hardy focussed upon the society within the rural area, the emphasis of
Edith Wharton has been upon metropolitan (Tyagi, 2019). However, even when the subjects or
the societies about which both of the specified writers wrote were different, it is analysed that
third person narrative was used by both of them, with all kinds of possibilities as well as
flexibility.
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Both the authors are known to provide the intrinsic views of their main characters within
the novel. Similar to the writing style as well as pattern of Thomas Hardy, Edith Wharton also
presents every episode from the specs of a certain character, contrasting it with another one, or
even a more basic perspective upon the subject matter as a whole (Sette, 2017).
The narrator of Thomas Hardy has a sympathetic as well as affectionate attitude towards
the characters described in his novels. Opposed to this, the characters in the novel The Custom of
the Country are described as well as introduced by virtue of the usage of satire (Bendixen and
Zilversmit, 2016). Edith is critical of the characters of her novel without condemning them in an
explicit way. Both Far from the Madding Crowd of Thomas Hardy and The Custom of the
Country by Edith Wharton contain the key facets of a realist novel such as settings, duration,
locations, characterisations, and so forth.
Commentary on the narration and narrative techniques of both authors in the given novels
The Custom of the Country is a subtle and swift third person narrative which changes the
focal point from a detached account of events to the language as well as view point put forth by a
specific character. The same was seen in the case of Undine's thoughts in relation to writing a
letter and her unwitting exposure to the ignorance of theatre as well as plays within the dinner
party. Now, free indirect speech also known as free indirect discourse or free indirect style is
acknowledged to be more of a nuanced mode of focalisation, that takes place when the narrative
basically demonstrates the view point of a specific character pertinent to the novel (Ouyang,
2017). When Undine visits the theatre and is seated in her
exclusive box, the narrator explicate that instead of feeling that she
had attained a social triumph. In addition to this, the phrase ‘Was it going to be as dreary here as
there?’ underpins that Undine simply got a feeling of helplessness as well as tiredness. This is a
kind of free indirect style. Had Edith Wharton written “she enquired herself if it was going to be
as dreary here as there” or “she wondered if it was going to be as dreary here as there”, it would
have been reported speech, or indirect style owing to the usage of explanatory words by the
narrator, such as “she wondered” or “she enquired”. However, in the absence of words such as
“she enquired” or “she wondered”, the reader directly connect to the feelings of Undine and feel
her mind and thoughts. The technical terms like focalisation, reported speech, free indirect style
and so forth are effective in terms of making an analysis of the narrative within a specific text or
the whole novel. These tools provide due assistance in giving description of the moments within
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the passages of the narrative whereby one has an intrinsic view of the consciousness of any
character. Thus, the pattern of the narrative and the subsequent techniques can be duly identified
by asking oneself as one reads the passage or text, “who do these ideas belong to?”, “whose
words are these?”, “is this the perception of the narrator or has the reader transcended into the
view point of a specific character.
From the text obtained from The Custom of the Country, “how meagre and starved the
past appeared in comparison with this abundant present!” is a phrase that depicts the usage of
free indirect style (Bendixen and Zilversmit, 2016). Contrary to this, the text taken from Far from
the Madding Crowd of Thomas Hardy, the reported speech has been used. This makes the reader
seem detached from the narrative as they can not associate it with themselves or in other words,
they can not sense the feelings of the character being talked about.
Thus, above mentioned analysis demonstrates that there are several similarities within the
writing styles of Edith Wharton and Thomas Hardy. However, at the same time, there are several
dissimilarities between their writing styles and narration techniques. This makes it important to
take into account the in depth analysis of texts from the novels written by these authors and
thereby derive inferences about their writing patterns.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion, it can be comprehensively stated that reading a novel
involved careful analysis of different texts ranging from half a page to sometimes one page. In
this regard, the in-depth analysis of texts taken from any novels allows the reader to effectively
analyse the writing style used within it. In addition to this, it has been determined that various
literary devices are used by the wide array of authors for the distinct set of purposes. Some of the
examples of literary devices include personification, similes, imagery, metaphors, hyperbole, and
alliteration. These literary devices provide assistance in enhancing the standard as well as quality
of language used by the writers in the novels. Besides this, it has been analysed that there are
several techniques that are used for the purpose of narrating a text in the novel. Some of the
narration techniques consist of focalisation, free indirect style, backstory, flashback, flash-
forward, foretelling, and a specific character's perspective/point of view. When the writer makes
use of narration techniques, literary devices, different tones and languages within one novel, it
provides assistance in sustaining the attention of the reader. This happens because the reader is
able to identify the change in narration and thus remain engrossed.
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REFERENCES
Beer, J., 2018. Edith Wharton. Oxford University Press.
Bendixen, A. and Zilversmit, A. eds., 2016. Edith Wharton: New Critical Essays. Routledge.
Ford, M., 2016. Thomas Hardy. Harvard University Press.
Gibson, J. ed., 2016. Thomas Hardy: Interviews and Recollections. Springer.
Goldsmith, M.L. and Orlando, E.J., 2016. Edith Wharton and Cosmopolitanism. University Press
of Florida.
Hayes, T., 2020. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN THE WORLD: Thomas Hardy's Far
from the Madding Crowd. Papers on Language and Literature, 56(2), pp.210-220.
Lauhakangas, V., 2020. Consumerism and High Society Values in Edith Wharton's The Custom
of the Country.
Ouyang, W.Z., 2017, September. Reinvented Maidenhead in Commercialized Marriage: A
Cultural Perspective on The Custom of the Country. In 3rd Annual International Conference on
Social Science and Contemporary Humanity Development (SSCHD 2017). Atlantis Press.
Pettit, C. ed., 2016. Reading Thomas Hardy. Springer.
Sette, M., 2017. Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd and the Turn of the Lyric. The
Hardy Review, 19(1), pp.52-61.
Tjupa, V., 2014. Narrative strategies. Handbook of Narratology, 1, pp.564-574.
Tyagi, B., 2019. Autobiographical Element of Thomas Hardy in Far From the Madding
Crowd. Journal of the Gujarat Research Society, 21(14), pp.98-107.
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