「手」のアイロニー : 『エセルバータの手』論

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タイトル別名
  • Irony of the 'Hand' : A Study of The Hand of Ethelberta
  • テ ノ アイロニー : エセルバータ ノ テ ロン

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抄録

The Hand of Ethelberta (1876) has generally been criticized as a failure and an execrable work of Thomas Hardy's. Regardless of its low estimation, however, the ironical title seems to give us a key to a fuller appreciation of the novel. A tentative reevaluation of the work is intended in this paper. Young widow Mrs Petherwin, i. e. Ethelberta, is in fact a daughter among the ten chidren of Chickerel, a servant. The ambitious Ethelberta is to choose a good husband among the four suitors. The 'hand' of Ethelberta is of course a symbol of the acceptance of marriage. Ironically enough it is not the 'hand' of 'Mrs Petherwin' of the high society. The servant's daughter Ethelberta has become Mrs Petherwin by marriage and she manages to be that strictly hiding her real origin. Her performance as an excellent story-teller at a theatre to get livelihood to maintain her family overlaps her performance as Mrs Petherwin in the upper society. The proud and aspirant Ethelberta uses her 'hand' most tactfully to have a good husband of property. She finally gives her 'hand' to Lord Mountclere and becomes lady Mountclere. After marriage, however, she is not meek nor submissive to her husband, but oppresses him and controls his estate. The comical reverse change of the husband/wife relation seems to mirror, as one critic suggests, the subversive change of the structure of the society at that time. If Hardy's ambition to be a good 'hand' at a serial at the time of the composition is displaced on to Ethelberta, the 'hand' of Ethelberta may be in reality his 'hand' to have a subversive influence in the reading society of the day.

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