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Such imperiousness would have damned a little less beauty; and on the other hand, such beauty would have redeemed a little less imperiousness.
neap
raiment
nonce
Unlike and superior to either of those two typical remnants of mediævalism, the old barn embodied practices which had suffered no mutilation at the hands of time. Here at least the spirit of the ancient builders was at one with the spirit of the modern beholder.
a feeling almost of gratitude, and quite of pride, at the permanence of the idea which had heaped it up. The fact that four centuries had neither proved it to be founded on a mistake, inspired any hatred of its purpose, nor given rise to any reaction that had battered it down, invested this simple grey effort of old minds with a repose, if not a grandeur, which a too curious reflection was apt to disturb in its ecclesiastical and military compeers.
Romanticizing nature and pastoral life. Its permanence relative to the constantly evolving human trifles
"She blushes at the insult," murmured Bathsheba, watching the pink flush which arose and overspread the neck and shoulders of the ewe where they were left bare by the clicking shears—a flush which was enviable, for its delicacy, by many queens of coteries, and would have been creditable, for its promptness, to any woman in the world.
Poor Gabriel's soul was fed with a luxury of content by having her over him, her eyes critically regarding his skilful shears, which apparently were going to gather up a piece of the flesh at every close, and yet never did so.
Phallic? Sexual? His restraint/control of the flesh/body. Wise use of his ~instrument~
There is a loquacity that tells nothing, which was Bathsheba's; and there is a silence which says much: that was Gabriel's.
Clementine and Joel
woman at the impressionable age gravitates to the larger body not only in her choice of words, which is apparent every day, but even in her shades of tone and humour, when the influence is great.
Hmmm
to Oak, who knew Bathsheba to be well aware that she herself was the cause of the poor ewe's wound, because she had wounded the ewe's shearer in a still more vital part, it had a sting
Saying the heart is more vital than the groin, as a man, is meaningful
"I don't see why a maid should take a husband when she's bold enough to fight her own battles, and don't want a home;
Wasn't Henery the one who criticized her for not hiring a bailiff? I guess he's convinced of her capability now
We learn that it is not the rays which bodies absorb, but those which they reject, that give them the colours they are known by; and in the same way people are specialized by their dislikes and antagonisms, whilst their goodwill is looked upon as no attribute at all.
Why we love befriending people who hate the same things as us <3
pharisaical
gird
querulous
blithe,
Supper being ended, Coggan began on his own private account, without reference to listeners:— I've lost my love, and I care not, I've lost my love, and I care not; I shall soon have another That's better than t'other; I've lost my love, and I care not.
:( resonating with me on Friday 7/25/25.
Gabriel on her right hand, immediately outside the sash-frame. Boldwood had drawn up on her left, within the room.
Gabriel's still outside :/ this reminds me of how lines wer used to represent class divides in the movie Parasite
Women are never tired of bewailing man's fickleness in love, but they only seem to snub his constancy.
Why do men think that constancy entitles them to a woman's affection? This line makes me think of the stupid saying "Nice guys finish last"
stentorian
Makes me think of Fiona Apple
Slipping along here covertly as Time,
Gloom, the genius loci at all times hitherto, was now totally overthrown, less by the lantern-light than by what the lantern lighted.
"Oh no—I can do it, thank you," she hastily replied, and stooped for the performance.
Just like her proceedings under the watchful eye of Farmer Oak were labeled "performance"
he was young and slim, and that he wore three chevrons upon his sleeve.
Oh noooo, not Sergeant Frank
"You are a prisoner, miss;
Another occasion on which she must be set free
"I like you the better for that incivility, miss," he said.
Lmao don't they always?
archness
There are occasions when girls like Bathsheba will put up with a great deal of unconventional behaviour. When they want to be praised, which is often, when they want to be mastered, which is sometimes; and when they want no nonsense, which is seldom. Just now the first feeling was in the ascendant with Bathsheba, with a dash of the second.
Clearly she did not think his barefaced praise of her person an insult now. It was a fatal omission of Boldwood's that he had never once told her she was beautiful.
it may be argued with great plausibility that reminiscence is less an endowment than a disease, and that expectation in its only comfortable form—that of absolute faith—is practically an impossibility; whilst in the form of hope and the secondary compounds, patience, impatience, resolve, curiosity, it is a constant fluctuation between pleasure and pain.
regrater
The sergeant's vicious phases being the offspring of impulse, and his virtuous phases of cool meditation, the latter had a modest tendency to be oftener heard of than seen.
He had a quick comprehension and considerable force of character; but, being without the power to combine them, the comprehension became engaged with trivialities whilst waiting for the will to direct it, and the force wasted itself in useless grooves through unheeding the comprehension.
Still less is it acted upon for the good of the complemental being alluded to.
Flattery of women is not for their benefit, but a manipulation tactic of the flatterer
a male dissembler who by deluging her with untenable fictions charms the female wisely, may acquire powers reaching to the extremity of perdition, is a truth taught to many by unsought and wringing occurrences.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" or whatever
Sergeant Troy was one.
A cad!
nankeen,
the 'Queen of the Corn-market' (truth is truth at any hour of the day or night, and I heard you so named in Casterbridge yesterday),
Barf. And so the flattery begins
"And I would rather have curses from you than kisses from any other woman; so I'll stay here." Bathsheba was absolutely speechless.
Half the pleasure of a feeling lies in being able to express it on the spur of the moment, and I let out mine.
Somewhat true, though he's obviously bullshitting here. There's no way he would have called somebody else ugly if it had been them he crossed paths with
Tis to be hoped your sense of the difference you speak of doesn't stop at faces, but extends to morals as well."
Yesss Bathsheba! Call Troy out for being shallow
perhaps I should have been a very good Christian if you pretty women hadn't made me an idolater." Bathsheba moved on to hide the irrepressible dimplings of merriment.
Oh no.. She's falling for it. Also, interesting that he says beautiful women have made him a poor Christian, and Hardy described Bathsheba as having a more demonic than angelic beauty
"Oh, fie—fie! Am I any worse for breaking the third of that Terrible Ten than you for breaking the ninth?"
The ten commandments? No. 3 is about taking the lord's name in vain, and No. 9 is about bearing false witness against thy neighbor
The careless sergeant smiled within himself, and probably too the devil smiled from a loop-hole in Tophet, for the moment was the turning-point of a career.
Ew, smilibg at a lady's "capitulation" is devious indeed-- perhaps coercive. Yuck
the seed which was to lift the foundation had taken root in the chink: the remainder was a mere question of time and natural changes.
Breaking through the chinks in her armor (beautifully put!) and this narration seems to guarantee Troy will disarm Bathsheba. But when?
will be always draggling after you, getting where they may just see you, doing desperate things.
Shepherd Oak...
"I think you—are conceited, nevertheless," said Bathsheba, looking askance at a reed she was fitfully pulling with one hand, having lately grown feverish under the soldier's system of procedure—not
Omg a nervous habit of mine, too. It's cute to find those in books written so long ago
but I certainly did think that the kindness of your nature might prevent you judging an uncontrolled tongue harshly—which you have done—and thinking badly of me and wounding me this morning, when I am working hard to save your hay."
EW! The outright manipulation. Implying that it would be unkind for her to rebuff his advances
the shrewd woman, in painfully innocent earnest.
:/ Is it "shrewd" to speak in earnest to a disingenuous man? No. But I'm sure that Bathsheba's mistake in engaging with this man will make her more shrewd in the end.
