Hopeless in Love: Thomas Hardy, continued

We like to believe that love is not based on chance: that, out in the world somewhere, someone exists for each of us, with whom each of us will someday cross paths and fall in love. Though this philosophy of love provides for a lot of successful date films, many of the world’s writers and philosophers have not subscribed to it. In Thomas Hardy’s short story “On the Western Circuit,” love is not a product of grace, fate, or any other universal force than chance. Lives are formed and ruined over the smallest circumstances, many of them totally incidental. From the first moments of the story, in fact, tiny chance decisions ultimately determine the fate of years of people’s lives.

Charles Bradford Raye, Hardy’s protagonist of sorts, did not intend to fall in love with a girl on a merry-go-round. He is merely “detained in Melchester by a small arbitration after his brethren had moved on to the next county-town” (Hardy 2). Chance brought the man to Melchester; once there, chance drew him to the throng of people at the carnival; even upon his arrival at the carnival, nothing other than chance draws him to Anna. In discovering her, he is merely looking to see the prettiest girl riding the glittering horses, and for several moments he cannot decide: “It was not that one with the light frock and light hat whom he had been at first attracted by; no, it was the one with the black cape, grey skirt, light gloves and—no, not even she, but the one behind her; she with the crimson skirt, dark jacket, brown hat and brown gloves” (Hardy 1). Had his subjective eye decided at last upon the one with the light frock or she with the black cape, the entire turn of events would have played out differently. A small decision again determined the fate of three different people.

When Mrs. Harnham, Anna’s caretaker, becomes involved, it is another chance event. Raye attempts to stroke Anna’s hand, yet “Mrs. Harnham then felt a man’s hand clasping her fingers, and from the look of consciousness on the young fellow’s face she knew the hand to be his” (Hardy 3). By chance, Raye caresses the wrong hand, and “[w]hat prompted her to refrain from undeceiving him she could hardly tell” (Hardy 3). Thus, one woman failing to correct an awkward situation can clearly lead to more confusion than what anyone involved could have considered.

These chance events and decisions prompt the rest of a story in which maid and mistress both fall in love, tragically, with the same man. Their infatuation leads to the situation where Raye marries Anna, but comes, in talking with Mrs. Harnham, to his terrible realization: “in soul and spirit I have married you, and no other woman in the world!” (Hardy 9). The bond that Raye thinks that he shares with his new wife is actually a bond that he shares with an older, and a married, woman. Love, then, in their case was not predestination or fate; rather, a simple a matter as a pretty girl being unable to read was enough to run the rails off-track for good. Chance encounters and decisions ensure that Raye, Anna, and Mrs. Harnham will always remain not quite fully satisfied in their respective marriages. None of the people involved made distinctly poor choices: Raye was a bit selfish, Anna somewhat naïve, and Mrs. Harnham too willing to indulge her senses ever more, but all are basically average people. Thus, love and attraction exist to foil plans and derail relationships, which they do with extreme effectiveness.