Quelques stratégies de dissimulation dans le langage hardyen

Abstract

The focus of this analysis on three major novels of Thomas Hardy: Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Return of the Native and Far From the Madding Crowd will study aspects of language, phonetics and stylistics in these three books. Manipulating language effectively entails a certain level of education. In general, formal English, or at least “Standard” English, is used in narrative text, dialogues or poems. However, in Hardy’s novels, the words are not only written, but they can be read orally and we find a gap, even a paradox between what is written and what is said. All through the novels, this ambiguity is strengthened by various language registers. Words are means of both written and oral communication. Fitted together, they create sounds and give to Hardy’s sentences a second meaning. Indeed, Hardy’s heroes and heroines fit into their rural landscape and try to cross the line which symbolically divides them from worldly, urban society, by correcting their pronunciation or code of language. A reel of words weaves its way through those outward cultures or language groups. Through both silent and audible forms of communication, words may reveal hidden links within this microsociety. Consequently, Hardy’s words might be seen as a series of letters or literary missives, whose purpose is to convey a message to the reader. Some methods and techniques of assembling letters and sounds to represent specific dialectal forms of expression will provide the core of this article.