Complications – The Intrusion of Serjeant Troy
Revision of Chapters 1 – 24 Who did what? STARTER ACTIVITY
- Caused a stir in the Casterbridge Corn Exchange and set the farmers’ pulses racing.
- Lost his sheep, became a tramp and then got a job as a shepherd.
- Missed a wedding because of going to the wrong church.
- Received a Valentine.
- Persuaded her mistress to send a Valentine to a very respectable man.
- Got caught stealing grain from Weatherbury Farm and got the sack.
- Took over as a bailiff – or manager of Weatherbury Farm.
- Ate some clover and got terrible gas in the stomach.
- Nearly destroyed all the hay ricks on Weatherbury Farm.
NOW PUT THE ABOVE IN THE RIGHT ORDER.
Learning Objective: to learn about how Hardy presents the themes of sexual temptation, flirtation and danger. To learn about his literary techniques in creating suspense.
- What is flirtation? What kinds of flirtation do you think actually work? Write out some successful chat-up lines, explain why they are successful.
- What do you think of these lines. Are they successful flirtation? What do they tell us about the speaker, do you think?
- ‘Thank you for the sight of such a beautiful face!’
- ‘I’ve never seen a woman so beautiful as you. Take it or leave it – be offended or like it – I don’t care.’
- ‘And I would rather have curses from you than kisses from any other woman; so I’ll stay here.’
- ‘I said you were beautiful, and I’ll say so still, for, by – so you are! The most beautiful ever I saw, or may I fall dead this instant!
- ‘I again say you are a most fascinating woman. There’s nothing remarkable in my saying so, is there? I’m sure the fact is evident enough.
- Ø I loved you then, at once – as I do now.’
- EXTENSION WORK: The giving of the watch. How does Hardy create tension and drama in the following passage?
The sergeant looked at his watch and told her. ‘What, haven’t you a watch, miss?’ he inquired.’ I have not just at present – I am about to get a new one.’
‘No. You shall be given one. Yes – you shall. A gift, Miss Everdene – a gift.’
And before she knew what the young man was intending, a heavy gold watch was in her hand.
‘It is an unusually good one for a man like me to possess,’ he quietly said. ‘That watch has a history. Press the spring and open the back.’
She did so. ‘What do you see?’ ‘A crest and a motto.’
‘A coronet with five points, and beneath, Cedit amor rebus – “Love yields to circumstance.” It’s the motto of the Earls of Severn. That watch belonged to the last lord, and was given to my mother’s husband, a medical man, for his use till I came of age, when it was to be given to me. It was all the fortune that ever I inherited. That watch has regulated imperial interests in its time – the stately ceremonial, the courtly assignation, pompous travels, and lordly sleeps. Now it is yours.’
‘But, Sergeant Troy, I cannot take this – I cannot!’ she exclaimed, with round-eyed wonder. ‘A gold watch! What are you doing? Don’t be such a dissembler!’