Sunday, October 21, 2012
When the Reader Discovers Harthouse is a Stalker.
When reading "Hard Times", the audience has to slowly piece together society and how the different characters react. The audience doesn't figure out that Harthouse is truly "going" for Louisa until they first meet alone in the garden. When Harthouse finds Louisa he says, "'Mrs Bounderby, I esteem it a most fortunate accident that I find you alone here. I have for some time had a particular wish to speak to you.' It was not by any wonderful accident that he fouind her, the time of day being that at which she was always alone, and the place being her favorite resort. It was an opening in a dark wood, where some felled trees lay, and where she would sit watching the fallen leaves of last year, as she had watched the falling ashes at home" (Dickens 165-6). Alright, there's a lot to process here. First, Harthouse is a creep. Just throwing this out there. He finds Louisa in her secret hiding place where no one else would think to look. He seeks out a married woman just for the fun of it. He puts off his success of finding whom he was looking for as a "most fortunate accident". I can assure you, this guy had this very carefully planned out. Louisa must have felt very confused during this meeting. If I were in her position, I'd feel like someone had intruded my favorite place, especially if I wasn't expecting anyone, and hadn't told anybody where that place was. How else would someone find me in such a hidden spot, unless the followed me? I'd be weirded out. It makes sense though that Lousia would find a place like this in her new situation. The falling leaves and falling ashes make the same motion, giving them somewhat of a resemblence. This falling motion gives her the hope that she can rise above the emptiness she feels in her life. If ashes and leaves fall, she is higher than something in this world. Louisa needs something to give her that support, especially when she's married to a man she can't stand. What is interesting to watch is how despite her relationship status, Lousia manages to fall for the wrong man who knows how to say all the right things. Louisa gets the excitement and unexpectedness that she wants in her world from Harthouse and how he comes at her. If only she could see that Harthouse is a player, and is only in it for the game, not the love she wishes to share with him.
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I personally disagree with the idea that the audience doesn't know that Harthouse is after Louisa until they meet in the garden. I think that his intentions are quite clear as soon as he is introduced to the book. When Harthouse mistakenly goes to the Bank to find Bounderby and finds Mrs. Sparsit instead, he spends most of his time questioning her about Louisa: "I have a burning desire to know. Is she absolutely unapproachable? Repellently and stunningly clever?" (122). The fact that Harthouse questions Mrs. Sparsit so much about Louisa, and that he uses positive phrases such as "stunningly" and "burning desire" show his immediate interest in Louisa and lets the reader know that he is a "player". Also, we know that this "stranger" is Harthouse because he discusses his visit to the bank with Tom, "Calling at the Bank yesterday evening, for Mr. Bounderby's address" (135).
ReplyDeleteHaha funny topic to read.
ReplyDeleteOk anyway I do not really see how being a stalker and being in love at first sight are two opposing concepts. Why is it that he could not be both? In this situation it seems that he is overwhelmingly infatuated with Louisa (shown by everyone's evidence) and that his attraction has led him to make many obsessive and impulsive decisions that lead him to being seen as a "stalker."