#a pair of blue eyes

[laurapetrie]

Girls have a chartered right to change their minds, you know. It has been recognized by poets from time immemorial.

Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873)

[dinathalawriter]

Indeed, the novel is not about two relationships, but three. In addition to the two heterosexual pairings between Elfride and Stephen, and Elfride and Knight, there is also that third relationship, between Stephen and Knight. In many ways the relationship between the two men is the most important in the novel, more so than either of the two short-lived romantic attachments to Elfride.

The novel ends not with a man and woman together (as you might expect from a romance, or from a Victorian novel, e.g. the way in which many of Dickens’s novels end) but with two men walking off together. The train at the end of the novel bears the three principal characters back to Endelstow, just as it had first brought Stephen there in the second chapter. This final train journey also echoes Elfride and Stephen’s night in the train as a couple, but in this reprise of that train journey, Elfride is dead and it is Stephen and Knight who form the couple, not Stephen and Elfride.

Critics have often mentioned how similar Stephen is to Elfride: both are held back but by different things (Elfride by her gender, Stephen by his class), both have their emotions ‘near the surface’, and – perhaps most significantly of all – both have an intense fondness for the third person in the love triangle, Henry Knight. Stephen wants to make himself ‘richer and better educated’ as much to impress Knight as to woo Elfride. Similarly, Elfride is like Stephen in that she wants to please Knight and live up to his naïve fantasies of what she should be, just as Stephen tries to meet Knight’s expectations of what a Victorian man should be.

Furthermore, Hardy suggestively tells us that Stephen’s eyes are blue-grey, thus subtly equating him with Elfride, whose blue eyes (of course) provide the novel with its title. That title is thus rendered slightly ambiguous, as though Henry Knight is drawn into two relationships with ‘a pair of blue eyes’, one romantic and doomed to fail, one homosocial and destined to survive the novel. Is that the real relationship at the core of this romantic novel – not, after all, a heterosexual one at all, but a homosocial one, between men?

In her influential study of this phenomenon in literature, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire (Gender and Culture Series), Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick highlights that such homosocial relationships are often part of an erotic triangle. Such a reading of the homosocial relations in the novel, if pursued carefully, does perhaps provide another explanation for Hardy’s decision to kill off Elfride.

[cubbihue]

Oh no Mr Turner! Your eyes looked a bit different when you cracked your phone there. Also, how’d you crack your phone? Where do you live? Do you live alone? Do you have anyone to talk to? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you happy? Are you ok?

Oh dear! It appears you've all broken our dear Changeling!! Oh well! I'm sure he's fine! He's still smiling despite it all!!!

Although maybe I should patch up that error right about now. We can't have him seeing things too soon after all! Hahaha!

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[hushedclan]

nobody? are you sure, fernpaw?

back first next

[mari-bon]

Day 2 battle of the bands

Come on guys why can't we just be friends :(

[nymphilily]

"The Knight Of Dawn being a near exact copy of Silver is lazy!" You absolutely think the curtains are just blue, don't you?

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

badboyhalo (and bonus jaiden) traditional sketch dump! The last flowers one is a few weeks old but all others are from the last few days

[icantdothistodaybruh]

Was thinking about organizing all merch I've gathered over the year for a loooong time, and finally got myself a day to do so... AND i'M SO HAPPY WITH IT AJJDFSKOASAKS CAN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF OF IT

Most of it is from the ones of my favorite artists - висит груша and Forte.khom, some stuff is my own, the rest was gifted to me by friends (I love u all beyond any comprehension) Will be hanging this beauty right on top of this little exhibition💅💅💅

[sing-me-under]

Recently read Shadowpact. Initially read just for Laura Fell, but I really liked this team. DC Universe only has the first 16 issues, so I’ll have to dig around for the last nine issues (I believe it’s 25 issues long?). Laura is so adorable?? Like she’s so sweet and easy to get along with… without the whole supervillain corrupted heart magic thing, that is. Her characterization in Robin is kinda… ya know. But if I ignore that and focus on Shadowpact, she’s easily one of my favorites.

[chimpukampu]

"Frozen where she stands, Zelda takes a shaky inhale then holds her breath. Listening. Waiting. She’s had this feeling for a while now—that someone’s following her. When the sounds started, she convinced herself she was merely hearing the lascivious noises of lovers running wild, but every time she looked in the direction of where the suspicious footsteps were coming from, no one was ever there.

Now she knows what’s happening. She’s being stalked."

Merry late holidays @farore-or-less! I'm your Secret Midna!

I decided to make an art on one of your fics, which is a bit difficult tbh because I looooove all of your fics! So I went with "Milk and Cherries" since it's a bit appropriate for this gift mix-up 🥰

[determinedowl23]

idk who cares but they have new matching headshots on the arena tour website

[confusedgoldenflower]

MIZU x AKEMI x TAKAYOSHI

I except nothing less. Taigen is allowed IF AND ONLY IF he mans the fuck up, doesn’t get butthurt over Mizu and grows.

Akemi and Mizu, if they get a man, need a real man, not a man child clinging to falsities his daddy and master told him. He’s obnoxious. He’s a good, loyal but annoying friend at best as it stands. They’re not compatible romantically/sexually (if memory serves, the flashbacks of nonexistent dick Mikio overlapped w her time w Taigen/some scenes that could be read as romantic, a man who caused her great hurt who made it so she’ll likely need a LOT to be able to be vulnerable w a man ever again), neither is he with Akemi anymore. I’m hoping the overlap was just there to show her starting to think about it or as a weird red herring for his bi/gay awakening. He could get someone else in S2, who knows. As S1 is, they don’t deserve each other. The throuple. Mizu and Akemi as a pair with some more development, but not w him.

Takayoshi, however, has shown that he can be understanding and he should be a trained swordsman. He didn’t seem to mind allowing Akemi to lead and there’s a big hint that she’ll be the “pants wearer” of the relationship going forward. I think Akemi’s moved on from Taigen, maybe not realizing it but has, and Taka also has a pretty significant “fault” being his stutter.

I just see more potential with Taka not Tai.

Having throuple representation would be incredible regardless!

But bringing in a new character for it could also really work. Like a gentle lady Mizu finds in England—oh, that’s an idea…👀👀 no I have enough fanfic wips damnit. She could free someone from a work house or mine!

[whiteshipnightjar]

Joanna Newsom in Carolina Herrera and her blue suede Mary Janes

[potekosblog]

What crazy is that her father might be British and I kinda see that 😭

Disgruntled gentleman look

[irascible-iridescent]

Tbh I think that alexandrite is a better gem for the Rafayel's ring

The alexandrite variety displays a color change dependent upon the nature of ambient lighting. Which means it goes from purple-pinkish to greenish-blue.

[jack-kellys]

davey modeled after an irl davey in my year