Passage 129 · 1895
"Jude the Obscure"
Main effectThrough conditional speculation, adversative possibility immediately undercut by causal fatalism, passive fixation, and genitive making imagination victimizer, Hardy creates syntax of cosmic irony—grammar that simultaneously grants and revokes hope, performing narrator's position above and beyond character's delusions.
Device index
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Tropes
Meaning opposite to surface.
Human qualities to abstractions.
Schemes
Balanced opposition.
Syntax
"with his back to the rick, and his eyes fixed on"—two parallel prepositional phrases. Syntax establishes physical position.
"eyes fixed"—passive participle shows involuntary stare. Syntax emphasizes compulsion.
"as if he could discern"—comparative conditional expressing hypothesis. Syntax performs narrator's speculation.
"there, in the vast expanse"—demonstrative with appositive. Syntax emphasizes emptiness of where hope is projected.
"some promise of happier times"—indefinite quantifier with abstract noun. Syntax makes hope vague, uncertain.
"and perhaps he could"—coordinating conjunction with modal. Syntax seems to validate vision.
"for such minds are often the victims"—causal clause that undermines preceding possibility. Syntax performs Hardy's fatalism.
"of their own imagination"—genitive makes imagination the victimizer. Syntax makes hope itself dangerous.
Close reading
1Close Reading
Compound Prepositional Phrases
"with his back to the rick, and his eyes fixed on"—two parallel prepositional phrases. Syntax establishes physical position.
Passive Participle
"eyes fixed"—passive participle shows involuntary stare. Syntax emphasizes compulsion.
Conditional Clause
"as if he could discern"—comparative conditional expressing hypothesis. Syntax performs narrator's speculation.
Locative Specification
"there, in the vast expanse"—demonstrative with appositive. Syntax emphasizes emptiness of where hope is projected.
Abstract Object
"some promise of happier times"—indefinite quantifier with abstract noun. Syntax makes hope vague, uncertain.
Adversative Possibility
"and perhaps he could"—coordinating conjunction with modal. Syntax seems to validate vision.
Causal Reversal
"for such minds are often the victims"—causal clause that undermines preceding possibility. Syntax performs Hardy's fatalism.
Genitive Agency
"of their own imagination"—genitive makes imagination the victimizer. Syntax makes hope itself dangerous.
Stylistic Effect
Through conditional speculation, adversative possibility immediately undercut by causal fatalism, passive fixation, and genitive making imagination victimizer, Hardy creates syntax of cosmic irony—grammar that simultaneously grants and revokes hope, performing narrator's position above and beyond character's delusions.