A Study of Lady Viviette Constantine’s Tragedy in Thomas Hardy’s Two on a Tower

Abstract

Generally, it is argued that in Two on a Tower, scientific Swithin St. Cleve is responsible for emotional Lady Viviette Constantine’s tragic life. Yet it would be unfair to confine our critical scrutiny only to Swithin’s actions taken to produce such an outcome. Of greater note is the role played by Victorian ethics of virtue or the character of Viviette’s actions and the motivation behind undertaking them. This paper tries to illuminate the intricacy of Viviette’s inner consciousness in flux where her rational power clashes with natural feelings or instincts. What comes into focus here is her complex psychology that manifests itself in the attempt to accept and reject the grip of entrenched customs and parochialism in moral reasoning. Then it is underlined that Viviette’s change of mind or act of (re-)correction makes a compelling structural pattern of repetition together with the correcting acts of other major characters, thence intensifying Viviette’s tragic predicament. In conclusion, it is stressed that the psychological features of Two on a Tower are the successful outcome of Hardy’s artistic craftsmanship in creatively using traditional binary terms, such as emotion/science and feeling/reason.