Republic of the Philippines October 14, 2014 Leyte Normal University TFri 7:30 – 9:00 am Introduction to Stylistics Far From the Madding Crowd: Functional Analysis Vanessa Oliva Lelean Cabudsan Noime Monzales Jessan Cruzada

Functional Stylistics

Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a theory of linguistics that claims language, or any other semiotic system, can be seen as a system of choices. What is then conveyed the meaning of the text, is dependent upon the choices made by the speaker from the options within the language system or, in some cases, from what is not chosen (Teo, 2000).

Metafunction refers to three separate strands of meaning that in parallel contribute to the overall meaning in the text. The textual metafunction provides ‘resources for presenting information as text in context’ while the interpersonal metafunction provides the resources for enacting social roles and relations as meaning in a text. The ideational metafunction on the other hand, provides the resources for construing our experience of the world in terms of objects, events, and relations between them.

Synopsis

Hardy’s first mature work, Far from the Madding Crowd, traces a line of rural courtships. Bathsheba Everdene, capricious and haughty, rejects the advances of Gabriel Oak but accepts his services as shepherd of her newly inherited Weatherbury farm. She frivolously teases a nearby landowner, the solemn Farmer Boldwood, into a wild infatuation and eludes his persistence only by eloping with Sergeant Troy. Troy’s bravado, dramatized by a sword exercise, stuns Everdene into submission and then marriage.

Everdene discovers to her horror that one of her servants, Fanny Robin, has died in a poorhouse during childbirth, after being seduced and abandoned by Troy. Contrite, Troy leaves his wife, later is reported dead, but then melodramatically reappears at a Christmas party just when Boldwood is again hoping to win Everdene. Boldwood, enraged, shoots his unwelcome guest and is declared insane. Everdene, shocked into a sober understanding of Oak’s strong, patient devotion, admits her need; they are married.

Chapter 1 – 15 Analysis by Vanessa Oliva

Note: Every chapter title serves a function as a summary… so the readers may infer just by the

chapter title what will happen on that particular chapter.

“When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant

distance of his ears, his eyes were reduced to chinks, and diverging wrinkles appeared round them,

extending upon his countenance like the rays in a rudimentary sketch of the rising sun.”

The theme of the first paragraph is farmer Oak. A description of his smile acts as the rheme.

Ideational: Farmer Oak is an existing agent in this story. The process of how Gabriel’s behavior of

smiling may be related after a real person’s smile or related after Hardy’s view on how a sun might

smile if it could smile.

Interpersonal: Hardy described Farmer Oak with a positive polarity: his sunny smile which also acts as

a form of welcome greeting for the readers; inviting them to find the story behind that sunny smile of

his.

"That's a handsome maid," he said to Oak.

"But she has her faults," said Gabriel.

"True, farmer."

"And the greatest of them is—well, what it is always."

"Beating people down? ay, 'tis so."

"O no."

"What, then?"

Gabriel, perhaps a little piqued by the comely traveller's indifference, glanced back to where he had

witnessed her performance over the hedge, and said, "Vanity."

Textual: The theme of this conversation is the handsome girl while the rheme is about the general fault

of pretty women.

Interpersonal: The function of the underlined statements is latent: to condition the readers’ mind to

agree to whatever Gabriel says. Whatever Gabriel says is right, true, and correct even though it is all

negative. That is why readers (even female readers) find themselves agreeing even when the whole

conversation pertains to women in a negative polarity.

Ideational: This is one of the numerous existing material process of conversation about Bathsheba

within this story. The participants here are the women: particularly Bathsheba whom the agents (Oak

and the other man) are verbally criticizing as having behavioral processes of vanity. The circumstance

for the existence of this negative conversation is Bathsheba’s rude acts towards both agents.

It was nearly midnight on the eve of St. Thomas's, the shortest day in the year.

The thin grasses…were touched by the wind… one rubbing the blades heavily, another raking them

piercingly, another brushing them like a soft broom.

Textual: On a large scale, the theme of Chapter 2 revolves around the first sentence: midnight eve of

St. Thomas’s. The rheme is the rest of the events that unfolded within this chapter.

Ideational: Nature here is an existing agent symbolized like a human being: going around behaving like

man. It is a picture of reality that nature is also a living entity like us.

Interpersonal: Using a positive polarity, Hardy tells the readers that nature within this story is not

passive, it is active. It is also brimming with life and watches the performances and the events unfolding

throughout every chapter.

She came up and looked around—then on the other side of the hedge. Gabriel was about to

advance and restore the missing article when an unexpected performance induced him to suspend

the action for the present.

Textual: She (Bathsheba) is the theme. The rheme is about her actions that later on amused Gabriel.

Interpersonal: This paragraph functions as a de ja vu trigger in a positive polarity, as it invites the

readers to remember those same actions done by the girl on the yellow wagon incident. Thus the

readers are equipped with the idea that this girl is gonna do something silly again. Hardy’s like saying

here that, “Here she goes.”

Ideational: The reference to the past was made stronger by the fact that the same behavioral patterns

were processed by both existing agents (Gabriel and Bathsheba) though in a quite different

circumstance.

By making inquiries he found that the girl's name was Bathsheba Everdene, and that the cow would

go dry in about seven days. He dreaded the eighth day.

Textual: The theme is Gabriel’s inquiries. The rheme is about what happened after his inquiries.

Interpersonal: The negative polarity of the cow going dry and how Gabriel dreaded the eight day

indirectly tells the readers to connect the two finites: go dry and dreaded and remember that Bathsheba

is going near Oak’s place, just to milk the cow. So if the cow becomes dry, she’ll come no longer and

Oak will see her no more.

Ideational: Bathsheba’s existing name within the story was another name that Hardy derived from the

Bible, which belongs to David’s wife and Solomon’s mother. Oak’s behavioral and mental processes in

here is affected by the circumstance of not being able to see Bathsheba anymore.

Only one responded—old George; the other could not be found, either in the house, lane, or

garden. Gabriel then remembered that he had left the two dogs on the hill eating a dead lamb (a

kind of meat he usually kept from them, except when other food ran short), and concluding that the

young one had not finished his meal, he went indoors to the luxury of a bed, which latterly he had

only enjoyed on Sundays.

Overlapping metafunctions: The theme is on Gabriel’s dogs while the rheme for this paragraph is Oak’s

indifference to the events that will unfold. A transition of topic from the dogs, to the venue, then to the

lost dog and then to the odd tinkling of the sheep’s bell at dawn functions as another of Hardy’s style in

giving the readers clues as to what will happen. Through that sequence (the dogs, the venue, the lost

wild dog, then odd tinkles of the sheep’s bells) the readers can automatically put the pieces together

and infer that the younger dog has something to do with the sheep… thus making the readers

anticipate the next events.

She lifted the wool veil tied round her face, and looked all astonishment. Gabriel and his cold-

hearted darling, Bathsheba Everdene, were face to face. Bathsheba did not speak, and he

mechanically repeated in an abashed and sad voice,— "Do you want a shepherd, ma'am?"

Textual: Chapter 6 ends with this reunion. Just like their first meeting, Bathsheba was on top of

something and Gabriel was on his feet, looking up at her.

Ideational and Interpersonal: Hardy used the similarity of circumstances to let the readers compare and

realize how far the attributes of Gabriel and Bathsheba had changed since the first chapter. Bathsheba

was still pretty – back then penniless –now owning a farm and endowed with money; while Gabriel who

is still a man of intellect, average features and of the middle class was now a poor man. Gabriel’s

negative polarity of mental and behavioral process in this scene, clearly shows that he was well aware

of this shift of circumstances between them.

Gabriel's fingers alighted on the young woman's wrist. It was beating with a throb of tragic

intensity… He fancied that he had felt himself in the penumbra of a very deep sadness when

touching that slight and fragile creature.

Theme is on Gabriel and the rheme is about what happened during his conversation with the strange

girl in the dark (later revealed as Fanny Robin).

Interpersonal and Ideational: Hardy’s use of the dark setting in which Gabriel met her (Fanny) and the

use of the underlined words, foreshadows a tragic event revolving around her within the novel.

"Gabriel Oak, that's my name, neighbours.“ …

"Knowed yer grandmother."

"Likewise knowed yer father when he was a child. Why, my boy Jacob there and your father were

sworn brothers“…

Textual: If the first chapters’ theme and rheme were mostly on Gabriel and Bathsheba, here on Chapter

8, Hardy used Gabriel’s name (still as a theme) to introduce the minor characters and also put more

light on Bathsheba’s and Gabriel’s background which acted as the rheme.

Interpersonal: The whole chapter, presented in both positive and negative polarities, gave the readers

the other bits of information they need on almost all characters except Fanny, Troy, and Boldwood.

Ideational: The material, mental, verbal, behavioral, and relational processes done by the agents here

comes from another picture of reality: a way of knowing strangers by knowing someone or something

that both strangers are familiar of and also reminiscing of memories.

A woman's dress being a part of her countenance, and any disorder in the one being of the same

nature with a malformation or wound in the other, Bathsheba said at once—

"I can't see him in this state. Whatever shall I do?"

Overlapping metafunctions: The opening paragraphs of Chapter 9 describes the Everdene house and

its occupants. From the previous chapters, it had been a common knowledge to the readers and the

characters in this story that Bathsheba is vain. For this particular event, her vanity was used by Hardy

to bring about her own misfortune (which is not being able to meet one of Weatherbury’s well to-do

person). The underlined statement is true during Hardy’s time, providing another element of realness

to the story and also that the readers may relate once again with one of Hardy’s characters.

"I shall be up before you are awake; I shall be afield before you are up; and I shall have breakfasted

before you are afield. In short, I shall astonish you all."

Overlapping metafunctions: Bathsheba’s mental, verbal, and behavioral process of confidence in this

chapter surprises both the men and women who work for her. They may doubt her abilities, but Hardy

presented her here as authoritative and calm. Bathsheba, commits herself to do things in the future and

astonish them. Thus, it somehow tells the readers that the following chapters thereon, would present an

active agent of Bathsheba with the promise of surprise.

The changes of the seasons are less obtrusive on spots of this kind than amid woodland scenery.

Still, to a close observer, they are just as perceptible…

Overlapping metafunctions: The opening of chapter 11 described the change of season to winter. This

change of season is also used by Hardy to represent a change in the story’s perspective. The readers

are now presented with the story of the lost Fanny Robin.

"Ho—ho—Sergeant—ho—ho!" An expostulation followed, but it was indistinct; and it became lost

amid a low peal of laughter, which was hardly distinguishable from the gurgle of the tiny whirlpools

outside.

Overlapping metafunctions: The function of the shortening of the phrase “an expression to dissuade

him from doing something” into one word which is “expostulation” was reasonable as it was useless to

elaborate it because it was immediately lost within the laughs of the other men who obviously heard the

whole exchange between Frank and Fanny. “Low peal of laughter” inside a military site could only

mean that they belong to men because during Hardy’s times only men are allowed to be soldiers.

Another foreshadowing of Fanny’s fate was done by using the soldiers’ expostulations, their laughs,

and the gurgle of whirlpools that could only mean bad things waiting to strike upon poor Fanny.

Something in the exact arch of her upper unbroken row of teeth, and in the keenly pointed corners

of her red mouth when, with parted lips, she somewhat defiantly turned up her face to argue a point

with a tall man.

Overlapping metafunctions: Such detailed positive polarity descriptions of Bathsheba’s behavioral

processes were made by Hardy on the first part of Chapter 12. This is to emphasize that almost every

eye of the participants within that circumstance were all watching her every move, and taking note of

her features, attributes, and whatever she’s doing… Just like whenever we see a foreigner among us,

either black or white, we watch them and follow them with our eyes when we meet them. Bathsheba

silently enjoys the attention and considers it a successful farming debut because the farming

community accepted her.

"It is said—A woman jilted him, they say."

"People always say that—and we know very well women scarcely ever jilt men; 'tis the men who jilt

us. I expect it is simply his nature to be so reserved."

"Simply his nature—I expect so, miss—nothing else in the world."

"Still, 'tis more romantic to think he has been served cruelly, poor thing'! Perhaps, after all, he has!"

Overlapping metafunctions: The previous descriptions of positive polarity that showed Bathsheba as a

capable and wise woman-farmer, was proven further by her statement women scarcely jilt men, tis the

men who jilt us functions as a view of Bathsheba’s grown strong woman side… but her second

statement contradicts this established strong-woman-image of hers: still, tis more romantic to think he

has been served cruelly, poor thing! – shows her still dreamy and immature girly side.

The tis the men who jilt us also functions as a premonition of truth that will happen to Fanny Robin and

Bathsheba as the story unfolds.

"Did you ever find out, miss, who you are going to marry by means of the Bible and key?"

"Don't be so foolish, Liddy. As if such things could be...”

"Now then, head, Boldwood; tail, Teddy. No, we won't toss money on a Sunday, that would be

tempting the devil indeed."

"Toss this hymn-book; there can't be no sinfulness in that, miss."

Overlapping metafunctions: The irony of considering the sin of committing sins then avoiding it stupidly

by committing a sin further proves Bathsheba’s immature attributes that was presented on the last parts

of the previous chapter (her romanticized thinking of the stranger Boldwood). Their dialogue was

always in the pattern of Liddy proposing something which Bathsheba says as immoral but eventually

processes what Liddy says. The function of this suggestion-rejection-application-pattern is to again

show that Bathsheba is not yet a fully grown woman and is vulnerable to doing stupid things. Liddy

could almost be seen in here to be functioning as the devil’s advocate in tempting Bathsheba to do

things.

"Marry Me." The pert injunction was like those crystal substances which, colourless themselves,

assume the tone of objects about them. Here, in the quiet of Boldwood's parlour, where everything

that was not grave was extraneous, and where the atmosphere was that of a Puritan Sunday lasting

all the week, the letter and its dictum changed their tenor from the thoughtlessness of their origin to

a deep solemnity.

Overlapping metafunctions: “Marry Me” here was compared to transparent crystals which assume the

tone of objects they’ve been put at. The seal which had been jokingly placed by Bathsheba were like

the crystals who assumed the atmosphere of Boldwood’s house… thus, the function of the words

“marry me” was made more serious and passionate than what was originally intended. The

circumstance and attributes of Boldwood’s Puritan living room functioned as an explication to tell the

readers of how heavy the weight of Bathsheba’s words was received by the serious Boldwood. The

chapter ends with a change in Boldwood’s cool character and the incoming first meeting of the wooing

men in Bathsheba’s life…again, showing us Hardy’s style of tempting the readers to read more.

“They've been talking but now of the mis'ess's strange doings…” "Now—the first man in the parish

that I hear prophesying bad of our mistress, why" (here the fist was raised and let fall as Thor might

have done with his hammer in assaying it)—"he'll smell and taste that—or I'm a Dutchman."

Overlapping metafunctions: The chapter began with the description of the malthouse and the complains

of men about Bathsheba, saying she’s pretty but very much untamed until Gabriel with his dog George,

and his helper Cain enters. The theme of the ill-backstabs upon Bathsheba caused the rheme of

Gabriel’s threats.

As we can see, Gabriel’s character had been absent for the past few chapters ever since the Fanny

Robin story – Hardy compared Gabriel with godly Thor and the deadly Dutchman to emphasize his

behavioral process of conviction and mercilessness in defending Bathsheba’s honor to death which it

also functions as an indirect message to the readers that Gabriel was still madly inlove with Bathsheba.