"'Give me those letters', he said."
Charles Green
May 1891
Lithograph
8 cm high by 10 cm wide
Scanned image, caption, and commentary by Philip V. Allingham
From Thomas Hardy's "The Winters and the Palmleys" — one of "Wessex Folk" (subsequently renamed "A Few Crusted Characters") in Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Although we sympathize with the hapless, small-town ex-lover, Jack Winter, as he demands the return of his ill-spelt love-letters from the haughty, Exonbury-bred Harriet Palmley, we are uncomfortable when, after Harriet has adamantly refused, Jack subsequently breaks into the Palmleys' house. Green's Jack Winter does not seem especially heated, nor his Harriet particularly truculent. Their less than convincing emotions slightly diminish the motivational aspect of the scene which lays the groundwork for Jack's unintentional crime and unjust execution for a theft he was not aware he was committing (the purloining not of the letters he intended to carry away, but of a few coins that Harriet's aunt kept in the sewing workbox in which Harriet has locked the correspondence). Coincidence once again plays a significant role in the story since, had Harriet not locked them in the workbox when Jack requested them or had Jack been able to open the workbox while in the house, the outcome would have been very different.
References
Hardy, Thomas. "Wessex Folk" (subsequently renamed "A Few Crusted Characters"). Harper's New Monthly Magazine (May 1891): 894.
Last modified 21 May 2008