The Mind's Eye: Picture as Narrative in Thomas Hardy's 'A Pair of Blue Eyes'

Abstract

This paper focuses on Thomas Hardy’s A Pair of Blue Eyes in discussing certain peculiarities of narration. The numerous descriptions of people and scenes in the book are examined as basic building blocks used by the architecturally trained novelist to carry vital narrative information. This decision is approached by way of utilising ideas from the realms of phenomenology, cinema and photographic theory to prove that in addition to carrying aesthetic merits, Hardy’s descriptions are intricate data containers that reflect how the human mind processes experience.