It was published in his collection Life's Little Ironies in 1894.
A tragic family story of might vs innocence. Here might is personified by the two brothers Joshua and Cornelius Halborough who are greedy for more wealth and their ability to hide their guilt. And innocence is symbolised by their sister, Rosa.
Joshua and Cornelius are two young boys studying theology. Their father, Joshua Halborough Senior used to be a millwright but sadly became an alcoholic. The boys are somewhat ashamed of him but do respect him. Senior used all the 900 pounds money left by their dead mother, for his two sons. He used it all for drinking. The boys, now unable to go to Oxford University, as their mother had planned, study in a training college for schoolmasters, where they get scholarships.
This was the starting point for the boys’ slow brewing anger towards their father and his dependence on alcohol.
Soon, Senior marries and gets a new mother for them, which they disapprove of. Gradually the family breaks away. The sons somehow manage to send their father and his wife to Canada. The lives of the children go on. Rosa is set to marry a respectable family.
Illustration of Rosa in a new life and from the hardships of her former life.
Sketch was titled as On the way to the Hall
Image - Lithograph, George Lambert,The Universal Review December 1888
From Thomas Hardy's "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions" from the Victoriaweb
Both Joshua and Cornelius have been ordained as priests and serve in the churches at Narrowbourne.
They come to know that their father has returned from Canada and is currently in a local jail after being caught for misbehaving while drunk. Fortunately the local newspaper has misspelt his surname. This proves safe as Rosa is not yet formally engaged to the Squire and the brothers fear that their father's sentence will ruin Rosa’s forthcoming chances at a good marriage.
When one day the father tries to desperately meet his daughter, the brothers try to stop him. In a duel which ends up in doom, the father drowns in a weir. The sons could have stopped him, but years of disappointment that their father meted out to them and the unfortunate decisions which affected their childhood as well as frustration of not getting a better livelihood, resulted in the two worthless sons just standing and witnessing with guilty hearts, their father losing his life.
A story of two brothers who are so ambitious to get out of their social environment that they ignore moral values and willingly accept their father's death and hide all that from their sister.
The story is divided into five chapters and follows the structure of classical drama. The location is set in Narrowbourne, which was Hardy's name for West Coker in Somerset.
Themes
Parent child relationship
Joshua Senior is shown as an incompetent father. First, wrongfully spending the children’s inheritance for alcohol. Then, his decision to bring a second wife was also unsuitable. Clearly, all his thoughts were driven with selfishness and not as a caring parent. This seeps into the psyche of the children who have only seen misfortune from their early days. The story shows that children do not really need wealth to be happy. They need a protective hand and a safe home. It's in the absence of these that they grow up wanting wealth and security and social acceptance.
Alcoholism
Alcohol may not be bad in itself but when used excessively, it can ruin lives and families as clearly shown in the story.
Influence and subversive attitude
Joshua, the elder brother, is clearly the dominating force among the two brothers. He is dismissive of his younger brother's occupation and wants Cornelius to become a clergyman. Joshua muses that he might have aspired to become a bishop had he been able to go to Oxford but is unlikely to achieve this now. Cornelius is easily persuaded that he should also become a clergyman.
Two brothers in the garden. Etching by G.H.M. Sumner.
Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester, Hampshire
Image - Lithograph, George Lambert,The Universal Review December 1888
From Thomas Hardy's "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions" from the Victoriaweb
Both Joshua and Cornelius have been ordained as priests and serve in the churches at Narrowbourne.
They come to know that their father has returned from Canada and is currently in a local jail after being caught for misbehaving while drunk. Fortunately the local newspaper has misspelt his surname. This proves safe as Rosa is not yet formally engaged to the Squire and the brothers fear that their father's sentence will ruin Rosa’s forthcoming chances at a good marriage.
When one day the father tries to desperately meet his daughter, the brothers try to stop him. In a duel which ends up in doom, the father drowns in a weir. The sons could have stopped him, but years of disappointment that their father meted out to them and the unfortunate decisions which affected their childhood as well as frustration of not getting a better livelihood, resulted in the two worthless sons just standing and witnessing with guilty hearts, their father losing his life.
A story of two brothers who are so ambitious to get out of their social environment that they ignore moral values and willingly accept their father's death and hide all that from their sister.
The story is divided into five chapters and follows the structure of classical drama. The location is set in Narrowbourne, which was Hardy's name for West Coker in Somerset.
Themes
Parent child relationship
Joshua Senior is shown as an incompetent father. First, wrongfully spending the children’s inheritance for alcohol. Then, his decision to bring a second wife was also unsuitable. Clearly, all his thoughts were driven with selfishness and not as a caring parent. This seeps into the psyche of the children who have only seen misfortune from their early days. The story shows that children do not really need wealth to be happy. They need a protective hand and a safe home. It's in the absence of these that they grow up wanting wealth and security and social acceptance.
Alcoholism
Alcohol may not be bad in itself but when used excessively, it can ruin lives and families as clearly shown in the story.
Influence and subversive attitude
Joshua, the elder brother, is clearly the dominating force among the two brothers. He is dismissive of his younger brother's occupation and wants Cornelius to become a clergyman. Joshua muses that he might have aspired to become a bishop had he been able to go to Oxford but is unlikely to achieve this now. Cornelius is easily persuaded that he should also become a clergyman.
Two brothers in the garden. Etching by G.H.M. Sumner.
Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester, Hampshire
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