How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Let the past be forgotten. Well, God bless you! There, I don't believe in old superstitions, but I'll do it." She threw a slipper at the retreating figure of the girl, who turned, smiled, and went on again. (2.8.41)
First off, if you are wondering what's up with the slipper, see our summary of Book 2, Chapter 8 for more information (it's a Victorian custom for luck, basically). Second, we love the contrast between these sentences. Mrs. Yeobright says to "forget" the past, but immediately after that she remembers an old custom and does it anyway, even if she doesn't believe in it.
Quote #2
"You are rather afraid of me. Do you know what I be?"
The child surveyed his vermilion figure up and down with much misgiving, and finally said, "Yes."
"Well, what?"
"The reddleman!" he faltered.
"Yes, that's what I be. Though there's more than one." (1.8.35-9)
We love how Diggory undermines the idea of "the" reddleman by calmly pointing out that there's more than one reddleman. But it's interesting that Diggory doesn't say he is "a" reddleman. By saying "that," he kind of confirms Johnny's exclamation, that he is "the reddleman." It's like "the reddleman," like a bogeyman, is a general idea that a lot of people happen to be.
Quote #3
"You little children think there's only one [...] devil, and one reddleman, when there's lots of us all."
"Is there? You won't carry me off in your bags, will ye, master? 'Tis said that reddleman will sometimes."
"Nonsense. All that reddlemen do is sell reddle." (1.8.39-41)
This passage has some interesting thematic content since it ties the idea of superstition and traditional beliefs to childhood.
Quote #4
A traditional pastime is to be distinguished from a mere revival in no more striking feature than in this, that while in the revival all is excitement and fervour, the survival is carried on with a stolidity and absence of stir which sets one wondering why a thing that is done so perfunctorily should be kept up at all. (2.4.15)
We love Hardy's wordplay, as he contrasts "revival" and "survival." The revival of a custom is exciting while the survival of a custom is done by habit. Hardy's final question here, whether or not customs done without much thought should continue, can be applied to the entire society of Egdon.
Quote #5
On Egdon there was no absolute hour of the day. The time at any moment was an umber of varying doctrines professed by the different hamlets, some of them having originally grown up from a common root, and then become divided by secession, some having been alien from the beginning. (2.5.6)
The absence of definite, or exact, time in Egdon is hugely important in terms of the novel's overall themes. Egdon is cast as a place almost outside of time, but it's also a place with too much time. It can be a different time at "any moment," which implies that the heath is kind of chaotic.
Quote #6
To argue upon the possibility of culture before luxury to the bucolic world may be to argue truly, but it is an attempt to disturb a sequence to which humanity had been long accustomed. (2.3.5)
Hardy references the idea that history follows a certain logical progression and that people and places tend to "develop" in a similar way.
Quote #7
The lad was in good spirits that day, for the fifth of November had again come round. [...] For two successive years his mistress had seemed to take pleasure in lighting a bonfire [...]. (5.5.8)
We get occasional reminders of the date and the time of year throughout the novel, which helps remind us how much has changed for our characters over just one year. There's an idea of cyclical, or repeating, time here as well that ties into some of the themes surrounding the heath. November 5th comes "round" as it always does, and the heath seems to just cycle endlessly through the seasons.
Quote #8
[B]ut the winter solstice, having stealthily come on, the lowness of the sun caused the hour to seem later than it actually was, there being little here to remind an inhabitant that he must unlearn his summer experience of the sky as a dial. (2.1.3)
The diction here implies that winter and darkness are sneaky, with words like "stealthily" and "seem later." So the diction personifies winter and night by giving them human qualities. We also like the imagery of the earth itself as a clock for the people of Egdon – light and the sky are their "dial," which is an old-fashioned way of telling time.
Quote #9
"I have come to keep a school as near to Egdon as possible [...]."
"Tis good-hearted of the young man," said another, "But, for my part, I think he had better mind his business." (3.1.27-9)
This parting shot by one of the heath residents is a bit ominous, but also very funny. Poor Clym comes off as highly deluded here since he thinks that people will be very receptive towards his new school.
Quote #10
"All the folk jumped up, and then we found that Susan Nunsuch had pricked Miss Vye with a long stocking-needle, as she had threatened to do as soon as ever she could get the young lady to church [...] so as to draw blood and put an end to the bewitching of Susan's children [...]." (2.3.29)
This scene epitomizes the themes of tradition, custom, and superstition more than any other in the book. The idea that Eustacia is a "witch" runs throughout the novel and it helps to both make Eustacia sympathetic and reveal just how superstitious the folks on the heath actually are.
Quote #11
"Yes; 'No moon, no man,' 'Tis one of the truest sayings ever spit out. The boy never comes to anything that's born at new moon. A bad job for thee, Christian, that you should have showed your nose then of all days in the month." (1.3.95)
We hear a lot of "folksy" sayings and beliefs from the heath residents, the chorus of the novel, though this is definitely one of the funnier ones. Scenes like this help to lend a realism and a richness to the culture that Hardy portrays.