Select two brief extracts of two short fiction and compare and contrast the functions in

those works.

Extract One, from ‘Horatio Sparkins’ (1834) by Charles Dickens:

At twelve o’clock on the following morning, the ‘fly’ was at the door at Oak Lodge, to

convey Mrs Malderton and her daughters on their expedition for the day. They were to dine

and dress for the play at a friend’s house. First, driving thither with their band boxes, they

were to go to Redmayne’s in Bond Street; thence, to innumerable places that no one ever

heard of. The young ladies beguiled to tediousness of the ride by eulogising Mr Horatio

Sparkins, scolding their mamma for taking them so far to save a shilling, and wondering

whether they should ever reach their destination. At length, the vehicle stopped before a

dirty-looking ticketed linen draper’s shop, with goods of all kinds, and labels of all sorts and

sizes, in the window. There were dropsical figures of sevens with a little three-farthings in the

corner, ‘perfectly invisible to the naked eye’; three hundred and fifty thousand ladies’ boas,

from one shilling and a penny halfpenny; real French kid shoes, at two and ninepence per

pair; green parasols, at an equally cheap rate; and ‘every description of goods’, as the

proprietors said – and they must know best – ‘fifty per cent under cost price’.

‘Lor! ma, what a place you have brought us to!’ said Miss Teresa, ‘what would Mr Sparkins

say if he could see us!’

‘Ah! what, indeed’ said Mrs Marianne, horrified at the idea.

‘Pray be seated, ladies. What is the first article? inquired the obsequious master of the

ceremonies of the establishment, who, in his large white neckcloth and formal tie, looked like

a bad ‘portrait of a gentleman’ in the Somerset House exhibition.

‘I want to see some silks,’ answered Mrs Malderton.

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‘Directly, ma’am. – Mr Smith! Where is Mr Smith?’

‘Here, sir,’ cried a voice at the back of the shop.

‘Pray make haste, Mr Smith,’ said the M.C. ‘You never are to be found when you’re wanted,

sir’.

‘Mr Smith, thus enjoined to use all possible dispatch, leaped over the counter with great

agility, and placed himself before the newly arrived customers. Mrs Malderton uttered a faint

scream; Miss Teresa, who had been stooping down to talk to her sister, raised her head, and

beheld – Horatio Sparkins!

‘We will draw a veil,’ as novel writers say, over the scene that ensued. The mysterious,

philosophical, romantic, metaphysical Sparkins – he who, to the interesting Teresa, seemed

like the embodied idea of the young dukes and poetical exquisites in blue silk dressing down,

and ditto ditto slippers, of whom she had read and dreamed, but had never expected to

behold, was suddenly converted into Mr Samuel Smith, the assistant at a ‘cheap shop’; the

junior partner in a slippery firm of some three weeks’ unexpected recognition, could only be

equalled by that of a furtive dog with a considerable kettle at his tail.1

Extract Two, from ‘The Three Strangers’ (1883) by Thomas Hardy:

It was eleven o’clock by the time they arrived. The light shining from the open door, a sound

of men’s voices within, proclaimed to them as they approached the house that some new

events had arisen in their absence. On entering they discovered the shepherd’s living-room to

be invaded by two officers from Casterbridge gaol, and a well-known magistrate who lived at

the nearest country-seat, intelligence of the escape having become generally circulated.

1Charles Dickens. Michael Slater (Ed). Dickens’ Journalism. Sketches By Boz and Other Early Papers. 1833-39. (J.M Dent, 1994), P.357-58

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“Gentlemen,” said the constable “I have brought back your man not without risk and danger;

but every one must do his duty. He is inside this circle of ablebodied persons, who have lent

me useful aid considering their ignorance of Crown work. Men, bring forward your prisoner.”

And the third stranger was led to the light.

“Who is this?” said one of the officials.

“The man” said the constable.

“Certainly not,” said the turnkey; and the first corroborated his statement.

“But how can it be otherwise?” asked the constable. “Or why was he so terrified at the sight

o’ the signing instrument of the law who sat there?” Here he related the strange behaviour of

the third stranger on entering the house during the hangman’s song.

“Can’t understand it,” said the officer coolly. “All I know is that ‘taint the condemned man.

He’s quite a different character from this one—a gauntish fellow, with dark hair and eyes,

rather good-looking, and with a musical bass voice that if you heard it once you’d never

mistake as long you lived.”

“Why—souls—‘twas the man in the chimney-corner!”

“Hey—what?” said the magistrate coming forward after inquiring particular from the

shepherd in the background. “Haven’t you got the man all?”

“Well sir,” said the constable, “he’s the man we were in search of, that’d true; and yet he’s

not the man we were in search of. For the man we were in search of was not the man we

wanted, sir, if you understand my everyday way; for ‘twas the man in the chimney-corner.”

“A pretty kettle of fish, altogether!” said the magistrate. “You had better start for the other

man at once.”

The prisoner now spoke for the first time. The mention of the man in the chimney-corner

seemed to have moved him as nothing else could do, “Sir,” he said, stepping forward to the

magistrate “take no more trouble about me. The time is come when I may as well speak. I

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have done nothing: my crime is that the condemned man is my brother. Early this afternoon I

left home at Shottsford to tramp it all the way to Casterbridge gaol to bid him farewell. I was

benighted, and called here to rest and ask the way. When I opened the door I saw before me

the very man, my brother, that I thought to see in the condemned cell at Casterbridge. He was

in this chimney-corner; and jammed close to him, so that he could not have got out if he had

tried, was the executioner who’d come to take his life, singing a song about it, and not

knowing that it was his victim who was close by, joining in, to save appearances. My brother

threw a glance of agony at me, and I knew he meant “Don’t reveal what you see—my life

depends on it. I was so terror-struck that I could hardly stand, and not knowing what I did I

turned and hurried away.”2

The motivations behind each of the climaxes in ‘Horatio Sparkins’ (1834) by Charles

Dickens and ‘The Three Strangers’ (1883) by Thomas Hardy (extracts ‘One’ and ‘Two’)

2 Thomas Hardy. Wessex Tales, (Oxford University Press, 2009), p.28

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share the common ambition to surprise the reader. Analysing the texts through the

dimensions of audience, narrative, historical and class divide, distinct differences and even

some similarities can be distinguished between the texts. Through these aforementioned

factors, the methods both writers use to construct distinct revelations can be exposed. Using

this research the different processes can be identified to discover why Hardy chooses a

different method of dénouement to Dickens.

These stories were written primarily for entertainment with ‘The Three Strangers’ being

originally published in Longman’s Magazine and Harper’s Weekly in March 1883 and

‘Horatio Sparkins’ in The Monthly Magazine in February 1834; the readership of these

publications consisted predominately of educated classes who would expect a well rounded

and comfortable narrative. The commonality of both ‘Horatio Sparkins’ and ‘The Three

Strangers’ is the solidity in the construction of the plot, which has a universal appeal. This

has lead to numerous productions of Hardy’s short story, often retitled ‘The Three

Wayfarers’, Wilson’s analysis elucidates the reasons for the adaptations’ success:

The story itself has a combination of ironic humour, circumscription

of event and suspense that make it easily adaptable to the demands of

dramatic ironic and dramatic unity, especially of the type required in the

limited scope of a one act play.3

The ‘circumscription of event’, as with the majority of one act plays and short stories, the

revelation is possibly the crucial point that decrees the narrative as copacetic. Wilson’s

comment could equally be applied to ‘Horatio Sparkins’ in regards to the composition of

3 Keith Wilson. Hardy and the Hangman: The Dramatic Appeal of “The Three Strangers”, (English In Transition, 1981), p. 159

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Dickens’s narrative. The understanding of this structure was understood by the prolific

filmmaker Van Dyke Brooke when he directed Mr Horatio Sparkins (1913). Dyke Brooke

was known around this period for his short films consisting of morality tales with

melodramatic twists and happy endings, such as in his comedies Father’s Hatband (1913)

and A Happy Sisterhood (1914). Mr. Horatio Sparkins was typical of his work because these

remits of his criteria to produce a successful movie were fulfilled.

‘Dramatic unity’ and ‘ironic humour’ is perhaps no better executed than in the plays of

William Shakespeare. Shakespeare provided a canon for both the author and the

contemporary audience to draw upon. Thomas Hardy even wrote a poem, ‘To Shakespeare’,

which encapsulates his admiration. According to Jim Davies, Dickens’s ‘novels contain

hundreds of references to nearly all of Shakespeare’s plays’4. The character Horatio Sparkins

can be likened to the Earl of Kent in King Lear. Sparkins does not change his name like Kent

does (to Caius) but both live a double life. Dickens would most likely have thought the

problematic consequences axiomatic if Sparkins had changed his name. The sudden

exposition would not work and complicate the plot, losing both comedic and dramatic

impact. Oscar Wilde in his play The Importance of Being Earnest, exploited the changing of

a name to the maximum ability. The character ‘John Worthing’ pretends to be called ‘Ernest

Worthing’ so he, like Horatio Sparkins can lead a double life. Another parallel is Worthing

also gets caught in his deception leading to a comical moment. The similarity of Earnest and

‘Horatio Sparkins’, regarding the construction of narrative is the build up to the crescendo.

The most overt technique is the repetition of the character’s name throughout. This creates a

common ‘hook’ for the reader to follow so even the unobservant reader cannot help but

4Paul Schlicke (ed) The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens. Anniversary Edition. (Oxford University Press, 2011), Jim Davies, drama and dramatists and dramatists before Dickens, p.194

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notice. This can be observed in both climaxes; the anagnorisis of ‘Jack’s’ name being

‘Ernest’ all along and the revelation of who Horatio Sparkins really is.

The ‘dramatic unity’ that occurs in ‘Extract Two’ is reminiscent of a Shakesperian play like

Hamlet, where multiple strands of the plot come together in the final act. Fredson Bowers

observes in his analysis of Shakespeare’s dramatic structure that the protagonist is integral to

the climax of the story:

Let us over-simplify the case and take it that if the main plot concerns

the affairs of a protagonist, as ultimately it must, the technical climax, or

turning point of the action—whether for good or for ill—must necessarily

affect that protagonist and his affairs.5

The protagonist in ‘Horatio Sparkins’ is Teresa Malderton. The reader has learned her

expectations and speculations surrounding the enigmatic Horatio Sparkins. The audience

share the same journey as Miss Malderton. The reader cannot help but also hypothesise his

occupation, if only because her and her family and friends keep asking the question. The

revelation is made using carefully crafted linguistic devices: ‘Miss Teresa, who had been

stooping down to talk to her sister, raised her head, and beheld – Horatio Sparkins!’6. The use

of parataxis is important for the surprise to work effectively. Many other authors reserve this

literary device solely for the dialogue of their characters. Dickens is a master of parataxis, a

technique which he often employs in the body of the text as in the former example. Dickens

also effectively uses parataxis for his characters throughout his writing. Alfred Jingle’s

5 Fredson Bowers. Climax and Protagonist in Shakespeare’s Dramatic Structure, (South Atlantic Review, Vol 47, No. 2), (May, 1982), p.24 6 Charles Dickens. Michael Slater (Ed). Dickens’ Journalism. Sketches By Boz and Other Early Papers. 1833-39. (J.M Dent, 1994), p.358

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comical speech in the second chapter of The Pickwick Papers (1836) is an outstanding

example:

“Here, No. 924, take your fare, and take yourself off—respectable

gentleman—know him well—none of your nonsense—this way, sir—

where's your friends?—all a mistake, I see—never mind—accidents will

happen—best regulated families—never say die—down upon your luck—

Pull him UP—Put that in his pipe—like the flavour—damned rascals.” 7

The audience does not know what Mr Jingle is going to say next, due to his fragmented and

haphazard speech. The reader becomes accustomed to this mode of patterning and

conditioning to Dickens’s style only shortly before with the extensive list of items in the

tailor’s shop. Using the authoritive narrator, Dickens intention is catch the reader off guard to

produce the most compelling climax possible. At the end of what seems to be an arbitrary

sequence of actions from Miss Teresa, the pace has been set and the abrupt stop caused by the

isolation of his name and the framing with the exclamation mark and an em dash. By using

these elaborate linguistic devices Dickens is able to create the most dramatic effect possible.

The difference in the composition of ‘The Three Strangers’, is the revelation is more gradual

in the unravelling of the plot. Thomas Hardy has a particular fascination of setting his

characters on paths of convergence (his poem ‘Convergence of the Twain’ (1912) about the

sinking of Titanic explicitly explores this concept). Hardy creates a complex narratological

web with many threads, opposed to Dickens’s single strand. This is clear in the difference in

time between the two stories; the fifty years between ‘The Three Strangers’ and ‘Horatio

Sparkins’. The Industrial Revolution at this time created a higher standard of education in

7 Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers. (The Amalgamated Press, 1905), P.9

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comparison with previous generations; consequently, stories with a twist became more

predictable. The premise of the prisoner being among them is evident to the reader in this

extract. Up until this point in ‘The Three Strangers’ a mixture of red herrings have been

placed throughout the narrative to subvert the sceptical reader into drawing false conclusions.

There is a state of confusion in the mind of the reader in what is occurring. Through the

Constable’s comical vernacular, what he calls his ‘everyday way’, the reader is beguiled and

confused to the state of affairs in this scene. Hardy is keeping the audience guessing and

wishes to exploit the situation for humour.

Hardy also violates the decorum of literary realism with his cinematic

eye for what one critic calls the ‘exuberant density’ of the big scene. He is a

dab hand at the carefully staged spectacular.8

This comical prelude is a preamble for the ‘big scene’. There is a distinct tonal shift after the

farce between the magistrate and the constable. The scene becomes serious as the revelation

of events is spoken by the prisoner’s brother in a confessional tone. The character’s

motivations are confessed in a monologue culminating in the explanation to previous events.

His register is higher than the rest of the ‘Wessex’ characters. Hardy purposely emphasises

the contrast between the characters educated background and being related to such a felon.

This also allows the writer to use clarity in this crucial conundrum. At the end of the

prisoner’s brother’s speech, the author ensures that there is no ambiguity to this really being

the case of events and there are no plot twists left by having everyone in the room agree. This

contrasts to the character’s impetuses in ‘Horatio Sparkins’, which are self-evident. Dickens’s

characters are ostensibly stereotypes rather than fully fleshed out people. This works for

Dickens’s humour and his ‘fun’ conceit but Hardy has a sense of tragedy behind his comedy.

8 Terry Eagleton. The English Novel. An Introduction. (Blackwell Publishing, 2005), P.208

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His writing dramatizes the tension in English class-society between

subtle but overabstract form of speech, and a concrete but constructed one

The divisions of that society, in other words, are inscribed in the very letter

of Hardy’s work.9

In both extracts the complicity of the reader’s expectations are prejudiced by the issue of

class. Mr. Horatio Sparkins works as a shop assistant. Even though the tailors are a high end

store, the revelation that he is not a person of prestige is the story’s punch line. The humour

and dramatic tension derives from this conceit of class bias. In this context, Eagleton is

incorrect when he comments:

Dickens was no revolutionary, though he was an ardent, tireless

reformer. He was never the kind of threat to Victorian society that Thomas

Hardy was. His views on education were fuzzily libertarian, and he disliked

both patrician hauteur and middle-class pomposity.10

Hardy was not a threat to Victorian society either. Both Dickens and Hardy loathed

pretention and ostentation as ‘Horatio Sparkins’ and ‘The Three Strangers’ overtly convey.

These extracts expose the hypocrisies of expectations, emanating from pressures of class and

social status. Oscar Wilde’s Ernest is also of ‘good standing’. The notorious Lady Bracknell

approves marriage to her niece, Gwendolyn on this basis. Horatio Sparkins has no such

reprieve and does not marry into the upper classes. The dénouement of both short stories rely

on punctuating the class tensions as part of their humour. The conclusion is distinctly

9Terry Eagleton. The English Novel. An Introduction. (Blackwell Publishing, 2005), P.20810Terry Eagleton. The English Novel. An Introduction. (Blackwell Publishing, 2005), P.162

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different in both texts. Hardy spends several hundred more words rounding up his narrative,

Dickens takes a couple of paragraphs. The audience of both writers expect a ‘satisfying’

closed ending where little is left to the imagination. Hardy has practical considerations to

being winding up his and tying up various loose ends. The straightforward plot in ‘Horatio

Sparkins’ is means there is little need to prolong the story, once the revelation occurs.

‘We will draw a veil, as novel writers say[...]’11 By 1834 Dickens had not yet published a

novel. The author in rupturing the verisimilitude with the personal pronoun ‘we’, is appeasing

the reader. In this observatory humour the writer is acknowledging his self-awareness of the

surprise he has sprung on the reader, ultimately, the purpose of the story. A search through

the archive of Dickens’s oeuvre reveals he never uses this idiom again. This is one of the

countless reasons why he became one of the greatest and certainly popular novelists in

history, because he avoided such tiresome clichés without the sense of irony. What may be

considered as ‘historical irony’ is that many of Dickens’s neologisms have become overused

phrases in the modern English lexicon.

In view of this detestment for superciliousness among the upper classes, both styles of

writing are writing for the middle and lower classes. The stories encapsulate the feeling of

Victorian class anxieties. The unfolding of the climax is more sombre and heartfelt in ‘The

Three Strangers’ to ‘Horatio Sparkins’. The savvy audience have slightly different

expectations. They both want entertainment but Dickens’s simplistic format would be less

appreciated by 1883. Hardy’s interwoven plot is unexpected for the modern audience in

comparison to the ‘mechanical trap’ device in Dickens’s short tale.

11 Charles Dickens. Michael Slater (Ed). Dickens’ Journalism. Sketches By Boz and Other Early Papers. 1833-39. (J.M Dent, 1994), P.358

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Bibliography

Armstrong, Tim (ed). Hardy, Thomas. Selected Poems. (Pearson Education Limited, 2009)

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Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Third

Edition. (Manchester University Press, 2009)

Bowers, Fredson. Climax and Protagonist in Shakespeare’s Dramatic Structure, (South

Atlantic Review, Vol 47, No. 2), (May, 1982)

Dickens, Charles. The Pickwick Papers. (The Amalgamated Press, 1905)

Dickens, Charles. Slater, Michael (Ed). Dickens’ Journalism. Sketches By Boz and Other

Early Papers. 1833-39. (J.M Dent, 1994),

Eagleton, Terry. The English Novel. An Introduction. (Blackwell Publishing, 2005)

Hardy, Thomas. Wessex Tales, (Oxford University Press, 2009)

Kramer, Dick (ed). The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy. (Cambridge University

Press, 2005)

Reed, John R. Dickens’s Hyperrealism. (The Ohio State University, 2010)

Schlicke, Paul (ed). The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens. Anniversary Edition.

(Oxford University Press, 2011), Davies, Jim drama and dramatists before Dickens.

Shakespeare, William. King Lear (Penguin, 1996)

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Shakespeare, William, Troilus and Cressida. (Forgotten Books, 1957)

Wilde, Oscar. The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, (HarperCollins, 2003)

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(English in Transition, 1981)

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