Paula Byrne: evaluation

Transcript context

…Why write the 1913, 1914 poems to her? He’s in, what, the first year of his marriage to Florence? She can’t be crazy about that. Why is he self-destructive? Is it what he needs to do to make a second marriage work? I don’t know. There was a cruel streak in him, I think. You have to be quite cold-hearted to do what he did to Florence. Because having moaned and complained about Emma and pretty much moved Florence in, then to fall back in love with his wife is a little perverse. Of course, it made Florence feel completely awful, and then she couldn’t live with — it was like Thérèse Raquin. She couldn’t live with a dead ghost. I do also think — this is where my sympathy swings to Hardy — that when somebody does die, you tend not to think of the bad things they’ve done. You tend just to remember the good things they’ve done. I’ve noticed this over and over again; people tend to just really linger on the positives. There was so much remorse, and he just did remember that beautiful young Emma. He did want to pay tribute to that. You’ve just got to remember, Tyler, as well, he’s a writer. He’s going to use that for copy. He knew those poems were good. It did unleash something so emotional in him. He wanted to be a poet. He didn’t want to be a novelist. I think that’s really important to remember. He did not want to be a novelist. He felt almost pushed into it. He wanted to be a poet. Then when he starts writing this amazing poetry, he knows this is good. That’s how he wanted to be remembered. I think, in that sense, he didn’t really care that it hurt Florence. You’re also a couples counselor. Do you still see this in couples today with first and second marriages?…

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