The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy

"There could not be the least doubt that gentle Grace was warming to more sympathy with, and interest in, Giles Winterborne than ever she had done while he was her promised lover; that since his misfortune those social shortcomings of his, which contrasted so awkwardly with her later experiences of life, had become obscured by the generous revival of an old romantic attachment to him. Though mentally trained and tilled into foreignness of view, as compared with her youthful time, Grace was not an ambitious girl, and might, if left to herself, have declined Winterborne without much discontent or unhappiness. Her feelings just now were so far from latent that the writing on the wall had thus quickened her to an unusual rashness."
pg. 100

In this excerpt of Thomas Hardy's "The Woodlanders", the author once again portrays Grace in a negative light. Throughout the novel now, the reader can sense the sexism that is not only seeping from the novel itself, but the time period. The paragraph states that Grace is only interested in Giles due to it being an old romance, almost as if the chase was the most important part to her. Yet, this portrayal is never seemingly wrong when a man is in the midst of it all. " Grace was warming to more sympathy with, and interest in, Giles Winterborne than ever she had done while he was her promised lover; that since his misfortune those social shortcomings of his, which contrasted so awkwardly with her later experiences of life, had become obscured by the generous revival of an old romantic attachment to him.". This quote perfectly describes the situation at hand, and furthering the fact that now Grace is seen as non-ambitious and careless when denying a man's advances as well. This allows the reader to indicate that Grace does not have much say in who she is or the choices she can make.