Another element of the book is the battle between the traditional musicians of the Quire and the local vicar, Parson Maybold, who installs a church organ. This battle illustrates the developing technology being introduced in the Victorian era and its threat to traditional country ways.
By : Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)
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The plot concerns the activities of a group of church musicians, the Mellstock parish choir, one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically entangled with a comely new schoolmistress, Fancy Day.
The novel opens with the fiddlers and singers of the choir—including Dick, his father Reuben Dewy, and grandfather William Dewy—making the rounds in Mellstock village on Christmas Eve. When the little band plays at the schoolhouse, young Dick falls for Fancy at first sight. Dick, smitten, seeks to insinuate himself into her life and affections, but Fancy's beauty has gained her other suitors, including a rich farmer and the new vicar at the parish church.
The vicar, Mr Maybold, informs the choir that he intends Fancy, an accomplished organ player, to replace their traditional musical accompaniment to Sunday services. Reuben Dewy and the rest of the band visit the vicar's home to negotiate, but reluctantly give way to the vicar.
Meanwhile, Dick seems to win Fancy's heart, and she discovers an effective strategem to overcome her father's objection to the potential marriage. After the two are engaged secretly, however, vicar Maybold impetuously asks Fancy to marry him and lead a life of relative affluence; racked by guilt and temptation, she accepts. The next day, however, at a chance meeting with Dewy, Maybold learns of his engagement to Fancy.
The Maybold writes her a letter, expressing being taken aback by such news, admonishing her to be honest with Dewy, and to withdraw her commitment to Dewy if she indeed intends to become married to him. Fancy responds by withdrawing her consent to marry Maybold, and asking him to keep her initial acceptance of his proposal forever a secret. Maybold replies by urging her again to be honest with Dewy, and admit she accepted the vicar despite having already committed herself to Dewy, assuring her she would be forgiven.
She marries Dewy, who is so in love he readily dismisses what he consider exhibits of her fickleness, and rejoices at the prospect of a happy union based on honesty, given Fancy's frank admission to some minor infidelities. Dewy assumes they will never keep any secrets from each other. Fancy resolves never to disclose the truly incontrovertible and damning evidence against her character in her having so readily accepted Maybold despite her engagement to Dewy.
The novel ends with a humorous portrait of Reuben, William, Mr Day, and the rest of the Mellstock rustics as they celebrate the couple's wedding day. The mood is joyful, but at the end of the final chapter, the reader is reminded that Fancy has married with "a secret she would never tell," her final flirtation and brief engagement to the vicar.
While Under the Greenwood Tree is often seen as Hardy's gentlest and most pastoral novel, this final touch introduces a faint note of melancholy to the conclusion.
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