Outside the Window by Thomas Hardy

‘At last I behold her soul undraped!’
Thinks the man who had loved her more than himself;
‘My God!—’tis but narrowly I have escaped.—
My precious porcelain proves it delf.’
His face has reddened like one ashamed,
And he steals off, leaving his stick unclaimed.

The speaker forgets to take his stick which has just been left in his lover’s house. When he goes back near the house, he hears an unpleasant female voice. He sees his lover shouting at her mother with angry eyes for something said when he was there before. He finally sees the true personality of his lover whom he loves so much. He is ashamed, embarrassed and disappointed. He leaves quietly in disillusionment.

He is on the outside looking into the house where he is able to see the inner soul of the girl. It is as if the window of the house provides a window to see into her true soul and true personality (disrespectful, impolite, pretentious). It implies that if you are on the outside looking in, you will see the inside truth.

His love makes him blind to the truth about his lover until he is able to view her from the outside. The beauty he perceives his lover to have proves itself false. After coming to the realization that his lover might not have been the woman he thought she was, “his face has reddened like one ashamed”. Love causes people to believe fake appearance and pretenses only to come to the realization that love is blind.