Thomas Hardy's Groundwork

PMLA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
pp. 1028-1041
Author(s):  
Daniel Wright
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Hardy ◽  
Total Darkness ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles ◽  
Fictional Worlds

Thomas Hardy strategically exposes what he calls the “groundwork” of his fictional worlds in scenes depicting blizzards or total darkness that scrub away all points of orientation. When Hardy reveals the empty field—”forms without features”—within which the details of the novel take shape, he aims to investigate the ontological, rather than epistemological or aesthetic, questions raised by novelistic realism. By tracing Hardy's groundwork through several novels, primarily Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), and Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), the essay shows that Hardy's vexed relation to the realist tradition arises out of the metaphysical paradoxes endemic to novelistic mimesis.

Arthur Schopenhauer, Evolution, and Ecology in Thomas Hardy’s The Woodlanders

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 516-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Heaney
Keyword(s):  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Thomas Hardy ◽  
Evolutionary Model ◽  
Arthur Schopenhauer ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Standard Assumption ◽  
Ecological Vision ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles ◽  
Herbert Spencer ◽  
Plant Life

John Heaney, “Arthur Schopenhauer, Evolution, and Ecology in Thomas Hardy’s The Woodlanders” (pp. 516–545) This essay takes issue with two truisms within Thomas Hardy criticism: first, the widely accepted view that The Woodlanders (1887) is Hardy’s most “Darwinian” work; and second, the standard assumption that Arthur Schopenhauer’s influence on Hardy’s writing can be discerned specifically in the works from Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) onward, and primarily in the unrelenting pessimism that characterizes both writers’ worldviews. The essay calls into question the simplification underlying both positions by suggesting ways in which Schopenhauer’s metaphysics may have influenced Hardy’s treatment of evolutionary themes in The Woodlanders, paying particular attention to Hardy’s choice of plant life as the dominant metaphor within the novel, and the numerous ways in which the evolutionary model it depicts diverges from that formulated by thinkers such as Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. It argues furthermore that Schopenhauer’s philosophy of nature therefore offers the optimum framework through which to interpret Hardy’s unique ecological vision in the novel, and calls for renewed attention to the philosopher’s proto-phenomenological description of reality, the significance of which has been largely overlooked by recent ecocritical scholars searching for a non-Cartesian framework in which to couch their readings.

TESS, VICTIM OF HYPOCRICY TESS OF THE d’URBERVILLES, THOMAS HARDY

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 2379-2382
Author(s):  
Suzana Ibraimi Memeti
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Hardy ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Fallen Woman ◽  
Alfred The Great ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
Deep Sympathy ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Social Prejudice

Thomas Hardy is distinguished by his contemporaries for the fact that the subjects of his novels are taken from the rural environment in the agricultural region south of England. He calls his homeland Dorset, Wessex, in memory of former King Alfred the Great. Themes and subjects of his novels are attractive and dominant. In all of his most popular novels, Hardy describes, outlines, and portrays human beings who are faced with powerful attacks of devastating and mysterious forces. He was a serious novelist who sought to present the view of life throughout a novel. Frequently, his themes and subjects mix with the sequence of events that have extreme and fatal consequences, while he rarely fails to inspire the reader with his deep mercy to the characters who suffer in their live; he often cannot afford to reach the highest degree of tragic element. The author sends an indictment to his time: he firmly rejects the duality of morality according to which the behavior of a man and the behavior of a woman is differently estimated. Thomas Hardy’s world as a writer is completely realistic, even transparent because he is a rare master of description of the environment. His characters are creatures of their environment, presented in their mutual relationships, often with sharp psychological observations. “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” is based on a familiar motif, that of a fallen woman, where Tess represents the prejudices of the Victorian society. In the novel, Hardy portrays an innocent poor girl of a country, a victim of the combined forces of Victorian patriarchal society, of the hypocrisy of social prejudice and gender inequality, which shows his deep sympathy for Tessa, the protagonist of the novel, a symbol of women devastated without mercy in a world dominated by males. He shows that Tess is an example of the devastating effect of society's pressures on a pure girl, and that Angel and Alec are personifications of destructive attitudes towards women.

scholarly journals The Double-Tongued Author: Re-reading Sophocles, Thomas Hardy, and Eduard Vilde

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-339
Author(s):  
Arne Merilai
Keyword(s):  
Friedrich Nietzsche ◽  
Thomas Hardy ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Third ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles ◽  
Erotic Novel ◽  
Ambivalent Attitude ◽  
Social Critical ◽  
Country People

The article discusses the authors’ ambivalent attitude towards their protagonists, drawing on Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, and Eduard Vilde’s Mäeküla piimamees (Milkman of the Manor). Firstly, the hypothesis based on Aristotle’s Poetics and the idea of Pericles having been a possible prototype of Oedipus is proposed, according to which Sophocles could have been critical of the tyrant of Thebes as a noble representative of a polis at war with Athens, justifying his pains in addition to showing compassion. Such an interpretation is in contrast with the humanist and protest-driven glorification initiated by Friedrich Nietzsche. Another example of the author’s “hypocrisy” is Thomas Hardy’s novel that is generally, and with reason, read as critical of Victorian society. However, the work’s reception has failed to address the motif of mystical revenge on the inheritor of the bloodline of foreign conquerors that occurs in the shadow of a woman’s tragedy and is executed with consistency, yet is not seen as the text’s rival dominant. Still, without considering the opposing line of interpretation that constitutes a parallel in its tragic irony, the understanding of the novel will remain superficial. The third example of the author’s split viewpoint can be found in the first Estonian novel to excel in artistic maturity that also stands out as the first psychological and erotic novel. Vilde’s social-critical programme in the name of the oppressed country people and women’s emancipation clashes in an intriguing way with his erotomanic objectifying gaze on the woman which rather represents a patriarchal attitude bent on subordinating the other sex. Vilde’s ambivalence towards his wayward heroine makes her a most interesting character whose mystery cannot be solved unequivocally.

scholarly journals Thomas Hardy: A Torchbearer of Feminism Representing Sufferings of Victorian Era Women

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Nadia Saeed ◽  
Muhammad Ali Shaikh ◽  
Stephen John ◽  
Kamal Haider
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Thomas Hardy ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles ◽  
Queen Victoria ◽  
The People ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Almost All

The purpose of this paper was to highlight the miserable plight of women during the Victorian era, the age of social reforms, political improvements, collective welfare, and material prosperity. During this age, Queen Victoria worked on various issues that had remained the cause of unrest among the people. Her efforts, in this regard, were indeed commendable, but she took no interest to resolve issues of women who had been suffering terribly under patriarchy. The subject of women remained ignored for many years, then some writers started to highlight the miserable state of these passive creatures who were the constant victims of social, political and economic injustices, inequalities, deprivations, and domestic violence. Of all the feminists, Thomas Hardy stood unique as he brought to light almost all areas of life where women were suffering awfully and their voices were suppressed under the male-dominated system. Hardy took serious note of the long-ignored subject of society and provided a vivid and realistic picture of Victorian society through his extraordinarily brilliant novels. Thomas Hardy’s famous masterpiece ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman” is one of the best novels depicting women-related issues that shook the minds of the people to proceed towards this delicate matter. The contents or events described in the novel confirmed that women were the disadvantaged section of society who were deprived of their due rights and respect in society. They were objectified and preferred to a man in each sphere of life.

TESS, VICTIM OF HYPOCRICY TESS OF THE d’URBERVILLES, THOMAS HARDY

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 2379-2382
Author(s):  
Suzana Ibraimi Memeti
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Hardy ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Fallen Woman ◽  
Alfred The Great ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
Deep Sympathy ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Social Prejudice

Thomas Hardy is distinguished by his contemporaries for the fact that the subjects of his novels are taken from the rural environment in the agricultural region south of England. He calls his homeland Dorset, Wessex, in memory of former King Alfred the Great. Themes and subjects of his novels are attractive and dominant. In all of his most popular novels, Hardy describes, outlines, and portrays human beings who are faced with powerful attacks of devastating and mysterious forces. He was a serious novelist who sought to present the view of life throughout a novel. Frequently, his themes and subjects mix with the sequence of events that have extreme and fatal consequences, while he rarely fails to inspire the reader with his deep mercy to the characters who suffer in their live; he often cannot afford to reach the highest degree of tragic element. The author sends an indictment to his time: he firmly rejects the duality of morality according to which the behavior of a man and the behavior of a woman is differently estimated. Thomas Hardy’s world as a writer is completely realistic, even transparent because he is a rare master of description of the environment. His characters are creatures of their environment, presented in their mutual relationships, often with sharp psychological observations. “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” is based on a familiar motif, that of a fallen woman, where Tess represents the prejudices of the Victorian society. In the novel, Hardy portrays an innocent poor girl of a country, a victim of the combined forces of Victorian patriarchal society, of the hypocrisy of social prejudice and gender inequality, which shows his deep sympathy for Tessa, the protagonist of the novel, a symbol of women devastated without mercy in a world dominated by males. He shows that Tess is an example of the devastating effect of society's pressures on a pure girl, and that Angel and Alec are personifications of destructive attitudes towards women.

Thomas Hardy and the Machine: The Mechanical Deformation of Narrative Realism in Tess of the d'Urbervilles

2009 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zena Meadowsong
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical System ◽  
Thomas Hardy ◽  
Mechanical Deformation ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles ◽  
Personal Consequences ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Functional Reduction

This essay argues that Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), long read as a novel concerned with the industrial demolition of agrarian England, internalizes the problem of mechanization at the level of both story and narrative form. The narrative "defects" of which critics typically complain——"mechanical" plot devices, "two-dimensional" characterization, and obtrusions of tone and style——are, this essay argues, intentional distortions of realism designed to draw attention to the consequences of industrialization. In a crucial scene, Tess Durbeyfield is enslaved to a monster machine, a diabolical steam thresher. Dramatizing the onset of mechanization, this scene aligns the fate of the novel's heroine with the fate of the preindustrial world she inhabits and, introducing a subtle distortion of realism in the mythic rendering of the monster, connects the narrative's apparent defects to a critique of the industrial order. The "mechanical" plot of the novel, linked to the operation of actual machines, draws attention to the inexorable brutality of the historical forces that drive it; the "two-dimensional" villain, a double for the diabolical machine, dramatizes——in the functional reduction of his humanity——the personal consequences of mechanization; and the narrative's tonal inconsistencies, apparently satirizing the calamities it itself engineers, demonstrate its implication in a mechanical system it cannot both escape and expose. Enacting the ravages of industrialization, the novel in a sense becomes the mechanical monster it represents; yet in doing so, it renders a powerful, formal indictment of mechanization.

Clothing in Context — Nineteenth-Century Dress and Textiles in the Thomas Hardy Archive

Costume ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Thomas Hardy ◽  
Famous People ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles ◽  
Textiles And Clothing ◽  
Insight Into

This article will consider how dress, textiles, manuscripts and images in the Thomas Hardy Archive illuminate his writing and reveal the accuracy of his descriptions of clothing in novels including Far from the Madding Crowd and Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Rural clothing, fashionable styles, drawings and illustrations will shed new light on his writing through providing an insight into the people's dress he described so eloquently in his writing. The textiles and clothing in the Archive are also significant as nineteenth-century working-class dress is relatively rare. Everyday rural clothing does not tend to survive, so a collection belonging to Hardy's family of country stonemasons provides new opportunities for research in this area. Even more unusual is clothing reliably provenanced to famous people or writers, and such garments that do exist tend to be from the middle or upper classes. This article will show how the combination of surviving dress, biographical context and literary framework enriches understanding of Hardy's words and informs research into nineteenth-century rural dress.

Geografia romanului românesc (1933-1947): arealul național

Transilvania ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 10-17
Author(s):  
Emanuel Modoc ◽  
Nicoleta Strugari ◽  
Mihnea Bâlici ◽  
Radu Vancu ◽  
Ștefan Baghiu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Fictional Worlds

This article analyzes the ways in which the Romanian novel published between 1933-1947 represents cities, towns, peripheries and villages in the fictional worlds. It asserts the democratization of the narrative universe through the novel of the periphery and discusses the birth of the touristic novel, in which characters often spend time in new areas for relaxation. It also challenges the idea of spatial atomization, since the geographical preferences of the authors are usually centralized and gentrified. Almost only subgenre novels and ethnical minority authors are responsible for the democratization of the national geography of the Romanian novel in 1933-1947.

Literary Geographies in Balzac and Proust

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Conroy
Keyword(s):  
Physical Space ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Place Making ◽  
Geographical Analysis ◽  
The Core ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
Literary Geography ◽  
Fictional Worlds ◽  
Literary Cartography

Literary geography is one of the core aspects of the study of the novel, both in its realist and post-realist incarnations. Literary geography is not just about connecting place-names to locations on the map; literary geographers also explore how spaces interact in fictional worlds and the imaginary of physical space as seen through the lens of characters' perceptions. The tools of literary cartography and geographical analysis can be particularly useful in seeing how places relate to one another and how characters are associated with specific places. This Element explores the literary geographies of Balzac and Proust as exemplary of realist and post-realist traditions of place-making in novelistic spaces. The central concern of this Element is how literary cartography, or the mapping of place-names, can contribute to our understanding of place-making in the novel.

scholarly journals A STUDY OF RELENTLESS SEARCH OF UTOPIA IN THOMAS HARDY’S TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES USING JACQUES DERRIDA’S THEORY OF DECONSTRUCTION.

2020 ◽  
pp. 12-17
Author(s):  
Milind Solanki
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Minor Characters ◽  
Darwinian Theory ◽  
Origin Of Species ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Tess Of The D'urbervilles

This paper aims to read Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urberviless in the light of Jacques Derrida’s Theory of Deconstruction, Darwinian Theory of Evolution in his book on the Origin of Species and each character’s search of Utopia in the entire novel. All the major characters have been taken in the novel as well as some of the minor characters also to study the novel in a better in a detailed manner.

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