Table of Contents

Table of Contents.........................................................................................................1
Argument.....................................................................................................................2
Introduction.................................................................................................................5
Chapter I. Hardys Philosophy of Life......................................................................12
1.1. The Unseen Hand.....................................................................................................16
1.2. Fatalism.....................................................................................................................21
Chapter II. Elements of the Tragic in Thomas Hardys Fiction.............................23
2.1. The Role of Fate in Jude The Obscure....................................................................23
2.2. Fate, Chance, and Coincidence in Tess of the DUrbervilles.................................32
2.3 Fate, Chance, and Coincidence in The Mayor of Casterbridge.............................40
Chapter III. Symbols and Themes in Tomas Hardys Poems..................................44
Let Me Enjoy...................................................................................................................46
Hap...................................................................................................................................46
Neutral Tones...................................................................................................................48
During Wind and Rain....................................................................................................50
Hardy and The Dynasts..................................................................................................51
The Darkling Thrush......................................................................................................52
Conclusion.................................................................................................................56
Bibliography..............................................................................................................60

1
 Argument

The reason why I wanted to write a B.A. thesis about Thomas Hardy and his
tragic vision in his poems and novels is because I want to emphasize the human
condition, the things destined to happen to us, and the role of ones fate. Thomas
Hardy is best known for his poems and novels which contain many tragic elements,
he was inspired by various writers, Charles Darwin being one of them. Charles
Darwin had a great impact on Hardys writing. Thomas Hardy read Darwins books,
which at that time were considered inappropriate and scandalous because they were
against religion. So, in my paper I want to emphasize Hardys philosophy of life
which sometimes is wrongly called pessimism; moreover my aim is to show that in
fact he was not pessimist, he simply embraced this philosophy of life. He thought he
had no reasons to believe in God because, in his view, God was indifferent towards
the human beings efforts, struggle, and suffering. He believed that if man suffered,
lived in exile, then died, this was sure proof that God did not exist. In my opinion he
should not be judged by his way of thinking because back in that era, the era of
Industrialization, people wanted a change. The scientists and scientific discoveries of
the time heavily influenced peoples view. When he realised that there can not exist a
superior force named God, he wanted to find an answer for all the bad things that
happen to humans, so he began to blame Fate. He considered that Fate can control
our lives and we can not do anything to stop it. He was actually convinced that man
was not able to anything in order to change his destiny.
In order to emphasize the purpose of my paper I chose Jude The Obscure,
Tess of the DUrbervilles, and The Mayor of Casterbridge which were analysed in a
close reading doubled by a critical interpretation of the elements of the tragic found
in all three novels. Firstly I want to mention that I have chosen Jude because in my
opinion it emphasises best the role of fate in peoples lives. I think that Hardy wanted
to show us in this novel, how the unseen hand of Fate works against us. We can
notice how useless Jude and Sue feel. They feel that they have no power to fight
against their destiny as if they do not have a certain ideology. They are not willing to

2
fight against their own destiny. In my opinion the character Little Father Time is the
most efficient instrument of fate. Hardy portrays him as if his main purpose was to
destroy Jude and Sues lives. Even though he looks like a child, he thinks like a
mature person. We can see his ability of understanding when Sue confesses him that
it is hard for her to raise three children. So, in order to set her free from this burden
he acts on his own and kills his brothers. After this horrible scene Sue is convinced
that God punished her for not being married with Jude, and also for having kids
outside the institution of marriage. And also in this novel Hardy emphasises his view
regarding the institution of marriage and that society can and does inflict pain on
people if they go against its rules. In the second novel, Tess of the DUrbervilles, I
want again to emphasise the role of fate and Tesss tragic ending. I want to show how
tragic elements like Fate, Chance, and Coincidence worked against Tesss life. When
she first found out that she might be rich, she thought that Chance was on her side,
but as we already know Hardys use of Coincidence, she realised that in fact her
condition remained unchanged (a modest person), and that Fate tried to trick her. And
I would also like to underline how Hardy portrays men and women, to see if he gives
more significance to male characters or to female characters. In The Mayor of
Casterbridge I tried to show that an evil man that has no purposes in life can change
into a respectable person, despite the fact that in the end of the novel he embraces his
cruel destiny. Fate punishes him for being so cruel with his daughter and wife. So,
the tragic elements: Fate, Chance, and Coincidence are present in Hardys poems and
novels in order to better illustrate the authors perspective on life.
In the First Chapter, Thomas Hardy and His Philosophy of life, I wanted to
show why Hardy always had this vision of death; if he found himself in one of the
characters role, we might think that he had a cruel childhood. Indeed, we may say
that that his childhood influenced his later writing, but it did not influence it in a
negative way. On the contrary, it rather influenced it in a creative way. For example,
his imaginary Wessex became an important tool of handling the plot in his novels.
What I would also like to show how he is seen by other writers or critics.
In the second chapter, Elements of the Tragic in Thomas Hardys Fiction, I
attempted to show how tragic elements such as Fate, Chance, or Coincidence can
rule and decide the destiny of the human beings. I also wanted to emphasize the

3
characters reactions towards these inevitable tragic elements, to present Tesss
reaction when she suffers and has nothing to lose.
In the third chapter, Symbols and Themes in Thomas Hardys Poems, I tried
to show that even in poetry Hardy maintains his lamentation of death. But here is a
little difference: whereas in his novels Hardy presents the tragic lives of his
characters, in his poems he portrays himself in a tragic position, this time he (his
poetic self) is the one who is in trouble. Of course, he had a good reason for placing
himself in this tragic situation, the main reason being the death of his wife Emma. I
could state that his poems are even more tragic than his novels, because in poems he
describes his own feelings, he is the character. I therefore think that his poems
reflect best his tragic vision.
So, I concluded underlining the fact that Hardy is able to see the mechanism
of life; he is capable to do everything in order to discover the source of our pain and
misfortune which are found in his fictional characters destinies. I would also like
to demonstrate that he is in fact both a great poet and novelist. He knows how to
make himself known for his style of writing. At a glance some might consider him a
pessimist but in fact he is capable of showing compassion, especially for his death
wife Emma. His pessimism is in fact a psychological view. In order to solve the
problem, he first tries to diagnose it, and then he provides a more credible answer.
And it is known that his answer is not very appreciated by some readers but if we go
back in the epoch when he lived, it is the most suitable answer. Hardy wanted to
believe in something, so he embraced this ideology which unfortunately presents him
to his readers as a pessimist.

4
 Introduction

Focusing on Thomas Hardy and his tragic vision in his novels and poems is
the main focus of the present thesis is because I want to emphasize the human
condition, the things that are destined to happen to us, the role of fate of one. Hardy
is best known for his novels which contain many tragic elements, he was inspired by
various influential writers including Charles Darwin who had a great impact on his
writing. The fact that he read many books which were against religion does not
necessarily mean that this was his only inspiration. The period in which he lived was
a hostile one, society was very harsh to some people, and the Industrialization had a
great impact on peoples life. Hardy thinks that life is a poor joke, he went farther
from the traditional image of God because he explored very deep in the suffering of
the human being. We could ask ourselves why does he thinks like that. Well, his
answer is very simple: he thinks that since evil exists and people suffer and die then
God is unbelievable. His philosophy of life is that the man is not able to do anything
in order to change his destiny. Although his personal life was good enough, he was
not very wealthy but anyway he lived in comfort. His way of living, his childhood
was a happy one. Many of us would think that maybe his childhood could have been
the source of influence in his writing, but no, it was not his childhood.
Thomas Hardy is one of the most renowned poets and novelists in English
literary history. He was born on 2 June in 1840 in Dorset, England. His father was a
stone mason and a violinist. Although he had this kind of job he was satisfied with
low social status and with the environment. Hardy called his mother a bookworm
(Thomas Hardy, web) because she was the one who encouraged him to study and to
raise his social position. (Thomas Hardy, web). He described her as possessing a
wonderful vitality(Bloom, Thomas Hardy Comprehensive Research and Study
Guide, Blooms Major Poets,16). She also enjoyed reading and relating all the folk
songs and legends of the region. When he was eight he attended Julia Martins school
in Bockhampton, Bockhampton was not really a very developed town it was not
touched by social changes.

5
 The industrialization which changed other parts of the country did not reach
this area, it was not until 1847 that the industrial wave finally reached Dorset. Dorset
had a lot of traditions, it was also a small but important agricultural centre (Bloom,
Thomas Hardy Comprehensive Research and Study Guide, Blooms Major Poets, 16).
When he was little he was a fragile child but nevertheless strong. He had a
remarkable ability in studying Latin and Greek.
At the age of sixteen Hardy met John Hicks an architect from Dorchester
who took him as a pupil. Through Hicks he met the poet William Barnes who had a
great influence on his career. He also had other influences which contributed to the
undermining of his simple religious faith, such as the essayist and reviewer Horace
Moule. Moule also encouraged him to read John Stuart Mill and the iconoclastic
Essays and Reviews (1860) by Frederick Temple (Thomas Hardy, web).
During his life he had a curiosity in philosophical, literary, and theological
issues. In September 1864 he went to London School of Phrenology to hear Charles
Dickens lecture. Like many writers, Hardy went through a crisis of faith. This crisis
was being caused by many things, and two of them were Darwins Origin of Species
and the controversial theological symposium Essays and Reviews (1860). These two
played an important role in Hardys belief. He wanted to pursue his architectural
training so at the age of twenty two he went to London. He immediatly was
employed by Arthur Bloomsfield who needed a young Gothic draughtsman
(Bloomsfield as qtd by Bloom, Thomas Hardy Comprehensive Research and Study
Guide, Blooms Major Poets, 18) to assist in the restoration and design of churches.
Millgate asserted that
his attraction to the Church seems always to have depended not
so much upon intellectual conviction as upon the emotional
appeal of its rituals, and later upon its perceived possibilities as
an avenue of social and especially educational advancement. (as
qtd by Bloom, Thomas Hardy Comprehensive Research and
Study Guide, Blooms Major Poets, 18)
At the same time his love for writing was very strong, he even had great
hopes in achieving a literary career, he read Algernon Charles Swinburnes Poems
and Ballads: First Series (1866). Then he began to write poetry for two years. He

6
tried to publish many poems but he did not succeed it, when he began to write poetry
only, a few poems were eventually published (Thomas Hardy, web).
F. B. Pinion suggests that many of his poems are remarkable in their
relentless confrontation of the truth, however chilling. Love deceives: beauty is
subject to the ravages of time; and chance and indifference rule the universe (Pinion
as qtd by Bloom, Thomas Hardy Comprehensive Research and Study Guide, Blooms
Major Poets, 18). Eventually, in 1867, he returned to Bockhampton where he
decided to write fiction. The Poor Man and the Lady, represented his first try in
writing fiction, the book was based on his idea of the difference between city and
country life, it also received some favourable attention from publishers. The novelist
George Meredith convinced Hardy not to publish the book, he convinced him that
would be better to focus in some new directions. He wrote Desperate
Remedies (1871) a melodramatic novel which was not very enthusiastic. In April
1871, The Atheneum Review described it as an unpleasant story (Bloom, Thomas
Hardy Comprehensive Research and Study Guide, Blooms Major, 20) while the very
same year the Spectator review called it disagreeable and not striking in any way
(Bloom, Thomas Hardy Comprehensive Research and Study Guide, Blooms Major,
20); but even though it was very successful he wanted something else.
At the advice of a reader he wrote a pastoral idyll entitled Under the
Greenwood Tree (1872). The critics received very well this kind of book but the sales
were poor. Nevertheless, Hardy found his true subject -the rural English life of an
imaginary area he called Wessex, he was also on his way of becoming a full time
writer. He abandoned architecture, wrote serials for periodicals, and started a career
that lasted very well in the Twentieth century (Thomas Hardy, web).
He met Emma Lavinia Gifford, an ambitious young woman who shared
Hardys interest in books, and although their families opposed because she was of a
higher social status, they eventually got married in 1874. During that time
appeared his first great novel, Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), the novel
received numerous of positive opinions (Thomas Hardy, web). And it is interesting to
note the fact that their wedding took place in the same day in which the novel Far
from the Madding Crowd appeared in the Cornbill. Emma, his wife, even though she
supported her husbands literary career, was herself obsessed with her own writing

7
talents and with her social position, and she even opposed the subject matter of Jude
the Obscure; she even tried to stop its publication. His works were truly wanted by
the editors. A small cottage in Sturminister Newton was the place where he lived
with his wife, and also the place where he started to write his next novel The Return
of the Native (1878). Although the conditions in which he lived were not very
pretentious, he was feeling very happy, he even mentioned later in his life that the
moments spend in that cottage made him very happy. After a period spent in London,
he decided to return to Dorset, where his home Max Gate was built (Bloom,
Thomas Hardy Comprehensive Research and Study Guide, Blooms Major, 21).
It was designed and built under his supervision. It was a little bit difficult
for the people to admire the house, they considered that it looked much better from
the inside that from the outside. Apparently the house was like a piece of art which
had to be interpreted carefully (Millgate, Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited,
p.14). That was also the period in which he wrote his third masterpiece The Mayor of
Casterbridge and was subsequently published in 1886. Hardy continued his writing,
travelled with his wife, and read German philosophy for the next several years. He
considered himself a philosophical novelist and his philosophy, can be summarized
up in an early (1865) entry in his notebooks: The world does not despise us; it only
neglects us (Thomas Hardy, web).
There was a notable difference between Thomas Hardy and the artists
from the nineteenth century who went through a similar loss of faith. For example
artists such as William Wordsworth and Thomas Carlyle could achieve some
measure of religious affirmation. Hardy, in change never had a transcendent
belief. His loss of faith created isolation but he did not try to escape from it, even
though in his major novels and in his poetry he struggled to find some value in a
world of indifference, accident, and chance.
All of Hardys important works are regarded as variations on his theme of
the loss of God and the need for a new system of values. Hardy declared later in his
life that he wrote novels because of the economic necessity. He wanted to write a
novel which could easily reflect his own vision of mans condition in the world.
He returned to classical models such as the pastoral in Far From the
Madding Crowd and The Woodlanders (1887), to Greek tragedy traceable in The

8
Mayor of Casterbridge and The Return of the Native, and to the epic for Tess of the
DUrbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1896); partly because he could not find
an adequate fictional model among the popular forms of the time. Hardy could not
imitate these early genres because they were based on some idea of there being a
God-ordered world so he transformed them into his own grotesque versions of
pastoral, tragedy, and epic. As a result, the nature from his novels is neither
benevolent, nor divinely ordered. The heroes from his tragedies are not actually
heroic because they defy God. Tess and Jude are epic figures who are represented as
outcasts because neither their society nor their universe has inherent value.
Hardys philosophy is a simple and straightforward one: the world is an
indifferent place and heavens are empty, without meaning. Unlike the novelists of the
late nineteenth century who were preoccupied with the social issues, Hardy paid
more attention to metaphysical issues even though the plot of Tess of the
DUrbervilles deals with the question of marriage in England and Jude the
Obscure deals with the problem of equal education.
His fourth important novel, Tess of the DUrbervilles it was initially
turned down by two editors, but then it was accepted for serial publication. This
novel brought to Hardy only hostile reactions and notoriety. The notoriety increased
after he published his last great novel, Jude the Obscure. These two novels were
criticized because of the iconoclastic views of sexuality, class distinctions, and
marriage. At this time he was financially secured so he decided to return to his first
passion, poetry.
He believed that in poetry his intentions are not so obvious presented. He
published over a thousand poems which were very well received by the public, and
also published an experimental drama The Dynasts: A Drama of the Napoleonic
Wars(1903-1908) which brought him even more honour and fame. In 1912 he was
devastated by the death of his wife. The grief lasted only four years, because he
married Florence Dugdale, his secretary, who took care of him. He continued to write
poetry for the rest of his life, his last volume, Winter Words (1928) was supposed to
be published, but unfortunately he died on 11 January 1928. All the people of
England mourned his death, and his ashes were deposited in the Poets Corner of
Westminster Abbey and his heart, having been removed before cremation, was

9
interred in the graveyard at Stinsford Church where his parents, grandparents, and his
first wife were buried
Although he was never extremely wealthy he always lived in
comfort. During his life he received an Order of Merit from the
government and also a number of honours from various
universities. (Force, Tess of the DUrbervilles, 5)
Hardy was fascinated by the obscure and private lives his own parents
and grandparents lead, and also by their relatives. The cottage where he lived and the
social and economical realities were only two factors which also influenced his
writing. His novels, stories, and poems are heavily dependent for their setting. Keith
Wilson describes Hardy as
a writer whose sensibility and subject matter were shaped by
intimate experience in formative years of south-west Englands
rural life, knowledge of whose rhythms and ways allowed him
to create a whole imaginatively consistent world that restored to
currency the evocative regional designation Wessex. Along
with Wordsworth he is probably Englands best known nature
writer, and even Wordsworth is not quite so inextricably
associated with a particular area of rural England as Hardy who
by reimagining Wessex reinvented it. (Wilson, A Companion to
Thomas Hardy, 2)
His novels Tess of the DUrbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895), which are
considered great works of art today, received lots of critics for being too pessimistic.
The poetry of Thomas Hardy is also abundant in pessimistic ideas, he
published eight volumes, Wessex Poems (1898) and Satires of Circumstance (1912)
being only two of them. He does not believe in God and the one of the theme in
poetry is the lament regarding the human condition.
The setting of his Novels of Character and Environment is in Dorchester,
the place is not a romantic or an ideal one, it is rather gloomy and dark. Hardy
divided his novels into three main categories: first category would be Novels of
Character and Environment, the second one Novels of Romances and fantasies
and the third Novels of Ingenuity. All his major novels belong to the category of

10
Novels of Character and Environment and some of them are: Under the Greenwood
Tree (1871), Far From the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878),
The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887), Tess of the
DUrbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). (Naidu, Tragic Richness in the
Major Novels Hardy of Thomas, p. 220)

11
 Chapter I. Hardys Philosophy of Life

Hardy, like every other writer, had his own philosophy of life, he believes
that the man represents nothing on this earth and that he can not be able to chance his
destiny. He tends to emphasize the struggle between mans spirituality and
impersonal forces that surrounds him. Pessimism is the key which usually marks his
novels (Naidu, Tragic Richness in the Major Novels Hardy of Thomas, 223). His
blend of the modern and the traditional is one of the major reasons of his continuing
success which Dickens alone of the great Victorian can equal or surpass. Among
other things, Hardys tragic vision of life has been one of the apparent attractions
behind his popularity. His critics have often high-lighted the weakness of his tragic
novels, but no sustained effort has yet been made to make a comprehensive study of
the various ingredients that unite to make the fabric of his tragic fiction (Singh, The
Pattern of Tragedy in the Novels of Thomas Hardy, 6).
In his essay The Profitable Reading of Fiction, which was published in
1888, he made a distinction between imaginative representations of life, capable of
self-proof. He argued that a representation is less susceptible of error than a
disquisition; the teaching, depending as it does upon intuitive conviction, and not
upon logical reasoning, is not likely to lend itself to sophistry(Mallet, A Companion
to Thomas Hardy, 21)
Michael Millgate suggests that Hardys mind was not naturally equiped to
move easily in realms of philosophical discourse (Millgate as qtd by Mallet, A
Companion to Thomas Hardy, 21).
Horace Moule had a great influence on Hardy. He influenced him to read
John Henry Newmans Apologia Pro Vita Sua. Newmans logic seemed to him
really human:
He also was very impressed by Comtes A General View of
Positivism. He admitted that Comtes writing influenced his
novel Far from the Madding Crowd. Frederic Harrison,
Comtes leading British advocate, considered Tess as a

12
 Positivist allegory or sermon, (Harrison as qtd by Mallet, A
Companion to Thomas Hardy, 22)
while Hardy declared to him that the first volume of The
Dynasts presented a Positive view of the Universe (Hardy
as qtd by Mallet, A Companion to Thomas Hardy, 22)
According to philosopher Auguste Comte, what compromises such a view begins
with his Law of Three Stages in the evolution of human understanding. In the
Theological stage the supernatural being is dominant over the natural phenomena
and the events. And also the divine governance is ruling over the political order. In
the Metaphysical stage, supernatural accounts give way to the notion of abstract
virtues or powers supposed to inhere in the physical world, God dissolves into
Nature and political authority is referred to theories of rights, popular sovereignty,
and the social contract. (Mallet, A Companion to Thomas Hardy, 22)
In the Positive stage,
the notion of a supra-human deity is rejected as untenable,
questions of first and final causes are dismissed as fruitless, and
speculation about things-in-themselves is superseded by inquiry
into the regularities governing the relation of phenomena to
each other. (Mallet, A Companion to Thomas Hardy, 22-23)
Comtes task was to show that sociology should be studied in the same as physics or
biology.
If the doctrines of the supernatural were quietly abandoned to-
morrow by the Church and reverence and love for an ethical
ideal, alone retained not one in ten thousand object to the
readjustment, while the enormous bulk of thinkers excluded by
the old teaching would be brought into the fold and our
venerable old churches and cathedrals would become the
centers of emotional life that they once were. (Mallet, A
Companion to Thomas Hardy,23)
Comte noticed that humans needed a religion, so he founded one based on the belief
that it is possible to achieve a state in which mankind, having
clearly recognized its own invariable needs(through the pursuit

13
 of the sciences), will effectively harmonize emotional needs
with rational prediction and thus be transformed into an
organic mankind within which conflicts cease to arise.
(Kolalowski as qtd in Kupp, Thomas Hardy: Positivism and His
Tragic Vision, 8)
The men and women characters in Thomas Hardys novels are not in complete
control of their fate, as highlighted by critics
Hardy is well known for his theory of unfulfilled intentions.
This in fact drives him to accuse God of unbecoming things.
He argues that because mans dreams are shattered and his
desires thwarted by nature the Ultimate Reality or the First
Cause cant be benevolent. It is quite interesting that different
religions also foreground the fact that human desires and
intentions are not fulfilled and cant be fulfilled but dont see
this as any reason to pass judgment on the character of deity;
Rather they criticize this desiring self, this dreaming and
aspiring self, and call for its transformation. In fact natures
or Gods benevolence or crookedness isnt an issue at all for
them but the issue is how man achievers his supreme felicity
and how he come to fulfil his most cherished desire of Bliss
Unspeakable, of Peace that pasaseth all understanding. Hardy
doesnt seriously consider the notion of karma that explains
suffering by putting onus on man rather than God (Shah,
Philisophical Ideas in the Fiction of Thomas Hardy, 6)
In his novels, Hardy shows only the frustration of the human condition which always
miserable and mischievous, but also the fact that life puts on different struggles from
which man cannot emerge victorious. Abercrombie notes that: The obvious quality
of Hardy's tragedy is that it does not begin in the persons who are most concerned in
it; it is invasion into human consciousness of the general tragedy of existence, which
thereby puts in living symbols. (as qtd by Shah, 12). And as we already know, his
narratives tend to have a sad ending on account of this. It is important to note that

14
Hardy insists on the emotional life of his characters and when a disaster happens we
feel that there could have been something to do in order to prevent it.
Most of Hardys characters suffer because they were not able to take the
right decision in the right time. He was inspired by Charles Darwin and by his theory,
when he was young he read Darwins Origin of Species, a book that would have a
great impact on his views towards religion. But also Hardy lived in time when
fundamental beliefs such as religious, political, scientific and social were falling
apart because of the great changes of The Industrial Revolution (Force, Tess of the
DUrbervilles, 7)
Mankind, you dismay me
Acting like puppets
Under Times buffets,
In superstitions
And ambitions,
Moved by no wisdom
Far-sight or system,
Led by sheer senselessness
And presciencelessness
Into unreason
And self-treason. (Hardy as qtd by Singh, The Pattern of
Tragedy in the Novels of Thomas Hardy, 32)
In this poem Hardy presents the human beings as puppets who are ruled by a
superior being. The human beings are somehow trapped in world full of superstitions
which inevitably controls their lives. The author does not believe in superstitions or
in a superior being which is controls our destiny. Hardy suggests that if we wait for
that special and superior being, finally we would feel disappointed, our dreams will
be shattered.

15
 1.1. The Unseen Hand

In Tess, Hardy developed a quite simple plot, we could say that it is the old
idea that if the women sins the women pays. There are two important traditional
themes that Hardy challenges, the first would be that the stain of unchastity which
can never be erased and the second one is the possibility of purifying atonement
(Force, Tess of the DUrbervilles, 11). The Genesis story of Adam and Eve is heavily
emphasized throughout the novel. Eve is of course Tess who is indecisive and
troubled, while Angel is Hardys fictional recreation of Adam
Under the trees several pheasants lay about, their rich plumage
dabbled with blood; some were dead, some feebly twitching a
wing, some staring up at the sky, some pulsating quickly, some
contorted, some stretched outall of them writhing in agony
except the fortunate ones whose tortures had ended during the
night by the inability of nature to bear more. With the impulse of
a soul who could feel for kindred sufferers as much as for
herself, Tesss first thought was to put the still living birds out of
their torture, and to this end with her own hands she broke the
necks of as many as she could find, leaving them to lie where
she had found them till the gamekeepers should come, as they
probably would come, to look for them a second time. Poor
darlingsto suppose myself the most miserable being on earth
in the sight o such misery as yours! she exclaimed, her tears
running down as she killed the birds tenderly. (Spark Note on
Tess, web)
The birds from this paragraph symbolize Tesss condition. When she kills these birds
she kills that part that it is haunting her (Spark Note on Tess, web).
Lyn Pikket states that:
Women sensationalists put the emotional and linguistic excess
of melodrama to new uses... representation of the family in the
womens sensation novel was more conflicted and ambiguous
than in the popular stage melodrama... Indeed one of the most

16
 interesting aspects of the sensation novel ( and, no doubt, a
primary source of narrative interest for contemporary readers) is
the way in which it problematises the family, explores womens
contradictory roles within it and articulates their complex and
contradictory feelings about it. (Pikket as qtd by Nemesvari,
Thomas Hardy, Sensationalism and the Melodramatic Mode, 12)
One of the most important themes in his novels is love and marriage. In
Hardys novels love is the instrument that brings unhappiness to his characters,
because of love Jude, Sue and Tess make the wrong decisions. Hardy believes that
marriages which are the result of love at first sight generally bring only unhappiness.
In Jude The Obscure, the institution of marriage had a long history in the
protagonists family and it was highlighted as being like a curse upon its members.
Another theme is nature and its symbolism, nature is sometimes benevolent with the
characters, sometimes hostile like in Jude for example, the nature is all the time
hostile (Naidu, Tragic Richness in the Major Novels of Thomas Hardy, 224).
In the novel Jude the Obscure, Hardy portrayed the most horrifying
experiences that a simple man could bare. The story is about Jude a stonemason who
is poor and orphan and wants to be an intellectual man later in his life, he is self-
taught, he learned Latin and Greek by his own because his aunt could not afford to
pay for his studies. His dream is to study in Christminster, in fact this place
represented for him the ideal place and also the symbol of the academic life to
which he aspires and also the place where their children meet their tragic ending.
His love for Sue is marked by tragedy. From the start their love was doomed, they
were warned not to be together especially by Aunt Drusilla (SparkNote on Jude
Editors, web).
Their lives were ruined, by the fundamental error of
their matrimonial union : that of having based a permanent
contract on a temporary feeling which has no necessary
connection with affinities that alone render a life-long
comradeship tolerable. (Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in the
Novels of Thomas Hardy,175)

17
 Judes life is shattered after he marries Arabella. Marriage which is just a mere
arrangement of convenience is a real torture for married couples. The society back
then did not believe that sex was a normal thing which occured between two persons
(Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in the Novels of Thomas Hardy, 175-176)
Although it seems that love is the central theme in the novel, we could
figure out that in fact that the institution of marriage is the central one. Each of the
characters is married to the wrong person; for example we can see the great
difference between Jude and Arabella in the scene where they slaughtered the pig. In
this scene Jude realized that he has nothing in common with his wife, she behaved
very brutally when killing that pig, it was weird because instead it was Jude who was
supposed to kill the pig as it was considered (and it still is to the present day) the
normal thing to do for a man; but Hardy underlines the difference in the characters
nature by having Arabella do this dirty job. But eventually fate brings them
together. In those times it was wrong for a man and a woman to live together without
being married, and especially having children and being blood-related. The society
was very harsh regarding these amorous connections. The fate which inevitably
interferes between them will destroy their life. (SparkNote on Jude, web).
In the opinion of Virginia Woolf
Jude the Obscure is the most painful of all Hardys books, and
the only one against which we can fairly bring the charge of
pessimism. In Jude the Obscure, argument is allowed to
dominate impression, with the result that though the misery of
the book is overwhelming it is not tragic. (Woolf as qtd by
Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels, 16)
Virginia Woolf suggests that the novel Jude the Obscure is indeed a painful book, but
anyway we cannot consider it as tragic.
E.M Forster considers that Hardys characters are
involved in various snares, they are finally bound hand and foot,
there is ceaseless emphasis on fate, and yet, for all the sacrifices
made to it, we never see the action as a living thing. (Forster as
qtd in Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels,
17)

18
 Cecil also expresses a similar view of Hardys craftsmanship when he asserts
Hardy was a great artist, but not a great craftsman His plots are clear; and he
sticks to them. All the same, his hold on design is slack and clumsy (Cecil as cited
in Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels,17). Andrew Lang
objected to the final phrase about the President of the immortals
I cannot say how much this phrase jars on one. If there be a
God, who can seriously think of Him as a malicious fiend? And
if there be none, the expression is meaningless. (Lang as qtd in
Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels,11-12)
Mrs. Oliphant: a Pure Woman is not betrayed into fine living and fine clothes as
the mistress of her seducer by any stress of poverty or misery; and Tess was a skilled
labourer, for whom it is very rare that nothing can be found to do. (Oliphant as qtd
in Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels,12). Mrs. Oliphant also
thought that the novel Jude the Obscure was inappropriate for society; that it was like
a treat for the institution of marriage. She considers that without Institution of
marriage the children would follow the example of Little Father Time.
Havelock Ellis considered that Hardys characters were not able to develop
themselves
As the man is now, so he always was, so he always will be. Elfride and
Wildeve and Somerset are equally without flexibility, they can never
change, there is no growth, no adaptation. This is the source of much
tragedy. (Havelock as qtd in Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas
Hardys Novels,13-14)
David Cecil says that in the world of Hardy love, so far from being a benevolent
spirit, consoling and helping man in his struggle with the inhuman forces controlling
human existence, is itself a manifestation of these forces. Love, conceived by Hardy,
is the Lord of terrible aspect- a blind, irresistible power, seizing on human beings
whether they will or not; intoxicating in its inception, but more often than not,
bringing ruin in its train (Cecil as cited in Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas
Hardys Novels,16). What David Cecil wants to say is that love is a good thing which
helps human beings when they are going through bad moments, but in Hardys vision

19
love is the instrument which brings unhappiness. With regard to Hardys changes
which take place in the country life J. I. M. Stewart considers that
old orders change, and give place to new and some sort of
balance of advantages results. This, on the whole, seems to me
how Hardy views things. If anything, he was inclined towards
change. It was as an advanced man and progressive thinker,
after all, that throughout his life he consistently viewed
himself. (Stewart as qtd in Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in
Thomas Hardys Novels, 18)
J. I. M. Stewart saw in Hardy a great man, a thinker who wanted to change the view
of other people. He is impressed by the fact that Hardy wanted to change the old
orders and to establish new ones. H.C. Duffin underlines the fact that Hardy takes to
extreme the negative dimension of life events which occur unexpectedly
In one sense he idealizes his world he makes it almost ideally
cruel in life it is the unexpected that happens, in the world
of Hardys novel it is the undesirable unexpected. (Duffin as qtd
in Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels, 18)
H. C. Duffin states that Hardy enjoys his condition that he loves to write tragic
stories, at the same time exploiting his demiurgically superior position as an author
on full control of his fictional worlds and all the characters.
T.S. Elliot also expresses his view as regards Hardys work
The work of the late Thomas Hardy represents an interesting
example of a powerful personality uncurbed by any institutional
attachment or by submission to any objective beliefs He
seems to me to have written as nearly for the sake of Self-
expression as a man well can, and the self which he had to
express does not strike me as a particularly wholesome or
edifying matter of communication. (Elliot as cited in Singh, The
Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels, 19)
T.S. Elliot states that he admires Hardys way of thinking, and that he also has a
strong personality. He likes the fact that Hardy has his own moral values and that he
is free to write whatever he wants. Elliot therefore somehow finds an explanation for

20
what other critics blame Hardy the unforgiving tragic vision. Hardys view about
his supposed pessimism is stated as follows:
As to pessimism. My motto is, first correctly diagnose the complaint- in
this case human ills- and ascertain the cause: then set about finding a
remedy if one exists. The motto or practice of the optimist is: Blind the
eyes to the real malady, and use empirical panaceas to suppress
the symptom. (Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels,
19)
What Hardy wants to express is that firstly he tries to familiarize himself with the
problem, and only then to find a way to solve it if it can be solved. Cecil noticed that
A struggle between man on the one hand and, no the other, an
omnipotent and indifferent Fate that is Hardys interpretation
of the human situation. (Cecil as cited in Singh, The Pattern of
Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels,93-94)
Cecil observes Hardys way of thinking. He emphasises his idea of the indifferent
Fate which controls our destinies as humans to which Hardys characters point.
Little Father Time, Jude son appears to be an instrument of fate, of
destiny, it as if God sent him to take revenge on Jude and Sue. Hardy characterizes
this child as being way too mature for his age he looked like a child but thought as
an older man. So, yes, this child plays an important role in the novel, he represents
the unseen hand of destiny. Sue is convinced that because of her relation with Jude
God punished her so harshly, so in order to regain forgiveness she abandoned Jude
(SparkNote on Jude, web)

1.2. Fatalism

Nevertheless, we should not infer from all these critical views on Thomas
Hardys works that Tess is quite blameless in herself, or that she suffers for no fault
of her own. Hereditary factors, no doubt, are there, but they are not the sole cause of
her tragedy. The author says,
But though to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children
may be amorality good enough for divinities; it is scorned by

21
 average human nature and it is therefore does not mend the
matter. In Jude, too, we find that society can and does inflict
pain on people if they go against its rules.
In reply to an inquiry by the editors of the Parisian paper LErmitage,
Hardy wrote:
I consider a social system based on individual spontaneity to
promise better for happiness than a curbed and uniform one
under which all temperaments are bound to shape themselves
to a single pattern of living. To this end I would have society
divided into groups of temperaments, with a different code of
observance for each group. (Hardy as qtd by Singh, The
Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels, 26)
Hardy wanted to say that a mixed society such as almost every one is the main
reason for the tragic vision on life. His suggestion to divide society into groups based
on temperament categories is, up to a point, similar to a utopian social model. His
above-statement once again underlines the organic view on life and the fact that the
tragic dimension of his work is not present only in his fiction, but it has deep roots in
his own perspective on life.

22
 Chapter II. Elements of the Tragic in Thomas Hardys
Fiction

2.1. The Role of Fate in Jude The Obscure

Jude The Obscure, the last of Hardys novels it was harshly criticised by the
critics and readers. Because of this refusal he felt that he has failed in his career.
Naidu states that Hardy gives more significance to the representations of male
characters. For example, in The Mayor of Casterbridge Hardy emphasises this
significance in the scene where Henchard sells his wife and daughter to the sailor
Newton (Naidu, Tragic Richness in the Major Novels of Thomas Hardy, 221).
Love is an important motif in this novel. In Hardys view, marriages that are
the result of love at first sight generally bring only unhappiness. Marriage is the main
theme in Jude. He did not believe in the marriage contract. So form this perspective
we can deduce that unhappy marriage is a key theme in Jude. In fact, in Judes
family, marriage was like some kind of curse, his parents had also an unhappy
marriage. His aunt Drusilla warned him not to fall in love with Sue because they
were relatives (SparkNote on Jude, web).
The novel Jude the Obscure tells the story of Jude Fawley who dreams of
studying at the university in Christminster but his condition of orphan does not allow
him to fulfil this dream so he works as a stonemason. He was inspired by the towns
schoolmaster Richard Phillotson. Jude falls in love with Arabella who tricks him into
marrying her but eventually their marriage becomes kind of miserable so they break
up. Arabella moves to Australia and Jude manages to go to Christminster. In
Christminster, Jude meets Sue his cousin and they fall in love even though they
shouldnt. In order to keep her near him in Christminster he arranges for her to wark
with Phillotson but he is very dissapointed when finds out that she is about to marry
Phillotson. Anyway Sue is not happy living with Phillotson so she leaves him for
Jude (SparkNote on Jude, web). Continuing the series of misfortunes in his life,

23
Hardy emphasizes once more the implacable fate of humans in the construction of
his fictional character. After Jude and Sue got divorced, Arabella tells Jude that he
has a son whose name is Little Father Time. Jude agrees to take care of him. The
protagonist also has two other children with Sue. Because they are not married they
encounter lots of obstacles in their way. Back in the nineteenth century, society was
very cruel regarding these kind of things, namely unmarried couples.
Judes son knows how hard it is for his father and Sue to raise them, so in
order to put an end to their difficulties he makes the radical decision to hang his
younger brothers and then himself. Sue is terrified when she finds out. She thinks
that God sent Little Father Time to punish her for disrespecting the institution of
marriage. Sue decides that is better to leave Jude and she goes back to Phillotson.
Jude also returns to Arabella who tricked him again and dies soon after. Judes
marriage to Arabella seems to be fatal for him and he is considered the only one we
can blame. George Wing considers that
here there is no pilling up of malignant outside forces and ill
chance. Apart from the existence of Arabella, there is no one to
blame for Judes seduction but his own lustful self. (Wing as qtd
by Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels,
86)
Wing thinks that Jude is the only one who can be accused for his miserable life.Of
course we could blame Arabella because she tricked him, but apart for her there is no
one who we can blame.
Jude married Arabella because she told him that she is pregnant with him.
Back then the institution of marriage was very important.
He knew well, too well, in the secret centre of his brain, that
Arabella was not worth a great deal as a specimen of womankind.
Yet, such being the custom of the rural districts among
honourable young men who had drifted so far into intimacy with
a woman as he unfortunately had done, he was ready to abide by
what he had said,and take the consequences. (Singh, The Pattern
of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels,174)

24
 Jude knew that Arabella was not meant for him, but it was necessarily to
behave like a real man in front of society.
Although he had a good judgement he was manipulated by Arabella.He didnt
think of Sue as one of his relatives, he was carried away by his animal instinct. The
were various reasons why they shouldnt fell in love to each other:
The first reason was that he was married, and it would be wrong.
The second was that they were cousins. It was not well
for cousins to fall in love even when circumstances seemed to
favour the passion. The third : even were he free, in a family like
his own where marriage usually meant a tragic sadness,
marriage with a blood relation would duplicate the adverse
conditions, and a tragic sadness might be intensified to a tragic
horror. (Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys
Novels, 87)
The pattern of character Jude is pretty much the same with that of Tess, with the only
difference that the latter is the reverse of the first. Tess is deceived by two men: Alec
and Angel, and Jude by two women: Sue and Arabella. Also it is important to say that
Judes impulses drove him in the life of these women. Sue is a modern women and
has an advanced thinking. She is against the institution of marriage and also she is
considered incapable of loving a man. She tells Jude
At first I did not love you, Jude, that I own. When I first knew
you I merely wanted you to love me the craving to attend
and captivate, regardless of the injury it may do the man was
in me.. I couldnt bear to let you go possibly to Arabella
again and so I got to love you, Jude. But you see, however
fondly it ended, it began in the selfish and cruel wish to make
your heart ache for me without letting mine ache for you.
(Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels, 88)
Sue does not care for the sufferance of others especially of Judes. Although she
expresses words of regret when she hurts someone she proves to be kind of
insensible. When she refused to have sexual relations with Jude she expresses her
indifference to him. Sue made Little Father Time think that him and the other two

25
children are responsible for their miserable life. She told him that Natures law is
mutual butchery (Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels,89). She
didnt know that Little Father Time was not prepared to experiment these things.
Robert B. Heilman states that
Sue actually provides the psychological occasion, if not the
cause, of the double murder and suicide the disasters that,
with massive irony, begin her downward course to death in
life. (Heilman as qtd by Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in
Thomas Hardys Novels, 90)
Heilman thinks that Sue is guilty of her Childrens death. She did not
think well. She even admits to Jude that
Ah; but it was I who incited him really I talked to the child
as one should only talk to people of mature age. I said that
it was better to be out of life than in it and he took it literally.
And I told him I was going to have another child. It upset
him. (Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys
Novels, 90)
Sue feels guilty because she thinks that she influenced Little Father
Time commit that horrible murder. She should not have talked to him like
because he was just a small boy (Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in
Thomas Hardys Novels,89-90).
Sue has no self-control, she is rather impulsive. She marries
Phillotson even though she is not in love with him. Sue was a
woman who liked to be loved, to be admired but she was not
wiling to respond to those feelings. When she loses her
children, she loses all control and she blames herself. We can
see that Jude and Sue are responsible for their suffering.
(Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys
Novels,90)
In the Pattern of Tragedy of Thomas Hardys Novels, Shyam-Narayn
Singh states that in his fiction Hardy transposes his own vision upon the
relation between the human being and life

26
 Life to Hardy seemed wickedly cruel; a series of hopes
perpetually thwarted, of aspirations continually mocked.
From what he saw to life he could not escape the conclusion
that mans destiny, the ultimate disposal of human life,
remains in the last analysis beyond and outside the range of
human control. (Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in the Novels
of Thomas Hardy,93)
Shyam-Narayn Singh explains how Hardy thinks and conceives his fictional worlds;
he describes his vision about life. Hardy thought that humans had no control over
their lives. He was convinced that nothing can change our destiny, he considered that
there was no hope, that there was room for no salvation on this earth, he suggests that
the only salvation for humans is death. Shyam-Narayn Singh also states that Hardys
novels are based upon the conflict of two forces: the inherent will to enjoy and the
circumstantial will against enjoyment (Cecil as quoted by Singh, The Pattern of
Tragedy in the Novels of Thomas Hardy,92-93). Love, which is passionate and blind,
is a guise (Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in the Novels of Thomas Hardy, 95) in
which Hardy embodies Fate. In Hardys fictional world love is represented as an
irresistible force which brings sorrow and sickness of heart at last (Singh, The
Pattern of Tragedy in the Novels of Thomas Hardy, 95). Shyam-Narayn Singh
suggests that
The four letters of LOVE may be assumed as symbolising
Light of eye, Ocean of tears, Vision of death and End of life,
representing the four stages in the life of a passionate lover.
(Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in the Novels of Thomas
Hardy, 95)
In my opinion, L-light of eye, could mean Judes meeting with Sue, the
sensations they felt when their eyes met. O-ocean of tears represents the miserable
moments that they encountered in society, V-vision of death portrays Little Father
Times horrible act and the last letter E-end, shows Judes tragic ending. Hardy, in his
Preface, defines the theme of Jude the Obscure as:
the fret and fever, derision and disaster, that may press in the
wake of the strongest passion known to humanity; A deadly

27
 war waged between flesh and spirit; the tragedy of unfulfilled
aims (Hardy as qtd by Singh, The Pattern of Tragedy in
Thomas Hardys Novels, 124)
In these lines Hardy emphasises that Judes dreams cannot be fulfilled because of
fate. It is obvious that the tragedy of Jude is the tragedy of unfulfilled aims. As I
have mentioned before, Judes dream was to study at Christminster but the poverty in
which he lived stood in his way. As we already know from the beginning of the novel
Jude aspires of going to Christminster, he believed that there was the ideal place to
live. But of course Fate ruined all his plans and Christminster turned out to be the
place in which his life takes a bad turn because here he meets Sue Bridehead who
will eventually make him suffer. We could say that Little Father Time is an
instrument of Fate. Hardy characterize this child as being way too mature for his age,
he looked like a child but thought as an older man (SparkNote on Jude, web).
Jude does not agree with Sue when she tells him that because of her
discourse Little Father Time hanged the children.
No, It was in his Nature to do it. The doctor says there are
such boys springing up amongst us boys of a sort unknown
in the last generation the outcome of new views of life.
They seem to see allits terrors before they are old enough to
have staying power to resist them. He says it is the beginning
of the coming universal wish not to live. (Singh, The Pattern
of Tragedy in Thomas Hardys Novels, 163)
Jude is trying to make Sue fell better. He does not blame her for the mistake of his
son, he knows that Little Father Time was not influenced by anybody when he did
that. Jude is trying to find a good and plausible explanation for what happened.
When we think of Hardy the novelist, the first aspect of his work that comes
to our mind is his frequent use of chance and circumstance in the development of his
plot. John Stuart Mill and Hardy valued liberty. Sue is supported by the narrator when
she quotes Mills defence of the right of the individuals to choose their own plan of
life (Mallet, A companion to Thomas Hardy, 27).
Harriet Taylor Mill stated that all men with the exception of a few lofty
minded, are sensualists more or less (Mill as qtd by Mallet, A Companion to

28
Thomas Hardy, 27), but she was not sure whether this was the result of nature or the
result of education. Mill, one of the lofty-minded (Mill as qtd by Mallet, A
Companion to Thomas Hardy, 27) has two important claims: in the first claim he
imagines humanity as a natural kind which is totally separated from the animal
kind by reason and morality. The second claim is that if we control those qualities
which link us to animalhood, the humans will advance. In his essay, On Nature, his
central argument is:
Without touching upon any disputed theoretical points, it is
possible to judge how little worthy is the instinctive part of
human nature to be held up as its chief excellence... Nearly
every respectable attribute of humanity is the result not of
instinct, but of a victory over instinct. (Mill as qtd by Mallet, A
Companion to Thomas Hardy, 27)
Mill suggests that we as human beings, cannot change our instincts, because it is in
our nature to have them. He thinks that every virtue that we posses means our victory
over our instinct.
Charles Darwin, unlike Mill, thought that even the lower animals might
have social instincts. And because these instincts are formed at the basis of morality
he suggested that in time animals could acquire a moral sense or conscience
(Darwin as qtd by Mallet, A Companion to Thomas Hardy, 28). As regards Mills
understanding of human nature, he considers the society composed of rational, self
governing human beings. He again proposes two claims: In the first claim he states
that individuals have the right to choose their own plan of life. He does not agree
with the society which tries to dictate to the individuals another plan of life (Mill
as qtd by Mallet, A Companion to Thomas Hardy, 29). And in the second claim, in
his System of Logic, he mantains his desire that people are able to do so, and that
eventually they will be free (Mill as qtd by Mallet, A companion to Thomas Hardy,
29). Critic Terry Eagleton suggests that Nature no longer grounds human value, so
that humanitys freedom is also its tragic solitude (Eagleton, Sweet Violence: The
Idea of the Tragic, 113). What Eagleton actually implies is that Nature can be
considered some kind of instrument of Fate. She thinks that Nature became our
enemy.

29
 George Levine comments that
I am however, just a little tired of the inevitable catching of
Darwinian strains in Hardy just where there is stress, competition,
chance, struggle and suffering. There is by now little need to
elaborate or refine this side of the argument. (Levine, A
Companion to Thomas Hardy, 36)
In my opinion Levine might have seen in Darwins influence in Hardys writing a
tiresomely negative and repetitive aspect. So he is probably looking for something
new, he seeks in Hardys writing new interesting elements. Levine also states that
From my point of view-enormously valuable as connections of
this kind have been- enough is, well, enough; there are other
ways to hear Darwin in Hardys works, less obvious but perhaps
even more fundamental. (Levine, A Companion to Thomas
Hardy, 36)
Levine wants to say that Darwins influence in the novels of Hardy is very obvious.
He also suggests that there are also other ways which indicates Darwins influence.
In 1910, in a letter to the Secretarian of the Humanitarian League, Hardy wrote:
Few people seem to perceive fully as yet that the most far-reaching
consequence of the establishment of the common origin of all
species is ethical; that it logically involved a re-adjustment of
altruistic morals by enlarging as a necessity of rightness the
application of what has been called The Golden Rule beyond the
area of mere mankind to that of the whole animal kingdom.
Possibly Darwin himself did not wholly perceived it, though he
alluded to it. (Hardy as qtd by Levine, A Companion to Thomas
Hardy, 48)
Hardy tries to make his readership understand that Charles Darwins theory is logical
and that this is one reason he transparently used it in his works. Darwins theory of
evolution is opposed to the religious view on creationism. The two theories are
opposed because one suggests that God created all things and beings, while Darwin
scientifically tries to demonstrate that all forms of life on earth are a chain of
evolution with no supernatural god involved.

30
 Heredity is present in Jude the Obscure, in fact it is present in the form of
psychological heredity. Hardy took notes from Henry Maudsleys Natural Causes
and Supernatural Seemings:
the individual brain is virtually the consolidate embodiment of a
long series of memories; wherefore everybody in the main lines
of his thoughts, feelings and conduct, really recalls the
experiences of his forefathers. (Maudsley as qtd by Richardson,
A Companion to Thomas Hardy, 59)
Darwin commented that Of all the faculties of the human mind, it will, I presume,
be admitted that Reason stands at the summit. Few persons any longer dispute that
animals possesses some power of reasoning. Animals may constantly be seen to
pause, deliberate and resolve. It is a significant fact, that the more the habits of any
particular animal are studied by a naturalist, the more he attributes to reason and the
less to unlearnt instincts. (Darwin as qtd by Richardson, A Companion to Thomas
Hardy, 59). Charles Darwin thinks that Reason is the most important attribute that a
human can have, an attribute completely lacking in other living beings. He suggests
that we should use it in a good way. Darwin saw the instincts as a part of natural
order but Mill thought different. Mill showed his disapproval of these instincts
The vein of sentiment so common in the modern world (though
unknown to the philosophic ancients) which exalts instinct at
the expense of reason; an aberration rendered still more
mischievous by the opinion commonly held in conjuction with
it, that every, or almost every, feeling or impulse which acts
promptly without waiting to ask questions is an instinct. (Mill
as qtd by Richardson, A Companion to Thomas Hardy, 60)
Dennis Taylors argument is that in this novel Hardy challenges the identification of
Englishness with the Church of England and undoes the Protestant coherence of
Wessex. (Taylor as quoted by , p. 346).
Education plays an important role in Jude, it is like a device of social change
which generates only unhappiness. Norman Page says that:
If Jude has the makings of a fine scholar motivated by a
disinterested intellectual passion, he is also an at-least averagely

31
 sensual man; and his frustrations stem partly from the lack of
provision for working-class boys to enter the universities, but
also from the very different kinds of problem represented by
Arabella and Sue different from his intellectual
disappointments. (Page as qte by Naidu, Tragic Richness in the
Major Novels of Thomas Hardy, 224-25).

2.2. Fate, Chance, and Coincidence in Tess of the DUrbervilles

The novel begins with John Durbeyfield who is totally shocked when finds
out that he is the descendent of a noble family, the Dubervilles. His eldest daughter,
Tess joins together with some other girls in the May Day Dance where she meets a
young man. Her parents decided that it would be better to send her at the
DUrbervilles mansion in order to receive her fortune. But what they did not know is
that in fact they are not related to this noble family and Tess accepts the job that Alec,
Mrs. DUrbervilles son proposed her. She maintains her job for several months trying
not let herself seduced by Alec. But anyway Alec takes advantage of her. Because
she did not love Alec she returned home where she gave birth to Alecs baby. The
babys name is Sorrow but unfortunately he dies soon after he is born (SparkNote
on Tess, web). After a while she accepts a job Talbothais Dairy where she had a
lot of moments of happiness. She makes some new friends there: Izz, Retty and
Marian.And also she meets Angel Clare, the young man whom she saw at the May
Day Dance and they fall in love. Of course they get married, but Tess is afraid to tell
her husband about her past. After the wedding they confess to each other the secrets
that they have. Alec confesses to Tess that he had an affair with an older woman in
London, and Tess tells him about Alec. Tess forgives him but Angel is not able to
forgive her so he goes to Brazil. He says to her that he will try to forgive her but he
needs some time alone. She has a difficult period after Angel leaves. She finds out
that her mother is sick and she returns home to take care of her. Eventually her
mother feels better but unfortunately she lose her father. Alec offers to help them

32
when they are evacuated from their home but Tess refuses him (SparkNote on
Tess, web)
Finally Angel forgives Tess and goes back to her but the problem is that she
is not home, her mother tells him that she is in Sandbourne.There he finds Tess who
tells him that it is too late for him and that she is with Alec now.Angel leaves and
Tess in a moment of madness stabs Alec.Angel helps her to run away even though he
does not understands why did she do that. When they are at Stonehenge, Tess falls
asleep and in the morning the searchers discovers them. In the end Tess is arrested
and goes to jail (SparkNote on Tess, web). From a hill outside the city Angel and
Liza Lu watch the black flag which announces Tess execution.
Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals, in
Aeschylean phrase, has ended his sport with Tess. And the
Durbeville knigts and dames sleep on their tombs unknowing.
(Force, Tess of the DUrbevilles,57)
Tess is the central character of the book and she is often compare to a bird
caught in a trap (Force, Tess of the DUrbervilles, 62). The trap is illustrated by her
parents and also by Alec. Although she had limited means she was a noble person,
she impressed everyone with her nobility. She has moral virtues, and when she
realises the she committed a sin she does not feel that she should be punished for one
mistake. She never intentioned to commit a sin, and she sees her punishment as
merciful and permanent. Her love for Angel is permanent. When she meets him for
the first time she is fascinated by his manners and considers him a superior being,
and also she wanted to possess his qualities, she wanted to be like him (Force, Tess
of the DUrbevilles, 62-63).
Because of her family Tess falls in Alecs trap. Because her feeling of
responsibility for her family was above all things she did her best to protect her
family. Alec knew that she would do anything for them so he offered to help them in
order to dominate Tess. Tess is thankful for what he does but she does not love him,
she tries to fight against him because she does not want to be indebted to him but her
burden is too overwhelming (Force, Tess of the DUrbervilles, 63).

33
 Although Angel loves Tess, he does not care for her when he leaves for
Brazil. He only thinks of his welfare. When he finds out that shes not a virgin he
somehow despises her. And while he was gone he did not write to her or to see if her
parents needed his help. He was more preoccupied with his own problem
(SparkNote on Tess, web).
Alec is presented as an evil man who destroys Tesss life. He is described as
a typical villain: tall, with an almost swarthy complexion. A well-groomed, black
moustache complete with curled points tops his badly molded, full lips. From the
very beginning Alec is attracted to Tess. He was used to seduce any women he liked,
and he is furious when Tess rejects his feeelings. He even admits that hes a bad guy.
Although he is queer man he also does good things for Tess. He helps her more that
Angel. We can notice that Alec really helped the Durbeyfields, while Angel has not
involved very much in her familys issues (Force, Tess of the DUrbevilles, 65).
Hardy thinks that natural laws are purbling doomsters ( Singh, The Tragic Pattern
in Thomas Hardy Novels, 133). He also believes in the unconscious forces of Nature.
The author observes in Tess that
Nature does not often say see: to her poor creature at a time
whenseeing can lead to happy doing; or reply Here: to a bodys
cry of Where? till the hide-and seek has become an irksome,
outwarn game. ( Hardy as qtd by Singh, The Tragic Pattern in
Thomas Hardy Novels,133-134)
In Hardys view, life is full of struggle, devastation, and destruction because Nature
appears in order to ruin humans plans. Humans have no chance to escape from this
evil natural plan which underlines the tragic dimension of Hardys perception.
Tess does not find sympathy in Nature:
Meanwhile trees were just as green as before; the birds sang and
the sun shone as clearly now as ever. The familiar surroundings
had not darkened because of her grief, nor sickened because of
her pain.(Singh, The Tragic Pattern in Thomas Hardy Novels,
133-134)
Men dominating women is one of the most important theme in the novel. Alecs
act of abuse is the best example, because although he did a horrible thing, nobody

34
blamed him. Tess, in change had suffered a lot. Even though Angels love for Tess is
pure, it dominates her in a bad way. But anyway when Tess kills Alec the pattern of
male domination is reversed, the woman domines now. (SparkNotes Editors)
Brasil is also an important symbol in the novel. It is the country of all
possibilities. Defoes Robinson Crusoe also made fortune there. Angel goes there to
built a career as a farmer, but he soon realises that in fact for him Brasil symbolises
the impossibility of ideals. (SparkNotes Editors)
There is a legend about the aristocratic family and Tesss surname. The
legend of the DUrbervilles coach. Hardy tries to explain the character Tesss
suffering through this legend. She sometimes hears the sound of a non- existent
coach. Angel tells her that one of her ancestors committed a horrible crime in his
family coach, and since then everyone from the family hears the sound of the coach.
Alec also told her the same version of the story:
This sound of a non existent coach can only be heard by one
of dUrberville blood, and it is held to be of ill- omen to the
one who hears it. It had to do with a murder, committed by one
of the family, centuries ago one of the family is said to have
abducted some beautiful woman, who tried to escape from the
coach in which he was carrying her off, and in the struggle he
killed her or she killed him (Singh, The Tragic Pattern in
Thomas Hardys Novels, 78)
When Angel meets Tess at Talbothays he is enchanted by her voice:
I dont know about ghostsbut I do know that our souls can be
made to go outside our bodies when we are alive A easy way
to feel em gois to lie on the grass at night and look straight
up at some big bright star; and by fixing your mind upon it, you
will soon find that you are hundreds and hundreds o miles
away from your body, which you dont seem to want at all.
(Dolin, A Companion to Thomas Hardy, 340)
She experiences the same sensation when she is impressed by Angels harp music
(Dolin, A Companion to Thomas Hardy, 340).

35
 Angels first impression of Tess is that of a fresh and virginal daughter of
nature (Force, Tess of the DUrbervilles, 64). He considers that it is important to
teach her history and literature, in order to have certain manners to fit in society. She
has some nice abilities as farm woman and Angel appreciates them (Force, Tess of
the DUrbervilles, 64).
Many Victorian writers used chance and coincidence as a means of
furthering the plot, but when Hardy uses it becomes more than a simple device. In
Tess Fate is represented as an artistic motif which can take various forms: chance and
coincidence, time, nature, woman, and convention. It is suggested that all these
elements are manifestations of the Immanent Will (Force, Tess of the DUrbervilles,
8). Lorraine M. Force says that Time is used as a motif of Fate in Tess because Time
can change ones life. The moments of joy are transitory. Love, may be changed by
time (Force, Tess of the DUrbervilles, 9)
Force also suggests that woman is Fates most successful instrument which
usually comes across Mans happiness. Convention is also a manifestation of Fate, an
ironic manifestation which works against man, and he has no power over it. (Force,
Tess of the DUrbervilles, 9)
Through the character of Angel, Hardy presents many of the
controversial subjects of the day. Angel does not listen to his father , he cannot accept
the dogma of the church. (Force, Tess of the DUrbevilles, 64)
Also we could say that Alec is an instrument of Fate because he was the one who
ruined her life, and because of him Angel was disappointed with Tess.
Even though Angel is presented as the ideal man, smart and also a good
man, I consider that he is very selfish, he cares only of his problems. When Tess tells
him that she is not a virgin anymore and that she also gave birth to a child, he
despises her immediately. So I think that if he had loved her as much as he said, he
would not have abandoned her knowing how much she had suffered lately. Instead
of helping her, he hurts her.
Although Alec is presented as the bad guy, I think that in fact he is the
only one who really helped Tess, even though he had his reasons. I know that when a
person helps another person in order to achieve his purpose is bad thing, but here in

36
this novel, Alec helped Tess because he loved her. We could say that he expressed his
love in a different way.
Hardy thinks that Will, Chance, Destiny, and Fate as substitutes for
traditional God to account for all the suffering in the world. He does not believe in
the ultimate victory of good over evil.
In Tess Hardy reveals the complex rural society: the old customs in May
Day festival, the fair, and the Lady Day migrations. Dorset also attracted wealthy
people who were searching for entertainment. Terry Eagleton mentions that Friedrich
Holderlins view about tragedy is
the abolition of the subjunctive mood. The form thus caters
wonderfully to our endemic indolence, our desire that all the
work should have been done for us before we even arrive on
the scene. (Holderlin as quoted by Eagleton, Sweet Violence:
The Idea of the Tragic, 102)
In Oscar Mandels opinion,
Hardys philosophy ( if we can flatter him with this term)
makes tragedy all but impossible because it reduces his
characters to mere pathetic victims. (Mendel as quoted by
Eagleton, Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic, 103)
Mendel thinks that a family drama can really impress us but it cant be considered as
tragic. (Mendel as quoted by Eagleton, Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic, 103).
Eagleton also suggests that if the tragic protagonists are at least free to resist their
inevitable ruin , doesnt the fact that they do so comment rather unfavourably on
their intelligence. (Eagleton, Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic, p.103)
Eagleton also states that
If Hardy is an atheist, is because he sees that there is no
vanishing point at which all these perspectives converge. God
would be the name for the Omega point at which these
conflicting ways of living and seeing might bundle up into a
totalized vision; but such a metalanguage is ruled out for Hardy
by the nature of an evolutionary universe. (Eagleton, Sweet
Violence: The Idea of the Tragic, p.112)

37
 I think that Hardy was able to see how the life really works, he was able
to do everything in order to discover the source of our pain and misfortune. Here
Eagleton suggests that there nothing wrong in being an atheist. She does not criticize
him for thinking in this way, she realise that he wanted to seek deeper the truth
regarding our human nature. It is nice to see how Hardy develops the structure of his
novels but it is sad to see his pessimism.
After Mr. Durbevilles dies, the whole family has to evacuate their home.
Tesss father even says that this was the last life on the property. (Singh, The
Tragic Pattern in Thomas Hardys novels,173). The author says that:
Ever since the occurrence of the event which had cast such a
shadow over Tesss life, the D urbeyfield family had been
tacitly looked on as one which would have to go when their
lease ended, if only in the interests of morality. (Hardy as
quoted by Singh, The Tragic Pattern in Thomas Hardys
novels, 173)
Tess is a victim of the society, she does not understands
why people criticizes her so harshly. Even though she has
sinned, her sins were not so serious. She didnt consider
herself a sinner. (Singh, The Tragic Pattern in Thomas
Hardys novels, 173)
But not only Tess is a victim of society, her baby is rejected too by the
people. When she wants to burry him, the priest does not allow her because he is the
result of a sin. She is terrified thinking that her baby is not baptized and
unfortunately he will not achieve salvation:
She thought of the child consigned to the nethermost corner of
hell, as its double doom for lack of baptism and lack of
legitimacy; saw the arch-fiend tossing it with his three pronged
fork, like the one they used for heating the oven on baking
days; to which picture she added many other quaint and curious
details of torment sometimes taught the young in this Christian
country. The lurid presentment so powerfully affected her
imagination in the silence of the sleeping house that her

38
 nightgown became damp with perspiration, and the bedstead
shook with each throb of her heart. (Singh, The Tragic Pattern
in Thomas Hardys novels, 170-171)
The priests refusal to baptize her child upset her very much. She kept
thinking of her babys fate. In my opinion, the society is the one which commits a
sin, because even if a pregnant woman who is not married has some rights. She had
all the rights to baptize her child. The child was innocent, he deserved to be treated
like a little angel. I consider that women should be treated equally as men. It not fair
for a woman to be punished when commits sin and a man should not be punished for
the simple reason that he is a man. Back in that era, men were superior to women. If
they would cheat on them, nobody would punish them, but if a woman would cheat
on her husband she would have been harshly criticized.
There are some scenes in the novel in which Tesss sensations and
feelings are very well shaped. During pregnancy, in her night-walks her expedient
choice of twilight is not just shown as timid but appraised as singular psychic
response:
She knew how to hit to a hairs breadth that moment of evening when the
light and the darkness are so evenly balanced that the constraint of day
and the suspense of night neutralize each other, leaving absolute mental
liberty. It is then that the plight of being alive becomes attenuated to its
least possible dimensions. ( Nathan, Thomas Hardy: Imagining
imagination in Hardys Poetry and Fiction , 47)
Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka states that
The tragic conflict expresses the existential situation of human freedom.
Indeed, it is by understanding the significance of freedom in the Human
Condition that we illuminate its situation with respect to the external
facts of life. (Tymieniecka, The Existential Coordinates of the Human
Condition: Poetic, Epic, Tragic , 297)
Tymieniecka feels that in order to be happy and free, first we have to
analyse each step we take when we make important decisions. We have to make sure
that our decisions do not affect our image.

39
 In a minute or two her breathing became more regular, her
clasp of his hand relaxed, and she fell asleep.The band of silver
paleness along the east horizon made even the distant parts of
The Great Plain appear dark and near; and the whole enormous
landscape bore that impress of reserve, taciturnity, and
hesitation which is usual just before day. The eastward pillars
and their architraves stood up blackly against the light and the
great flame shaped Sun-stone beyond them, and the stone of
sacrifice midway. Presently the night wind died out, and the
quivering little pools in the cup-like hollows of the stones lay
still. (Hardy, Tess of the DUrbevilles, 438)
These lines emphasize Tesss end. It seems that all things are workings against her.
Her end is emphasised by the words dark and near, stood up blackly, the night wind
died out. The whole universe seems to be working against her all the time.

2.3 Fate, Chance, and Coincidence in The Mayor of Casterbridge

Another masterpiece of Thomas Hardy, the present novels story begins

with Michael Henchard who travelling alongside his wife, Susan, seeking to work as
a hay-trusser. The family stop somewhere to eat, and Henchard, the drunk, meets
Newson a sailor to whom he sells his wife and daughter for five guineas. At first the
deal seems a bargain and just a game, but then things become more serious; he really
seemed capable of selling his wife and daughter, called Elizabeth-Jane. After a while
he regrets his shocking decision and decides to look for them, but he is unable to find
them. He swears that he would never again drink alcohol for a period of twenty-one
years. Eighteen years later the sailor who bought the mother and daughter dies,
therefore Elizabeth-Jane and her mother start searching Henchard. However,
Elizabeth does not know that he is her father, she believes that he is just a simple
relative form their family. When they arrive in Casterbridge, the mother and daughter
find out that Henchard is the Mayor of the settlement. In order to keep his horrible

40
youth secret, he decides to remarry Susan. He was terrified thinking that Elizabeth-
Jane might find out the truth about her fathers action. However Elizabeth-Jane is
intrigued by Donald Farfrae, a young Scotchman and also Henchards manager.
Henchard on the other hand does not look very well this relationship, he even asks
Farfrae to live his daughter alone (SparkNote on The Mayor, web).
Susan dies after she remarries Henchard. Henchard finally finds out that
he is not the real father of Elizabeth- Jane. He becomes very cold with her and the
girl eventually leaves his house and lives with a lady. The ladys name is Lucetta
Templeman a woman who had an affair with Henchard. When she found out that
Susan is dead she wanted to marry Henchard (SparkNote on The Mayor, web).
Elizabeth-Jane and Farfrae eventually get married. Henchard returns the
letters to Lucetta, the letters that he has send her. Jopp the messenger who is
encharged to deliver the letter stops at an inn. A few peasants from there convince
him to open the letters. Jopp listens to them and opens the letters. When the peasants
discover that Henchard and Susan had been lovers they decide to hold a humiliating
parade for them. When Lucetta sees the spectacle she faints and after a short period
of time she dies. After Lucettas death Newsoon goes to Henchard and asks for his
daughter. Henchard tells him that his daughter is dead and Newson leaves very
dissapointed. But eventually one day Elizabeth is meets Newson who tells her
everything about Henchards deceit. At Elizabeths wedding Henchard tries to talk to
her but she rejects him. After a while she fells sorry rejecting him.She and Farfrae go
looking for him so they can make peace but unfortunately they find him too
late.They find out that he has died alone, and that he also has left a will: His wish
was to be forgotten (SparkNote on The Mayor, web).
Henchard had no reasons to behave like that. He was not forced by
circumstances to sell sell his wife aand daughter.So, this means that he was simply
evil, he was not capable of sharing his feelings.The novel begins with this horrible
scene which shocked the readers.(Kupp, Thomas Hardy: positivism and his tragic
vision, 62). George Levine states that
The sensitivity that Hardy sometimes laments and that I
believe is built thematically and stylistically into the very

41
 texture of most of his writing is both curse and blessing.
(Levine, A Companion to Thomas Hardy, 42)
Levine wants to say that Hardy is lucky for having such philosophical ideas,
that he knows how write down on paper his great ideas in order to create a
masterpiece. But there seems to be a problem: the fact that he does not believe in
God transforms him into a pessimist.

2.3.1. The characterization of Michael Henchard

In the beginning of the novel Hardy portrays Henchard as horrible man who
sells his wife to a sailor, Newman. He sold them in a moment of madness, he was
drunk and by pleasure he made a bargain with Newman. When he wakes up from
that state of mind he realises that he had made a huge mistake which is very hard to
fix. He begins to look for them but it is too hard and too late to find them, so he
swears that he will stop drinking for twenty-one years. He keeps his promise and he
becomes a man of honour. The villagers even consider him an example, they admire
his strengthens and will. But when he finally finds his wife and daughter, he finds out
that in fact Elisabeth- Jane is not his daughter, it results that is Newmans daughter.
After he find out the truth he starts to treat Elisabeth very cold. In the final of the
novel Henchard proves to be very appreciated by the readers. Even if he made lots of
mistakes and had moments of weakness he is like a model for the readers because he
managed to face his fate with honour (SparkNote on the Characterization, web).
I think that Hardy wanted to show us through the character of Henchard how a man
can change when he proposes it. And he also wanted to show us how a man can
accept his fate, his destiny (Roberts, The Mayor of Casterbridge, 31)
The novelist has isolated himself. The birthplace of the novel is
the solitary individual, who is no longer able to express himself
by giving examples of his most important concerns, is himself
uncounseled, and cannot counsel others... In the midst of lifes
fulness, and through the representation of this fulness, the novel
gives evidence of the profound perplexity of the living.

42
(Benjamin as qtd by Nemesvari, Thomas Hardy, Sensationalism,
and the Melodramatic Mode, 7)

43
 Chapter III. Symbols and Themes in Tomas Hardys Poems

Hardy always preferred poetry rather that fiction.The publication of Wessex

Poems meant also his first significant publivc appearance as a poet. Some of his
poems are grouped by subjects or by themes. He has 11 War Poems: Drummer
Hodge, The Souls of the Slain. He also has philosophical poems: The Mother
Mourns, The Subalterns, To an Unborn Pauper Child. It is important to say that
his style does not change over time (Millgate, Thomas Hardy, 3).
In 1903, 1905, and 1908 he published the three volumes of The Dynasts
which was very successful. The Dynasts is a huge poetic drama which initially was
not meant for performance. Michael Millgate suggested that
The Dynasts as a whole served to project his center vision of an
universe governed by the porposeless movements of a blind,
unconscious force that he called the Immanent Will. (Millgate,
Thomas Hardy, 3)
In The Dynasts Hardy portrays the world ruled by the Immanent Will. He suggests
that the Immanent Will can take various forms in order to ruin the humanity.
Hardy is a transitional poet between classicism and romanticism. In this
poems he tells us a wonderful love story about his beloved wife who has left him. In
the first stanza, he wants to leave his town but something stops him: he imagines a
voice calling him, and he believes that is his wife. Also in this poem Hardy used
some stylistic devices in order to make it sound like a song. Omar Jabak, in his work
Critical Analysis of Thomas Hardys The Voice, thinks that
In a word, I think personally that The Voice is a pictorial lyric
miniaturizing pretty long love story that unfortunately does not
culminate in perpetual happy marriage due to the beloveds
desertion. Yet, the poem reflects Hardys sincerest passion for
his lady and highlights his nostalgia for the old days with his

44
 beloved. (Jabak, Critical Analysis of Thomas Hardys The
Voice, web)
Omar Jabak thinks that this poem is a reflection of Hardys sincerest feelings for his
wife who is no longer among us. He also suggests that any woman should fell lucky
if someone declares to her such wonderful words (Jabak, Critical Analysis of
Thomas Hardys The Voice, web)
Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me,
Saying that now you are not as you were
When you had changed from the one who was all to me,
But as at first, when our day was fair. (Mallet, Thomas Hardy:
Texts and Contexts, 27)
Phillip Mallet suggests that Hardys narrative position in this poem is often a
posthumous one (Thomas Hardy: Texts and Contexts, 28). Usually his poems trap
the future: we could say that many of his characters have no idea about their future.
The author always prepares for them a great ending (Mallet, Thomas Hardy: Texts
and Contexts, 28)
Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you, then,
Standing as when I drew near to the town
Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then,
Even to the original air-blue gown!
In one of his late poems the Drinking Song, Hardy speaks about the great people who
took over the world with their inventions. He also portrays the history of human
power under the great scientific discoveries. In some verses he mentions Einstein:
And now comes Einstein with a notion
Not yet quite clear
To many there
That theres no time, no space, no motion,
Nor rathe nor late,
Nor square nor straight,
But just a sort of bending- ocean.
Chorus
Fill full your cups: feel no distress;

45
 Tis only one great thought the less! (Mallet, Thomas Hardy:
Texts and Contexts, 28)

Let Me Enjoy

Another poem of Hardy, Let Me Enjoy, deals with the realities of human existence
and the promises of heaven.
Let me enjoy the earth no less
Because the all enacting Might
That fashioned forth its loveliness
Had other aims than my delight.
Hardy is not despaired when he sees that God has abandoned the human life, and that
humanitys place in the universe is diminishing. In fact, when he recognises Gods
indifference he suggests that this is a good way for the human beings to improve
their condition. Hardy has been named a pessimistic poet because he never
abandoned his pessimistic ideas.
In Maynards opinion, Hardy is a poet who is often accused of looking
backward, he thinks that human can achieve freedom only with a cost that of
living in the past. (Maynard,

Hap

In Hap the speaker tries to illustrate the true reality (Bloom, Thomas Hardy
Comprehensive Research and Study Guide: Blooms Major Poets, 31). In this poem
Hardy uses traditional devices of allegory and personification not the romantic
projection (Bloom, Thomas Hardy Comprehensive Research and Study Guide:
Blooms Major Poets, 34).
It is believed that Hardys Neutral Tones addresses Eliza Nicholls. He met
Eliza in 1863 near Westbourne Park Villas. In the same year she returned in Findon,
her fathers home, and it is also the location of Neutral Tones. Like in Hap, Hardy
continues in Neutral Tones the same theme, that God abandoned him.It is interesting
that in Hap the speaker refers to a superior being that is indifferent to the humans

46
pain, while in Neutral Tones God is absent (Bloom, Thomas Hardy Comprehensive
Research and Study Guide: Blooms Major Poets, 37).
Hardy wrote this sonnet while he was working as an architect, he published
it only in 1898 when it was also included is his volume Wessex Poems. This volume
appeared only after Hardy had built a career as a novelist writer. Although the poem
is presented as three stanzas it is actually considered a sonnet (Welford, Poetry
Analysis Hap by Thomas Hardy, web).
Hap is a sonnet written in 1865, in which the speaker is going through a
crisis of faith. He struggles to find motivation for this indifferent universe which is is
ruled only by chance. The first two stanzas emphasises the authors question why this
world is so cold and indifferent (Bloom, Thomas Hardy Comprehensive Research
and Study Guide: Blooms Major Poets, 25).
We can easily notice that his tone is negative from the lexical field
containing: sorrow, suffering, vengeful, or hate. We also could notice that there is no
capital G in vengeful god, as if he does not consider God a supreme being. Hardy
is disappointed that his happiness cannot last forever and that sooner or later is
replaced by sorrow and suffering (Deeming, Analysis of Hap by Thomas Hardy, web)
If but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,
Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting! (Hardy, The Poetry
Foundation, web)
In this poem we can notice Hardys reaction towards Darwins Origins of Species.
Darwins basic thinking was that our lives are controlled by a mechanism which acts
on purpose, inflicting into our lives pain or a good chance of happiness (Welford,
Poetry Analysis Hap by Thomas Hardy, web).
John Welford suggested that the If clause from the first stanza represents
the vengeful god whose purpose is to cause pain to the people and especially to the
poet. The Then clause from the second stanza represents poets acceptance that he
cannot do anything in order to chance his fate. He portrays himself as defeated by a
supernatural force. Welford also compares Hardys condition as a victim to that of

47
Gloucester in Shakespeares King Lear: As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods,
they kill us for their sport (Welford, Poetry Analysis Hap by Thomas Hardy, web).
So here a question appears: what view of the world we would consider
appropriate? The view that presents the gods as instruments to destroy humans
happiness or the Darwins cosmos which acts mechanically and in which the man can
either be despaired or to have the chance to be happy (Welford, Poetry Analysis Hap
by Thomas Hardy, web):
Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I
Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.
In the third stanza, everything changes. The speaker realises that it is impossible to
fulfil his desired dialogue, because the Powerfuller does not exist.
But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan. . . .
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain. (Hardy, Poetry Foundation, web)
John Welford states that Hap would probably not strike the modern reader as
being anything particularly remarkable. It is well constructed, with a single train of
thought that does not depart down any side tracks. The language is well-controlled,
with every word making an impact (Welford, Poetry Analysis Hap by Thomas
Hardy, web).

Neutral Tones

This poem was also included in Hardys volume Wessex Poems. In this
poem Hardy uses a variety of techniques to highlight the sadness and emotions of the
speaker. He addresses his lover; he tries to made her remember those days of
happiness that they had spend together.

48
 In the first stanza the speaker stays with his lover by a pond in a cold
winter day. The landscape is gloomy and lifeless. He suggests that his tragic
condition is the result of Gods abandonment.
We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
They had fallen from an ash, and were gray. (Hardy, Poetry
Foundation, web)
In the second stanza the speaker tells us what he had felt when he lost his lovers
love.
Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles of years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro
On which lost the more by our love. (Hardy, Poetry
Foundation, web)
In the third stanza, melancholy sets over the thoughts of the lyrical self. He
pronounces to himself his lovers death and his anger becomes stronger when he
remembers that it is Gods fault: The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird a-wing.
In the last stanza, the speakers tone is one of resignation.
Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves. (Hardy,
Poetry Foundation, web)

49
 During Wind and Rain

In the first stanza of this poem the family is presented gathered around the
piano to sing their dearest songs. The poet also reminds us how a human being
changes and eventually fades away. The piano music has been replaced by the sound
of the dead leaves blown by the wind (Moore, Philosophical and Personal Poems,
web)
They sing their dearest songs
He, she, all of themyea,
Treble and tenor and bass,
And one to play;
With the candles mooning each face. . . .
Ah, no; the years O!
How the sick leaves reel down in throngs! (Hardy, Poetry
Foundation, web).
In the second stanza, the characters are clearly preparing for something. In the last
line death is announced. Time which is expressed by the years, the years is
presented as a tool of death:
They clear the creeping moss
Elders and juniorsaye,
Making the pathways neat
And the garden gay;
And they build a shady seat
Ah, no; the years, the years,
See, the white storm-birds wing across. (Hardy, Poetry
Foundation, web)
In the third stanza, death is again emphasized And the rotten rose is ript from the
wall
They are blithely breakfasting all
Men and maidensyea,
Under the summer tree,
With a glimpse of the bay,

50
 While pet fowl come to the knee. . . .
Ah, no; the years O!
And the rotten rose is ript from the wall. (Hardy, Poetry
Foundation, web)
In the last stanza, they seem to be happy.
They change to a high new house,
He, she, all of themaye,
Clocks and carpets and chairs
On the lawn all day,
And brightest things that are theirs. . . .
Ah, no; the years, the years
Down their carved names the rain-drop ploughs. (Hardy,
Poetry Foundation, web)

Hardy and The Dynasts

Hardy was fascinated with the Napoleonic Era long before The Dynasts
was written. He heard in his family all kind of stories about Napoleons battles
(Kupp, Thomas Hardy: Positivism and His Tragic Vision, 81)
Walter Allen has rightly observed: Poetry is the constant attendant of
Hardys tragic characters. It is not an intellectual poetry, like Merediths; it is much
more primitive and magical and always it heightens the significance of the characters
and the readers consciousness of their tragic stature (Allen as qtd by Singh, The
Pattern of Tragedy in the Novels of Thomas Hardy, 190). Allens opinion is that
Hardys poetry is primitive and that it reveals only the tragic condition of his
characters, unlike Meredith who is an intellectual. The age in which Hardy lived was
an insecure one because of the new scientific theories developed by Darwin and
other scientists. This was the reason why Hardy questioned the Christian theology.
He is accused by many critics as being a pessimist, but Hardy justifies his pessimism
by saying that in fact it is not pessimism; it is rather a higher characteristic of his
philosophy (p. 28)

51
 The Darkling Thrush

The poem The Darkling Thrush was originally called The Centurys End
1900. P. J. Merrell suggests that a coppice gate could be taken as literally or
metaphorically, meaning that the coppice gate means something unpleasant and dark.
He also suggests that if we look carefully through this poem we could notice the
negative elements such as grey desolate, weakening, haunted, broken lyres
(Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush, web) that emphasises Hardys tragic
vision. The weakening eye of the day reveals Hardys own view about his future,
about the things that are about to happen. For Merrel one of the most significant
moments is strings of broken lyres (Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush,
web). He thinks that these words metaphorically expresses his own feelings
regarding creativity. Hardy standing at the coppice gate sees a desolate life, a future
that is unbearable for him. And also the lines And all mankind that haunted nigh/
Had sought their household fires (Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush,
web) portrays Hardy as an outsider.
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
(Hardy, Poetry Foundation, web)
In the second stanza, the poet continues with the same melancholic atmosphere, the
same lamentation of death The Centurys corpse, crypt, death-lament. He also
detects the end of renewal that after the winter will pass there is no hope for
springs arrival. Merrell thinks that Hardy is not aware of what is going to happen. In
the last lines Hardy realises that he has no energy to fight for the future, and a
negative mood takes over the poem (Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush,
web)
The land's sharp features seemed to be

52
 The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit up
Seemed fervourless as I. (Hardy, Poetry Foundation,web)
In the third stanza, the moments of sadness and pessimism are overcome by moments
of joy. Hardys atmosphere, tone, feelings of depression are overcome momentarily
by the presence of the voice of the thrush. Merrell feels that the voice that breaks
through the bleak twigs is somehow bursting all the negativity. Hardy notice that
the thrush is frail, gaunt and small, but somehow he manage to fling his soul into
the gloom. So, this stanza expresses the feeling of hope, it makes us think that
nothing is impossible when are able to search our happiness in a negative world
(Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush, web).
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom. (Hardy, Poetry Foundation, web)
In the final stanza, Merrell wonders if the existence of the thrush and the action of
the thrush has changed Hardys view of things. But the realises that because of the
last line And I was unaware, Hardy did not change his point of view. Merrell also
wonder if the existence of the thrush is something that inspires, and removes the
lamentation of death from the poem, or is something for the moment, a moment of
joy which Hardy acknowledges and then he says he is unaware why he feels happy
does. As a conclusion, Merrell suggests that in order to be able to recognize the
message of this poem, we have to recognize that thrush itself represents hope
(Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush, web).

53
 So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware. (Hardy, Poetry Foundation, web)
Hardy wrote the poem The Going for his dead wife Emma. Hardy and his wife
Emma had been married for thirty eight years at the time of her death. Although they
had lived so long together, their marriage was not a happy one. She kept a diary in
which she wrote how miserable she was being married to him. Hardy found it after
her death and began to feel sorry and angry because she suffered a lot because of him
(Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Going, web).
In the first stanza, Merrell notices that Why represents Hardys anger, he
feels anger that his wife abandoned him without telling him. He suffers more about
his own feelings, because he was trapped in that horrible moment rather his wifes
death. He is blaming her for leaving him without saying a word, her death took him
by surprise. For Merrell the third line And calmly, as if indifferent quite ( Merrell,
Thomas Hardy: The Going, web) suggests that the moment Emma left him, she had
no feelings for him, she did no take with her their moments of happiness, she was
indifferent to his feelings. The last three lines emphasize his inability to follow her
even if he had had wings Where I could not follow/With wing of swallow(Merrell,
Thomas Hardy: The Going, web). Merrell argues that her leaving which is
emphasised by the morrows dawn (Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Going, web)
represents the disruption of the order (Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Going, web).
The second stanza emphasises the same idea like in the first one: the
disruption of the order, and his feeling of anger for having abandoned him. The most
important aspect revealed by Merrell in this stanza is the line That your great going
gives a great meaning to the title. We discover that Emmas death is very significant
(Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Going, web).

54
 In the third stanza the author returns to the same interrogation Why?
Merrell wonders whether Hardy is sad because Emma died or he is sad because he is
alone (Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Going, web).
In the fourth stanza, Hardys feelings take a different shift. He becomes
very nostalgic, and he remembers the times which he spent with Emma at Benny-
Crest. Hardy had also a poem entitled Benny Crest in which he expresses his love for
Emma. In The Going he compares her with a swan, he compares her beauty to that of
a swan You were the swan- necked one who rode. In Merrells view, the line While
Life enrolled us its very best, reflects their best moments spent together (Merrell,
Thomas Hardy: The Going, web).
In the fifth stanza the author again returns to the same interrogation. In this
stanza the speaker wonders why they did not communicate enough while she was
alive, he tries to seek the reason of their unhappiness. Hardy realises that there were
good things in their relationship and now he is sorry that he did not took advantage
of those things (Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Going, web).
In the last stanza the speaker compares himself with a dead man walking.
He feels that no one can undone his suffering (Merrell, Thomas Hardy: The Going,
web).

55
 Conclusion

In my paper, Elements of the Tragic in Thomas Hardys Poems and Novels,

I wanted to show Thomas Hardys way of thinking, the reason he thinks that way,
and how he is seen/perceived by readers and critics. As I have mentioned before,
Hardy does not believe in the ultimate victory of good over evil. He is convinced that
a man cannot change his destiny, because apparently there is a certain force, I could
say that an evil force, a force which rules our life. At first, when I read his novels and
poems, it seemed to me that he is upset with life. I thought that life had disappointed
him and that was why his style of writing is seen as tragic even nowadays. I even
though that he had a miserable childhood (because it is often the case), but it wasnt
like that, he actually had a happy childhood as his biographers mention. Although he
was not rich he lived in comfort all his life. So, as previously stated, in the beginning
I considered him a pessimist, but after I read his biography and I began to analyze
more carefully his novels and poems; what I came to realize was the fact that he is
not actually a pessimist. The tragic vision notable in his poetic and narrative works is
just his way of seeing things; it is just a different way of seeing things. I know that
many writers and critics criticized him for his view, which was against religion and
also against the institution of marriage, but Thomas Hardy only wanted to underline
that marriage brings unhappiness to people. Similarly, living without being married is
bad thing, too, because the society of that time was not ready for this kind of liberal
actions. The society would judge and punish very harshly these things.
In my opinion, Hardy is a great man and complete writer: poet, novelist,
and most importantly a great thinker. He was one of the few writers who were able to
understand and practically use Charles Darwins theory of evolution in his fiction as
one form of tragic. He realized what Darwin wanted to explain through that theory of
evolution (as opposed to the only one existing up to that moment that of Biblical
creation), he realized that in fact Darwin wanted to show the meaning of our
existence. So Hardy adopted his theory and began to write poems and novels which
would reflect very well the meaning of our existence, and he succeed it. In Jude, he

56
showed how the characters, Sue and Jude would fight against their own destiny. In
other novels, Hardy gives more significance to male characters, for example in The
Mayor of Casterbridge, in the scene in which he sold his wife and daughter. We can
notice the domination of men upon women. And also in Tess, where Angel and Alec
manipulates her, and Tess has nothing to say regarding her tragic situation. We can
actually make a comparison between Tess and Michael Henchards wife Susan. They
both seem to be like some caged animals, only that they are not in a real cage, but in
a worst one: the society. The society is presented like a cage for them because they
always depend by someone.
In Tess there appear some birds which Tess kills them in order to be free.
The moment in which she kills the birds shows that in fact she kills a part of her.
After she kills those birds she is not the same anymore, she is a different person. I
think that the moment in which she kills Alec she does not care for her, she realizes
that she has nothing to lose. All the time she had been questioning why people judge
her because she considered that her sin was not that serious, she did not considered
herself a sinner. In my opinion, Tess was innocent. As a woman I could understand
her reasons. I am not saying that killing someone is the best solution to get rid of a
person, I am saying that we should not blame her because in a moment of madness
anyone would be capable of doing such a horrible thing. She knew that it was wrong
to kill him but she had no choice. For her it was worst to live near him knowing that
he is the source of her pain, and especially knowing that because of him she had lost
Angel.
As a woman, I understand Tess, because in my opinion we should not
suffer for other people, especially for the people who do not want us in their life, or
the people which caused us a lot of pain, because there is no point. I think that each
person should fight for his rights, for his happiness. In Jude I wanted to emphasize
the importance of the institution of marriage. I just wanted to show how the society
back then would react to such things. Sue appears to be cold and distant from Jude,
and probably she is criticized for this. But in my opinion she should not be blamed. A
woman is not forced to like or to respect a man if he hurts her. Indeed I cant say that
Jude caused her a physical pain, but made her suffer in a different way. I think that
Jude is Sues source of pain, because if it hadnt been for Jude, Little Father Time

57
hadnt been at all and Sue might have been happy. And also in the beginning of the
novel Jude struggled to find various ways to keep Sue near him. It would have better
if Sue would have loved Phillotson, with him she could have been very happy, that is
too bad that she did not loved him. We can see that at end of the novel Phillotson
becomes her refugee, in other words we can say that he is her only hope in order to
face what life prepared for her. So I consider that Jude and Little Father Time are
instruments of fate, because if it had not been for them this novel wouldnt have been
seen as a tragic one. Many people would think that Hardy is a cruel man who likes to
cause pain to his characters or even worst, that he likes to cause pain to women, but it
is not like that. Hardy even advantages Tess by giving her the power to choose
eventually her own fate. He gives her more significance than he gave to Alec.
Although in the beginning of the novel he gives more significance to male
characters, at the end he considers that Tess should decide her own destiny. But
because of the hand of fate decides wrong, and then she has no other way than to
accept her fate.
I cannot say that I am a person who truly believes in Fate, Chance, and
Coincidence, but after I analyzed Hardys poems and novels I would dare to admit
that there really is Fate. But I also think that there is a God, a good God who protects
us, and in order to obtain his forgiveness and protection, first we have to truly believe
in him. So, I have to say that I admire Hardy view of life, his way of understanding
things, but I do not think that he should feel this sorrow, especially in his poems,
because life is beauty. It is true that sometimes bad things happen to us, but the
solution is to ignore them and think positive. And if we lose someone we loved like
Hardy did, we have to think that there is no point in crying and regretting all the
things that could have happen. The best solution is to move over and continue to live
freely. I know that when bad things happen to us we feel that our world is falling
apart but we must think that eventually our pain will stop. Time heals everything,
even the deepest wounds. Time helps us to forget all the pain. In Hardys novels
Time is presented like an instrument which works against happiness, Time changes
the characters view of life, it transforms them into pessimists.
As I said before, I think that Time represents our solution when we feel
that Fate tricked us. We have to be aware that nothing lasts forever, nor pain, neither

58
happiness. But the most intelligent thing to do is to look forward because the future
might offer us a chance to be happy. Of course that we might consider that as Time
passes our days on this earth pass too, but in order to be happy we have to sacrifice
certain things such as our youth. So, I think that the tragic elements: Fate, Chance,
and Coincidence are actually some tasks which we should fulfill. We have to
experiment pain in order to gain happiness. God wants to see how we react in these
situations, so I consider that if we suffer then God really exists because we cannot
achieve the stage of happiness without experimenting pain. It is important to say that
we have to accept our pain in order to achieve happiness. If we repent for what we
have done then we will achieve happiness. I might say that the pain of Hardys
characters is a task given by God. Tess was not able to fulfill it, she decided to make
justice by her own: she commits a murder. Her rape was a task, the ideal thing to do
was to forgive Alec but instead she killed him. Sue, on the other hand was willing to
accept her destiny, she went back to Phillotson for consolation.
All I can say is that Thomas Hardy knows how illuminate, see, and
experiment certain things. Hardy proves to deeply understand peoples pain and
therefore manages to present his characters in order to catch our interest. His
characters prove to be a good example for every type of reader.

59
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