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Victorian Novel

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was considered the only tragic novelist of the Victorian era. His novels were compared to Greek tragedies in their philosophical interpretation of what Hardy observed about human beings and their relationship with nature and the rhythms of the seasons. The main conflict in his works was between man and blind destiny or an immanent will that ruled over them. Nature played a key role, sometimes offering shelter but often being an enemy or vessel of blind destiny. Hardy unveiled realities of Victorian society that were typically hidden, like sexual relations outside of marriage. He showed characters realizing they were merely puppets of history and instruments of the immanent will.

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Catalina B. Ioanna
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198 views2 pages

Victorian Novel

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was considered the only tragic novelist of the Victorian era. His novels were compared to Greek tragedies in their philosophical interpretation of what Hardy observed about human beings and their relationship with nature and the rhythms of the seasons. The main conflict in his works was between man and blind destiny or an immanent will that ruled over them. Nature played a key role, sometimes offering shelter but often being an enemy or vessel of blind destiny. Hardy unveiled realities of Victorian society that were typically hidden, like sexual relations outside of marriage. He showed characters realizing they were merely puppets of history and instruments of the immanent will.

Uploaded by

Catalina B. Ioanna
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Curs 5- victorian novel

Thomas Hardy( 1840-1928)

- The only tragic novelist


- His novels have been compared with the greek tragedy
- D.Daiche-“without the philosophical interpretation of what Hardy saw and felt his work might
have aproximated in scope the traditional ballad;but if he had not seen human beings in depth
in their relation to the traditional skils to the work and rhytm of the seasons he would probably
not have been superior to other novelist of his time who interpreted men according to the
determinastic philosophy of the day. They for all their pitty for menkind do not achive more
then pathetic, Hardy rises to tragedy and his tragedy belonges to the nature of the univers as he
saw it.”
- The main conflict in his work- negelts society and the conflict is between man- Blind Destiny
/Immanent will
- Men is ruled by an immanent will/force
- They all try to surface their condition
1. Time is an illusion , any event is a specification of similar events
2. Desire and distance are the 2 important elements in human destiny
- Distance- source of desire never fullfiled
- Desire- is saw as the energy behind attempts to turn distance into closeness
- The setting – an imaginary region Wessex- steeped in history and tradition
His theoryes are against urbanization and Industrial Revolution
- There are conflicts – men- Blind Desiny/ Immediate will
- nature may constitute a real character in the novels
it may be a shelter- offers protection
in most of the cases it is an enemy /a recipient of Blind Destiny

Egdon Heath the setting of the novel- The return of the Native
heath- campie arida

nature is treated in a romantic work- bloomed, alived


dark , sombre- the tragic destiny of the characters

he approaches taboo subjects- sexual relations out of marriage


- he showed the reality behind the Victorian society
-he unveiled different aspects of victorian age

-the status of women

Tess of the D’Urberviles

her name- Tess Durberyfield

Jude the Obscure- has a man in the centre


Arabella Donne-a sexual woman
Sue Bridehead- school mistress ; she s the new woman
- Jude is caughto between flesh and reason, nature and culture

Far from the madding crowd-


- setting- on a farm , on the country side
Bathsheba Everdeen- she s married many times but she remains with Gabriel Oak( stejar)- he’s
faithful to her

the return of the native


- it has in its centre- Clym Yeobright- he has a wife Eustacia Vye- she thought he’ll change her
destiny
Hardy s characters archived a moment of self awareness of realization that they are meire
puppets of history that they have been unknowingly the instruments of the immanent will that
stires and urges everything.
placing the sources of this power inside nature Hardy achieves that magnificent cosmic view of
nature which gives tragic values to his character struggle. Nature sustains history keeping the
past alive and ensuring its repetition in cyclical patterns . The theme of social change and its
power to destroy the old rural ways of life runs through Hardy s fiction like the fascination of a
child who’d dream.

" The rural communities that the main characters try to live are key factors in Hardy s view of
life. the are the environment where from tome to time dramas of grandeur and unity truly take
place. And this rural communities play a chorus in ancient tragedy. "

Modernist elements in Hardy’


- s works .
- the psychological concern - the narrator penetrates into the mind of the character
- preoccupation for the form of the novel-
"Hardy’s novels are organized around symmetrical recurrences of theme and motif each
prominent motif balancing a similar one in another part of the book a pillar , a gable or a
window here to match a pillar , a gable of a window there."
-
He insists on a certain element of subjectivity
- Subjective realism

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