Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy is one of he most outstanding English writers who was severely criticized during his life and was recognized as a real genius only later but it makes him, his life and his work, even more attractive for readers than many others. We have to admit that his literary work was very unusual for his time and could hardly be understood and accepted by critics. In my paper, I am going to focus on the biography of this prominent writer and some of his main works and first of all, it is necessary to study the biography of the writer and it would certainly help us realize what kind of person he was and what influenced his literary work because in my opinion there is always more or less strong link between the authors personal life and his work.

So, Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset, England, in 1840, in the family of a stonemason. As for the social position of his family, we may define it as a middle-class family because his father was quite wealthy and respected pers on. As it often happens, Thomas Hardy followed the example of his father and he studied architecture. It is also worthy to say that his personality also began to form in the local pArticular atmosphere. It was a calm, provincial, rural life of conservative Englishmen who remembered well the past of their country and respected old traditions. Naturally, Thomas Hardy also acquired some similar traits of character though his literary works could hardly be named conservative but, on the contrary, I would call them revolutionary. But I would discuss it a bit later, now I would concentrate my attention mainly on his biography.

So, as I have already said he became an architect but he had other inclinations and pArticularly strong was his inclination to literature. But he had to earn his living and at the age of 22 he left his native town and moved to London where he worked as an assistant of a London architect, named Arthur Blomfield. However his professional work was not sufficient for Thomas Hardy, he also studied Greek tragedy, modern philosophy, and finally stArted to write his own literary works and his first attempts were made in poetry though not very successfully. City life was unbearable for Thomas Hardy, who was a country person, and health problems forced him to return to his native town and there he worked as architect combining it with a literary work. Here he wrote his first novel The Poor Man and the Lady that was not even published. His next novel, Desperate Remedies (1871), was published though without great success. But success came soon to this talented writer with his novel Under the Greenwood Tree (1872). Soon after its publication Thomas Hardy became a professional writer and created a lot of other remarkable novels and poems. After the publication of A Pair of Blue Eyes, which were well accepted by both readers and critics, Thomas Hardy had decided to become a professional writer. His most successful works were written in 1870s-1890s that was the period of great achievements in his creative work. Among the most famous novels written by Thomas Hardy we can name The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the dUbervilles (1891), Jude the Obscure (1896), and many others. Unfortunately, under the influence of the growi ng critics he decided to give up writing novels and the rest of his life worked on poems only and until his death in 1928 he wrote over 800 poems.

Now I would like to dwell upon the most outstanding and most famous novels written by Thomas Hardy. One of the most criticized and at the same time one of the most popular novels written by this author is the novel Tess of the dUbervilles (1891). The novel shows how poor country girl struggles for happiness but finally she fails in this struggle. The Main character, Tess, is a girl from an ancient family who was seduced by Alec dUbervilles and born a child, which died soon. She tried to normalize her life married Angel Clare but when he knew about the child he left Tess. She, in her turn, because of tragic circumstances became a mistress of Alec dUbervilles. On the return of her husband, she killed Alec but was arrested and hanged. The author raises very important problems that were traditionally ignored, he writes about a w oman in a patriarch society where men reigns and how she breaks traditional moral and values for the sake of love and personal happiness. So we may speak about this novel as about the precursor of coming female emancipation and the demand of equal rights for men and women. It also made the readers to evaluate their views on the role of a woman, her personal life and cultural traditions existing in the country. This novel was very original and I would say unusual and to certain extent extraordinary or even extravagant, but it was severely criticized because it didnt correspond to existing moral norms and the story of a girl, which, being pure and noble by nature (not occasionally the subtitle of the novel is A Story of a Pure Woman), was set in the circumstances that ruined her life and who broke traditional not only legal but moral laws as well, was absolutely unacceptable for critics and for the conservative pArt of the society and as a result the novel was called immoral.

However, this label stuck to some other novels written by Thomas Hardy. For instance, Jude the Obscure, which was close by theme to Tess of the dUbervilles was also not accepted by critics. The main character, Jude ended the life by suicide because of ill-fated marriage and again we may say that the author regards at the problem of marriage and the fate of a woman that is often so tragic. In both novels, the main characters died and the cause, or at least its nature was similar, unhappy life in marriage and problems within the family. Close to these two novels are The Return of the Native and The Mayor of Casterbridge. In the former Eustacia Vye, the main character, drowns or commits suicide when she wanted to see her lover, whereas in the latter the main character, Michael Henchard, suffers from rumors all his life because he deserted his family. So, again we see similar problems and themes, unhappy marriage, family life, violation of moral norms and traditional values.

Thus, we see that the author raised problems which were actual but, at the same time, shocking for wide audience and critics which did not accept those of his novels which they considered to be scandalous. The result of such lack of understanding from the pArt of the critics was Thomas Hardys decision to give up writing novels. In my opinion, both readers and critics lost a lot after such decision of the writer but still he used his experience and his talent in the field of poetry maybe not so successfully but still noteworthy.

Anyway, Thomas Hardy made a great contribution in the development of not only English but the world literature as well and his works, being innovative for his time, remain quite actual and up-to-date and that is the main heritage of this great writer that we can study, analyze and simply enjoy.

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Author:: Aaron SchwArtz
Keywords:: Thomas Hardy
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