The title of your publicationThomas Hardy Essay

Neutral Tones

In the poem Neutral Tones, Thomas Hardy describes the end of a relationship. Neutral Tones was written in 1867, and was included as part of the collection Wessex Poems and Other Verses. The poem is presented as a dramatic monologue that reflects Hardy's pessimistic and depressed views, which are shown throughout many of his poems.

In stanza 1, Hardy describes the scene, whilst not describing the lover that he is with. The neutral colours 'sod' and 'gray' expresses a sense of bleakness and reflects Hardy's bitterness towards the incident. The poet describes dead leaves lying on the ground from an ash tree, which reinforces the bleak scene. Ash has multiple meanings, referring to the ash tree, the grey substance that is a product of combustion and human ashes from cremation, reinforcing the idea of death and of neutral colours. In addition, the poet describes the sun as 'white, as though chidden of God', instead of the normal descriptions of the sun as being bright and yellow. This further contributes towards the sense of bleakness in the scene. ...show more content...

The words 'tedious', 'lost', 'bitterness' and 'ominous' convey a bleak tone of death and depression. The first and second lines of the second stanza: 'Your eyes on me... riddles of years ago' reveals that the couple have had many similar arguments without any progress over the years. Furthermore, while smiles are normally associated with happiness and pleasure, Hardy describes the lover's smile as 'the deadest thing / Alive enough to have strength to die', suggesting that their love has become meaningless. Hardy compares the lover's grin to an 'ominous bird–a–wing', which symbolises Hardy's lost

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Written in 1866, Thomas Hardy 's poem "Hap" is a response to the nineteenth century movements of secularization and the Industrial Revolution. In the poem, Hardy echoes Christopher Marlowe 's earlier wrestling with the question of predestination and free will. His narrator laments the heartbreak he faces because he is unable to place blame on a god bent on revenge. However, unlike Marlowe, Hardy resolves the question, stating that misfortunes, as well as well as life 's pleasures, are simply the cause of "hap" or chance. In an age of steady secularization and religious questioning, Hardy reflects these ideologies in his poem. Hardy uses an experimental sonnet form and ambiguous language to show the unpredictability of life, stemming from the lack of God or other higher beings, and ultimately suggests that the bad, and good, things in life are unavoidable, and no amount of praying or belief in a more powerful god can change pure coincidence and chance.

"Hap" defies any definitive sonnet type, adding to the general feeling of suspense and unpredictability in the poem. Furthermore, it proves Hardy's point that good and bad hap are unavoidable. Instead of following a traditional structure, "Hap" is more of a mixture of Shakespearean and Italian form. It has two quatrains and a sestet; traditionally, a Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet, and an Italian sonnet has an octave and a sestet. This intriguing mixture adds a sense of confusion and unpredictability,

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Thomas Hardy's views on God and Religion<p>

Thomas Hardy was born into a religious family and brought up with very Christian values and morals. As he matured and was exposed to the new ideas of the time, he became conflicted in his views about God and religion. He was criticized for writings that many of his peers considered to be obscene, immoral and blasphemous. Throughout his adult life, Hardy considered himself to be an agnostic. His poems show that he was much more complicated than that. His writings show a Christian who was tormented by the fact that he was no longer able to believe in the church doctrine. He had a conflicted soul that was searching for some meaning. This is evident in his poetry,...show more content... Then at least life would not be so random and man would have some kind of notion of what to expect. Instead the Fates are responsible for our sorrow, not because they take pleasure in doing so, but because they are "partly blind" and do so for no reason. In the last two lines Hardy writes that "These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown / Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain."(13–14) For Hardy, the sorrow and pain are that much worse because they could have just as easily been joy and bliss. Instead of finding some kind of purpose or reason, Hardy sees only a universe ruled by the laws of nature. It has been said that Hardy was influenced by Darwin and perhaps this poem records Hardy's troubled response to Evolutionary Theory. The scientific advances of the time were a direct contradiction to the ChristianGod with whom Hardy was raised. This was probably very frightening and confusing. In Hap Hardy longs for the time of his youth, a more innocent time with the universe controlled by a benevolent higher power.<p> In contrast, Channel Firing shows not blind fate but a cruel and uncaring god who is running the show. The poem begins as the dead are awakened by the loud noise of guns being fired by a ship at sea. Hardy writes:

That night your great guns, unawares, Shook all our coffins as we lay, And broke the chancel window–squares,

We thought it was the Judgment–day (1–4)<p>

The religious implications are immediately obvious as we are Get more content

Many critics and commentators think of tragedy as a broad thematic concept that covers the majority of Hardy's work (Wright, 2003; Brooks, 1971; Goodheart, 1957; Lawrence, 1936; Johnson, 1923). D. H. Lawrence (1936) comments that tragedy is a central concept in many of Hardy's novels and places Hardy as a great writer of tragedy at the same level as Sophocles, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy. The tragic approach to understanding Hardy's work is very old. The first one to discuss it on tragic grounds seems to be Lionel Johnson. His book The Art ofThomas Hardy, first published in 1894, drew attention to the tragic elements in Hardy's works. The assumption was that Hardy's works reflect a sad tragic tone, an insistence on man's unhappiness in...show more content...

And, on Aristotelian grounds, Hardy is always blamed for the role of coincidence in his tragedies. The plots of his tragedies lack the logic of cause and effect that are convincing for his readers. Coincidence has a great part for instance in Tess of D'Urbervilles, The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Jude the Obscure (Paterson, 1991; Brooks, 1971; Johnson, 1923). This may be the reason that Johnson (1923) argues that Hardy was not a pure Aristotelian. However, he admits that Hardy was a unique tragedy writer as he could integrate classical tragedy and modern realistic thought successfully.

On the other hand, it is argued that Hardy has his own sense of tragedy which makes him unique and different from classical and Renaissance tragedians: He is not committed to Aristotle's rules of tragedy or to those of any clearly defined school (Kramer, 1975; Lawrence, 1936). The protagonists of Hardy, Lawrence explains, are real people. Unlike the Greek classical protagonist, they are opposed by their own society not rules of Nature. His tragedy thus becomes the struggle of man/woman against the merciless conditions of modern society, a society which restricts and denies the rights of the poor and common to lead a dignified life: Hardy's people find themselves up against the established system of morality, they cannot detach themselves, and are brought down (Lawrence, 1936). In this, Lawrence suggests that the tragedy of Hardy is best discussed in Get more content

Thomas Hardy is an intriguing and enigmatic poet whose poetic themes deviate from war, nature and heroism to love, the transience of life and the death of the soul. Though penned some eighty years ago, the poetry of Thomas Hardy remains remarkably accessible and identifiable to a modern reader. While some critic's claim that his poetic writing is archaise. His language elegant but awkward and his work difficult to comprehend, I enjoyed the poetry of Hardy for its diversity of themes, its earthly realism and his descriptive and metaphorical language. I identified and empathised with his poetry of love and loss, change and decay. Whether he is describing the transience of life and the onslaught of time "Down their carved names the raindrop...show more content...

It is "hundred miles away", and thus the land described assumes magical, mythical significance Repetition, particularly of the word "Lyonnesse", and rhyme contribute to the musical quality of the poem.

There is a contrast between the narrator's demeanour at the outset and the demeanour of the poet upon return from his journey. Hardy captures the sense of transformation as a result of falling in love. While initially feeling only "lonesomeness", the poet returned with "magic in my eyes". This line is significant as it is another reference to a childlike, dream like world, perhaps depicting that the feeling is 'make believe' or artificial, much like a child's fantasy world. The transforming nature of love and happiness is reinforced in the final lines. The transformation is so immense that "All marked with mute surmise".

Written ten days after the sinking of the Titanic on her maiden voyage with the loss of 1513 lives, the "Convergence of the Twain" was initially written for a gala in aid of the Titanic Disaster Fund. Essentially, "The Convergence of the Twain" is a social commentary and social critique of human vanity and "pride of life" which were expressed in the opulent style of the ship's construction. While the loss of the titanic was a very human tragedy and despite the fact that two of Hardy's friends were among the dead, Hardy appears less concerned with lamenting or remembering the dead as he

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Was Thomas Hardy the most respected of Contemporary poets? Many people would argue for and against this topic. In reality this should not be a very hard decision or opinion to make. This is because Thomas Hardy's poem were not his best work. He got his fame and fortune from writing his novels. Although Thomas Hardy was more of a novelist he considered himself to be a poet than a novelist. Thomas always told people that he was a "bookworm" and that's why he continued to do poems. Hardy's career as a poet was not very successful as many of his poems were rejected and not published. It took Hardy years later after he wrote his poems to get them published. Even after he got his poems published they were not very popular or well known to the public....show more content...

I do not believe Thomas Hardy was not one of the most respected of contemporary poets. He should not even be mentioned in that list. In my opinion, Thomas Hardy was more of a novelist then a poet. Hardy got all his fame and fortune from his novels. For this reason, he was able to write poetry because he had nothing to lose. He already had all the fame and fortune he wanted, so writing poetry would not affect him in a negative way. Adequately, his career as a poet was successful and his goal of becoming a poet became a reality. It is the year of 1870 and I am writing this journal to liberate the things on my mind. I have met the love of my life, Emma Glifford. She wants a marriage but I cannot afford one at the moment. I am writing my novel hoping that it will get published. I still am without a clue what to name the novel. I am in desperate remedy to find a name. If all goes well, this novel will bring me wealth. I am petrified at the idea that Emma will leave my side for another man. I will do one's utmost to make sure this novel gets published for my future wife.

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Thomas Hardy was born June 2, 1840 in Higher Bockhampton, in the county of Dorset. He grew with a passion of music and literature from his parents. He was first educated by a village school provided by Mrs. Julia Martin, and his mother encouraged him to read many books. However, he could not afford to attend a higher school, so he was apprenticed by John Hicks, a church architect. He then moved to London, where he worked with another architect, Arthur Blomfield. However, he fell ill and returned to Dorset.

Dorset is an important place that Hardy draws many experiences for his writing. In 1840, Dorset was slow with change, compared to the rest of England. For example the railroad did not spread to the county until Hardy was seven years old. This slow changed allowed folk traditions of this small population last longer, giving Hardy more time to adapt to it. "During his early years Hardy was to witness the hand of change at work on landscape and rural community at the same time that his own intellectual and emotional development was leading him in directions for which family history offered no precedent" (Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography)....show more content... He continued with this writing style over the next twenty one years, writing some of his finest novels. For example The Return of the Native, in which he dramatically symbolizes natural forces. Sometimes, Hardy would write about conflicts in Victorian society, human love, sexuality, anti–Christianity, and pessimism. This gained lots of criticism and harsh disapproval, which discouraged him; therefore, Hardy began writing poetry. Hardy's poetry consist of a sermon on pessimistic themes, but his lyrical power is praised. He began with the Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898), and ended with his epic verse drama The Get more content

Thomas Hardy's Tragic Stories

For centuries, various writers have endeavored to encapsulate the constituents of tragedy, and create works of literature that adhere to their understanding of an ostensibly universal system of tragic structure, tragic plot, and tragic theme. Nevertheless, the etymology of the word, "tragedy," proves to be as elusive and arcane as the tragic construct is seeminglyconcrete and unequivocal; indeed, the word, "tragedy," can be traced to the Greek word, "tragoidia," which literally means, "goat–song." We do not know whether actors in the Choral Odes read their lines clad in goatskins, or if goats were bestowed as prizes; we do know, however, that Aristotle reconfigured the more bucolic play tradition, and, ...show more content... He reformulates his tragedies based on the idea of the Immanent Will, even while he incorporates, so tenaciously, the tragic elements of his predecessors: Aristotle, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, the mystery play tradition, and, of course, Shakespeare. Hardy, therefore, is a figure who stands on the abyss of modern tragedy even while he plants himself firmly in the embrace of his literary antecedents.

Perplexity surrounding Hardy and tragedy is compounded when we consider that he was neither atheist nor religious, and ascribed to the school of meliorism, whose basic tenet was to improve the world through the sympathetic balance of optimism and pessimism, love and loathing, and happiness and pain; indeed, sympathy typifies Hardy's perspective on the world, and we must extend this perspective to his own meliorist vision of tragedy. For Hardy, the tragic stage is none other than Nature herself, and this natural stage ultimately consumes the very characters that he places upon it. If we peer closely into the world of Edgon Heath, the stage that comprises, in some form or another, Hardy's three major novels–The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Tess of the d'Urbervilles– we see that the protagonist of each story unites with this mysterious entity by each novel's Get more content

Out of so many authors, writers, and poets, Thomas Hardy was far the most sincere and the most famous writer that made an impact in English literature during the Victorian times. He accomplished many things and wrote a lot of books, poems, and novels. Most of his stories were not really similar to the plot of his life, but his writing career lasted about fifty years long maybe more. At first publishers rejected some of his very first novels and poetry, but even though this occurred he kept doing what he did best and that was to write.Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840 in Higher BockHampton, Dorset. His father was a master mason and a builder while his mother was a servant girl. Thomas appreciated music because of his father, picked...show more content...

When he moved back they asked him to plan a restoration for a church at St. Joliet in 1870. In the church of St. Joliet he met a girl with the name of Emma Gifford who he later married in 1874. Emma supported Thomas and told him to keep writing. Since he did not gain much attention from the public for his poetry a novelist named George Merideth told him to write a novel. His very first novel was The Poor Man and the Lady written in 1867; because it was rejected so many times Thomas decided to burn the manuscript. In the year 1871 Thomas's first novel Desperate Memories was published. At first critics didn't pay much attention to the novel and its selling was very bad. After what had happened with his first novel he decided to write another called Under the Greenwood Tree which made him a little bit more popular but still wasn't very known. Since most of his books are fiction the novel Under the Greenwood Tree some features as the place where Thomas Hardy had grown up, including the village school in Dorchester where Thomas had attended. On the year 1872 he made another novel and was called A Pair of Blue Eyes and the novel also didn't get him any further, but was published in the Tinsley Magazine. His real big success was the entertaining novel Far from the Madding Crowd that was published in 1874 by the Comhill Magazine. It also was the first novel to apply the name Wessex to the landscape of England. Finally this novel Get more content

Analysis Of The Going By Thomas

Hardy

"The Going" by Thomas Hardy initially appears as a poem regarding the death of a woman that was close to the speaker. The speaker is evidently distraught throughout the poem as he tries to understand the death of the woman by continually asking the dead questions. When we examine the poem closer, specifically through the language and structure of the poem, it appears as if the speaker is searching for an explanation behind the woman's death, and perhaps an answer for death as a whole. Ultimately, the poem serves as a way toquestion death's significance and also acts as an analysis of the speaker's relationship with death as he tries to accept the death of a close individual in his life; he eventually comes to the conclusion that there is no answer or explanation to death. The poem begins with the speaker asking an unseen person "why." He questions "Why did you give no hint that night" (1), leading us to believe that the speaker is resentful about the woman's death due to him questioning her and suggesting that she was aware that she would pass that night. The vernacular in this line implies the speaker is very clearly surprised by this death and that he is searching for answers because he begins by asking a question, telling the dead she gave "no hint," and he also mentions that it was "quick." It is clear that the death was unexpected and rattled the speaker due to him questioning the deceased. However, the speaker is questioning someone who is not present, so the audience can assume he is questioning the deceased. By doing this, the poet seems slightly accusatory because there is no response to his remarks. Each time he asks the question of why, the speaker is left to his own thoughts and has to continue to wonder why for himself; he searches for the truth from the dead which also illustrates their closeness due to the fact he is looking for the truth of the situation from the deceased. Instead, the reader is left with a feeling that the deceased is at blame somehow for their own death. Similarly, the speaker's use of "you" does not force the speaker to question why they did not notice the deceased's state of being before they died. We can interpret this questioning as a shift of guilt onto the dead's

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"Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?" by English poet Thomas Hardy was published on September 27, 1913. In this deliberative poem, Hardy uses a dialogue form to carry out the story of a deceased woman who is wondering who the "digger" of her grave is and desiring that someone she love is missing her. Finally, through a devastating disappointment it turns out that the "digger" was only her dog burying its bone. Though out the poem, Thomas Hardy's uses a humorous tone to depict the theme of "No love or hate outlasts death" that everyone eventually will be forgotten after time; with personification, repetition, irony and symbolism, Hardy effectively created a somber, disappointed and negative view on human state.

Personification is successfully...show more content...

As mentioned in the poem, "My loved one? Planting rue?" (l. 2) Rue has two meanings. It can be the leaves of a plant with bitter, strongly scented smell or it can means regret and sorrow. It symbolizes the bad relationship between the dead woman and her husband. As the other meaning, regret and sorrow is what the woman thought her husband should be experiencing. When someone dies, people usually put beautiful flowers beside the grave. However, she believes that her husband will plant rue instead if he even came. Therefore, readers can see the worse relationship between them. Further more, in the last stanza of this poem it states, "to bury a bone" (l. 32), this statement also has a deeper meaning than what it means literally, it also symbolizes the death of the woman. It implies that how people she knew while she was alive now view on her. To them, she is just a bunch of bones, meaning she is not Get

HAP 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!" Then would I bear, and clench myself, and die, Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited; Half–eased, too, that a Powerfuller than I Had willed and meted me the tears I shed. 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. HAP ANALYSIS Firstly the word 'hap ' means 'that which happens by chance. ' The poem is a sonnet, although it...show more content... Line 11, there is an alliteration of ВґCВґ, "crass casualty" that creates a sharp angry yet satisfying tone. Personification is the device seen in this sonnet as it is seen at line 9,"joy lies slain" where joy is seen as a person being killed by an assassin, hence being slain. Line 12, time is personified as a gambler who throws a "moan" as he is throwing the dice in an attempt for it to land on happiness. The persona challenges god fiercely in an outraged tone, a sad tone is being detected in hardy's witting because god is such a powerful being that rains down misfortunes on humans, so he targets his anger towards the deity. He is frustrated in the last stanza thus resulting in him regarding the occurrences in nature as merely chance. The audience feels his intensity and thus the mood of the poem is sad. Symbols in the poem are the sky which represents heaven high up above that holds a more powerful being than mankind. Tears represent the persona's hurt that he is being the victim of a vengeful god. Sun and rain represent every occurrence in nature that is then deemed to be ruled by chance and not a supreme being, and the pilgrimage represents the journey of life. NEUTRAL TONES 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

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Thomas Hardy as a War Poet Thomas Hardy is one of the most famous and prolific British writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Most people recognize Hardy as an author of novels, but he preferred to write poetry. Both his novels and his poetry give a pessimistic view of the world. Subjects for his poetry include nature, love, and war. Most of his poems on war have tragic themes and present humans as having little control over their destinies. A major theme of Thomas Hardy's tragic poems is the hopelessness, loneliness, and brutality of war. Thomas Hardy described himself as a poet, although his fame and financial success resulted primarily from writing novels. Dennis Taylor says Hardy's career as a poet spanned over...show more content...

Thomas Hardy's poems about modern war fall in two groups. John Riquelme identifies "War Poems" about the Boer War as the first group.

These poems are found in the collection Poems of the Past and Present (211). Many of these poems give the same lonely and brutal impression of war. "Drummer Hodge" is a poem in this group. This poem is about a young soldier who dies in South Africa and is buried on foreign soil and left all alone. The poor soldier is just thrown in a grave without a coffin. The poem says, "They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest / Uncoffined – just as found" (1–2). The young soldier must have been lonely so far away from home. He does not even understand the language of the land (7–9). At the end, the poem says, "And strange–eyed constellations reign / His stars eternally" (17–18). The idea of a young boy dying a violent death all alone and far away from home shows Hardy's pessimistic attitude toward war. Samaha 4

"The Souls of the Slain" is another Hardy poem that stresses loneliness and loss caused by war.Hardy often lets ghosts or spirits speak in his poems, and "The Souls of the Slain" is one of these, according to Vern B. Lentz (135). The poem brings out the theme of loneliness in the first stanza. The soldier in the poem says he is "Alone at the bill [...] / And with darkness and silence the spirit [is] on me / To brood and be

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The Man He Killed By Thomas Hardy

The anti–war poem "The Man He Killed" by Thomas Hardy is written in the perspective of a confused solider who is trying to figure out the reason for all the killing. The soldier is questioning his actions for killing another soldier who just happens to be on the opposing faction of the war. He questions himself to whether the man he killed could have been a drinking partner at a bar. The idea of self–questioning is to make the reader understand the chaotic situation the soldier is trapped in. The narrator's speaking style could be analysed into two ways, the simple and mumbling nature of his speech, and the true feelings of a psychologically wounded soldier. First of all, the way the narrator uses common slang and cut off words such as "nipperkin",...show more content...

The speaker goes on explaining how part of the foreign land will become England's property when he dies on the battle field. The narrator is shown to have many opposing characteristics, such as admitting to the hard true that he is facing death. He starts the poem off with "if I should die" showing that he is past the point of denial, and now facing his own identity. The second characteristic of the speaker is that he is an optimist and a dreamer. He imagines heaven to be exactly the same as his favourite place, England, showing true patriotism. The speaker shows how much he is fond of his homeland England, and from his wording we can understand that the speaker thought of England as his mother, since he used phrases such as, "her sights and sounds" and her "gentleness". This shows the speaker's devotion towards his country, which may affect both positive and negative ways. Positively it affects him by giving him courage during the war that even if he dies his carcass will be England's property on the foreign land. He says that even if his body was not buried in the battle field, then his blood will represent England. Negatively this idea will give him false hope about his view on the afterlife and how he interprets it. One of the main themes in this poem is death. Throughout the first stanza, the narrator speaks only of his own death. He even refers to himself as "dust" in the grounds of the battlefield. Since the speaker imagines England to be heaven, his meaning of death might differ from that of a common man. Another theme that is emphasized in this poem is undoubtedly patriotism. In "The Soldier" the narrator repeats the words "England" and "English" many times throughout both stanzas. Just as mentioned before, his relationship with his homeland is more than just a normal one. He imagines his relationship Get

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy, written by Trevor Johnson, is the detailed journey through the life of one of England's greatest writers. This biography describes some of the major details of his life such as his family, his education, and his major works. &amp;#9;Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 at the Village of Upper Bochampton. He was the child of a country stonemason. Hardy was the third Thomas of his family. His mother's maiden name was Jemima Hand and she and her husband led Hardy to have an unusually happy childhood. His early years were a seed–bed to his later creative development. His mother knew what real poverty was when she was young because she lost her father. Hardy said ' she read every book she could lay her hands on' and she...show more content...

Hardy seemed to live a peaceful and successful life, but there was a &quot;pattern of storm beneath the tranquillity.&quot; During these three decades of creation, public acclaim, and critical praise, his private life was overshadowed by what appeared to be his 3 wife's fall to insanity. She was a victim of delusions, one of her biggest delusions is that she married a lesser man than she deserved. She also believed that she had written Hardy's work and he stole them from her to be published for himself. She also insulted him publicly by taking more pride in being the niece of archdeacon than being the wife of the greatest English writer. She even tried to stop the publication of Jude The Obscure because she felt it immoral. She died unexpectedly in 1912 and even though Hardy was with her last before she died, she never regained consciousness after a dispute they had earlier. His remorse and grief broke into the release of the most moving love poems of his or any other century. Home life became much more calm and ordered when he married Florence Ellen Dugdale in 1914. &amp;#9;Education wasn't the biggest thing in Hardy's life, but he was a very intelligent young student. He was an avid reader beginning to spell out titles at the age of three. He had a remarkable memory sometimes dressing as a parson and delivering sermons from his head. He did well at the village school and he caught the eye of Mrs. Julia

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The Role of Social Class in Thomas Hardy's Writing

The works of Thomas Hardy reflect the ideas of a man who was clearly obsessed with the issue of social class throughout his literary career. From his first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady (the very title of which indicates class differentiation), to his final work, Jude the Obscure, class issues are woven into every novel which Hardy wrote. Furthermore, his works are personal in the sense that they depict Hardy's own lifelong struggles with social mobility and the class structure as a whole throughout his life.

Hardy was born the son of an independent mason in the rural area of Higher Bockhampton, Dorset. As he was growing up, he felt that the circumstances surrounding the...show more content... While he had connections to both the working class and the upper classes, he did not feel that he belonged in either. He could no longer identify with members of the working class, and in spite of the fact that he made new friends in higher circles, he never truly adopted the attitudes and values of the upper classes. In fact, Hardy writes in Jude the Obscure, that "To have a good chance of being one of his country's worthies," a man "should be as cold–blooded as a fish and as selfish as a pig" (Chap. 43). Therefore, he felt that rising in society was like a double–edged sword: in rising, one must leave others behind and in a sense compromise one's beliefs; yet, by failing to rise, one does not fulfill one's potential. This double bind acounts for the clear evidence of Hardy's frustration and pessimism towards social mobility and the class structure in his works. Hardy also incorporates class issues into his novels through the creation of protagonists somewhat modeled after himself. These characters feel that their talents cannot be fully used and developed within the world to which they are born. Driven by a strong sense of ambition and self–discovery, these figures pursue their talents in a world socially higher than their own. Specifically, Stephen Smith in A Pair of Blue Eyes, Clym Yeobright in The Return of the Native, Grace Melbury in The Woodlanders, and Jude in Jude the Obscure represent such figures. Through such situations, Hardy's works

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Thomas Hardy sometimes uses the landscape to reflect mood of his characters. Choose two brief extracts (about two pages each) where he does this; one when Tess is happy and another when she is not. How does Hardy reflect Tess's mood through landscape in these extracts?

1) Thomas Hardy sometimes uses the landscape to reflect mood of his characters. Choose two brief extracts (about two pages each) where he does this; one when Tess is happy and another when she is not. How does Hardy reflect Tess's mood through landscape in these extracts? How does Lawrence use setting and place in 'Tickets Please'? How do these two writers manage to convey a sense of the time at which these stories are written?

The first extract I have...show more content... Instead Hardy has used many more adjectives and other grammatical tools. Examples of adjectives Hardy has used are, 'denser', 'vigour', 'goldern–haired', 'beaming', 'ruddy', 'curious', 'narrow', rickety' and 'hazy'. These adjectives all give a sense of relaxed, slow and sad feelings within Tess because she has a child, and in the latter part of the chapter actually dies. This begins to set the scene for this tragic event. The chapter Rally XVI opens with a dull and almost slow pace when Hardy says: "It was a hazy sunrise in August. The denser nocturnal vapours…where they waited till they should be dried away to nothing."

This is Hardy's description of mist or fog in an early summer's morning. He points out that the mist is quite 'dense' and this almost weighs it down and is not described as being a light mist, but a dense, oppressing mist. This may relate to Tess having an unclear vision of what is going on and her mental composition.

Hardy also uses adjectives in the Rally extract to give the landscape a sense of happiness such as, 'beautiful', 'clear, bracing', 'slow', 'soft', 'silent', 'scents' and 'larger'. He uses positive words that make the text seem delightful and this in turn shows us how Tess is feeling. Hardy also uses colours such as 'blue' and 'green' to describe nouns and these colours can be associated with spring, a new start and happiness.

Another type of Get more content

The Going in part of a set of poems written by Hardy for Emma between 1912–13. All these poems are a reflection of his guilt and regret at remaining oblivious to his wife's state. The poems are attempts at redemption and attempts at trying to console himself. The Going is an accusation at Emma's untimely departure. A way for Hardy to somehow placate himself, rid himself of guilt. The title suggests an action which is contained and the coupling of 'the' with 'going' gives it a deeper edge significance. Many critics see the tone as somewhat 'maudlin'.

The poet has transitory tones of accusation, nostalgia, anguish and acceptance. It has six Septet stanzas. The rhyming scheme is ABABCCB. Alternate stanzas begin with a question although there...show more content... The end rhymes of 'dankness' and 'blankness' are forced rhymes.

The fourth stanza develops the third by thinking back in time to when Thomas and Emma first met, in March 1870, as a result of Thomas having been sent to north Cornwall by his architect employer to look at the church of St Juliot that was in need of restoration. Emma was then living with her sister and brother–in–law at the rectory where Thomas called late in the evening with the manuscript of a poem sticking out of his pocket. Thomas made several later visits to St Juliot and their love affair began. Emma impressed Thomas by her beauty and skill on horseback, as reflected in this stanza.

There is a certain level of intimacy here that wasn't seen before. He describes her beauty and makes the minutest references to and even naming all those places they had been to as if the names had been wrung out of him and he couldn't help himself. Again, as in other poems, he remembers Emma when she was young and beautiful. Though. Many critics view this as selfish and feministic but many have also pointed out the fact that maybe those were the days when Hardy was actually happy. And this is confirmed in the stanza later as Hardy, personifying life, describes those days as 'life unrolling it's very best'.

The fifth stanza shows a level of distinction as here, Hardy switches

The eyes are the doors that lead to the mind. Thomas Hardy eagerly welcomed all images through these doors in order to satisfy his need for information. Hardy was an observer; he did not simply skim his surroundings, he scanned it to pinpoint key images or actions to produce intricate works of literature. These works of literature later prompted his readers to open their eyes to discover the real world around them. Through Hardy's literature, we learn to view the world from a different point of view in order to fully grasp its significance. This fascination with detail through observation stemmed from Hardy's curiosity about his hometown of Dorset, England. This rural town was rather plain and ordinary on the surface, but Hardy learned to...show more content...

In fact, in several of his poems "Hardy emphasizes instead the tragic lateness of all knowledge, so that the wisdom won through retrospection is less often a gift than a torment" (Miller). In doing so, Hardy indirectly warns his readers of the effects of regret by expressing his emotions about the time he himself lost. This idea of lost time correlates to Hardy's relationship with his first wife, Emma. Hardy was rather estranged from his first wife because they did not have similar views on religion. Hardy heavily critiqued Victorian religion in his works of literature, such as in Jude the Obscure, while his wife confined to it. This caused them to be separated for a few years up until Emma's death in 1912. Although they were distanced for several years prior to her death, her sudden death heavily influenced Hardy because he regretted not loving her properly. Hardy began to write poems of guilt and despair shortly after her death, producing his collection of poems The Poems of 1912–13. Critics claim this collection of poetry is what solidified Hardy's title of a truly great

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Thomas Hardy's Views on Marriage

Thomas Hardy lived in a time when marriage was the expected practice for young men and women. He had a very distinct view of the institution and the implications that came along with it. He himself was married twice in his long life, both times not very happily, and had progressive views about the union of the sexes, most particularly regarding divorce. His ideas and opinions are not too carefully concealed in his literary works, though he contested that he kept his own views out of his fiction. In order to understand Hardy and his views on marriage, we must first understand the time in which he lived. The Victorian societyheld rigid views on marriage and the role of women in life. Most women...show more content...

People most often simply lived apart or separated from one another. The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1923 equalized thegrounds for divorce by allowing woman to sue an adulterous husband for divorce.

In the middle of this strict social code, Hardy came into being. He met his first wife, Emma Gifford, in 1870 when he visited Cornwall. He was captivated by both her and the landscape that surrounded her. Some controversy surrounded her methods in securing his hand in marriage. She probably exaggerated her attachment to a local farmer in the hopes of pressing Hardy into a proposal. It did eventually come, and the two were married on September 17, 1874. They were both thirty years old, though she thought he looked older and he thought she was much younger.

Although the first years of their marriage were comparatively happy, tensions infused their union. Arguments over whether to make their home in London or at 1 Arundel Terrace, their inability to have children, tension between Emma and her mother–in–law, and Hardy's various flirtations either indicated the underlying problems or represented the actual problems themselves. Regardless, each was ill–suited for the other. Hardy retreated inside himself and sought emotional connection with other women like Rosamund Tomson and Florence Henniker. She kept a private journal wherein she recorded her complaints about him and also discussed their marriage with a few acquaintances.