How does Hardy show social injustice in the 19th Century in England? Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 and died in 1928 at the age of 88. Thomas Hardy’s father was a stonemason and his mother a servant to a vicar. Hardy could not afford to continue his education as he wished and was apprenticed to John Hicks, a local church architect from 1862 to 1867. He served as assistant to Arthur Bloomfield, a London architect. Hardy hated London and returned to Dorset and worked for Hicks until 1874. Despite his employment Hardy was writing continually during this period of life. Over the next 22 years Hardy wrote 15 novels, more than 1000 poems and 4 volumes of short stories. Hardy wrote in these short stories about the law, class difference, women’s position in the society and city versus the countryside. Most of his stories are set in the Wessex, a fictional name that he gave to his stories. His stories are set 50 years back in the past and show the hardships, sufferings, trials and tribulations experienced by the working class. This book is from the collection of the stories The Withered Arm and other Wessex Tales. When Hardy became an architect he went to work in London. However, he missed the Dorset countryside so much that he returned there in 1867 and began writing novels and poetry. This was the first of many of his novels describing characters and scenes from country life. Hardy’s views about the countryside versus the city were about the injustice of the loss of the old way of life. Hardy went to work in London in 1862. He took a return ticket with him in case he repented his decision to work there. His aversion for London is apparent in his comments where he describes London as, “the monster with four million heads and eight million eyes.” Hardy describes the city in The Son’s Veto, as Sophie is looking through the window at “a fragment of lawn,” which shows the lack of greenery and space in London. He describes the air as, “hazy air,” which shows the huge amount of pollution in London unlike the pleasant and fresh air of the countryside. Hardy portrays all the houses in London as, “drab house facades,” which shows the ugly and depressing houses in London. The, “ever flowing traffic,” and other quotes just shows the repulsive and the disheartening city of London. Hardy approves of smuggling in The Distracted Preacher. Legally smugglers are to be penalized but every one ignores the law in The Distracted Preacher. Lizzy says, “it has been their practice for
Not too long before he was murdered his house was set on fire on Valentines Day of 1965 (Hardy 123).
During the Victorian Age, 1830-1901, society had firm opinions on how they believed women should behave. The opinions, however, changed and varied a great deal over the span of the 71 years that made up the Victorian period. Towards the beginning of that era women were seen as the fairer sex, and the majority of their early lives were spent preparing for marriage. Over the course of the Victorian era, however, society made many different social, political, and economic changes, as well as witnessed the creation of many new gadgets. As society evolved throughout the Victorian era to be more advanced, it also became more aware of the need to treat women as equals in regards to rights, jobs, pastimes, and opinions. An example of inequality that women faced during that time was when men would keep up the appearance of being in a loving family, meanwhile they would be cheating on their wives and betraying their families (Frost 196). As Horrible as husbands cheating on their wives was, that was not what was seen as the issue at that time. The part of cheating during that era that bugged society was that if a woman committed the same trespass and was unfaithful in a marriage she would be publicly shamed (Frost 196). It is because of this injustice to women, and the many other examples of inequality that they faced that during the Victorian era, that the English wished to reform marriage. They felt that the structure of marriage was unfair to the females involved. By the end of the era, there had been a significant amount of ground laid towards female equality. The literary works The Lady of Shalott and The Goblin Market address and respond to the conflicts and roles of women as they changed over the course of the Victorian era. Both p...
Thomas Hardy was writing around from 1870 and gave up novel writing in 1895 after receiving harsh criticism. In those times the laws were very different. For instance women could not vote at all which could have made a difference if they did vote. After Emma died - which was Hardy's first wife he wrote poems that were for her or about her when they were married. Section 2 - Content, Tone and Theme =
Hardy uses imagery throughout the novel in order to explicitly define the ways in which life is unjust. This injustice is first displayed at Prince?s death, then again at his burial. Hardy chooses specific words to enable the reader to see exactly what is happing. He describes the mail-cart to be ?speeding along?like an arrow.? He explains that the mail-cart had ?driven into her slow and unlighted equipage,? and now the horse?s ?life?s blood was spouting in a stream and falling with a hiss into the road.? (Hardy 22). The descriptive words, such as ?speeding,? ?arrow,? ?driven,? ?unlighted,? ?spouting,? and ?hiss? allow the reader?s senses to capture the enormity of the situation. This quote also helps the reader to envision the misery of the situation. Tess is only attempting to help her family by bringing the hives to market to draw some income them. Her desire to help her family backfires with Prince?s accidental death, as he was their only form of income. The desperation induced by Prince?s death is shown when Hardy explains that Mr. Durbeyfield worked harder than ever before in digging a grave for Prince. Hardy states that the young girls ?discharged their griefs in loud blares,? and that when Prince was ?tumbled in? the family gathered around the grave (Hardy 24). Hard...
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair” (Dickens n. pag.). These words by Charles Dickens, one of the most famous writers of the Victorian Period, were intended to show the connections between the French Revolution and the decline of Dickens’s own time, the Victorian Era (“About” n.pag.). Dickens wanted to show how the trends of his time were following a tragic path that had already played out and not ended well in France. According to an article about this historical period, the Victorian Era was “a time of change, a time of great upheaval, but also a time of great literature” (“Victorian” n.pag.). The Victorian Period reflects the great changes in the social, political, and economical shifts of the time.
Thomas Hardy wrote about society in the mid 1800's and his tales have rural settings in the fictional name he gave to the South-West of England, Wessex. The short stories reflect this time and the author also demonstrates the class division in rural society - rich and poor - and the closeness of the communities. Almost everyone belonged to the 'labouring classes' and worked on the land.
Thomas Hardy, the author of The Woodlanders, is "considered one of the greatest novelist in English literature"(Vol. 4). This genius was born on June 2nd of 1840 in Bockhampton, Dorset, England. He was the oldest boy in his family. Hardy began his writing career in 1862, at the age of twenty-two. In 1867, at the age of twenty-seven, he wrote his first novel. The novel was entitled, The Poor Man and the Lady. Today only bits and pieces of this book remain.
Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English author who considered himself mainly as a poet. A large part of his work was set mainly in the semi-fictional land of Wessex. In 1898 Hardy published a collection of poems written over 30 years, Wessex Poems his first volume of poetry. Emma Lavinia Gifford, Hardy’s wife, whom he married in 1874. He became alienated from his wife, who died in 1912; her death had a traumatic effect on him. He remained preoccupied with his first wife's death and tried to overcome his sorrow by writing poetry, he dictated his final poem to his first wife on his deathbed.
continue work; looking down, he would have decided to finish his faggot and go home". The tone of the description of the heath is morose, sombre and gloomy. In the description, Hardy only describes the heath as dark and scary. He chooses to illustrate these things and gives the story a morose feeling. His sombre and gloomy tone is reflected in his attitude toward the heath.
Hardy originated from a working class family. The son of a master mason, Hardy was slightly above that of his agricultural peers. Hardy’s examination of transition between classes is usually similar to that of D.H. Lawrence, that if you step outside your circle you will die. The ambitious lives of the characters within Hardy’s novels like Jude and Tess usually end fatally; as they attempt to break away from the constraints of their class, thus, depicting Hardy’s view upon the transition between classes. Hardy valued lower class morals and traditions, it is apparent through reading Tess that her struggles are evidently permeated through the social sufferings of the working class. A central theme running throughout Hardy’s novels is the decline of old families. It is said Hardy himself traced the Dorset Hardy’s lineage and found once they were of great i...
Clarke, R. (n.d.). The Poetry of Thomas Hardy. rlwclarke. Retrieved February 1, 2014, from http://www.rlwclarke.net/Courses/LITS2002/2008-2009/12AHardy'sPoetry.pdf
Thomas Hardy was a famous author and poet he lived from 1840 to 1928. During his long life of 88 years he wrote fifteen novels and one thousand poems. He lived for the majority of his life near Dorchester. Hardy got many ideas for his stories while he was growing up. An example of this was that he knew of a lady who had had her blood turned by a convict’s corpse and he used this in the story ‘The Withered Arm’. The existence of witches and witchcraft was accepted in his lifetime and it was not unusual for several people to be killed for crimes of witchcraft every year.
The movie Pride and Prejudice is based on a novel by Jane Austen. The story is about Elizabeth Bennett who is an independent young girl that lives in England with her four sisters, her mother, and her father. Elizabeth meets Darcy and she doesn’t really like him and avoids him as possible. Darcy is reserved at first but starts to like Elizabeth. However Darcy restricts his affection for her because he is rich and is part of the high class whereas Elizabeth is from a middle-class family.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), native to Dorchester, England, was a novelist and poet that spent the majority of his life as a career writer. His crowning achievement was The Mayor of Casterbridge, which he wrote in 1886; it highlighted his signature style of tragedy and indifference towards its main characters. He spent the entirety of his childhood and most of his adulthood in his private study because of recurring unknown illnesses. As a result, he observed the countryside that surrounded him and implanted it into the geography of his novels and poems. Most scholars believe that the setting of The Mayor of Casterbridge was a recreation of his hometown Dorchester. Hardy also had an exclusive circle of friends and family that heavily influenced his writing, such as his mother, who taught him the hardships of lower-class living. His acquaintances influenced him so much that the story of The Mayor of Casterbridge parallels his own life, especially the rags-to-riches story of its main character, Michael Henchard. Societal influences, such as class barriers and emerging secular ideas, including Darwin’s theory of evolution, became a critical part of his writing style during the latter half of his life. These ideas influenced him to write about an indifferent, demythologized world that is distant from its inhabitants. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Hardy’s writing style was greatly influenced by his sickliness, friends and family, and a changing society.
Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, was originally to be titled First impressions. Austen suggests she chose the original title late in the novel, after Elizabeth has seen the change in Darcy's manners at Pemberley and feels it can only be due to her influence. However, in 1801 another novel was published using that title so Austen renamed and published her novel, Pride and Prejudice, in 1813. (Stovel “A Contrariety”). The former title accurately depicts the attitudes of several characters toward main themes of the novel. The most illustrated themes are family, love, pride and social class. Through Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen illustrates the differences between social classes, pride and vanity, families and men and women during 19th century.