Social Structures In Victorian Society, By Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy closely witnessed the social institutions and problems of his society in the nineteenth century, and his novels frankly deal with various social institutions and honestly address social problems within the confines of his art. In Victorian England religious and social institutions such as church, family and marriage were deeply rooted in patriarchy. True to its nature patriarchy automatically limited women and privileges men. Victorian society, dominated as it was by patriarchal ideology, restricted women physically and mentally, and severely limited their economic opportunities as well. Therefore, women suffered from severe economic and social debilities. He reveals the injustice of the social codes of nineteenth-century Britain

Hardy portrays Bathsheba and Fanny in a sharp contrast to each other in patriarchal society. Bathsheba is represented as an independent and unconventional Victorian woman in comparison to Fanny who conforms to the stereotypical ideology of Victorian women. Hardy’s intention is to show his rejection of society’s attempts at fitting women into limited roles since he thought that women should be given a chance to break free from the traditional gender categories and forge identities of their own.

It is certainly not an exaggeration to say that Hardy owes his reputation as a novelist to the publication of Far from the Madding Crowd in 1874. The novel was the first of his Wessex novels. As he says in the Preface of this novel, the fictional country of Wessex is partly real and partly dream country. In this novel Hardy paints a colourful picture of English rural life in the nineteenth century with all its joys, suffering and injustice. Lois Bethe Schoenfeld neatly sums up by pointing out how Hardy has dealt with the realities of his day. His fiction can, in fact, be read as History. “Hardy’s fiction is a

A few fortunate middle-class women might be supported by a father, brother, or other relative, but for most middle-class as well as working-class women marriage was an economic necessity. Legal rules, social practices, and economic structures all worked together to induce a woman to marry, and then insured that once married she would be dependent upon and obedient to her husband. Such was the condition of women as Hardy witnessed in his society. As Shanley explains marriage was, in fact, a social trap by means of which a woman became dependent on her husband. As a realist he wanted to expose the various limitations placed on women by the patriarchal society to keep them in confinement. Hardy wrote his novels on the basis of his own opinion of women.He therefore allows them to act in non-traditional ways, so they are not considered ideal Victorian women. While in his time most women had to make do without autonomy of any kind, the women in his novels attempt to obtain true social equality and reject the longstanding belief that women are weak and need to depend on men to survive in this world. In Far from the Madding Crowd Hardy rejects the traditional concept of marriage. He closely witnessed the gender bias inherent in the Victorian society and culture. He was aware of the restrictions that limited women’s opportunities. In this novel therefore he attempts to explore the restricted and