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Opinions of thomas hardy
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS hardy
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS hardy
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Thomas Hardy’s novels frequently shift on dastardly turns of chance. Wrong turns and minor mishaps on the way to churches, mistaken impressions of deaths, unexpected inheritances, and unreceived letters all affect the outcomes of the decisions made by the characters in Hardy’s fiction. These twists of luck outside the character’s control makes judging the morality of their actions more complex. Should Hardy’s characters be judged by their actions or their intentions? Chengping Zhang asserts in “Moral Luck in Thomas Hardy's Fiction” that Hardy uses “moral chance” to cause readers to question their moral judgments. Some critics and moral readers disagree with Zhang and follow a Kantian ideology and argue that characters should be judged by their intentions. A close reading of “Hap” reveals that Hardy believes that chance is a fact of life and that it cannot mitigate or excuse personal moral responsibility. Hardy’s denial of an all powerful presence directing his life and acceptance of chance implies personal responsibility. The concept of personal responsibility expressed in Hap is supported by moral judgments of the narrator and protagonist of Hardy’s own novel Far From the Madding Crowd. Hap concludes “Hap” with the stirring declaration that “These pureblind Doomsters had as readily strown / Blisses about by pilgrimage as pain.” (13-14). Hardy uses this declaration to assert that mortal men and women have little control over the quality and content of their lives. However, Hardy does not use this lack of control to excuse or justify the joys or pains of life. In “Hap”, Hardy stoically accepts chance as a part of life, neither condemning it nor disputing its control. Hardy’s acceptance of chance shows that men are ultimately respon...
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...od that is found in accepting the chance happenings of the world and working through them. Gabriel’s eventual marriage to Bathsheba shows that, although it is rare, a man can overcome chance and find bliss in a world overrun with misery.
“Hap” articulates Thomas Hardy’s denial of fate and the morality of actions in the face random chance. The lack of appeal or excuse is the true indicator of Hardy’s belief in personal responsibility for ones actions in a world ruled only by chance. Hardy’s extreme emphasis on acceptance and lack of excuse shows the need for personal moral responsibility for ones actions. This concept is readily seen not only in the Far From the Madding Crowd but also in many of his other narratives. In “Hap” Hardy makes an eloquent statement on the condition of the Victorian world and offers his opinions on how best to endure life in it.
Everybody alive has experienced the feeling of guilt, or at least will at some point. Usually, this feeling is quite healthy for our consciousness, helping us distinguish between what is right and wrong by our own moral principles and values. However, guilt holds quite a power to really disturb the mind. This theme of the relationship between guilt and sanity is common throughout literature, and patterns to how this is expressed through texts are very evident. Four texts which I will discuss this theme through is Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, and The Animals’ version of Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.
'Young Goodman Brown,' by Hawthorne, and 'The Tell Tale Heart,' by Poe, offer readers the chance to embark on figurative and literal journeys, through our minds and our hearts. Hawthorne is interested in developing a sense of guilt in his story, an allegory warning against losing one's faith. The point of view and the shift in point of view are symbolic of the darkening, increasingly isolated heart of the main character, Goodman Brown, an everyman figure in an everyman tale. Poe, however, is concerned with capturing a sense of dread in his work, taking a look at the motivations behind the perverseness of human nature. Identifying and understanding the point of view is essential, since it affects a reader's relationship to the protagonist, but also offers perspective in situations where characters are blinded and deceived by their own faults. The main character of Poe?s story embarks on an emotional roller coaster, experiencing everything from terror to triumph. Both authors offer an interpretation of humans as sinful, through the use of foreshadowing, repetition, symbolism and, most importantly, point of view. Hawthorne teaches the reader an explicit moral lesson through the third person omniscient point of view, whereas Poe sidesteps morality in favor of thoroughly developing his characters in the first person point of view.
Although these literary works have a bleak perspective that societal values are insuperable, the characters in “The Garden Party” and “Shooting an Elephant” feel guilty for ignoring their personal moral obligations. In contrast, the main characters in “A Cup of Tea” and “July’s People” remain blissfully unaware of their blatant disregard of an ethical code; they cannot even recognize the immoral nature of their actions as it has become second nature.
With this, his last novel, Hardy is moving away from the convention of the "inner life of the characters to be inferred from their public behavior" (Howe 513), so, although Sue...
Human nature is a conglomerate perception which is the dominant liable expressed in the short story of “A Tell-Tale Heart”. Directly related, Edgar Allan Poe displays the ramifications of guilt and how it can consume oneself, as well as disclosing the nature of human defense mechanisms, all the while continuing on with displaying the labyrinth of passion and fears of humans which make a blind appearance throughout the story. A guilty conscience of one’s self is a pertinent facet of human nature that Edgar Allan Poe continually stresses throughout the story. The emotion that causes a person to choose right from wrong, good over bad is guilt, which consequently is one of the most ethically moral and methodically powerful emotion known to human nature. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe displays the narrator to be rather complacent and pompous, however, the narrator establishes what one could define as apprehension and remorse after committing murder of an innocent man. It is to believe that the narrator will never confess but as his heightened senses blur the lines between real and ...
Taking an Ecocritical approach, Hardy seeks refuge in the country and his past. Looking at Hardy’s poems, I conducted the evaluation that has led to the agreement of the statement. Hardy seeks refuge in the country to connect with his past, giving him the safety he physically and emotionally needs due to the grief he feels towards the loss of his late wife: Emma. The three poems that link into the statement are: ‘Under the Waterfall’, ‘Your Last Drive’, and ‘The Going.’ Each one gives a different aspect towards the topic of refuge.
Throughout history, the effects of guilt on society have often prompted writers to express their emotions, beliefs, and ways they approach life through their literary works. While some authors use the concept of guilt to express their feelings and attract readers, other authors, like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe, use the convention of guilt to teach the society a lesson. Like in Hawthorne?s ?Dr. Heidegger?s Experiment? and Poe?s ?The Masque of Red Death?, both authors employ the theme of guilt to teach a common lesson to the society that one cannot escape guilt. While Hawthorne primarily focuses on the idea of initiation in his story to teach that people cannot forget their guiltiness from their past, Poe utilizes the concept of alienation to teach that people must overcome their guilt, or else their guilt will plague them for the rest of their lives. However, both these concepts of initiation and alienation will later converge into a unified theme and lesson of guilt.
Pride and prejudice, isolating behaviors, create a path of unnecessary destruction through the life of Victor Frankenstein. All that remains for us the reader is to figure out where our sympathies lie. What lessons we can learn from this tragic tale of the ego driven scientist and his monstrous creation.
Once in a while, the news exposes horrid crimes in which offenders react to unfair treatments or uncontrollable incidents strayed from their good aims. These types of accounts often trigger debates on who are primary villains. In a complex society, one’s limited objectives sometimes trigger cascading effects, especially if one deviates from one’s rectitude. Therefore, without a precaution on the consequence, one’s free will may end with a disaster. Mary Shelley typifies this notion in her fiction Frankenstein, in which Victor Frankenstein, a fervid scientist, creates a monstrous creature in his heedless pursuit of knowledge at a cost of a few lives. Although the creature causes several deaths in this novel, he is a victim more worthy of forgiveness and compassion than Victor, whose moral failure as a creator is responsible for this tragedy.
Unlike Hardwig’s poem Hardyd’s lacks any type of reverence or fear of the suffering he undergoes. In fact he mocks both the idea that suffering is something meted out by God and the idea that a man can do anything to effect the amount of suffering he experiences through out his life. In a sense the two author’s while expressing similar ideas, the idea of personal struggle and suffering, are in contention in a very similar way that religion and enlightenment ideas were during the Victorian period.
The Themes of Loss and Loneliness in Hardy's Poetry Introduction = == == == ==
How Thomas Hardy Controls the Reader's Response to Donald Farfrae in The Mayor of Casterbridge
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
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...
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.