An Analysis Of The Hardy Hero And The Decline Of Heroism Reflected In His Novels

Thomas Hardy is a famous British writer in the last thirty years of the l9~ century. He has been considered as the last great Victorian novelist, a recorder of rural customs and superstitions, and a tragic interpreter of life抯 complexities. At the mention of him, people will usually think of his realism, especially the perfect descriptions of the Wessex countzyside, the detailed accounts of the daily goings-on in that region, the exactly reproduced dialects of the natives, and so on. Some also consider him as a critical rea]ist, particularly for his tragic novels, his sensitive poilrayals of women and his use of their dilemmas as reflectors of his judgment on life. From all the above I noticed that critics have paid too much attention to his tragic novels and the heroines he has depicted, but not enough attention to the heroes in his major novels. As a matter of fact, Hardy抯 heroes are not less interesting than his heroines. They seem to be more deserving of discussion, because they not only reflect the novelist抯 life and views but also have a close connection with the development of his tragedy.In this thesis, I first made a thorough analysis of the Hardy hero in his five major novels. Through this analysis I point out that Hardy has created two kinds of heroes梩he ideal god-like hero as represented by Gabriel Oak in Far From the Madding Crowd and the troubled author-figure intellectual as represented by Clym Yeobright in The Return of the A~idives. The first kind of hero梚s perhaps based on the shepherds and small fantiers of Dorset among whom Hardy has grown up. For this kind of hero there is no real predicament because whatever disasters may hit him he will cany on, stoically and without self-pity, doing the work that lies to hand. To this kind belong Gabriel Oak in Far From the Madding Crowd. Diggoiy Venn in The Return of the Natives, and Giles Wmterbome in The Woodlanders. The second kind of hero梚s usually a young man who has been cast adrift in a moral and intellectual wilderness in which he has no fixed rules to guide him, except the promptings of his own soul. Of this kind we find Clym Yeobright in The Return of the Natives, Angel Clare in Tess of the D 慤rbervilles and Jude Fawley in Jude the Obscure.These three have many predicaments in their lives and cannot adapt themselves to the changes of the society, thus cannot be accepted by the conventional society either because of their advanced ideas, or because of their religious beliefs, or even because of their consciousness of the social injustices. From this we can see that from the first kind of The Hardy hero to the second kind there is a decline of the hero抯 power of action, a decline from 揼od-like heroism?(reflected in Gabriel Oak) to 揳ll-too-human imnf(sho~i in Jude Fawley). In this decline we can see a reflection of the author抯 deterministic views of life on the one hand. As we know, during the late Victorian period, there were both rapid economiciidevelopment and serious social problems in Britain. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, booming-up scientific discoveries and technological inventions towards the mid-nineteenth centuiy, England has reached its highest point of development as a world power. But the lastthree decades of the centuly witnessed a sharp decline set in upon the so-called Victorian prosperity with the bankruptcy of Britain抯 agriculture. These recurrent economic ciiseshave led to intensified class stmggle in the last two decades of the l9~ century. Under the influence of the changes in the economic fields and the rapid development of science and technology, and a flourish of new philosophical ideas at that time, Thomas Hardy had experienced changes of his view of life. On the other hand, this decline of heroism is also reflected in the development of Hardy抯 tragedy. This decline of heroism corresponds with a shift of his novels from pastoral comedy to tragic irony. Far From the Madding Crowd is usually considered as pastoral romance or comedy. It gives the novelist a chance...