Tragic Consciousness Inherited And Further Developed In Hardy's Novels

Tragedy is a cultural concept which has been developing and evolving in the long history of human being. As a kind of drama, tragedy originated from the performance of the sacrifices-offering to Gods and ancestors. Later, after the glory of the two traditional forms, ancient Greek tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy has evolved a unique feature of tragic consciousness. Today, tragedy becomes a concept generally referring to an extremely sad, unfortunate event and result, as well as the ways people take to the miseries. As the exact reflection of tragic consciousness, the nature of tragedy, tragic spirit and tragic effect are inherited and developed in the literary genre of novel. In the late 19th century, Thomas Hardy, a well-known Victorian novelist, inherited and further developed the nature of tragedy and tragic spirit, and produced a strong sense of tragic effect as that of theatrical tragedy. His famous novels Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure not only contain the essence of traditional tragedy, but also develop and bring forth new elements in the art of tragedy. This thesis attempts to expound the inheritance and development of tragic consciousness by analyzing the tragic consciousness reflected in Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. In this way, this thesis elaborates that the tragic consciousness in novels is direct successor of the tragic consciousness in theatrical tragedy.This thesis consists of five chapters: "Introduction" , "Tragic Consciousness Manifested in Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure" "Tragic Consciousness Inherited and Further Developed in Hardy's Novels" "The Development of Hardy's Tragic Consciousness", "Conclusion"."Introduction" firstly gives a brief introduction to Thomas Hardy and his works, then makes clear the purpose and perspective of the thesis: probing into the tragic consciousness reflected in Hardy's novels by analyzing the two tragicimages of Tess and Jude.Chapter I "Tragic Consciousness Manifested in Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure" is composed of two sections. Section A: "An Overview of Tragic Consciousness in Tragedy" aims to elaborate the meaning of tragic consciousness in theatrical tragedy; Section B: "Tragic Consciousness Manifested in Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure" mainly analyzes the tragic consciousness reflected in the two novels. By analyzing the nature of tragedy, tragic spirit and tragic effect of the novels, this section argues that there is a strong sense of tragic consciousness contained in Hardy's novels, which explains why the two novels belong to tragedy in effect.Chapter II "Tragic Consciousness Inherited and Further Developed in Hardy's Novels" is the core of this thesis, and aims to prove the relationship between the traditional tragic consciousness and the tragic consciousness reflected in Hardy's novels. On one hand, Hardy transplanted fatalism from classical tragedy into his novels; on the other, he brought forth some new elements in tragic themes, tragic images and so on. This chapter includes five sections. Section A is "The Extended Tragic Themes". Hardy inherited traditional tragic themes from the classical tragedies, meanwhile, he greatly extended the range of tragic themes, and brought forth some new tragic themes. Moreover, various tragic themes are interwoven together in his novels. Through this way, he greatly enriched the connotation of tragedy and intensified the social significance of tragedy. Section B "The New Perspective of Fatalism" mainly analyzes the features of Hardy's fatalism. In classical tragedy, fatalism, supernatural and irresistible, plays an important role in the development of the characters' tragedies. There is also a mysterious mask of fate in Hardy's novels, which relentlessly pushes the character into the abyss of destruction. However, Hardy's fatalism also bears its own feature: behind the mask of fate, there is a strong resultant force formed by the combination of heterogeneous forces suchas social, natural a...