Hardy’s Ecological Sense In Two Novels

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) is one of the few writers who have achieved a high status in both novels and poetry. Although Hardy himself considers his poetry more important than his novels, what makes Hardy most widely recognized by the public are his novels."Hardy’s standing as a novelist has grown to eclipse everyone in the nineteenth century but Dickens."(Kramer xv). This assessment is proper. His novels, especially the "Novels of Character and Environment" have not only been widely read by ordinary readers, but also multiply reviewed by critics.As his first attempt at tragedy and his last tragedy novel, The Return of the Native and Jude the Obscure have been widely reviewed. As to the causes of characters’ tragedies, critics have explored from the aspects of fate, personality, psychology, environment, etc. This thesis tries to interpret it from the perspective of ecocriticism.Lu Shuyuan, a Chinese ecocritic, puts forward the idea of "three dimensions of ecology":natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology. Natural ecology deals with the relationship between man and nature, social ecology embodies the relationship between people, and spiritual ecology focuses on the relationship between man and himself. They are related but irreplaceable to each other. The idea of "three dimensions of ecology" extends the scope and depth of ecocriticism which formerly concerns only about the relationship between man and nature. This thesis tries to reiterate Hardy’s above-mentioned two novels by using Lu’s idea to explore Hardy’s ecological sense.The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is a literature review of studies in Thomas Hardy and an introduction of ecocriticism, providing the origin and the theoretical base of this thesis. In addition, it provides the framework and organization of chapters.Chapter Two probes into Hardy’s sense of natural ecology through Jude’s kindness to animals and by comparing two kinds of characters:those close to nature and those alienated from nature. Their different attitudes to nature lead to their different living states and fates. This chapter also analyzes Egdon Heath, concluding that the heath is not only the setting of the whole story, but itself is actually an important character.Chapter Three is about Hardy’s sense of social ecology which is reflected both in characters who have harmonious relationship with others and characters who don’t. The former includes the villagers on the heath. They have lived on the heath ever since their ancestors. They stick to their long-established customs and hold various festivals throughout the year. They help and care about each other and live in a harmonious atmosphere. The latter characters are alienated from the society, and hate the traditional conventions, such as Eustacia and Sue. This chapter comes to conclusion that those in conflict with other people and social conventions are doomed to misfortune, while those in harmony with others can live happy lives.Chapter Four focuses on Hardy’s sense of spiritual ecology. It explores the imbalanced spirit of Eustacia, the split spirit of Sue, and the distorted spirit of Little Father Time, pointing out that imbalanced spirit is an important cause of these people’s misfortune. As a contrast, this chapter also analyzes the balanced spirit of Diggory Venn and Widow Edlin, showing that people with balanced spirit can not only enjoy their life but also deserve respect.Chapter Five concludes that these two novels not only reflect Hardy’s sense of natural ecology, but also his sense of social and spiritual ecology. In the world threatened by ecological crisis, the solution lies in the balance of three levels:natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology. The imbalance of any level may result in the imbalance of the whole ecosystem. So Hardy’s sense of ecology has its greater practical significance today.