A Narrative Study Of Thomas Hardy’s The Well-Beloved

Thomas Hardy(1840-1928) was a distinguished British writer, and his work The Well-Beloved, written in the year of 1892 has profound social meaning. The Well-Beloved describes the protagonist Pierston’s persistent pursuit of love and also reveals the collision between the urban and the country, exposing Hardy’s advanced thought of the times as well as his dissatisfaction with the old customs and the rigid rules in the Victorian Age.The thesis uses French literary theorist Genette’s Narratology to do the research of narrative time, narrative perspective and narrative discourse in the novel, deducing characters’ twisted relationship. The thesis is divided into five sections: introduction, three chapters and the conclusion.The introduction illustrates the social background, literary achievements of Thomas Hardy, the research at home and abroad as well as the significance of the research, the resemblance between the prototype of the protagonist Pierston and the author himself.The first chapter uses order, duration and frequency in narrative time to do the research. The analepsis generates the flashback and the prolepsis creates suspense to produce the effect of mutiple levels of narrative time. The duration spans the whole lifetime of Pierston. The ellipsis summarizes the content which is irrelevant to the theme in a few sentences. The scene makes readers focus on the important section which brings out the personality and attitude of Pierston. The high frequency of his proposal to his Well-Beloved highlights the main line of the story, which is persistent pursuit of love.The second chapter analyses the narrative perspective in the novel. In order to be more objective and truthfully reflect the Victorian Age, the author adopts zero focalization which is reflected by the third-person omniscient perspective. To enhance the effectiveness of the narration, the external focalization and the internal focalization also intertwine the novel.The third chapter focuses on narrative discourse, doing research from the three aspects of narrated discourse, indirect narrated discourse and dramatic narrated discourse, revealing the feelings, psychology and values of different characters.The conclusion elaborates on the main idea of the paper and the meaning of the analysis from Narratology in Hardy’s The Well-Beloved. By using Genette’s Narratology to do research of the narrative strategy of The Well-Beloved, this thesis reflects the protagonist’s persistent pursuit of love as well as art and reveals Hardy’s criticism of the old opinions and customs in Victorian Age. An outstanding literary work will break the limits of space and time, giving an everlasting representation of the past, the present and the future.