Obedience,Gloom And Self-determination: A Gallery Of Women In Thomas Hardy's Three Early Novels

The present thesis intends to analyze women characters in Thomas Hardy's three early novels and tries to interpret Hardy's views towards women.Women in Hardy's early novels are successfully delineated and many of them serve as forerunners of his later heroines.For example,Miss Swancourt in A Pair of Blue Eyes is regarded as the precursor of Tess in Tess of the d'Urbervilles.Apart from that,the roles of women in the novels are significant and multiple,they are yielders,victims and rebels of the patriarchal society.They are strong and weak,brave and fearful,headstrong and vulnerable,distinguishing themselves from the stereotyped women of totally resigned “domestic angels” or evil “sirens” of the Victorian times.However,according to Hardy,women's innate fragility and the harsh reality have predetermined their destinies of no freewill so that they have to succumb to the pressure of conventions eventually after a series of struggles.By taking women such as Cytherea,Elfride,Bathsheba and so on in Hardy's novels—Desperate Remedies,A Pair of Blue Eyes and Far from the Madding Crowd as the research objects,the thesis concludes the characteristics of these women according to their personalities,experiences and fates and in this way Hardy's women consciousness in his early career can be revealed.Except the introduction and the conclusion,the present thesis is constituted of three chapters.Chapter one focuses on obedient women.In this chapter,obedience is manifested in three aspects: women's individual passivity,their family statuses as well as social identities.Women's innate weakness—the resignation to their destinies,their inferior statuses in family and society lead to women's surrender to patriarchal society.Chapter two is to concentrate on gloomy women.It is discussed mainly from their abnormal behaviors,uneasy mental states and tragic endings.These three aspects exemplify women's depressions and miseries as victims.Chapter three is allotted to analyze self-determined women.Women in this group are courageous and rebellious enough to quest for economic independence,pursue their liberty of personality and even abandon customary mores.By analyzing women's characteristics in each category,I attempt to elucidate Hardy's women consciousness via the portrayal of them.For Hardy,women are obedient,gloomy and self-determined.Though he shows great sympathy with women and exalts their courageous spirits,Hardy does not immune himself from patriarchal ideology towards women.Women's destines are predetermined by hierarchical traits as well as social environment.No matter how women fight for themselves,it is destined that they must succumb to their lots and once they deviate from conventional roles of women,they will be punished by society or even by fate.The same ideology towards women also is reflected in Hardy's later works.Hardy's early novels lay the foundation of his later masterpieces,so it is worthwhile to study his early novels.