The Evolution Of The Rural Community In Thomas Hardy’s Wessex Novels

Thomas Hardy is a prestigious British poet and novelist in the late 19 th and early20 th century.The Wessex Novels are Hardy’s most influential works.Set against the background of the countryside in southwestern England,the series portray the tremendous changes of the rural areas confronted with the invasion of capitalist industrial civilization in transitional British.Far from the Madding Crowd,The Return of the Native and Tess of the D’Urbervilles are three representative works of Hardy’s Wessex Novels.In the three novels,Hardy traces the evolution of the rural community in transitional Britain with the graphic delineation of country life,profound insights into the tension between rurality and modernity and persistent exploration of an ideal social order.The evolution of the rural community also spans the three novels created in different phases of Hardy’s career life.Along with the changes of Hardy’s view on literary creation,the form of the rural community differs in the three novels.On the basis of the theory of community by Raymond Williams and Ferdinand T?nnies,the thesis explores the evolution of the rural community in Thomas Hardy’s three Wessex Novels.The first chapter focuses on the peaceful organic rural community.In light of the concept of organic community by T?nnies,the chapter presents how villagers and farmhands obtain a sense of belonging through communal life.Getting accustomed to the unchangeable life,community members lose their self-awareness.The evolution spanning the three novels is demonstrated by how closely the rural community is related to cities.The second chapter analyzes the disturbed rural community in the contradiction between rurality and modernity.The tranquil rural community is disturbed by the abrupt and unexpected intrusion of outsiders.In order to maintain the existed order,villagers exert themselves to eradicate potential dangers by excluding newcomers.The contradictory values embraced by locals and new-comers lead to a battle between them,which ends up with both sides being defeated.The waning of the rural community is presented in the form of sharper conflicts between locals and new-comers and more pathetic ends of characters involved in later works.The third chapter explores the anticipated community blending rurality and modernity.The promising community is envisioned through three protagonists.The three protagonists perceive themselves as independent individuals and remain distinctive from locals,and at the same time,they proactively get integrated into social and natural environments,committing themselves to the common good and venerating nature.Intimacy reclaims its dominance in the relationships between the three men and female protagonists who are part of the rural community.They get reunited after a series of setbacks,which demonstrates the possibility of the blend of rurality and modernity.The increasingly tough integration into the rural community of the male protagonist is indicative of the declining rural community and individuals’ arduous exploration of the new community.By analyzing the changes of the rural community in three Wessex Novels,the thesis argues that Hardy fashions a portrait of the organic rural community being disordered by the force of modernity in transitional Britain and envisions a community hybridizing rurality and modernity.As Hardy changes from an optimist into a pessimist,a tragic tone is increasingly discernable when the presentation of the rural community is observed.Accordingly,the waning of the rural community is clearly visible.