On The Country Writing In Hardy’s Wessex Novels

Thomas Hardy(1840-1928)is a writer who has succeeded in the history of British fiction.Among his creations,the most influential is the series of novels he called"character and environment",including Under the Green Tree(1872),Far from the World(1874),Homecoming(1878),The Mayor of Caster bridge(1886),The Woodlanders(1887),Tess of the D’Urbervilles(1891)and Jude the Nameless(1896).This series of novels creates a rural world-Wessex,based on Dorset in southwestern England.This world not only reflects the reality after the upheaval of the British countryside,but also reflects the author’s nostalgia for the countryside and his love for the countryside.The sympathy of the rural people is a kind of "subjective realism".The rural world of Wessex created by Hardy presents a staged change.The world of Wessex in the early days showed a harmonious development,which was manifested in good interpersonal relationships,a stable rural community,and an idealized comic ending.The mid-term Wessex world is characterized by turbulence,manifested in tense interpersonal relationships,a divided rural community,and a realistic tragicomic ending.The world of Wessex in the later period showed a lost and decadent appearance,embodied in the alienated interpersonal relationship and the decaying rural community.The rural writing in Hardy’s Wessex novels comes from the writer’s unique rural life,his experience of living in urban and rural areas and the impact of urbanization on the countryside.Hardy constructed the story space of the fallen village to reveal the theme of the fallen village and set off the tragic fate of the villagers;the writer also adopted the internal narrative perspective of the village,using the villagers to express the position of the village,and the interlopers to express the influence of foreign forces on the village.Shock and contradictions between urban and rural areas.The rural writing in Hardy’s Wessex novels inherits the cultural sentiments of the British countryside,reflects on the rural problems under the impact of urbanization,and explores the ideal future of the British countryside.However,his criticism of social reality is limited,and he has no clear direction for the future of the countryside,which makes his works show a pessimistic tendency.