Who was Thomas Hardy (besides being my favorite Victorian author)?

Early Life Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset, England, in 1840, at the beginning of the Victorian Era. His novels are set in this part of England, but he fictionalized the names of the towns.

Victorian Era The era is named for Queen Victoria, the longest reigning queen in British history. It’s a fascinating, complex era. When someone calls an idea “Victorian,” he usually means that it’s puritanical in nature– outdated and stuffy and coldly moral. Britain was at the height of its world power – think colonialism, Charles Darwin, and the Industrial Revolution. 2 precepts that helped define the tone of the era were the rigid class system consisting of the aristocracy, the middle class, and the working poor; and the rigid expectations for female purity, both reflecting values of the queen. Judi Dench portrays the queen in the 1997 movie Mrs. Brown, which explores the queen’s life after the death of her husband, Prince Albert.

Wessex: Dorset in Disguise Hardy is famous for this setting, which some say is almost a character in his novels. His central characters are often farm people who are victims of some kind of tragic destiny. Tiny coincidences and twists of fate ruin them. The townsfolk function like a Greek chorus by watching and commenting on the downfall of the other characters.

Father’s Influence His father, Thomas, was a stonemason who passed on to his son a love of architecture and a love of music. At age 16 Hardy was apprenticed to an architect. From he worked in London as an architect. In London he absorbed as much culture as he could.

Mother’s Influence His mother had been a domestic servant. She passed on a love of literature and folk tales. He learned to read at about 3 years of age. From the age of 16 he wanted to be a poet. He taught himself Greek. He turned to fiction because he thought he would be more likely to earn a living this way. He wanted to be a clergyman, but his education was never advanced enough. Before his death he received some honorary degrees.

Later At the age of 27 he became ill and returned to Dorset, where he restored churches. He tried to submit his 1 st novel – The Poor Man and the Lady -- in 1867, without success. He destroyed the manuscript but later published a shortened version serially.

Early Writing Life His 2 nd novel, Under the Greenwood Tree, was more successful (1872). This was based on his school years. His 3 rd novel – A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) -- was based on his courtship of his wife, Emma. They were married in 1912, but the long marriage was unhappy. After her death, however, he spoke and wrote of her with great affection.

When I Fell in Love with TH Far from the Madding Crowd was published in 1874 and is the story of a woman and the 3 men who love her. I saw the movie version in 1967 and fell in love with the doomed characters and the evocative setting.

So prolific! For the next 20 years Hardy published many novels, many of them in serial form (like Dickens!). The list includes Return of the Native (1878) [doomed marriage], The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) [man with a dark secret], Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) [seduced and doomed young woman], and Jude the Obscure (1895) [tragic extramarital affair]. Do you see a pattern?

Everyone’s Mad at TH Hardy stopped writing novels after Jude because of the criticism of the novel. Emma protested bitterly – she found the novel to be immoral. A local bishop burned a copy. The press called him indecent and decadent.

Jude the Obscure Jude tells the story of a village stonemason who aspires to go to college. Jude meets a beautiful woman who seduces him and then feigns pregnancy so he won’t leave her. When Arabella leaves him, Jude tries to enter school, but he is rejected.

Jude’s drama Jude falls in love with his cousin, Sue Bridehead, who eventually marries Jude’s mentor and idol, the local schoolteacher. (Hardy, by the way, also fell in love with his cousin, as did Edgar Allan Poe.) And there’s a a lot more of this “Desperate Wessex Housewives and the Stonemasons Who Love Them” type of drama. This is the work we’ll be reading and analyzing.

Theme One central theme is that some individuals fail to surmount the social and psychological forces that govern their lives. That is, some people are powerless to achieve happiness. Hardy called his final novel (Jude) “a tragedy of unfulfilled aims.”

What else remains? Poetry!!! He began publishing in Some had been written earlier. 6 volumes were published, one after his death. Much reflected his dark view of life, such as “The Darkling Thrush.”

“The Darkling Thrush” The poet is a seeker looking at a forbidding landscape and wishing for joy, meaning, and hope. He can hear the bird, but it eludes him. Impersonal forces govern human life.

“The Darkling Thrush” I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-gray, And Winter's dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled bine-stems scored the sky Like strings of broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh Had sought their household fires. The land's sharp features seemed to be The Century's corpse outleant, His crypt the cloudy canopy, The wind his death-lament. The ancient pulse of germ and birth Was shrunken hard and dry, And every spirit upon earth Seemed fervourless as I.

Composed on December 31, 1900 At once a voice arose among The bleak twigs overhead In a full-hearted evensong Of joy illimited; An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small, In blast-beruffled plume, Had chosen thus to fling his soul Upon the growing gloom. So little cause for carolings Of such ecstatic sound Was written on terrestrial things Afar or nigh around, That I could think there trembled through His happy good-night air Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew And I was unaware.

His last years After Emma’s death in 1912, he hired Florence Dugdale as his secretary. Some say he was involved with her long before his wife died, but there is no proof of an infideility. He married her in He died in His ashes were buried in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. His heart was buried with his wife in Dorset.

Some final questions Does fate destroy his characters, or does a flaw of character? Hardy felt that the real tragedy of human existence was that people of great sensitivity and talent were condemned to live in an indifferent universe. He challenges the sexual and social mores of the Victorian era and the popular religious belief at the time in a benevolent deity. Most critics hold that Jude the Obscure offers a glimpse into the ensuing modern era, an age forced to reckon with the crumbling certainties of the past.

Unit Schedule Assessments: Reading Quizzes, Class Discussion and Short Paper Responses, Group Responses to “Part” Activities, Unit Test Day 1Introduction to Thomas Hardy Day 2Discussion of 1-5, part First Day 3Discussion of 6-8, Part First Day 4Discussion of 9-11, Part First Day 5Activity: Group Response to Part First Day 6Discussion of 1-2, Part Second Day 7Activity: Group Response to Part Second Day 8Discussion of 1-4, Part Third

Schedule (Cont.) Day 9Activity: Group Response to Part Third Day 10Discussion of 1-3, Part Fourth Day 11Activity: Group Response to Part Fourth Day 12Discussion of 1-3, Part Fifth Day 13Discussion of 4-5, Part Fifth Day 14Activity: Group Response to Part Fifth Day 15Discussion of 1-2, Part Sixth Day 16Discussion of 3-4, Part Sixth

Schedule (Cont.) Day 17Discussion of 5-7, Part Sixth Day 18Activity: Group Response to Part Sixth Day 19Guiding Viewing: Tess Day 20 Day 21 Day 22 Day 23Review Day 24Unit Test

Sources All images were taken from Google.