1. Thomas Hardy (1840.6.2 –19281.11)

2. nnovelist sshort story writer ppoet wwriter of the naturalist movement ccritical realist nnaturalist The Hardy Birthplace Marker

3.  I. Life  II.  III. Major works  IV. Characteristics of his novels

4. Life  Thomas Hardy was born at Higher Bockham- pton, a hamlet in the parish of Stinsford to the east of Dorchester in Dorset, England.  His father (Thomas) worked as a stonemason and local builder. The Hardy Family's Cottage

5.  His mother was well-read and educated Thomas until he went to his first school at age 8.  For several years he attended a school run by a Mr Last where he learned Latin and demonstrated academic potential.

6.  However, a family of Hardy's social position lacked the means for a university education.  His formal education ended at 16.  He became apprenticed to a local architect.

7.  He won prizes from the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architectural Association.  Hardy never felt at home in London.

8.  He was acutely conscious of class divisions and his social inferiority.  Five years later, concerned about his health, he returned to Dorset and decided to dedicate himself to writing.

9.  In 1870, an architectural mission to restore a church in Cornwall  met and fell in love with Emma Gifford.  They married in 1874.

10. Hardy in 1894

11. Thomas Hardy's study at Max Gate, reconstructed in the Dorset County Museum

12.  Although he later became estranged from his wife, who died in 1912, her death had a traumatic effect on him.

13.  After her death, Hardy made a trip to Cornwall to revisit places linked with their courtship, and his Poems 1912-13 reflect upon her passing. ←Hardy and his bicycle

14.  became ill in December 1927  dictated his final poem to his wife on his deathbed  died in January 1928

15.  His funeral was at Westminster Abbey.  His heart was buried at Stinsford with Emma  His ashes was in Poets’ Corner.

16. Stinsford Churchyard

17. Thomas Hardy's Grave, Stinsford Churchyard

18. Burial site of Thomas Hardy's heart

19. Dorchester - Norman Church near Thomas Hardy's Home

20. II. Main Works  1.  1. the Wessex novels  2.  2. novels of character & environment  3.  3. masterpieces

21.  The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi- imaginary county of Wessex, delineates characters struggling against their passions and circumstances. --------------------------------------- delineate: [di'linieit] vt. 描绘 1. s 1. the Wessex novels

22.  the bleak and forbidding Dorset landscape  its physical harshness ( 自然景观的残酷 ) echoes that of  an indifferent, if not malevolent, universe. ------------ malevolent: [mə'levələnt]a. 有恶意的, 恶毒的 Wessex

23. 2. 2. novels of character & environment  Naturalistic attitudes  Human beings’ fates are determined by their  character  environment

24.  In 1901, Hardy expressed the notion  that “non-rationality seems...to be the [guiding] principle of the Universe.”  In all his fiction, chance is the incarnation of the blind forces controlling human destiny.

25.  From the publication of his first novels, Hardy’s critics accused him of being overly pessimistic about humanity’s place in the scheme of things.

26.  The author’s characters, who are for the most part of the poorer rural classes, are sympathetically and often humorously portrayed.  Their lives are ruled not only by nature but also by rigid Victorian social conventions.

27. 3. 3. masterpieces  A Pair of Blue Eyes, 《一双蓝眼睛》,1873  Far from the Madding Crowd, 《远离尘嚣》, 1874  The Return of the Native, 《还乡记》,1878  The Mayor of Casterbridge, 《卡斯特桥市长》, 1886

28. The best 2 late novels:  Tess of the D’Urbervilles, 《 ( 德伯家的 ) 苔丝》,1891  Jude the Obscure, 《无名的裘德》, 1895

29. III. III. Features  Nostalgic  Washington Irving  F. Scott Fitzgerald  William Faulkner  pessimistic

30.  Naturalist  David H. Lawrence  Theodore Dreiser  George Eliot  critical realist writer  Charles Dickens  W. M. Thackeray IV. IV. Evaluation

31. Naturalism  In literature, an approach that proceeds from an analysis of reality in terms of natural forces, e.g.  heredity  environment  physical drives

32. Émile Zola ( 爱弥尔 · 左拉 )  the chief literary theorist on naturalism  said in his essay Le Roman expérimental (1880) that the novelist should be like the scientist,  examining dispassionately ( 不带感情地 ) various phenomena in life  drawing indisputable ( 无可争辩的 ) conclusions

33. Main ideas  (1) man is born with tragic, inevitably bound by his own hereditary traits.

34.  (2) man proves powerless before fate however he tries, he seldom escapes his doomed destiny.

35.  (3) The naturalists tended to concern themselves with the harsh, often sordid, aspects of life.

36.  He felt disgust at the public reception of two of his greatest works and gave up writing fiction altogether.

37. III. Tess of the D’Urbervilles  1.  1. introduction  2.  2. subject matter  3.  3. plot  4.  4. main characters  5.  5. themes

38.  subtitled A Pure Woman （一个纯洁的女人）  published in 1891  one of Hardy’s saddest tales of rural troubles 1. 1. introduction

39. 2. 2. the subject matter  a milkmaid  seduced by one man  married and rejected by another  eventually murdered the first one  considered unfit for publications which young people might read

40.  Early critics attacked Hardy for the novel's subtitle, “A Pure Woman”  arguing that Tess could not possibly be considered pure.

41.  They also denounced his frank — for the time  depiction of sex  criticism of organized religion  dark pessimism

42. Today, it is praised as  (1) a courageous call for righting ( 纠正 ) many of the ills Hardy found in Victorian society

43. 3. 3. plot  In trying to make use of this connection, Joan – John’s wife – suggests that Tess pursue the son of the local family of Mrs. D’Urberville.

44.  Tess becomes involved with her son Alec who  gives her employment but takes advantage of her  in unpleasant circumstances seduces her

45.  They have a child who dies early and cannot be baptized because he is illegitimate.

46.  The second stage of the novel concerns the family of the Reverend Mr. Clare and his son Angel.

47.  This leads to murder, escape and superficial impurity on the part of Tess who is finally brought to “Justice”.  Angel just wouldn’t forgive her and deserts her that very night.

48.  Helpless and hopeless, Tess has to wander from place to place, doing the hardest work and bearing the harshest insult.  When her father’s death transfers the whole burden of the family on her, she is forced to go back to Alec, now a preacher.

49.  Before long, the repentant Angle returns from abroad.  Tess, putting all the blames of her unhappiness on Alec, kills him.

50.  She flees with Angle but is caught by the police and hanged. ----------------------------------------- repentant: [ri'pentənt] a. 对... 感到悔恨的

51.  This is an exceptionally bleak novel that offers little relapse from the persistent cruelty of fate against Tess.

52. 4. 4. the main characters  Tess Durbeyfield  Angel Clare  Alec Stokes d’Urberville

53. (1) Tess Durbeyfield  the protagonist, eldest daughter in a poor rural working family  a fresh, pretty country girl with a good heart and a sensitive soul

54.  Her weakness: her innocence  unschooled “in the ways of the world”  unable to protect herself

55.  She is a brave girl, hard-working and sweet- natured and innocent  she is not free from the influence of social conventions and moral standards of the day.

56.  In a word, she is a victim of economic oppression and social injustice.

57. (2) Angel Clare  the son of a clergyman  Tess's husband and true love  He considers himself a freethinker.  But his notions of morality turn out to be fairly conventional.

58. (3) Alec Stokes - d'Urberville  the son of Mrs. D'Urberville.  He rapes (or possibly seduces) Tess when she is no more than 17 years old  later stalks her relentlessly

59.  Forced her to agree to become his mistress again.  In the end, Tess kills him with a knife to the heart.

60. 5. 5. themes  The Injustice of Existence  Changing Ideas of Social Class in Victorian England  Men Dominating Women  Fate and Free Will

61.  God and Religion  Sex and marriage  Justice and Judgment

62. 大连外国语大学 2004 年《英美文学》  3. Far from the Madding Crowd is written by _______.