Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

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Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
English novelist and poet
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Family Background

• His father Thomas (d.1892) worked as a stonemason
  and local builder.
• His mother Jemima (d.1904) was well-read. She
  educated Thomas until he went to his first school
  at Bockhampton at age eight.
• a family of Hardy's social position lacked the
  means for a university education, and his formal
  education ended at the age of sixteen when he
  became apprenticed to James Hicks, a local
  architect.2 

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Life as an Architect

• Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester
  before moving to London in 1862 there he
  enrolled as a student at King's College, London.
  He won prizes from the Royal Institute of British
  Architects and theArchitectural Association.
  Hardy never felt at home in London. He was
  acutely conscious of class divisions and his
  social inferiority. 

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Hardys Cottage
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Literary Career

• Hardy's first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady,
  finished by 1867, failed to find a publisher
•  Desperate Remedies (1871) and Under the
  Greenwood Tree (1872) were published anonymously.
  
• In 1873 A Pair of Blue Eyes, a novel drawing on
  Hardy's courtship of his first wife, was
  published under his own name.
•  Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) was successful
  enough for Hardy to give up architectural work
  and pursue a literary career.

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Major Works

•  Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
• The Return of the Native (1878)
•  The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
•  The Woodlanders (1887)
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891)
• Jude the Obscure (1895)

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Reception

• Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) attracted
  criticism for its sympathetic portrayal of a
  "fallen woman" and was initially refused
  publication. Its subtitle, A Pure Woman
  Faithfully Presented, was intended to raise the
  eyebrows of the Victorian middle-classes.
• Jude the Obscure met with even stronger negative
  outcries from the Victorian public for its frank
  treatment of sex, and was often referred to as
  "Jude the Obscene". 

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Impact on Hardys Life

• Despite this criticism, Hardy had become a
  celebrity in English literature by the 1900s,
  with several highly successful novels behind him,
  yet he felt disgust at the public reception of
  two of his greatest works and gave up writing
  fiction altogether

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Literary Themes

• Hardy critiques certain social constraints that
  hindered the lives of those living in the 19th
  century.
• Nineteenth-century society enforces these
  conventions, and societal pressure ensures
  conformity.
• love that crosses the boundaries of class
• Hardy's main characters often seem to be in the
  overwhelming and overpowering grip of fate.

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Hardy and Tess
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• Tess of the d'Urbervilles A Pure Woman
  Faithfully Presented, also known as Tess of the
  d'Urbervilles A Pure Woman, Tess of the
  d'Urbervilles or just Tess

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BBC 2008 Version of Tess
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More about Tess

• Though now considered an important work ofEnglish
  literature, the book received mixed reviews when
  it first appeared, in part because it challenged
  the sexual mores of Hardy's day.
• The original manuscript is on display at the
  British Library, showing that it was originally
  titled "Daughter of the d'Urbervilles."

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Phase 1 The Maiden

• Tess is the eldest child of John and Joan
  Durbeyfield, uneducated rural peasants.

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Phase 2 Maiden No More

• Raped by Alec at the woods
• Tess goes back home and gave birth to a sickly
  baby
• On his last night alive, Tess baptises him
  herself, after her father locked the doors to
  keep the parson away.
• Tess buries Sorrow in unconsecrated ground, makes
  a homemade cross and lays flowers on his grave in
  an empty marmalade jar.

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Tess and Alec
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Phase 3 New Start as Milkmaid

• Tess seeks employment outside the village, where
  her past is not known, and secures a job as
  a milkmaid at Talbothays Dairy.
• Tess re-encounters Angel Clare, who is now an
  apprentice farmer and has come to Talbothays to
  learn dairy management. Although the other
  milkmaids are sick with love for him, Angel soon
  singles out Tess, and the two gradually fall in
  love

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Phase 4 Marriage with Angel

• Angel goes back to visit his family and discusses
  his marriage prospects with his father.
• Angel tells his parents about Tess, and they
  agree to meet her.
• Angel returns to Talbothays Dairy and asks Tess
  to marry him.
• Tess is in a dilemma and wrote a letter to Angel
  about her past, which failed to be noticed by
  Angel. They were married in a hurry.

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Phase 5 Split with Angel

• Tess confessed about her past after their
  wedding while Angel finds it hard to accept.
• Angel abandons Tess and takes ship for Brazil to
  start a new life.
• Tess returns home for a time but, finding this
  unbearable, decides to join her former milkmaid
  friends to work on a farm.
• Re-encounter with Alec

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Phase 6 Marriage with Alec

• Alec asks Tess to marry him
• Tess family is in big trouble
• Alec tells Tess that Angel will never be back
• Tess becomes Alecs mistress unwillingly
• Angel, sick in Brazil, gets back to England and
  repent his treatment of Tess.

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Phase 7 Tess Commits Crime

• Angel gets back home and tries to find Tess
• He asks Tess for forgiveness but Tess says its
  too late
• Tess blames Alec for causing her to lose Angel's
  love a second time, and stabbed him
• Tess runs away with Angel, and was arrested
• Tess was imprisoned and executed

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The Evolution of Tess

• In the novel Tess of the Dubevilles, the
  protagnist Tess has undergone a process of
  evolution from a maiden of a poor peasants
  family to a criminal that was executed.
• How do you comment on the fate of Tess as a
  woman?
• Is she a victim?
• How does Tess face death?

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Discussion

• Tess as a tragic figure
• What caused the tragedy and victimization of
  Tess?
• weak points in Tess personality her family,
  especially her parents
• Patriarchy (???)
• conventional ideas about pure woman
• the fragility of love and passion
• love in the form of possession
• .....

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Possession

• Possession by A.S. Byatt
• ???????

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Aims of Marriage

• How do you comment about the aims of marriage in
  Tess of the Dubervilles?
• marriage for wealth social status?
• True love?
• Is true love invicible ?

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In view of Tess, How do you comment on this
incident?