Thomas
Hardy’s Philosophy of Life
Thomas
hardy is critic of life, not of personal characters, not an observer of man in society,
but of human conditions in the more philosophic sense an observer who has
already made up his mind about his conclusions.
Hardy’s
conception of life it’s essentially tragic the conflict is one in which there
is only the remotest chance of escape , so heavily are the scaliest weighted by
man’s lack of foresight nature, and the snakes and ladder place in his path by
a mysterious view less ice less turner of the wheel.
In
Hardy’s outlook of life there are two important points his sense of law and his
sense of pity.
The
first gives him the conviction that a spiritual logic governs man’s lives, the
Greeks called it nemesis but are attended by scientific formulate, attribute it
to low another novelist who has touched the logic of life with the same
persistence as hardy was George Eliot. But whereas the con sliders it rather
from the standpoint of retribution, and treats it as a moralist, Hardy is affected
rather by the the injustice of its working. He admits, as she does, the
dreadful vitality of our deeds, but he dwells for longer on the
disproportionate punishment.
Melancholic
and gloomy picture of life, pessimism, At times Hardy shows too much bitterness
of feeling what he urges may be true, but there is another side of the life
picture which is actually true, and upon which he is silent. As for this
attitude to life Hardy stated his position.
Different
natures find her tongue in the presence of differing spectacles in the presence
of differing spectacle , some are made vocal by comedy and it seems to be that
to whichever of these aspects to life a writer enlistments for expression the
more readily responds to that he should allow a to responds.
In Thomas Hardy’s earlier writings he mingled
sweetness and bitterness of life ‘and are admirably contrasted, but in the
later novels Tess, judge the gloom is intensified even though these novels are
rich in power and insight.
No
reflective person can fail to be struck by the littleness and sordidness of
life, and by the overwhelming pain and suffering which exist in this world but
with Hardy this view becomes a prevalent way of looking of things, and a temperamental
habit of mind. Sublimity and beauty of life are as much a matter of human
existence but are excluded from his writing.
“The
poet in him will make trees as lively as men while the next moment the
philosopher in him will make man as helpless as trees”.
Man
a victim of circumstances fate:
A
struggle between man on the one hand and on the other, an omnipotent and
indifferent fate that is human predicament in Hardy’s vision of life.
The
conflict is not necessarily between man and man, or between and institution, Man
is pitched against impersonal forces, these forces condition his fate.
Hardy’s
philosophy grows out of reflection and experience before he is acquainted with Schopenhauer from an early time he feels or obscures volition in the depth of
things, and curbs our individual destinies under a low greater than our selves. At a later stage,
he readily adopts the theory of an imminent will seeking unconscious ends
through a blind striving.
Everywhere
in his novels human being appears to us crushed by a superior force, that of nature,
at first and of an indifferent, so most
often a hastily chance than that of he errors implied in our own desires
whether his creed is fatalism or determinism, he is grasps its grandly, like a
tragic poet, and illustrate it with untiring persistence.
Hardy’s
gaze perceives times as well as space. His pessimism is not only a way of
thinking lived by his most instinctive sensibility, it imbues all his vision,
it is the very essence of his admirable poetry of nature.
Hardy
does not regarded nature as a kind and generous mother, for Hardy nature is the
agent of cruelty and beings insensible to the feeling of man.
According
to David Cecile ‘’However Hardy‘s attitude towards nature to man. Was not Wordsworthian
He did not believe that nature has any holy plan or healing power. Being
influenced by the theory of education he found much in nature that was
cruel and antagonist to man’’.
The
influence of nature of humanity has been presented in different ways nature
influences the moods and actions of Hardy’s human characters.
In
most of his nature scenes, Hardy presents an emotional connection between
nature and beings .Sometimes Nature is affected by human emotions, and
sometimes man is affected by nature feelings. IN Tess, we see a change in
nature’s feeling in accordance with the emotional change in Tess’s life.
Nature
is one aspect of fate, like chance, accidents and coincidence.
The Month of May:
Tess
is young, fresh, lively and happy maiden, Merlot village has fertile land and
springs never dry.
The Month of October:
After
her sad experience with Alec planned into gloom she locked upon herself as a
figure of guilt intruding into the haunts of innocence.
The Month of August:
And
following months of winter the time of storms and snow one of the cruelest
month –sorrow dies, she changes form simple girl to complex woman.
Summer:
Talbot
hays Dairy, butter, milk, pure environment, sunshine, breeze, true love all
these goes on through the summer and the autumn, marriage with Angel in winter,
desertion, sorrow seen follows her.
I
To
sorrow
Bade
good morrow
And
thought to leave her far away behind
But
cheerly, cheerly
She
loves me dearly
She
is so constant to me, and so kind
I
would deceive her
And
so leave her, But Ah1 She is so
Constant
and so kind
The
month of October:
Hardy comments:
To
the sum up Hardy give the comments ‘’ so the two forces were at work here as
everywhere the inherent will to enjoyment.
