THOMAS HARDY

letteratura inglese

THOMAS HARDY

He was born in the Dorset - a country in the south-west of England. In 1862 - for five years- he moved to London to work as an architect. When he returned to Dorset he married and started his car 424c22e eer as a novelist; his most important plays are 'Far from Madding Crowd', 'Tess of d'Urbervilles', Jude the Obscure'. He abandoned the novel and devote himself to poetry. Hardy is considered one of the most important exponent of the regional novel and naturalism. He set his novels in the Wessex (ancian name for the rural countries of Hampshire and Dorset). The theories of Darwin and the evolution influenced Hardy he was forced to accept these theories. His characters are crushed by circumstances.

The novel reflected the influence of DETERMINISM, where the people succumb to the natural laws and natural processes, despite their hopes and ambitions.

The society is cruel but the natural world is coldly indifferent. Hardy stresses the smallness of his characters against the backdrop of the indifferent and hostile world of nature.

In Tess of d'Urbervilles, when she escaped with Angel, the police represent the social forces. Stonehenge and the landscape represented the hostile nature where man doesn't' enjoy a privilege position but he must struggle for his own survivor.