Thomas Hardy Flashcards
- Biography ?
-Born in 1840 from humble family in a village near Dorchester
- loved reading , dancing, music and after leaving school worked as a n apprentice for a local architect and restorer of churches
- Moved to London in 1862 where he started tow rite poetry
-Read philosophy works from Comte, Darwin, Schopenhauer ecc which helped him shape his thinking
-Became famous thanks to Far from the Madding Crowd
-devoted his life tow rating
-wrote scandalous novels like Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure =) harsh critic cuz too sexual =) decided to focus on poetry
-Died in 1928 and ashes buried in the Poet’s corner in Westminister Abbey
- What was the setting he used the most in his stories ?
- It was a semi-fictional setting which roughly corresponds to Dorset
-he described its rural life from the perspective of the working class
-He called it Wessex, which was the old Saxon name to git a mythical feel
- What did Hardy mean with determinism ?
- After reading Darwin ( Origin of species) he denied the existence of God
-Thus he held a DETERMINISTIC VIEW of a universe controlled by “insensible chance”
- he derived the notions of: Cruel gods, indifferent nature and hostile fate from the greek tragedy
-He saw human life as tragic over man had no power
-He still in altruism and cooperation and application off scientific knowledge
- What the main themes that Hardy treats?
- themes of suffering and life’s challenges
-man’s life is conditioned by many factors like sentiments and passions, but also circumstances
-Nature is not romantic and DGAF of man’s pain and suffering
-critical attitude towards religions as well as victorian society
-miscommunication is another central theme
- What is Hardy’s narrative technique?
-omniscent narrator who sometimes comments
-action is presented through the eye of a hypothetical observer who the reader is invited to identify with
