Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy is a name well known when it comes to classic literature. Some of his most notable works may include Jude the Obscure, The Return of the Native, The Woodlanders, Wessex Poems, and Under the Greenwood Tree. Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840 in Bockhampton, England, where he grew up in an isolated cottage with his family. He was the oldest of four children and a hard worker, but was often found to be sick. His father was a stonemason and builder while his mother was well-educated and self-taught Hardy until he began to attend schools at the age of eight years old. Hardy proved to have great academic potential, but was unfortunately unable to continue his journey to University due to his family lacking the resources needed for…

In Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, the men in Tess Durbeyfield’s life objectify her, trying to make her into a woman who would benefit themselves. In doing so, they shape Tess into the woman that they want her to be, who commits murder and is put to death. Tess’ father objectifies Tess by trying to use their name and Tess’ looks to “claim kin” with the d’Urbervilles and eventually become rich. Alec d’Urberville, the man whom Tess’ parents expect her to marry, objectifies Tess by…

In the beginning of the poem, the speaker is very depressed and given time the bird is there to give him hope. Before the thrush enters, The speaker does not know how hope can be such a helpful tool and seeing the bird, he learns that this is true. The speaker says that the thrush shows him “Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew / And I was unaware” (31-32). Until he hears the bird’s song, he believes that there will be no aspiration for things to get better. However, hope is always present as both…

ancient traditions, Angel tells his father he does not want to study to become ordained because the church, “refuses to liberate her mind from an untenable redemptive theolatry” (Hardy 91). Despite Angel’s desire to be different from his brothers, become a more modern man, and break away from religion, his strict religious childhood influenced his morals, making him unable to accept Tess once he finds out her secret: “Angel is obsessed with the idea of ‘feminine purity’ as any of…

Modernist Poets Discuss the Impermanence of Glory In the period following World War I, citizens of all nationalities faced a dark disillusionment forcing them to grapple with personal identity and the purpose of life. People looked to artists of the age as builders of morale and shapers of societal perspective, yet the writers of that time had little more sense of direction than anyone else in the midst of ideological desolation. The only thing to be certain of was uncertainty. Two Modernist…

In Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy portrays Angel Clare and Alec D’Urberville as polar opposites of one another. These two foil characters are put in very similar situations, but they behave in very different manners. Alec simply wants to be with Tess because of physical desires, while Angel truly cares for Tess in the beginning of the story. Hardy juxtaposes these two characters and the way they act in order to show how different they are. During this time period, there would have been…

with the masculine gender, doing little to change what had been set as the norm. Women’s lack of control and rights can be seen in several works of literature, such as Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, which gives audiences a glimpse into a young woman’s life in the late nineteenth century. Tess Durbeyfield is a simple country girl of the lower class whose life takes a different turn when her family discovers they are descendants of the d’Urbervilles, a once wealthy and noble family.…

The Fault in Our Blighted Stars: A Fallen Woman’s Destiny Coincidences are relatively abundant throughout literature. Whether in the form of characters mysteriously appearing or storms occurring at the worst possible time, the stars always align in order to secure a tragic downfall. In Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, some readers have scrutinized the events that transpire throughout the novel. They argue that the circumstances of Tess’s life were too “far-fetched” or improbable.…

“The Ruined Maid,” by Thomas Hardy, is a closed-form poem that uses imagery of the “ruined” maid to satirize Victorian social conventions. Thomas Hardy wrote “The Ruined Maid” in closed-form to magnify the poem’s imagery. The poem is Anapestic meter and follows the unstressed, unstressed, stressed syllabic pattern. This meter gives the poem a sense of joy and bounciness that adds to the maid’s new happiness. Hardy also uses an AABB rhyme scheme for each stanza. The rhymes, along with the meter,…

Two of literature’s greatest tragedies, Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman follow the lives of two memorable characters. Hardy’s Tess Durbeyfield is a young, beautiful peasant. Miller’s Willy Loman is an old, worn-out salesman. Although on the surface it does not seem so, Tess and Willy’s stories follow similar formats. They both have singular moments that drive the rest of their lives. Tess’s being when she was raped and Willy’s his extramarital…