Jorge Blázquez Ferrón

2015

THOMAS HARDY
Literatura Inglesa desde 1890 hasta nuestros días.
 Jorge Blázquez Ferrón
Literatura 1890 hasta nuestros días
2015/2016

Paper on Thomas Hardy.

By Jorge Blázquez Ferrón.

1. Thomas Hardy’s biography.

Thomas Hardy was a major English poet and novelist. He
was born in 1840 in Higher Bockhampton, United Kingdom.
His father worked as a stonemason and local builder.
Besides his father’s low profile, he was educated by his
mother until he went to his first school; she was very well-
read. Young Thomas demonstrated potential and he learnt
Latin. Due to a lack of education on his family he did not
attend university, his formal education ended at age of
Thomas Hardy, 1889 sixteen when he became an apprentice of a local architect.
He worked for the local architect until he moved to London in 1862. Once in London, he
enrolled himself into King’s College London where he was an extraordinary student, he
was able to win some prestigious prizes.
He was not comfortable at all in London because he was aware of class divisions and his
notable social inferiority. Because of that he was interested in social reform, influenced
by John Stuart Mill. Five years later, when his health was not good, he returned to Dorset
to dedicate to writing.
He felt in love with Emma Lavinia Gifford during the restoration of a church in Cornwall.
Thomas married Emma in 1874. In 1885 they moved to Max Gate into a house that
Thomas designed himself. Emma died in a subsequent way in 1912 and Thomas Hardy
started a trip to Cornwall to revisit the places where his courtship began. The effect that
Emma’s death caused in Thomas was very present in his work Poems 1912-13. Only one
year later he married Florence Emily Dugdale, his secretary and 39 ages younger than
him. In 1910 he was awarded The Order of Merit and was also nominate to the Nobel
Prize for the first time. He would be nominated in eleven more years.
He died at Max Gate on 11th January 1928. He became ill with pleurisy. His final poem
was dedicated to his wife, he made it on his deathbed. His funeral was on 16 th January
on Westminster Abbey, where his ashes rested in Poet’s Corner but not his heart that
was buried in Emma’s grave.
Once Thomas Hardy died, all his letters and documents were burnt but twelve of them
survived. Hardy’s work was admired by some of the most influential authors of the 20 th
century, some of them are D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf…

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 Jorge Blázquez Ferrón
Literatura 1890 hasta nuestros días
2015/2016

2. Thomas Hardy’s main works.

The work of Thomas Hardy may be considered as pessimistic naturalism and with a
stunning talent for psychologist portraits and the description of rural milieus and series
of complex characters.
Thomas Hardy developed his works into three main forms: poetry, novels and short
stories:
 Novels:
o Hardy, Thomas – Desperate Remedies, published in United Kingdom by the
editorial Tinsley Brothers in 1871. It was published anonymously.
o Hardy, Thomas – Under the Greenwood Tree, published in United Kingdom
by the editorial Tinsley Brothers in 1872. It was published anonymously.
o Hardy, Thomas – A pair of Blue Eyes, published in United Kingdom by the
editorial Tinsley Brothers in 1873.
o Hardy, Thomas – Far from the Madding Crowd, published in United Kingdom
by the editorial Cornhill Magazine in 1874.
o Hardy, Thomas – The Return of the Native, published in United Kingdom by
the editorial Belgravia, the Magazine of Fashion and Amusement in 1878.
o Hardy, Thomas – Two on a Tower, published in United Kingdom by […] in
1882.
o Hardy, Thomas – The Mayor of Casterbrigde, published in United Kingdom by
[...] in 1886.
o Hardy, Thomas – The Woodlanders, published in United Kingdom by the
editorial Macmillan and Co in 1887.
o Hardy, Thomas – Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully
Presented, published in United Kingdom by the editorials James R. Osgood,
McIlvaine & Co. in 1891.
o Hardy, Thomas – Jude the Obscure, published in United Kingdom by the
editorials James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co. in 1895.
o Hardy, Thomas – The Well-Beloved, published in United Kingdom by the
editorial James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co. in 1897. (First serialized in 1892)

 Poetry collections:
o Hardy, Thomas – Wessex Poems and Other Verses, published by New York &
London: Harper and Brothers in 1898.
o Hardy, Thomas – Poems 1912-13.
o Hardy, Thomas – Satires of Circumstance.

 Short stories collections:

o Hardy, Thomas – Wessex Tales, published in London by Macmillan and Co. in
1888.
o Hardy, Thomas – A Group of Noble Dames, published in England by Osgood,
McIlvaine, & Co. and in America by Harper & Brothers in 1891.

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 Jorge Blázquez Ferrón
Literatura 1890 hasta nuestros días
2015/2016

o Hardy, Thomas – Life’s Little Ironies, published by Osgood, McIlvaine and Co.
in 1894.
o Hardy, Thomas – A Changed Man and Other Tales, published by New York &
London: Harper and Brothers in 1913.

He also wrote only one play called The Dynasts, between 1904 and 1908.
Here we have a little summary of his main work:

 Hardy, Thomas – Far from the Madding Crowd, published in United Kingdom
by the editorial Cornhill Magazine in 1874 – Thomas Hardy gives us a
formidable portrait of a Victorian heroin that knows how difficult is for a
woman at this time to define her feelings. She has a strong and independent
character, owner of the largest farmer of the county, she has to choose
between the three wooers that prowl her. Once she relinquish from her
singleness, she will realize how a marriage is.

3. Analysis of the poem/s or the chapter.

In this section, three famous poems by Thomas Hardy will be analysed in detail. In order
to do that, the structure followed will be as follows: introduction to the poem, summary
of the poem, analysis, themes and some quotes.
The first of the three poem that will be analysed is The Man He Killed.

 The Man He Killed.

"Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have sat us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!

"But ranged as infantry,

And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.

"I shot him dead because —

Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although

"He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,

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 Jorge Blázquez Ferrón
Literatura 1890 hasta nuestros días
2015/2016

Off-hand like — just as I —

Was out of work — had sold his traps —
No other reason why.

"Yes; quaint and curious war is!

You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat if met where any bar is,
Or help to half-a-crown."

The Man He Killed is a poem written by Thomas Hardy. Written in 1902, it was first
published in his book Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses (London: Macmillan,
1909).

- Introduction to the poem: It is an anti-war poem placed in a bar. The historic

context of this poem is the Boer War, a very cruel one. This war was
incredibly violent, it may be the war in which the British army had committed
their worst atrocities. This poem could be compared with Wilfred Owen’s
Dulce et decorum est.
- Summary of the poem: The speaker of the poem tells a story about when he
shot a man in the battlefield and he wonders what would have happened if
they would have met in a bar. He describes how killed the man and why he
did that, trying to explain himself, but he does not have a real reason for that
because he did not even know the man he shot.
- Analysis: First stanza: We found a speaker but we do not know who it is yet.
The speaker reveals that he met someone once and if he would have met
him in a bar they’d share a few drinks. But they met each other in different
circumstances, so it implies that something went wrong when they met.
In this four first lines is easily appreciable the rhythm and rhyme. Lines 1, 2
and 4 are iambic trimeter and line 3 is iambic tetrameter. The pattern for
rhyme is ABAB (met  wet // inn  nipperkin). These patterns will continue
during the whole poem.
Second stanza: Here we understand that the met in a battlefield during a war
(Boer War). The speaker describes them as infantry which means that they
are following orders from higher-ups. They shot each other and is the
speaker who make a target. His opponent die right away. He is still alive just
by luck. It tells how quick and though can be dying at the battlefield.
Third stanza: The repetition of because could be related with the speaker
trying to find an explanation on why he killed his enemy. This repetition
suggest doubt, hesitation… because he is not sure about him being his
enemy, just because his higher-ups told him that. The change of order in the
next line can be associated to the doubt he is feeling right now. He is trying
to convince himself yet.

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 Jorge Blázquez Ferrón
Literatura 1890 hasta nuestros días
2015/2016

Fourth stanza: the speakers is now wondering and understanding that his
enemy is a man just like him and now he is dead. A man probably out of work
that enlisted himself to make a life and he is dead. That relationship that the
speaker establishes between the dead man and himself make him wonder
why he is serving at war.
Fifth stanza: finally the speaker understands that war is about luck and
chance, that you are there to kill enemies, because they are not, they are just
fellows, just men like himself, following senseless orders that make them kill
each other.
- Themes: The main themes of this poem are warfare, guilt and society and
class.
- Quotes: Now some quotes from the poem will be added in order to illustrate
this themes previously mentioned: “But ranged as infantry,”, “and staring
face to face”, “I shot him dead because”, “Was out of work—had sold his
traps”.

 The Ruined Maid.

"O 'Melia, my dear, this does everything crown!
Who could have supposed I should meet you in Town?
And whence such fair garments, such prosperi-ty?" —
"O didn't you know I'd been ruined?" said she.

— "You left us in tatters, without shoes or socks,

Tired of digging potatoes, and spudding up docks;
And now you've gay bracelets and bright feathers three!" —
"Yes: that's how we dress when we're ruined," said she.

— "At home in the barton you said thee' and thou,'

And thik oon,' and theäs oon,' and t'other'; but now
Your talking quite fits 'ee for high compa-ny!" —
"Some polish is gained with one's ruin," said she.

— "Your hands were like paws then, your face blue and bleak
But now I'm bewitched by your delicate cheek,
And your little gloves fit as on any la-dy!" —
"We never do work when we're ruined," said she.

— "You used to call home-life a hag-ridden dream,

And you'd sigh, and you'd sock; but at present you seem
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Literatura 1890 hasta nuestros días
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To know not of megrims or melancho-ly!" —

"True. One's pretty lively when ruined," said she.

— "I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown,

And a delicate face, and could strut about Town!" —
"My dear — a raw country girl, such as you be,
Cannot quite expect that. You ain't ruined," said she.

The Ruined Maid is a tall satirical poem by Thomas Hardy. It was written in 1866 but first
published, in a slightly bowdlerized form, in 1901.
- Introduction to the poem: This poem was written based on strong principles
of the Victorian Period, which means that was written during the reign of
Queen Victoria (1837-1901). It was a society characterised by obey the rules.
Everything had a code or a rule. They hay rules about everything, from how
to hold your teacup to how to speak properly. Society since that time has
evolved. At that time, for example, it was extremely rude to talk about sex in
public, probably because sex was related with evil thoughts and things. It was
un-thinkable for a woman to have sex outside her marriage. Whether if she
had sex outside her marriage, she would be grounded and punished.
Fortunately, Thomas Hardy was not a lover of those rules and he talked,
wrote and expressed his opinion about Victorian sexual norms. He did all this
in his work.
This poem is a dialogue between two women, one ruined and one non-
ruined. Hardy establishes what exactly mean to be ruined or not for a woman
of the Victorian Period. This poem declares that the ruined woman may not
be as ruined as it seem, because she has better clothes, she speaks better
and she is not forced to do housework, so she is not living a life of a housewife
like mostly all the women at this time.
- Summary of the poem: This poem set a dialogue between two women who
meet each other in the street. We do not know the name of the two women
but only the name of the second one, whose name is Melia (shortening of
Amelia). The first women, the unnamed one, starts making comments on
Melia new clothes and Melia responds that is because she is ruined. The first
woman continues with these comments and all she obtain from Melia is that
she got all this new stuff because she is ruined. The first woman, at the end
of the poem admits that she wished to have all this new things too.
- Analysis: First stanza: the poem begins with a tone of surprise by the first
woman. Using the expression ‘this does everything crown!’ she means that
she is surprised by the physical appearance that her friend Melia seems to
have. She wonders how Melia has been able to get these clothes that make
her seems in a mood of prosperity. The word ‘prosperi-ty’, written in this way
may indicate that the first speaker is a less educated person or maybe a rural
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woman. Then, Melia replies that she’d been ruined. To be a ‘ruined woman’
during the Victorian Period was a major thing; it means that a woman had
had sex before her marriage. They were not respectable at all. By using the
complex tense lead us to think that Melia could have been ruined by
someone else. From the formal point of view, we have two couplets in this
stanza whose rhyme is AABB. This pattern would be repeated on the poet.
Second stanza: In this second stanza we can find the rural knowledge that
Hardy had. He uses a rural slang when the first woman is talking again,
revealing us some details from Melia’s past. Melia was, apparently a farmer,
and now she wears expensive clothes. That is a big change of role for Melia.
When Melia answers her friend, she is ironic again and explain her that ruined
women wear that fancy because, in fact, they are ‘ruined’ women.
Third stanza: The unnamed woman notices that Melia has changed even in
how she speaks. Back in the farm she was not as polite as she is now. Melia
says that she got some ‘polish’ from the people she hang out with now and
that is why she is ruined, again.
Fourth stanza: Melia’s friend notices that she was physically more damaged
when she was in the country field and Melia says again that she never does
any work because she is ruined. Here we have the doubt about what type of
work Melia does now. She may be a mistress or prostitute, it was a real
problem during Victorian Period.
Fifth stanza: the structure is repeated again, Melia’s friend establishes a
comparison between Melia’s life back and now. Now, Melia seems to be
everything but lively, she has changed so much that she looks like a robot,
even in the way to talk. She may be not suffering in the farm but she does
not look happy either.
Sixth stanza: Now, the country girl declares that has envy, she is envious. She
would like to have all this fancy clothes and being a good woman like Melia,
but now Melia says again, that to have all these goods, she should be able to
lose her virginity, dignity… to be as rich and wealthy as Melia, she needs to
be ruined as she is.
- Themes: Women and femininity, social classes and changing of roles in the
society, the rural world.
- Quotes: Now some quotes from the poem will be added in order to illustrate
this themes previously mentioned: “And whence such fair garments, such
prosperi-ty?"- "O didn't you know I'd been ruined?" said she. (3-4)” , “You left
us in tatters, without shoes or socks, Tired of digging potatoes, and spudding
up docks; (5-6)”, “"At home in the barton you said 'thee' and 'thou,' And 'thik
oon' and 'theäs oon' and 't'other'; but now Your talking quite fits 'ee for high
compan-ny!"- (9-11)”

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 Jorge Blázquez Ferrón
Literatura 1890 hasta nuestros días
2015/2016

 The Darkling Thrush.

I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be

The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among

The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings

Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

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 Jorge Blázquez Ferrón
Literatura 1890 hasta nuestros días
2015/2016

The Darkling Thrush is a poem by Thomas Hardy. Originally titled By the Century's
Deathbed, 1900. It was later included in a collection entitled Poems of the Past and the
Present (1903).
- Introduction to the poem: This poem by Thomas Hardy could be the one to
help us to understand better his way of thinking. Thomas Hardy was a
forerunner writing about the problems of the modern world: isolation,
despair, hopelessness… He could be considered as a beginner of the
Modernism. This poem is a key understand how scary could be the future or
anything that involved us while is changing.
- Summary of the poem: this poem is set in a gloom, icy and desolated
landscape. The speaker of the poem is in the gloom thinking about that
everything around him is dying and decaying. The moment of the poem is the
very end of the year. It is an elegy to England, where based on words of the
speaker is desolated. The gloom he is staring at look dead. There is no signal
of any life. Suddenly he is able to hear a singing bird that looks strong and full
of joy, precisely the most unexpected thing to hear in a place like this. He
wonders what is leading the bird to sing so strong in an isolated and destroy
world. He will not get the answer but once he heard the bird, he is a little bit
more hopeful.
- Analysis: first stanza: the poem begins situating us and our speaker in a
gloom, icy place. It is winter and it is difficult to walk on the snow and ice.
Something that is important in the very beginning of the poem is the capital
letter in Frost, which led us to think on Frost like a human-like. When the
speaker attributes the word spectre to the frost, it can be understand as an
almost human capacity. Hardy was a forerunner of the animism which is
attributing a soul to a plant or animal; this can explain why winter looks so
human in the poem. Everything around the speaker look dead. We find
allusions to the ancient and classical times that is why Hardy uses the lyre.
The reason why this rural ambient is so dead could be related to the Industrial
Revolution. People who lived and worked the land leave the countryside to
live in towns and cities.
Second stanza: the end of the century they are living in it is such a huge
occurrence that there is no word to describe it. That is the point that led
Hardy to make-up words like ‘darkling’ or ‘outleant’. Now the speaker is focus
in remind us the death of the inanimate, like the winter or the century. By
the end of this stanza Hardy introduces a little spirit in a place that seemed
cleared earlier.
Third stanza: now we have the bird, a thrush. He is able to exist in the middle
of this desolated landscape. It is a though bird, not a pretty one. This bird is
a kind of escape from the twisted mind of the speaker.
Fourth stanza: the speaker wonder why is the bird singing even in a
desolated, dead world. He is not able to figure it out, but he is having a kind
of hope, that much more than he had at the beginning of the poem. He is

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comforted only with the idea of the bird singing a happy song. By using modal
verbs like ‘could’, Hardy suggests possibility but not certainty. The poem
finishes with the entrance to the new century, bringing hope even when we
are not able to notice it.
- Themes: isolation, man and the natural world and fear.
- Quotes: Now some quotes from the poem will be added in order to illustrate
this themes previously mentioned: “And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day. (3-4)”, “The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres, (5-6)”, “And every spirit upon the earth
Seemed fervourless as I. (15-16)”.

4. Personal conclusion on Thomas Hardy’s work.

Thomas Hardy’s works are so different among them that you cannot choose only one of
them. In my personal opinion, he is still one of the greatest poets and novelist ever born
in England.
His work has been always influenced by his personal life. One of my favourite things
about him is his endless love for his beloved wife. He never stopped loving her or set her
aside in his works.

As a novelist, he was simply brilliant. Far away from the madding crowd is his most
known novel. But it was all, he reached a status of fame once he wrote Jude the Obscure.

Maybe I like him the most because of how he writes. He is a sincere writer to me, easy
to understand and to sympathize with. His critics to the society makes him a very actual
writer and poet too. Amazingly, he never forgot where he came from, that is why he
uses the rural slang pretty present in his works.
I would like to recommend everyone reading and understand the three poem analysed
previously. My way of thinking has created a bond with his scriptures because reading
this poems, written one hundred years ago, you can understand the society now. We
have senseless wars and all it matters is money, not the men who died in the battlefield.
We also tend to criticize and judge people for their clothes or appearances instead for
who they really are.

5. Bibliography.
 http://www.alohacriticon.com/literatura/escritores/thomas-hardy/
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy
 http://www.mantex.co.uk/2009/09/30/thomas-hardy-greatest-works/
 http://www.poemhunter.com/thomas-hardy/poems/
 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_hardy.html
 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173594
 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173590
 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173597

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2015/2016

“Everybody is so talented nowadays that the only people I

care to honour as deserving real distinction are those who
remain in obscurity” Thomas Hardy.

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