Thomas Hardy as a Great Novelist

Thomas Hardy is one of the greatest English novelists. With his fourteen novels,

he has carved for himself a niche in the glorious mansion of the English novel. He

is a great poet as well as a great novelist; but the success and popularity of his

novels-especially his six major novels - has overshadowed his glory as a poet.

As a delineator of human beings pitted against the vast forces of Nature, he

stands supreme, and his deft handling of plots, situations and settings reveal the

hand of a superb craftsman.

The world of Hardy's novels consists of the region consisting of a part of

southwest England, to which he gave its old name 'Wessex', and some other

similar rural places. Belonging to the rural working class, he was keenly interested

in depicting the life of the peasantry and advocating their beliefs and values.

When he went out of his chosen region to deal with the civilized and

sophisticated life of cities, his writing lost its natural gusto, and became artificial

and laboured. As David Lindley points out, "Hardy was the first English novelist to

write about the countryside and its inhabitants in a serious fashion, and obviously

he drew constantly on the inspiration offered him by the people of the country in

which he was born and spent most of his life." Hardy's novels contain a detailed
description of the scenes and places of interest in Dorsetshire (Wessex). S. Diana

Neill remarks "No other novelist can render the sights and smells of the

countryside with such evocative sensuousness." The vicissitudes in the life of his

characters are described as occurring against the background of scenes located in

the countryside.

It is the countryside that abounds in the various phenomena of Nature in their

changing aspects. Hardy observes Nature closely and presents it in his novels with

fidelity to the details related to it. Though it seems often to share the feelings of

Man as a whole, it remains indifferent to his suffering. It is against the background

of the vast Universe that the drama of human life is enacted in Hardy's novels,

and the tragedy of their heroes and heroines takes place. Hardy presents a

picture of the vast elemental forces, and shows their working on Man's life. The

character of human beings is shown by him as been shaped by the environment

around them. Often some natural object or scene directs the movement of the

story and guides the actions of characters, as is seen in the case of Egdon Heath in

The Return of the Native in which the two prominent characters, Eustacia Vye and

Clym Yeobright, "take on the characteristics they have in the novel partly because

of their relation to the heath." Hardy differs much from George Meredith in that

in Meredith's novels greater importance is attached to Man than to the universe

Man and his society, and also quite unintelligible to him.

Tragedy is Hardy's forte. He presents Man's struggle and suffering in the face of a

hostile universe, and ultimately encountering defeat and death at the hands of

Fate and circumstances. Henchard and Tess are two examples of such suffering

persons. For Hardy, life is essentially tragic, and Man's destiny is governed by

irony of circumstances over which he has no control. Several of Hardy's major

novels - viz. The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The

Woodlanders and Tess of the D'Urbervilles -are tragedies and abound in the

element of gloom and despair intensified by the death of their central figures. The

tragedy in Hardy's novels transcends the purely local and individual, and seems to

engulf the whole human race in its cosmic sweep. It is caused by the defeat of

human beings at the hands of vast and powerful, forces of Nature, universe or

Providence.

In presenting human life as a tragedy, Hardy may be said to be expressing his

pessimism and his gloomy view of life. He seems to have a Manichean belief in

the inevitable presence of Evil in the universe, which annihilates the good with its

cruel hands. The roots of Hardy's pessimism may be thought to be lying, like
Matthew Arnold's, in the conditions existing in his age, that comprised a rapid

advancement of science and the consequent loss of old religious faith and long-

cherished values of life. Hardy himself suffered from a loss of religious belief,

which was followed by the adoption of a belief in an impersonal Fate which is

conveyed in several of his novels. His disgust at the modern life and civilization

may be said to be responsible for this loss of faith and growth of pessimistic

outlook.

Because of his pessimistic outlook, Hardy restricts the scope of human endeavour

and makes its outcome subject to Chance, coincidence, accident and workings of

a malignant Fate. These things play a significant role in all his novels, and shape

the destiny of his characters. The excessive use of these elements takes off much

of the effectiveness of his tragedies, because they overshadow the actions of

Man, which are supposed to lead to tragic consequences. Characters like

Henchard, Jude and Tess suffer much in life, not only because of their own

mistakes or weaknesses, but also because of the circumstances prevailing around

them, and the cruel hands of Fate pushing them towards their doom.

Hardy is a master in the art of characterization, and portrays his characters

faithfully through their manners, speech and other such distinguishing features.
However, only his major characters are portrayed with a psychological insight, the

minor ones being used only to provide some comic relief and Chorus-like

commentary on the existing situations. Often his characters such as Sue, Eustacia

Vye and Gabriel Oak, are delineated in a subtle manner, but most of them -

especially the minor ones comprising rustics - hardly ever come under the

purview of his analytical scrutiny. In fact, Hardy is more interested in portraying

the elemental powers of the universe and the world around him than individual

characters. Moreover, he often employs his characters as mouthpieces for the

expression of his philosophy of life. Another characteristic of Hardy's

characterization is his greater concern with Man or Woman as a whole than with

a particular man or woman. According to Earnest Baker "His chief character is

Man, and the play Existence." Hence, to give his interpretation of Existence and

his views on the interplay of Man and nature, "Hardy chooses his human types

from those who are closest to nature, those in whom the primitive impulses are

the strongest." (Moody and Lovett). Instead of remaining preoccupied with the

psychological complexities of his characters, Hardy shows the struggle between

these characters and the indifferent universe, they have been thrown into by the

accident of their birth.

inventive powers. But they are often marred by the element of improbability,

implausibility, causality and excessive use of coincidence. These plots comprise

both the internal and external conflicts, and often present a blend of these two

types of conflict, as in The Mayor of Casterbridge. Sudden shifts from one scene

to another put a strain on the common reader's attention. However, a careful

arrangement of various events and situations has been helpful in imparting a

unity to the structures of his novels despite the complex nature of these

structures. On the whole, Hardy makes his plots serve as a compact unit to

convey his tragic view of life, and all the scenes and events lead towards a climax

which embodies this view.

There can no doubt about the merit of Hardy's art as a novelist, despite certain

shortcomings that it may betray. As a story-teller, as a constructor of plots, as a

delineator of character and as a painter of scenes and situations, he is simply

superb. His pessimism and his predilection for tragedy may not be palatable to

many, but the authenticity of his treatment of human life and the genuineness of

his concern for the tragic destiny of Man, are beyond dispute. His greatness as a

novelist lies in his cosmic view of life, and the beauty and dignity of his best work.

His view of a malignant Fate and hostile Nature may be a bit too gloomy to be
easily acceptable; but his concern for and depiction of the pitiable lot of Man in

this world is admirable indeed.