Thomas Hardy’s Philosophy of Life

Thomas hardy is critic of life, not of personal characters, not an observer of man in society, but of human conditions in the more philosophic sense an observer who has already made up his mind about his conclusions.

Hardy’s conception of life it’s essentially tragic the conflict is one in which there is only the remotest chance of escape , so heavily are the scaliest weighted by man’s lack of foresight nature, and the snakes and ladder place in his path by a mysterious view less  ice less turner of the wheel.

In Hardy’s outlook of life there are two important points his sense of law and his sense of pity.

The first gives him the conviction that a spiritual logic governs man’s lives, the Greeks called it nemesis but are attended by scientific formulate, attribute it to low another novelist who has touched the logic of life with the same persistence as hardy was George Eliot. But whereas the con sliders it rather from the standpoint of retribution, and treats it as a moralist, Hardy is affected rather by the the injustice of its working. He admits, as she does, the dreadful vitality of our deeds, but he dwells for longer on the disproportionate punishment.

Melancholic and gloomy picture of life, pessimism, At times Hardy shows too much bitterness of feeling what he urges may be true, but there is another side of the life picture which is actually true, and upon which he is silent. As for this attitude to life Hardy stated his position.

Different natures find her tongue in the presence of differing spectacles in the presence of differing spectacle , some are made vocal by comedy and it seems to be that to whichever of these aspects to life a writer enlistments  for expression the more readily responds to that he should allow a to responds.

 In Thomas Hardy’s earlier writings he mingled sweetness and bitterness of life ‘and are admirably contrasted, but in the later novels Tess, judge the gloom is intensified even though these novels are rich in power and insight.

No reflective person can fail to be struck by the littleness and sordidness of life, and by the overwhelming pain and suffering which exist in this world but with Hardy this view becomes a prevalent way of looking of things, and a temperamental habit of mind. Sublimity and beauty of life are as much a matter of human existence but are excluded from his writing.

  “The poet in him will make trees as lively as men while the next moment the philosopher in him will make man as helpless as trees”.

Man a victim of circumstances fate:

A struggle between man on the one hand and on the other, an omnipotent and indifferent fate that is human predicament in Hardy’s vision of life.

The conflict is not necessarily between man and man, or between and institution, Man is pitched against impersonal forces, these forces condition his fate.

Hardy’s philosophy grows out of reflection and experience before he is acquainted with Schopenhauer from an early time he feels or obscures volition in the depth of things, and curbs our individual destinies under   a low greater than our selves. At a later stage, he readily adopts the theory of an imminent will seeking unconscious ends through a blind striving.

Everywhere in his novels human being appears to us crushed by a superior force, that of nature, at first and of an indifferent, so most   often a hastily chance than that of he errors implied in our own desires whether his creed is fatalism or determinism, he is grasps its grandly, like a tragic poet, and illustrate it with untiring persistence.

Hardy’s gaze perceives times as well as space. His pessimism is not only a way of thinking lived by his most instinctive sensibility, it imbues all his vision, it is the very essence of his admirable poetry of nature.

Hardy does not regarded nature as a kind and generous mother, for Hardy nature is the agent of cruelty and beings insensible to the feeling of man.

According to David Cecile ‘’However Hardy‘s attitude towards nature to man. Was not Wordsworthian  He did not believe that nature has any holy plan or healing power. Being influenced by the theory of education he found much in nature that was cruel   and antagonist to man’’.

The influence of nature of humanity has been presented in different ways nature influences the moods and actions of Hardy’s human characters.

In most of his nature scenes, Hardy presents an emotional connection between nature and beings .Sometimes Nature is affected by human emotions, and sometimes man is affected by nature feelings. IN Tess, we see a change in nature’s feeling in accordance with the emotional change in Tess’s life.

Nature is one aspect of fate, like chance, accidents and coincidence.

The Month of May:

Tess is young, fresh, lively and happy maiden, Merlot village has fertile land and springs never dry.

The Month of October:

After her sad experience with Alec planned into gloom she locked upon herself as a figure of guilt intruding into the haunts of innocence.

The Month of August:

And following months of winter the time of storms and snow one of the cruelest month –sorrow dies, she changes form simple girl to complex woman.

Summer:

Talbot hays Dairy, butter, milk, pure environment, sunshine, breeze, true love all these goes on through the summer and the autumn, marriage with Angel in winter, desertion, sorrow seen follows her.

I     

To sorrow

Bade good morrow

And thought to leave her far away behind

But cheerly, cheerly

She loves me dearly

She is so constant to me, and so kind

I would deceive her

And so leave her, But Ah1 She is so

Constant and so kind

The month of October:

Hardy comments:

To the sum up Hardy give the comments ‘’ so the two forces were at work here as everywhere the inherent will to enjoyment.