themes of Thomas Hardy`s novels.

[la-vier]

could anyone give me some instructions?

[ktm5124]

This thread is pathetic.

[Jozanny]

Instructions? I am not a huge Hardy enthusiast. He and Dickens somehow go together in my mind as an obligation rather than a pleasure, but sympathetic scholars say Hardy was influenced by Impressionism.

Instructions on what, how to find themes in Hardy's work? Could you spell this out in an intelligible sentence? :rolleyes:

[LitNetIsGreat]

Really Jozzany? I totally agree with Dickens as an obligation (though I know others wouldn't) but not Hardy. Certainly with Tess and Jude anyway, I must admit to the feeling that the other Hardy novels are in no way up to the standard set in these two.

As the (non) question I can only suggest that you read the book set and pick out any themes, you know issues - things that you think important, and write about them

[mal4mac]

Hardy was heavily influenced by Schopenhauer (to see how, read Bryan Magee's book on that great philosopher.) That might help you find some philosophical themes to look for - pessimism, atheism, intractability of nature, impossibility of fulfilled love,... Why don't you find Hardy a pleasure Jozanny? :) I actually do find him a pleasure, but don't expect the kind of pleasure you get from fruit & jelly... or Dickens...

[janesmith]

I am also a Hardy enthusiast. Totally concur with the previous post but you could also consider the Darwinian perspective in relation to his novels. I focused on Darwin's theory of Sexual Selection and biological discourses of sexuality in relation to Hardy's later fiction during MA study. Fascinating.

[Jozanny]

Isn't fruit and jelly a bit redundant mal? :D To channel Petrarch's Love, whose articulate posts are no doubt buried under her business, one cannot know everything, and I never studied Hardy to any great extent, so I cannot really critique for good or ill, but I have never really gotten into him independently under my own steam. Whatever his merits, his diction plods heavily over things that a realist like Zola would just describe as sex uncaring of consequence. Some writers can really make me care about the rural/working/underclass. Gaskell comes to mind. Zola too, but Hardy just doesn't make it work for me, that Jude, for instance, cannot better himself and break the bonds of his caste because he needs to make love. Eh.

My family sprang from the Italian working class, and my father, despite 3 wives and five children, Americanized and made upper middle class. In other words, Hardy's melodrama doesn't really authenticate for me--and I guess that is a lot to surmise from my memory and the few chapters I have plowed in my maturity--but, as I've indicated, he is a blank spot whose reputation precedes him.

[dfloyd]

looking for a free ride. Looking for themes can be easily accomplished on Wikipedia. There is enough info there without delving into abstruse philosophers.

My feeling is that there is a large hole in your reading to leave out two such important novelists as Dickens or Hardy. Everyone should read 4 or 5 of their novels. You say why waste my time? I have found that if I have a feeling of animosity toward a writer, getting to know him or her by reading their best, decreases this feeling. Many authors are an acquired interest. To like them, you have to read them. Only the genuises among us can appreciate and like Shakespeare at the first reading. If you say something like I just can't get into him, you'll be missing a great portion of western literature.

[LitNetIsGreat]

But in defence of Jozanny, I don't think it at all likely on any level that she is dismissing these writers based upon a short cursory read - with the "problem" being that she has not given them a "good try". Rather her reasons, like mine with Dickens, are more substantial than that.

I agree with your point about the student though, which is why my in my initial second paragraph I was trying to be genuinely helpful, if in a rather blunt manner.

[dfloyd]

because I'm not attacking anyone. I'm only saying that two such important authors such as Dickens and Hardy, if unread, will leave a gap in your literary achievements. I absolutely abhor Virginia Woolf, but I forced myself to read To the Lighthouse. Perhaps to know the enemy better.

[Quark]

This poster is obviously a student .... looking for a free ride.

What does a "free ride" mean, dfloyd? I think they're just looking for directions to take on a paper, or maybe just things to look for while reading. Telling them that that Hardy frequently comments on art, sexuality, and history in his novels (oh, no! I said it) isn't going to write them a paper or read them the book. It's hardly a "free ride." It's just a suggestion. I love the Scrooge-like joy posters take in denying poor students help with their work.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/A_Christmas_Carol_-_Scrooge_and_Bob_Cratchit.jpg
"Hardy's themes? Bah, humbug!"

That being said, I wish obvious fishing for hw suggestions would get shuffled to the homework section of the forum. If book club discussions are going to get removed from the "General Literature" forum, I would hope this would be, too.

[LitNetIsGreat]

because I'm not attacking anyone. I'm only saying that two such important authors such as Dickens and Hardy, if unread, will leave a gap in your literary achievements. I absolutely abhor Virginia Woolf, but I forced myself to read To the Lighthouse. Perhaps to know the enemy better.

I'm not saying you were attacking her or anyone, but you suggested she hadn't read Dickens or Hardy which is inaccurate. I hardly think someone of Jozanny's standard is going to allow for such a gap, the suggestion is absurd...

Oh, I'm sort of currently reading To the Lighthouse by the way, ha, ha...

[Whifflingpin]

Nostalgia - the passing of a way of life. We always refer to "Hardy's Wessex" but it was really "Hardy's father's Wessex" that he was generally describing.

[kiki1982]

I don't believe in atheism and Hardy. Rather in frustration with hypocrisy. There is a fine line between being anti-institutional and anti-faith. Hardy stopped writing because of being misunderstood.

On Dickens, I am one of the non-Dickens-fans as well. I haven't got a problem with reading and seeing themes as such, I only am not able to finish whatsoever by him apart from Bozz, it's probably because it is short.
Hardy though... is nice only for his writing. Dickens is just...easy and too direct, there is nothing to discover. If I want descriptions I can consult Doré and his drawings about the London slums any time. I do not need pages and pages full of it without purpose. Sorry. Les Misérables is also about misery, but it is much much much more. Dickens is no more. I found A Christmas Carol fun to read when I was early in my 5th year of English and had to read my first ever book. Now I think back and I believe it must have been because I didn't understand half of it. Understood the main parts and that was it. That is where he is good, the rest is, to me, pointless. Which cannot be said about Hardy.

But why are we discussing Dickens in a Hardy-thread, which is, admittedly, a little too much non-concealed?

[ktm5124]

But why are we discussing Dickens in a Hardy-thread, which is, admittedly, a little too much non-concealed?

Because if we discuss Hardy, then we help this hapless high school student ;-)

[kiki1982]

Because if we discuss Hardy, then we help this hapless high school student ;-)

:lol:

[LitNetIsGreat]

Because if we discuss Hardy, then we help this hapless high school student ;-)

:santasmil Yes, I'm even trying to steer the conversation towards that of Woolf - did you notice that? Also I have Wodehouse burning a hole in my sofa arm absolutely demanding to be read. I've never read a Wodehouse. The tension is unbearable. I hope it lasts...

[ktm5124]

:santasmil Yes, I'm even trying to steer the conversation towards that of Woolf - did you notice that? Also I have Wodehouse burning a hole in my sofa arm absolutely demanding to be read. I've never read a Wodehouse. The tension is unbearable. I hope it lasts...

How are you enjoying To the Lighthouse? I really liked Mrs. Dalloway, but when I tried reading The Waves it became unbearable - I had to give it up! But I am more optimistic about her other novels. I actually have To the Lighthouse on my bookshelf, "demanding to be read" ;-)

[kelby_lake]

As for themes, there's cruelty from nature and love, country life, doom, erotolepsy...