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1、湖南商学院学年论文 Thomas Hardys Ambivalent Attitude Towards Modernization Shown in the Major Characters in Far from the Madding Crowd1 IntroductionFar from the Madding Crowd (1874) was written by British writer Thomas Hardy who was one of the most prominent novelists during the later period of Victoria Age.
2、 This book not only won him world renown. Its success also encouraged this modest and self-effacing man to write more masterpieces, most of which belonged to canons of world literature.On June 2, 1840, Hardy was born to a family in which the father was a stonemason and the mother was a well-educated
3、 woman. When he was a child, he lived in the countryside in Dorset, England. The family insisted upon his education at home for his poor health. Child as he was, the tranquil country comfort gradually instilled into him the love and respect for nature. Nevertheless, in order to further his study of
4、architecture which he was apprenticed to learn at 16, he went to London and worked as an architect until he got married. Though Thomas Hardy was most famous for his novels, his original interest lay in poetry, which may be a surprise for those who only read his novels. However, being a sensitive man
5、, he gave up writing poems when his first published poems were severely criticized. Then, he picked up writing novels. His novel Desperate Remedies (1871) was a tragic failure. Undaunted, he then continued to write two novels, Under the Green Wood Tree (1872) and A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873), whose sm
6、all success infused confidence into him and led him to write his first masterpiece, namely, Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), which almost gained him universal acclaim. After that he wrote a series of different novels. Among them, Tess of the DUrbervilles (1891) was the most famous but controversia
7、l for its blunt defiance of the orthodoxy in Victoria Age. Moreover, the following masterpiece Jude the Obscure (1895) was cruelly criticized as filthy for its bold description of erotic scenes. Again discouraged and badly hurt, he diverted his passion from novel back to poems which were always his
8、favorites. Hardy lived in the later years of the Victorian Age during which a lot of great issues sprouted and changed the world tremendously. The Great Exhibition became the first Worlds Fair in 1851. Charles Darwins book On the Origin of Species (1859) seemed to challenge Gods majesty. Whats more,
9、 the railway systems were growing more and more mature, and telegraph, together with other much advanced communicating applications, became popular. As a result, peoples way of living was then changing rapidly. Especially the growing influence and impetus of the Industrial Revolution seemed never to
10、 end. Countryside, as a place far from the city, was bound to have a slow reaction to these changes and therefore lagged behind. Slow as this process was, it did great damage to its people, natural environment and even culture. As a sensitive writer, Hardy had seen the rapid progress brought by mode
11、rnization and industrialization. But at the same time he also realized its negative sides with penetrating insight, which brought about his ambivalent attitude towards the process of modernization.As a world-famous writer, lots of scholars abroad are intensely interested in Hardy. With more and more
12、 biographical information of Hardy disclosed, critics and scholars have better resources so that the analysis of Hardys novels becomes more accessible. The number of scholars and critics who take an interest in Hardy surge year after year since the beginning the twenty-first century. They are gradua
13、lly interested in those works which were once neglected for the lack of information. Whats more, the development of critical theories in modern literature enables them to analyze Hardys works from different aspects. Tess of the DUrbervilles and Jude the Obscure are the novels most frequently analyze
14、d today. Far from the Madding Crowd is also popular among critics and scholars. Rose Marie Morgan once tries hard to look into the amendment to the manuscript of Far from the Madding Crowd in order to reach a better understanding of Hardy and this novel. As the first novel which brought Hardy immens
15、e fame, there are many issues that critics are interested in. Feminism, the equilibrium of ecology, tragedy, patriarchy, realism and gender are popular issues among them.This thesis will discuss Hardys ambivalence toward modernization through disclosing the symbolic meaning, self-contradiction and i
16、nterrelationships of the major characters in Far from the Madding Crowd. It is divided into three parts. The first part involves the symbolic meaning of the major characters. Every major character has a symbolic meaning which is related to the great issues and problems of the progress of modernization. Hardys ambivalence was also showed by the characters contradictions within themselves which will be discussed in the second part; the forging of the interrelat
