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Far From
Madding Crowd is Hardy’s first masterpiece in which he describes the rural
life and rural people who live far from the urban civilization. Hardy is
very skillful in describing picturesque scenery of Wessex of rural area. The
natural phenomena, characters and many objects have symbolic meanings. In
Far From Madding Crowd, the soldier, Sergeant Troy, from the outside of the
country, is much more of a symbol of a evil effect of the bourgeois
civilization; the poor girl, Fanny Robin, deserted by Troy, is image of the
simple and unselfish poor peasants whom is destroyed by the new code of
civilization. In this novel, Hardy pointed out the fine qualities of the
simple people in the rural area in contrast with wickedness and vices of the
rich who are degraded by the bourgeois civilization. This novel is
combination of Hardy’s sympathy for the simple folk and his critical
attitude towards the corrupted bourgeois life. He extended this worldview in
all his later important novels.
Hardy’s hostile and critical
outlook on social life runs not only in the novel dealing with rural life
but also finds its expression in the novel about the city life. This can see
best expression in The Mayor of Casterbridge. Henchard, the mayor,
represents rural folk who is upright, kind and straightforward. But he is
doomed to be defeated by those who are tinged with bourgeois moral
represented by Farfrae. The conflicts between Henchard and Farfrae are the
conflicts between two civilizations. The spread of industrialization forced
its way in to the rural area and had big impact on the conventional belief.
Hardy believed that the tragic fate of the rural people was caused by the
mysterious fate that plays a decisive role to the man, though, in fact, is
caused by the power of industrialization. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, the
unfortunate chance happening plays such a decisive part in the tragic death
of main character, Henchard. a simple man sold his wife and a daughter to a
sailor. After that, he felt regretted and then worked hard to be a mayor of
Casterbridge. Meanwhile, his wife and his daughter, Elizabeth Jane appeared
in his life. Henchard married her again, but soon his wife died. Then
Farfrae came to this city and happened to be Henchard’s assistant in corn
business whom Henchard has always trusted. Then the conflict relationship
between Henchard, conventional obstinate and simple, and Farfrae, shrewd and
knowledgeable, demonstrates definitely Hardy’s bitter criticism of bourgeois
society in which a simple and good man is doomed to be defeated. In the end,
Farfrae’s took over Henchard’s business. It turned out that Elizabeth Jane
was not his own daughter but the daughter of the sailor. Farfrae and
Elizabeth married while the poor man Henchard died miserly. Really, there
are full of coincidences: Henchard happened to hire Farfrae to defeat him;
Henchard own daughter happened to die very young, so that Henchard mistook
Elizabeth as his own daughter; Elizabeth happened to marry Henchard’s enemy
Farfrae; Finally Farfrae happened to be The Mayor of Casteribridge. All this
coincidence leads to tragic fate of Henchard.
The Return of the Native marks the
first step of creating his outstanding tragic works and further reflects the
destructive force of bourgeois civilization on the Wessex life. This story
sets in Egdon Heath which not only serves as a background of the story but
also embodiment of the powerful and eternal force of nature and
representation of something alive and mysterious. The main character
Eustacia cannot bear her dull life among the peasants and longing for a gay
life in Paris with firm belief that she can realize her dream and value if
she in Paris., so she agrees to marry Clym Yeobright who is disgusted with
the noise and vulgar city life and comes back to his native place, a world
of nature and the life of simple rustic people. But it is not happy
marriage, and finally, Eustacia returns to her former lover Damon Wildeve
who has married. Then, Eustacia flies with Wildeve to Paris, and by an
accident they both get drowned in a stormy night. Her dream is shattered. In
fact, the conflicts between the Eustacia and Egdon Heath is the true
reflection of conflicts between two civilizations: the bourgeois
civilization of the modern cities and the old patriarchal form of existence
in rural area. Thus the baneful effect of modern civilization upon the
Eustacia is responsible for her tragic fate. The hero and the heroine in the
novel are all powerless before Fate and Environment.
In this novel, there are many vivid
descriptions of geographical landscapes. This novel is typical tragedy of
Environment and Character. Hardy exposed the relationship between characters
and environment to express his idea of Determinism. There are many symbolic
meanings in this novel. The novel begins with the full description of the
mysterious Egdon Health. It severs as a colorful background for the tragic
story as well as a role in the development of the plot. In fact, Edgon
Health is an embodiment of the powerful and eternal force of nature
obviously. The contrast the strong power of nature with the insignificance
of men shows that men are helpless before mysterious nature.
In this novel, Hardy sometime, adopted narrative point of view of an
unspecified observer to develop plots. This uncertain observer reflects
uncertainty fate of characters. This point of view presents character to
readers directly just as actors to audiences in the film.
In regard with this feature of
Hardy’s novel, none of his novel serves better than his masterpiece Tess of
the D’Urbervilles dealing with a peasant girl who is ruined by the wicked
and hypocritical morality of the bourgeois society. The other novel which
could be compared with Tess of the D’Urbervilles is Jude the Obscure, the
most pessimistic of his novels.
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