Thomas Hardy : a Study; Suffering, Human Will, and Grace in the Major Novels

摘要

This thesis concentrates on human relations and the potential for man’s beatitude in Hardy’s major novels through an exploration of suffering, human will, evolutionary meliorism, and Grace, discussed in separate chapters. Chapter I is devoted to an introduction of the major elements of what is here called Hardy’s vision. Relying largely on Florence Emily Hardy’s The Life of Thomas Hardy and on references to some of the novels, a compilation of impressions is arranged into what seems to represent accurately the basic nature of the world and human relations in Hardy’s novels. The emphasis and the thrust of the vision are the ways in which human doings interrelate.