Rinku Basu
A long battle has waged on
between critics who blame Thomas Hardy, one of the greatest post-Victorian
writers, of pessimism and those critics who favour Hardy’s meliorism. Therefore
a further discussion over this would seem hackneyed. I, so seek to ruminate
over the reasons of his ‘not so cheerful vision of life’. Some reasons are
common enough like the influence of the Victorian Age on him and the growing
estrangement between his wife and him. However if we probe deeper the latent
reasons become apparent. His sensitive and vulnerable nature, his quest for the
‘well-beloved’, the influence of his native land of Wessex on him, his love for
the mysterious yet mesmerizing Tryphena Sparks, his strained relation with
Horace Moule because of it, his dislike of London life, his lack of religious
faith and shattering of belief in Christianity, his childlessness, the death of
his friends and beloved dog ‘Wessex’ among others were the myriad which served
to make Mr. Hardy a sad man.
Thomas Hardy. After the publication
of his first book ‘Desperate Remedies’, Mr. Hardy’s pen produced one gem after
another. However his gems were overshadowed by a penumbra of darkness. He was
coined as a ‘pessimist’. His feeble protests fell on deaf ears. Rather he
himself said- “January 1, 1902 A
pessimist’s apology-Pessimism (or rather what is called such) is, in brief,
playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view
of life in which you can never be disappointed. Having reckoned what to do in
the worst possible circumstances, when better arise, as they may, life becomes
child’s play.”1 Many scholars since then
have tried to delve into the reasons behind this gloomy vision of life.
Throwing fresh light in this direction therefore was a daunting work.
However, rummaging
through his life, his works, critical works on him, I found a number of causes
which probably contributed their due share to his ‘not so cheerful view of
life’. First of all we must understand the person Thomas Hardy and not just the
author Mr. Hardy the writer. Thomas from a very early age was a boy of gloomy temperament.
He became sad for reasons not even known to him. Gloominess surrounded him like
a cloak. It wrapped and enclosed him in its sordid embrace. He was moved to
tears by tunes played by his father- “This
peculiarity in him troubled the mind of ‘Tommy’ as he was called, and set him
wondering at a phenomenon to which he ventured not to confess. He used to say
in later life that like Calantha in Ford’s ‘Broken Heart’ he danced on these
times to conceal his weeping. He was not over four years of age at this date.”2
This melancholic nature grew with him and at a very young age life
was but an empty show for him. He dons the mask of Father Time-the unfortunate
son of Jude and Arabella in ‘Jude the Obscure’ and speaks- “All laughing comes from misapprehension .Rightly
looked at there is no laughable thing under the Sun.”3 This peculiar
feeling of sadness persisted with Mr. Hardy throughout his life. It became a
second nature to him and spontaneously found its way to his novels, in which he
tried to show his ‘real heart’.
He was also constantly affected by
sights and scenes around him. He usually never forgot these incidents and
faithfully penned down in some or the form in his novels. He was more often
than not affected by the macabre and the gloomy things. He was greatly affected
by human suffering like the death of a shepherd boy due to starvation brought
tears of pity to his eyes “These sad
incidents marred the innocent Thomas and this unforgettable pain, stamped
itself so deeply on his imagination that when his facilities had reached the
restive stage of development, he conceived his picture of life in its terms.”4
Another very important
reason for his tragic inclination was his native land of Wessex. Mr. Hardy’s
deep understanding of nature and his belief
that it was the all over-powering force
in whose hand, man was a mere tool, was due to his close proximity to a
wild country side. Lord David Cecil comments in this regard- “His theme is mankind’s predicament in the
Universe. The world he lived in had something to do with this. There was plenty
of tragedy in the life of the Wessex labourer, with its poverty and its
passion….Hardy too, was the man to realise the tragedy implicit in such a
life.”5
In his famous novel ‘The
Return of the Native’ Mr. Hardy through the character of Clym Yeobright
describes his own love for Egdon Heath- “If anyone knew the heath well, it was Clym. He
was permeated with its scenes, with its substance and with its odours. He might
be said to be its product. His eyes had first opened thereon…..”6 Writes
H.C.Duffin in this connection- “One might
find much interest in the question of how great was the influence of Egdon on
the shaping and colouring of Hardy’s genius. For he was born on the edge of the
heath and ‘It was his playground when his genius was germinating.’ The paragraph which says of Clym Yeobright that ‘he was
permeated with its scenes, with its substance and with its odours. He might be
said to be its product…..His estimate of life has been coloured by it’- This is
obviously autobiographical. Certainly the place, “perfectly accordant with man’s nature- ghastly, hateful nor ugly. Neither
commonplace, unmeaning nor tame, but-
like man, slighted and enduring,” is eminently symbolical of Hardy’s
Philosophy.”7
Another very important cause of
Hardy’s embitterment was his struggle with religious belief. He could not be
anchored to one common or dominant faith and was easily swayed by people around
him in this matter. An incident of this can be found in an incident of July,
1856. As a student of architecture, he met a fellow pupil named Bastow, who had
been brought up as a Baptist. This boy- “he said he was
going to be baptized, and in fact was baptized shortly after. He, so impressed
young Hardy with his earnestness and the necessity of doing likewise that
though the junior pupil had been brought up in high church principles, he
almost felt that he ought to be baptized again as an adult.”8
Though later on he realized
there was no need of adult baptism, but he could not believe in Christian
doctrines and practices. Therefore a very important reason of Mr. Hardy’s
pessimistic temperament was his lack of religious faith. Concluding ‘Tess of
the D’Urbervilles’, he mutters –‘The President of the immortals has ended
its sport with Tess’. Here Hardy’s tone is one of bitterness and resentment towards the
omnipotent and omniscient Heavenly Father. In most of his novels Mr. Hardy does
not represent God as benevolent and benign. His soul strived to find a ‘lord
that it could magnify’ and he spoke of himself as ‘the would-be-religious’. In
the end he parted ways with the Church. This step however left an indelible
mark on his mind and greatly strengthened his gloomy attitude of life.
It is said we are a by-product
of the Age in which we live. The same can be said about our great author. The
Victorian Age, of which he was a part, was an age of sham and artificiality, of
gloom and pessimism, of doubt and anxiety. It was an age of materialism and
competition. Religion and Science were at logger’s head. Literally, every
author or poet of that age dipped his pen in the ink of sorrow and pain and
gave vent to their feeling of agony and anguish. Mr. Hardy’s cry was perhaps
the most poignant.
Mr.
Hardy’s dislike of London, the city in which he had to spend a good part of his
life, his quest for his ‘Well-beloved’, his involvement with Tryphena and
Horace Moule, growing estrangement with his wife Emma, their childlessness,
death of his friends and his dear dog ‘Wessex’ all pulled the strings of his
growing antipathy for life and its rosy vision.
However
to end this research work, it is essential to mention that Mr. Hardy himself
refuted the charges of pessimism and preferred the tag of a ‘meliorist’
instead. Many critics and scholars also support this claim of his. But the
genius that Thomas Hardy was should not be put within brackets. A particular
theory should not be imposed on him. Plain and simple he was a maestro, a
maestro par excellence.
REFERENCE
1. Michael Millgate(ed.) - The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy-MacmillanPress,1989 pp.333
2. Ibid
pp.19
3. Thomas Hardy- Jude the Obscure- UBSPD
Publication,1995 pp.410
4. Lord David Cecil- Hardy, the Novelist- London
Constable,1954 pp.16
5. Ibid
pp.19-20
6. Thomas Hardy- The Return of the Native- Oxford
University Press,1990 pp.175
7. H.C.Duffin- Thomas Hardy- Oxford
University Press,1963 pp.130
8. Michael Millgate(ed.)- The
Life and Work of Thomas Hardy- Macmillan Press,1989 pp.33
Dr. Rinku Basu
Lecturer, Deptt. of English,
K.P. Inter College, Allahabad U.P.
