Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy

1. Hope

   • Huge tension in his poetry
     • Hope and the pain when it's lost
   • Poem
     • The Darkling Thrush
       • The thrush represents hope
         • He is the thrush
         • "Blessed thrush whereof he knew that I was unaware
           • Pessimistic view
             • Protecting himself from disappointment
               • The Convergence of the Twain
                 • The crash was destined
       • "Blast - Beruffled"
     • Nobody comes
       • Expectations of being let down
         • Car lights embody this
   • All Hope is rooted in the old-world and it enduring
     • Tess of the D'urbervilles
       • Sulsberry Plains
       • Stonehenge

2. Change

   • Hardy fears change
     • Things are moving on - without Hardy
     • The Convergence of the Twain
       • Man's best effort
       • Scary
       • Uses Dragon-like terms
   • Poem
     • Broken Lyre
     • The Going
       • More than Emma's death
       • Change in his life
         • Altered All
     • Drummer Hodge
       • Changes from Wessex to South Africa
         • Use of Afrikaans
     • The Man he Killed
       • War changes
         • World is a worse place because of war
   • 1900
     • Everything is changing rapidly
   • Tess Of the D'urbervilles
     • Hardy Fears change
     • Old vs. New house
     • In Wessex she is safe

3. Emma

   • Wife who died
     • Ignored her in life
     • Misses her in death
   • About her as much as his pain about as much as her reaction to her 'going'
     • The significance of his pain
     • Fears more abandonment than anything
   • Poems
     • The Voice
     • The Going
     • On the departure platform
     • Neutral Tones
       • Poem TO her
       • One day you will leave me!
   • Second wife is Florence (his secretary)
     • Spends their marriage writing about his dead wife
       • 1912-1913
     • 'Nobody comes' - Autobiographical about their relationship
   • WOMAN MUCH MISSED

4. Nature

   • Poem
     • The Darkling Thrush
       • Winter
       • Everything is dead
     • In Time of Breaking of Nations
     • Drummer Hodge
       • The South African nature destroys a Wessex man
         • Horrific 'foreign stars'
     • The Convergence of the Twain
   • The Natural world and living in it is KEY
     • WESSEX
   • Industry is damaging it
     • Or nature is fighting back
   • Nature = Hope
   • The Pathetic Fallacy represents his view of the world
     • Fog
     • Winter
     • The lack of life
   • Nature is the most important theme
     • Everything else should be led by nature
   • POWERFUL
     • It will defeat industry