ThomasHardy’sAmbivalentAttitudeTowardsModernizationShownintheMajorCharactersinFarfromtheMaddingCrowd

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. 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 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 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, 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 small 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 controversial 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 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, 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 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 modernization 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 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 gradually 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 analyzed 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 immense 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 interrelationships 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 interrelationships between the major characters which duly evinced Hardys ambivalence will be discussed in the third part. Hardy provided us with a vicarious experience of great social instability caused by the progress of modernization. Further more, his ambivalent emotions and attitudes towards modernization were fully exemplified by this novel. 2 The Symbolic Meaning of the Major CharactersIn the book Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy endowed every major character with a very clear symbolic meaning which reflected vividly the process of how modernization gradually exerted influences on the beautiful and serene countryside whose spirit ran through his vein, growing and maturing in his bone. These influences have both merits and demerits. On the one hand, countryside was lagging behind the city when it came to living conditions, education, science and technology. From the wedding of Oak and Bathsheba, we can fully understand this point because they didnt even have a good band for wedding. Modernization could liquidate this kind of problems and improve the conditions of the countryside. On the other hand, these influences not only severely damaged the delicate environment of the countryside but also tortured its residents for the intense and rapid change it brought about.Through depicting the four major characters, Hardy wanted to convey his understanding and attitude toward these influences. Troy was portrayed as the driving force of modernization. Boldwood, who was a very conservative farmer, indispensably impersonated the respectable but decadent ways of life and ideology held by part of the country residents. Oak, however, incarnated the essence of country spirit for his noble deeds and thoughts. Bathsheba, a very capricious and independent girl, duly played her role as the typical country resident. Her attitudes toward the above three men reflected the change of peoples attitude and ideology during the progress of modernization. 2.1 Troy: The Driving Force of the Progress of ModernizationIn this novel, Troy was one of the three heroes. He was a prodigiously charming dandy, who was quite well educated, enormously witty and devastatingly handsome. Notwithstanding, he never had any sense of responsibility and trapped by his short-sightedness which led him to live a dissolute life with no fix occupation and domicile. He was the personification of the driving force of the progress of modernization.Troy was a man rather irresponsible and present-oriented. Firstly, he was irresponsible for his loves. His ill-use of Fanny was notorious and cruel. We could hardly imagine that he should refuse to marry Fanny only because she made a trivial mistake. Even worse, he deserted her after having had sexual relationship with her and left her ignominious and helpless. Fanny finally died from the cruelty of his abandonment. His treatment of Bathsheba was no better. He cheated her into marrying him, but, instead of helping her with farming, he spent her money extravagantly and unduly. Secondly, he was irresponsible for his work. As Bathshebas husband, his work should be to protect the wealth of the farm. However, when the wealth of the farm was in jeopardy of a storms destruction, he insisted upon enjoying his party and even encouraged all the workers on the farm to drink heavily, which put the wealth of the farm under enormous danger. On the whole, a lack of responsibility was one of Troys traits. We could find similar traits in the essence of modernization. During modernization, people were much obsessed with the development of the economy, science and productivity with no sense of responsibility toward our mother nature. As a result, the environment was under no ones consideration and some irrevocable damage was inflicted upon it. Peoples irresponsibility toward nature brought by modernization was duly shown through the deterioration of the environment. Poisonous gas permeated into peoples breathing air; waste water was discharged freely into the river, which served as peoples drinking water; the forest was too frequently cut down and never restored. So many environmental problems, which stems from the lack of responsibility toward nature, were just like the sufferings that Troy inflicted upon Bathsheba and Fanny. Troy had great facial beauty, a gracious thin figure and was regarded as a “walking ruin to honest girls” (142). He was extremely well educated and even mastered several foreign languages. Moreover, he was tremendously witty and gregarious, oozing confidence and carelessness everywhere he went. As a result, he gained the love of so many girls and Bathsheba was no exception. This quality was also owned by modernization, which was lethally charming and fascinating. Modernization always brought something new to the peoples daily life. Different ways of communication, different ways of traveling and different ways of life styles totally engrossed the people who lived in this age because these changes made life easier and more comfortable. There was one thing extremely conspicuous about Troy in this novel, which was his scarlet jacket. The mention of his scarlet jacket was repeated time and time again. Such as, “The man to whom she was hooked was brilliant in brass and scarlet. He was a soldier” (139); “From behind the wagon a bright scarlet spot emerged, and went on loading unconcernedly with the rest.”(146); “He drew nearer still. A minute later and she saw his scarlet form disappear amid the ferny thicket, almost in a flash, like a brand swiftly waved” (161); “Gabriel shook his head. The soldier turned a little towards the east, and the sun kindled his scarlet coat to an orange glow.” (204) Even Boldwood, who was also Bathshebas suitor, paid attention to this, “Dazzled by brass and scarletOh, Bathshebathis is womans folly indeed!”(177) The reason why some many times the scarlet was mentioned was that his appearance actually was not in harmony with the environment. This kind of disharmony was not only shown in the description of his appearance but also his ideas and behavior, which we could attain evidence from the following example. In chapter 35, when Troy was at Bathshebas farm, he once said, “I am for making this place more modern, that we may be cheerful whilst we can.”(205) He himself just came to realize his disharmony with the environment there and instead of adjusting himself to the environment, he took a haughty stance, wishing to conquer and change the environment. Moreover, from the illuminating color of his apparel and the bossy style of his ideology, we can see his aggressive quality. And this quality was exactly one of the outstanding features of modernization. Modernization never waited until you could follow its steps. Instead, it would drag you with it till you panted for breath. Its features were dominating and imperious. For all the similarities of traits between Troy and modernization, we can safely say that he was the personification of modernization.2.2 Boldwood: the Respectable but Decadent Old Ways in the CountryBoldwood, a rich and prestigious middle-aged squire, represented the old ways of the countryside in this novel. These old ways and conventions were respected by people, while they were also regarded as decadent and outdated.Boldwood showed his respectability through his being a successful farmer in this novel. He was especially diligent and assiduous. Moreover, his handsome face and affluence of wealth made him even more respectable in the eyes of the neighborhood. “A gentleman-farmer at Little Weatherbury” (62) was Liddys first description about this man. The word “gentleman” fully exuded Liddys respectability. Mr. Boldwood, it is painful to have to say I am surprised, so that I dont know how to answer you with propriety and respectbut am only just able to speak out my feelingI mean my meaning; that I am afraid I cant marry you, much as I respect you. You are too dignified for me to suit you, sir. (106) Bathsheba answered when she was proposed to by Boldwood. It was the first time that Bathsheba showed her real respect to and admiration for Boldwood verbally. Other people also showed their respect for this man to a certain degree.There were several aspects of the decadence of Boldwoods way of life. The first one was that his life style was old-fashioned and out of date. Every day he almost repeated his routine work and was nearly trapped in his own castle. We could easily find from the description in this novel that the place he lived in was like some mysterious gothic castle. “This place was his almonry and cloister in one: here, after looking to the feeding of his four-footed dependants, the celibate would walk and meditate of an evening till the moons rays streamed in through the cobwebbed windows, or total darkness enveloped the scene.”(101) This citation allowed us to catch a glimpse of the lonely and quaint place he lived in. There was another description of his lodging, which is in Chapter 52. In this chapter the Christmas atmosphere formed a strong comparison with Boldwoods lodging. “In spite of all this, the spirit of revelry was wanting in the atmosphere of the house.”(309) This citation tragically described the lonely mans lonely house. The second aspect was his caring too much about his face and social status. He was overly sensitive to other peoples opinions and views. “Now the people sneer at methe very hills and sky seem to laugh at me till I blush shamefully for my folly.”(176) This citation bountifully gave us the impression that he cared too much about his honor, fame and face. “Boldwood always carried with him a social atmosphere of his own, which everybody felt who came near him; and the talk, which Bathshebas presence had somewhat suppressed, was now totally suspended.” (124) This paragraph obviously showed that Boldwood was actually very serious about hierarchy and social status and everyone seemed to be aware of this fact. The third aspect to show Boldwoods decadence was that he was terribly conservative and reserved. In Boldwoods life, tradition and convention seemed to assume great importance and every step out of the line would be in his eyes unbearable. In other peoples eyes, he was always trying to preserve his reserved image. Just as Bathsheba said, “I wonder why he is so wrapped up and indifferent, and seemingly so far away from all he sees around him.” (77) Her comment reflected most peoples perception that he kept strict conformity to the decadent social conventions and traditions.The old ways of the countryside were never liquidated in peoples ideology. Though they might not obey them totally, they still respected them fearfully and piously. And Boldwood had all their features. Therefore, he was a symbol for the old ways in the country before modernization. 2.3 Oak: the Essence of Country Spirit In this novel, Oak was a man who loved Bathsheba perseveringly and stood by her side when she was in trouble. He was full of noble and respectable qualities. He was of profound integrity, perseverant, faithful, selfless and modest. Therefore, He was depicted as the incarnation of the country spirit. He was the kind of man that Hardy extolled to his innermost heart.Oaks integrity was beyond doubt. In his life, he was always diligent and honest. The sense of righteousness was substantially the guidance of his life. When Bathshebas workers privately talked something bad behind her, he was indignant to defend her and eager to educate those workers who lacked moral principles. When Joseph, a worker on Bathshebas farm, was drunk and deserted his task of bringing Fannys corpse, he criticized Josephs negligence of duty and transported Fannys corpse to Bathshebas house by himself. Such actions made a sharp contrast with those who were around him. He almost became their moral standard. Whenever Bathsheba had any moral problems, he was always consulted. As a result, she became gradually attached to his advice. Boldwood also trusted him as a personal friend. And he even provided him with some share of the farm and entrusted him with its management. It was profoundly obvious that his integrity was acknowledged universally. Oaks perseverance, selflessness and faithfulness were exemplified by his unremitting love towards Bathsheba. When having lost his property, what came to his mind first was thankfulness that he had not married Bathsheba because he would bring her to poverty as well. Out of love for her, he even ventured to point out her mistakes every time when he saw any. Even when evicted and humiliated by Bathsheba, it was easy for him to forgive her and kept on loving her. Clever and wise as he was, he selflessly accompanied the woman who he quietly loved and cherished. He was aware of wasting his talents for farming, but he carried on. This kind of perseverance was innocent of any ulterior motives, and his selfle