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Bibliography: leaves 253-262.

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The work is a study of Thomas Hardy's novels and women. The focus centres upon five major Wessex novels and Hardy's treatment of female sexuality . An examination of early difficulties of style and characterisation is followed by textual analysis of the more complex structures and discourses developed by Hardy as, with increasing confidence and enhanced reputation the poetic voice successfully accommodates itself to a prose medium. Contemporary sexual ideologies - those to which Hardy was daily exposed through the vociferous medium of periodicals and journals - are drawn into the study. It is argued that Hardy was engaged with contemporary social issues, that the historical process enters into his fiction to shape both characterisation and event, and that contemporary dialogues upon the 'Woman Question' inform his characterisations. The argument is that Hardy was not a feminist as nineteenth century liberal feminism is understood. It is maintained that he developed a broader vision, which, augmented by both the eclecticism of his readings and his own keen perceptions, ranged beyond nineteenth century liberal feminist ideologies.

This is a study of the meaning of freedom in Thomas Hardy's fiction. The first section of the thesis is concerned with the influences in Hardy's thought and view of man and man's position in the universe. Attention will be given mainly to three sources of influence on Hardy's thought. Darwinian theories of evolution and the secular movement of the nineteenth century and the change they brought about in man's view of himself and his state in the world can be seen clearly in Hardy's personal writings as well as his fiction. His childhood contact with Dorset folk beliefs and superstitions can also be perceived to have a great influence not only on his art but on his thought and outlook as well. In the second section an investigation in detail of the meaning of freedom in four of Hardy's novels will be carried out. In the novels, man will be seen as essentially free and not an automaton or a plaything of necessity or nature or fate, for example. However, we shall see that man's freedom of action as well as of choice is severely limited but not annihilated by a number of factors working from within and from without man's character. In this, nature both as phenomena and as system plays a great part. Society with its standards, norms, laws and implied understandings is another contributing factor in constraining man's freedom. Man also has his freedom limited by chance happenings and coincidences that he cannot control. "Character is fate", quotes Hardy from Novalis, and everywhere in the novels we see characters' destinies linked tightly with their personal traits, unconscious urges and peculiarities of character either passed to them by heredity or formed by early life conditioning or both. Nevertheless, man is responsible in Hardy's view because he has that essential sense of freedom; and hence that tragic flavour that tinges Hardy's fiction which would have been impossible with machine-like people as characters.

This thesis puts forward the case for a political reading of Thomas Hardy's Wessex Novels. Although the political aspects of these novels cannot be seen as his main preoccupation, it is argued that an awareness of the political motivation of Hardy is necessary for a proper and responsible reading. Through biographical and textual material, and through a comparison of Hardy with Boris Pasternak, it can be shown that a consistent political theme runs through the Wessex novels from the beginning to the end. The main reason why this political theme has not been generally appreciated is attributed to a misconception about Hardy's role as a novelist. For too long Hardy has been popularly described as a defender of the peasant or rustic. In fact, Hardy's interest was with those people who were just above the lowest class. Since he was himself from this slightly higher class, he was naturally sensitive to their difficulties in social improvement. Hardy therefore attacked the systems in society that protected the wealth and power for the middle and upper classes at the expense of the poorer people. The first chapter follows Hardy's early career both as an architect in London, where he developed strong political views that tended towards socialism, and as an aspiring novelist in a market which would not accept expression of those political views. The early novels show evidence of his suppressed political anger as Hardy lapses into outbursts of bitter social satire. The satire disappears after The Hand of Ethelberta when the novels complete a gradual movement towards tragedy. This meant that the discord between the early novels' general optimism and his political anger was eliminated. As a harmonious part of the later novels, Hardy's political attitudes are not so easily discerned. For this reason a special critical approach is needed. The second chapter compares Hardy's novels and political views with those of Boris Pasternak. Pasternak's poetic political novel provides a model for analysing the later more poetic Wessex Novels. Utilising the genre of the "lyrical novel," it is shown how the poet-novelist often pays less attention to narrative development and concentrates on shaping his central concerns within a symbolic structure. The third chapter makes a political reading of Tess of the D'Urbervilles based on the political attitudes established in the first chapter, and on the techniques of the lyrical novel defined in the second. The consistency of Hardy's political views in the Wessex Novels becomes apparent as the same concerns of the early novels are found through an analysis of the novel's symbolic structure. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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Thomas Hardy described himself as "churchy". Yet his later novels and poetry gave him the reputation of being an agnostic, an atheist and a heathen. He denied that there was any particular philosophy behind his work claiming that it was the result of impressions not convictions. However, I wish to show that Hardy's fiction and poetry expose specific religious beliefs and doubts, that gave rise to his notoriously pessimistic art. By investigating the themes of sin, atonement and salvation, as reflected in the Mosaic Law and the New Testament against Hardy's mature novels, and examining Hardy's concept of God in his poetry, I aim to show that Hardy rejected the miraculous and the doctrine of redemption but retained a belief in the Biblical premiss that the earth is cursed and that humanity is governed by the Biblical Laws which dictate the consequences of sin. Hardy depicts a universe in which humankind is cursed from birth, resides on a cursed earth and is denied the possibility of salvation or redemption. Hardy's profoundly pessimistic world view is a result of his inability to accept the Christian doctrines that offer man a means to rise above the curse of original sin. The characters and plots he created in his fiction were born out of doubt and despair. Consequently, his imaginative universe is permeated with doom and damnation. / English Studies / M.A. (English)