So many critics have pointed to George Eliot as a symbol of the nineteenth century's religious flux that the idea is becoming a commonplace one. House, for example, in "Qualities of George Eliot's Unbelief", concedes that Eliot is not a typical Victorian, "Yet her history her intellectual and spiritual and moral history -- exemplifies so many trends and qualities of Victorian thought that she deserves to be considered alone." [...]

Zugl.: Augsburg, Univ., Diss., 2008

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. English, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 10, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-203). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-67). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of English Language and Literature, December 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-67). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 218-228). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

M.A. (English) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A commonplace among Hardy critics is that as a young man Hardy lost his Christian faith and entered a serious religious disillusionment. The mainstream of Hardy criticism has followed the general consensus that Hardy suffered keenly as a result of this experience and looked back on Christianity with poignant nostalgia. If his view is not purely nostalgic, traditional criticism has insisted, then it seems at worst only ambivalent. The purpose of this dissertation is to argue that Hardy's attitude toward Christianity as revealed in his novels is not only not ambiguous, but, as a matter of fact, is specifically anti-Christian, often to the point of vehemence; that his treatment of various components of Christianity in his novels is aggressively anti-Christian; and that the feeling is so pronounced that the novels may be read as anti-Christian propagandistic tracts. This dissertation evaluates Hardy's cynical view of and attack on Christianity by examining his treatment of its symbols, such as its architecture, and its practitioners, both clergy and laity. Furthermore, since Hardy's attitude is shown not only in specific comments and particular situations but also in general tone, attention is directed toward the pervasive irony with which Hardy regards the entire panoply of Christianity. Although a few short stories and poems considered particularly relevant receive passing attention, this study is restricted primarily to a consideration of Hardy's fourteen novels. Moreover, this study notes the lack of continuity of development or logical intensification of Hardy's attitude toward Christianity during the twenty-four years spanning the time between the publication of his first novel, Desperate Remedies, in 1871 and the publication of his last novel, Jude the Obscure, in 1895.

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