On Hardy’s Naturalism in The Return of the Nativ.doc

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1、Abstract The Return of the Native is one of Thomas Hardys famous novels. Some of Hardys majors novels reveal the relationship between nature and character. Nature, the sustainer of all lives, has never been absent in English literary works, but in works of different historical periods or of differen

2、t writers, the role of Nature varies. In Romantic poems, Nature is the source of the poets ideas and feelings; in English traditional novels, Nature mainly acts as background; in modernist literature, Nature is often connected with human instinct. However, in the major fiction by Thomas Hardy, Natur

3、e plays a dominant role: Nature foreshadows the tragic ending of the story, and it is the agent of the development of the plot and even the real character of some novels.This paper elaborates Naturalism in Hardys major novels and puts special emphasis on the landscape in The Return of the Native, de

4、monstrating the work as a novel of Nature. Then, the paper goes further to probe Hardys view of Nature. In this way the paper aims at looking at Hardys fiction from a new perspective of Nature and gaining better understanding of Hardys status in English literary history.Key words: Naturalism, The Re

5、turn of the Native, character摘 要 还乡是哈代的一部著名小说，在这些小说里，哈代揭示了人与自然的关系。大自然为万物生长提供养分，而且我们可以发现大自然的身影在英国文学作品里比比皆是。在不同的历史时期或不同作家的作品里，自然扮演的角色各不相同。在浪漫主义的诗歌中，自然是诗人思想和感情的源泉。对于传统英国小说而言，自然通常作为故事的背景而存在，在现实主义文学中，自然又常常与人类的本能联系起来。托马斯哈代生活在英国传统文学向现代主义文学转型的时期。在他的主要作品中，自然的地位举足轻重。它常常预示着故事的悲剧性结局，它影响着小说情节的发展，甚至成为某些作品真正的主角。本文

6、讨论了哈代主要小说中的自然主义，并重点研究了小说还乡中的自然描写。在此基础上，本文进一步阐明了哈代的自然观。本文旨在从描写自然的艺术和自然观的新角度来探讨哈代的小说，以便更好都得理解哈代在英国文学史上的地位。 关键词： 自然主义；还乡；人物 Contents Abstract in EnglishiiAbstract in ChineseiiiI.Introduction11.A brief introduction of Thomas Hardy and his work1B.A brief introduction of The Return of the Native31. Import

7、ance of Study on Hardys work The Return of the Native32.Significances to study naturalism in The Return of the Native and its contribution to the discipline4II. Naturalism6A.Research status on Hardys work and naturalism6B.The naturalism in The Return of the Native81.The ideas of American naturalism8

8、2. Its relation with tragedy in The Return of the Native9III. Research procedures and methods13A.Research procedures and Data collection13B.Research Methods and Data analysis16IV. Conclusion19Works Cited.21Acknowledgments2222I. Introduction Over a century, study on English writer Thomas Hardy and hi

9、s works has never stopped, and there are an immense number of books about Hardy himself, his ideas, and his literary works. However, with the passage of time, the focus of the study changes. In recent years, the study on Hardys novels in the world and in China has taken on a new look. Some researche

10、rs pay their attention to the tragic effect of Hardys Wessex novels, some analyze the psychological predicament of the characters and indicate the modernism of Hardys works, and some others put emphasis on Nature in his novels. Chinese professor Nie Zhenzhao explains Hardys novel writing through Dar

11、winism in one of his recently published articles. However, there seems to be no article on systematic research in Hardys treatment of Nature in his novels or in Hardys view on Nature and its relation to Darwinism. In the history of English literature, great importance has always been attached to Nat

12、ure both as a means of artistic expression and as theme. If the study of Nature in English literary works is done with the combination of some scientific and philosophic ideas like Darwinism, there will be new understanding of the literary works. Hardy and his works are appropriate for this study. S

13、o, the author of this paper tries to do some research in this area through the study of Hardy and his novels.1. A brief introduction of Thomas Hardy and his work Thomas hardy was a famous critical realistic writer in England. He was one of the representatives of the English critical realism novelist

14、, he was also a poet. He is famous for novels of character and environment. His birthplace was in a country which named Egdon in the westland; this natural environment formed the main environment in the hardy writes. His father was a stonecutter, but like music, his parents paid more attention on Ha

15、rdys education. In his childhood，he received the education for theology, but when he grew up, he turned to learn the literary. After Hardy left school he became a architects apprentice in 1856. And then he went to London to become a post of the building draftsman in 1862. He also took courses in Lon

16、don University. His literature career began with poetry, but due to not have the good fortune to publish it he changed the matter for novel creation. His firs novel was published in 1871, the celebrated work was his fourth novel Far From the Madding Crowd(1874),from then on, he dropped construct ind

17、ustry and devoted to the novel creation. Hardy wrote nearly 20 long novels his life, the most famous novels are The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the DUrbervilles (1891), Jude the Obscure (1896). His works reflected the changed of social economy, political, moral and tradition when the hypoc

18、ritical bourgeoisie invaded the countries in England. As a transitional writer, Hardy was both influenced by both the past and the modern, as a result he is known as intellectually advanced and emotional traditional writer. In his novels on the one hand he showed an apparent nostalgic feeling in his

19、 description of the simple and beautiful though primitive rural life, which was gradually declining and disappearing as England marched into an industrial country. He was deeply influenced by Influenced by Darwins The Origin of Species and Spencers The First Principle, he accepted the idea of surviv

20、al the fittest and believed that mans fate is pre-determinedly tragic, driven by a combined force of nature both inside and outside. The natural environment is shown as some mysterious supernatural force, which is very powerful.B.A brief introduction of The Return of the Native1. Importance of Study

21、 on Hardys work The Return of the NativeThe story of The Return of the Native is a tragic story, beginning with a vivid description of the gloomy and mysterious setting, Egdon Heath. Then Hardy present us with a picture of the tough struggle between humans race and nature, a conflict between men and

22、 their fate, through the clash between Clym Yeobright and Eustacia Vye, who are two major typical victims of this tragic novel. Their opposing souls decide the whole progression of their tragic life and the tragic story.As we know, Hardys famous works, such as The return of the Native, Tess of the D

23、Urbervilles, etc. They focus on the conflict between Nature and the social environment. In The Return of the Native, nature plays an important role. Many scholars put emphasize on Naturalism in Hardys novels. They analyze works from different perspective. Therefore, The Return of the Native is very

24、worthy of studying. It can help us to have a better understanding of Naturalism.2. Significances to study naturalism in The Return of the Native and its contribution to the discipline Naturalistic thinking has a long history, but it has been especially prominent in recent decades, and its influence

25、is felt all across philosophy. This article will look at why and in what ways it is prominent and will describe some of the most influential versions of naturalism.Therefore, a perspective can be concluded: the naturalism influenced Thomas Hardys work heavily. Check out the literary experience of Th

26、omas Hardy, the author was famous for Wessexnovels, and combined the nature with the plot. The Plot of the novel is in some way in accordance with Nature. The Proceeding of Nature is controlled by the natural law，yet it is prone some accidental change. Therefore，behind Nature there seems to be logic

27、al force and a passionate force. The same is with the plot of the novel. Both human passion and logic play their parts in the development of the plot. Eustacias keen love for an imagined lover (then she only heard of Clym) drives her to risk playing the mummery ;Thomasin, out of convention, is still

28、 willing to marry Wildeve in spite of the first unrealized marriage. Passion and logic more often than not work together. Diiggory Venn succeeds in intruding into the whole story by using tactics，but he does this out of his whole-hearted，deep and persistent love for Thomasin. Mrs Yeobright succeeds

29、in arousing Wildeves jealousy by implying Thomasins another suitor，but what makes Wildeve finally man Thomasin is his revenge on Eustacia. Plot is Parallel to Nature in that both are driven by Passionate and logical forces.The rustics on Egdon Heath are narrow and rigid and refuse to change. Therefo

30、re, there exists a gap between Egdon Heath and the outside world .There is also a gap between Clym and the rustics, because Clym has been influenced by some new ideas after years of city life at paris. so, though Clym cherishes an inbom and deep love for the land of Egdon Heath and plans to carry ou

31、t the reunion with the rustics upon his return. let alone civilize them .Moreover, Clym is too idealistic and fails to see these two kinds of gaps, and therefore fails to return . Clyms return is a failure because in an evolutionary order it is not Possible to choose to return to an earlier state.In

32、 a word，the landscape of Egdon is not just a stage for the tragic story But also an agent in the operation of plot. The Plot develops in the way that Nature proceeds，on the whole driven by logic forces and human Passion but Sometimes exposed to accidental changes and even some mysterious power. Hard

33、ys status as a distinctly regional writer is probably the most apparent in The Return of the Native. Egdon Heath is based on Black Heath, which bordered Hardys childhood home in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset. In no other novel is Hardys Wessex mythology more pronounced. Egdon Heath is truly a microcosm

34、 for a Pre-Industrial Englandits inhabitants are socially conservative laborers who are attached to the natural landscape in an almost mystical fashion. The communitys livelihood is completely dependent on the landscape itself; they are bound to the capricious Egdon Heath in an eternal struggle for

35、survival.II. Naturalism A. Research status on Hardys work and naturalism Hardy criticizes certain social constraints that hindered the lives of those living in the 19th century. Considered a Victorian Realist writer, Hardy examines the social constraints that are part of the Victorian status, sugges

36、ting these rules hinder the lives of all involved and ultimately lead to unhappiness. The term Naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings. Unlike realism, which focuses on literary technique, natur

37、alism implies a philosophical position: for naturalistic writers, since human beings are, in Emile Zolas phrase, human beasts, characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings. Zolas 1880 description of this method in Le roman experimental (The Experimental Novel,1880) fol

38、lows Claude Bernards medical model and the historian Hippolyte Taines observation that virtue and vice are products like vitriol and sugar -that is, that human beings as products should be studied impartially, without moralizing about their natures. Other influences on American naturalists include H

39、erbert Spencer and Joseph LeConte.Through this objective study of human beings, naturalistic writers believed that the laws behind the forces that govern human lives might be studied and understood. Naturalistic writers thus used a version of the scientific method to write their novels; they studied

40、 human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the ways in which the characters lives were governed by forces of heredity and environment. Although they used the techniques of accumulating detail pioneered by the realists, the naturalists thus had a specific object in mind when th

41、ey chose the segment of reality that they wished to convey. The tension involves the theme of the naturalistic novel. The naturalist often describes his characters as though they are conditioned and controlled by environment, heredity, instinct, or chance. But he also suggests a compensating humanis

42、tic value in his characters or their fates which affirms the significance of the individual and of his life. The tension here is that between the naturalists desire to represent in fiction the new, discomfiting truths which he has found in the ideas and life of his late nineteenth-century world, and

43、 also his desire to find some meaning in experience which reasserts the validity of the human enterprise. The themes of it, first is Walcutt identifies survival, determinism, violence, and taboo as key themes. Second is the brute within each individual, composed of strong and often warring emotions:

44、 passions, such as lust, greed, or the desire for dominance or pleasure; and the fight for survival in an amoral, indifferent universe. The conflict in naturalistic novels is often man against nature or man against himself as characters struggle to retain a veneer of civilization despite external pr

45、essures that threaten to release the brute within. Third is Nature as an indifferent force acting on the lives of human beings. The romantic vision of Wordsworth-that nature never did betray the heart that loved her-here becomes Stephen Cranes view in The Open Boat: This tower was a giant, standing

46、with its back to the plight of the ants. It represented in a degree, to the correspondent, the serenity of nature amid the struggles of the individual-nature in the wind, and nature in the vision of men. She did not seem cruel to him then, or beneficent, or treacherous, or wise. But she was indiffer

47、ent, flatly indifferent. Forth is the forces of heredity and environment as they affect-and afflict-individual lives. Fifth is an indifferent, deterministic universe. Naturalistic texts often describe the futile attempts of human beings to exercise free will, often ironically presented, in this univ

48、erse that reveals free will as an illusion.B. The naturalism in The Return of the Native 1. The ideas of American naturalism American naturalism was a new and harsher realism, and like realism, it had come from Europe. Naturalism was an outgrowth of Realism that responded to theories in science, psychology, human behaviour and social thought current in the late nineteenth century. In the last deca