The Chord Of Harmony

Thomas Hardy(1840-1928),"Shakespeare of English Fiction",remains everlasting creativity in his art of creation.The most significant of Hardy's works "Novels of Character and Environment" series have received extensive and intensive research already. In contrast,the other two series "Romances and Fantasies" and "Novels of Ingenuity" are relatively neglected,lacking critical studies.Up to now,the research of Hardy's novels is not adequate or complete,which is a matter of great pity for us.Behind the heated issues of scholarship exist neglected aspects as well.At home,the study of Hardy's novels focuses on such aspects:the interpretation of tragedy,the concern of modernism,the exploration of Hardy's artistic achievements and the discussion of feminism and religious beliefs.The viewpoint chosen in study is repeated without new perspectives and the research exclusively covers his later major novels.A Pair of Blue Eyes belongs to the "Romances and Fantasies" series,an early novel composed in 1873.Since it was translated into Chinese in 1994,this novel has not received any literary reviews in China,leaving a blank to fill in.At abroad since its publication,though it has received favorable fame but some critics think there are inharmonies between the romantic love atmosphere and the sudden tragic death ending, which result in the novel's big weakness.And many critics have assigned its value as an example of the weaknesses of Hardy's early writing,holding that the inconsistencies in the novel weaken the success in art.Hardy's fiction creation has undergone a progressively painful progress with his philosophical ideas,especially his understanding of life and observation of society,from being optimistic to pessimistic.All these leave marks in his novels and the early novel A Pair of Blue Eyes already makes its presence.In the shaping of his outlook on the universe, Christian belief,agnosticism,Darwin's evolution theory and other free thoughts combined together,have moulded his ideology of life and literary creation.For Hardy,"life is full of coincidences and ironies";fiction is aimed "to reflect life,to reveal life,to criticize life" with the ultimate purpose of revealing life's true significance.Hardy's idiosyncrasy was his peculiar vision which not only observed but dwelt upon the ironies of the human lot-the incongruities,the disparities,the contrasts,the contradictions - the very principles of life itself with which Hardy is concerned.Seemingly these incongruities and coincidences are naturally grouped into design techniques;but then once related with human destinies, they are rendered the philosophical significance of life.My paper is intended to analyze the formation of Hardy's ideology of life as the theoretical background and exemplify the organic whole between the structure,plot, characters and relationship among characters,setting and theme by digging out these elements in the novel itself,in the hope of finding the inner "chord of harmony" to reevaluate the novel and of holding more deserved attention to Hardy's lesser works.It is the first organic and consistent work to reflect Hardy's ideology on life and creation which further develops into future works such as Tess and Jude the Obscure.