A Thematic Study Of Thomas Hardy's Novels And Poems In His Late Time

Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet whose career time spanned both 19th and 20th century. During the former century, Hardy mainly worked on novel writing. The bulk of his fictional works were initially published as serials in magazines and earned him a reputation as a successful novelist. While during the next century, he transferred his focus to poem writing and his poetry collections primarily ignored later also have had a significant influence over modern English poetry.The thesis mainly discusses the common themes of his fiction and poetry as well as the author's ideas and thoughts.The themes to be discussed are love, religion, nature and time. Hardy is not the first writer who gave emphasis on those themes. However, the standpoint and the depth of thinking of his novels and the truth and profundity of his poems are quite distinct among his contemporaries and still have impact on modern people and are worthy of further and deeper studies. The thesis introduces the social causes and mind sources that lead to the themes, displays the manifestation both in novels and poems and explores the significance and influence on literature. What's more, the major significance of the thesis is that it tries to find out the consistency of Hardy's novels and poems through the thematic study.The main method the thesis adopts is textual analysis. Hardy's three major novels during his late career time The Return of the Native (1876), Tess of the d'Urberwilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895) will be taken as examples in the thesis. Besides, comparison and exemplification will also be employed.