Christian Spirit Reflected In Thomas Hardy's Novels

Thomas Hardy, a nineteenth-century critical realism writer, played a decisive role in the history of British literature. He lived on the turning point of the British society when the traditional patriarchal concept of value was confronted with enormous challenge and even undermined, whereas modern civilization was still fresh and immature. People in this special period were living in a puzzled spiritual state as a result of the social change. Hardy's high status in English literature was attributed to his peculiar perspective in analyzing the characters' destiny in his novels. For that purpose he turned to human beings themselves and conducted a careful investigation of man's spirit and soul.Simultaneously he also took God into consideration. Hardy focused on the analysis of the relationship between God and Man, spirit and soul, the real world and the transcendental world in his novels. Hardy recognized the shortcomings of human nature which led to his various exploration of ways to live a better life, but those explorations made him more aware of human limitations. Man could do nothing to save themselves. In conclusion he restored to God whose love and salvation was the only way for human beings to get out of the spiritual dilemma. As far as Hardy's ideology is concerned, it had signs of a number of influences, such as evolution, several philosaphical thoughts, and Christianity as well. In general it featured love, the love for Nature, for plants and animals, and for man, which is also the core of Chritianity. As to Hardy's faith in God, apparently Hardy had once experienced a process of passion, doubt and even denial, but he had never abandoned it from the bottom of his heart. With his further undertanding of human nature he kept on eulogizing God's love and salvation in his writing. Hardy's novels well witnessed his spiritual growth. Hence it is to work out his idelogical development and his spiritual state by the analysis of his works.This thesis is dealing with Hardy's attitude towards Christianity in his spiritual growth, especially his pursuit and restoration of God's love and salvation in every novel creation stage by means of analyzing his four chief full-length novels.