"the Modern Pain": "tess" And "jude The Obscure Hardy Rationalistic Reflection

Thomas Hardy was one of the most important novelists in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. In his novels, Hardy represents various intellectual outcries British society and intelligentsia were faced with, such as the crisis of Christian faith, Darwinism, "New Woman" phenomena, the breakdown of the matrimonial institution as well as the problem of education. Hardy was enlightened by the most advanced and radical thinkers of his age, ranging from Darwin, Arnold to Mill. These profound theories and his life experiences provided Hardy with a sharp insight into the core of intellectual and social problems, which was displayed thoroughly and philosophically in his last two novels Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. Thus, a textual analysis of these two novels will not only reveal to us Hardy's achievements in philosophical thinking and literary creation but also throw new light upon "the ache of modernism" permeating in late-Victorian British society.Through a close reading of the two novels, my thesis investigates Hardy's critical reflections on rationalism. Set in the social context of religious crisis, Hardy's intellectual protagonists are eager to enlighten themselves and their disciples by a series of creeds of rationalism. Having lost divine parentage, they resort to scientism, Hellenism and liberalism to achieve spiritual freedom and independent identity. However, their enlightenments end in failure owning to the inner defects of either rationalism or the intellectual protagonists themselves. On the one hand, the theoretical rationalism could endow the intellectual protagonists neither true knowledge about their own identities and humanities, nor enough strength to get rid of the religious and conventional shackles. On the other hand, it is through the enlightenment through suffering-not via the substitute creeds their enlighteners have offered-that guides the intellectually less enlightened to approach the truth of humanity. In the wake of new science, Hardy casts doubt upon rationalism and urges his readers to return to the complex phenomena of Nature and humanity, which forms his unique response to "the ache of modernism" in his age.