A Research On The Intertextuality Between Hardy’s Christian Thoughts And His Masterpieces

Thomas Hardy is a famous litterateur who lived between the late19th and the early20th centuries. Based on the study of comparative literature, and by applying a new interdisciplinary perspective, this thesis tries to use new research methods to find out the influence of the Christian thoughts on Hardy’s writing process from a large viewpoint and analyze his masterpieces, such as "Far from the Madding Crowd","The Mayor of Casterbridge","Tess of the D’Urbervilles","Jude the Obscure". Through analyzing Hardy’s evolutionary meliorism, this thesis fully affirms the positive role of this theory, and at the same time points out the limitations of pessimism and fatalism owing to the ideological influence of religious idealism. Finally, this paper wants to reveal the subtle relationship between Hardy’s literary creation and the existing religious circumstances.