An Eco-Ethical Analysis On Hardy's Wessex Novels

Thomas Hardy was an excellent British poet and novelist of 19 th Century.He was a writer across two centuries,and "Wessex" Novels has a deep social meaning.Facing the ecological problems such as global warming,a smog problem and so on,human beings are rethinking the relationship between nature and themselves.In this thesis,the author analyses Hardy's three novels which includes Far from the Madding Crowd,The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure in a new view,so we can realize a high sense of social responsibility and a strong harmonious ecological view of Hardy.This thesis has three chapters.Chapter one concludes an analysis of the changes in the country scenery from the changes of nature appearance and changes of the attitudes to animals,in order to explain Hardy's natural ecological ideas.Chapter two involves changes of the rural people concluding the alienation of human nature and people's love which tells us there is no harmony between human and nature but only indifference,and the destruction for human beings by industrial civilization.Chapter three describes the ethical relationship between human and nature.Human have lost the harmonious relationship between t nature in the influence of industrial civilization,and the living environment has been seriously damaged,leading to the pain of people's spirit and real life,which is nature's punishment for human.In the conclusion the author makes a summary of the content of the whole thesis.At that time,other writers focused on the positive aspects of the industrialization for human society,while Hardy considered the relationship between people and the ecological balance,which was beyond the writers of contemporary time.He had an important role in the history of English literature.In the conclusion,it is pointed out that the study of Thomas Hardy's novels has positive practical significance for us in the circumstance of serious destruction of the ecological environment.