The Survival Space Of Rural Women In Thomas Hardy's “Novels Of Character And Environment”

Thomas Hardy(1840-1928)is an important realistic novelist and poet in late Victorian England.The living condition of rural women in the transitional society is an important element of Thomas Hardy's “Novels of Character and Environment”.At that time,the development of industrial revolution brought relatively relaxed living environment for rural women,and expanded the survival space for rural women in both material and spiritual dimensions.However,the survival space for rural women had not changed substantially,and they still depended heavily on men.“Novels of Character and Environment” represented by Return of the Native(1878),Tess of the D'Urbervilles(1891),Jude the Obscure(1895)are complex and have a long time span,which completely depicts the social features of the English countryside under the background of industrialization.According to Edward W· Soja's “the third space” theory,the environmental factors for rural women's employment can be divided into material and spiritual aspects.Chapter two reveals the plight of rural women in the material space by analyzing the material space on which rural women depend,including family environment and social employment environment.Chapter three analyses their efforts to escape the predicament of existence in material space from the perspective of spiritual space,and the change of their consciousness.Chapter four focuses on the exploration of rural women's identity.Under the background of industrialization,British society has created different spatial identities of rural women: wanderer in marginal space and struggler in closed space.It points out that although rural women are still in the marginal position of society,their physical activities are limited by material space,and their thinking activities are oppressed by spiritual space.They still take the initiative to seek a more tolerant survival space.The Industrial Revolution was a double-edged sword,in the complex relationship of confrontation and opposition,resistance and compromise,women never gave up growth,but staggered in tragedy.Literature is a reflection on history,a reflection on social phenomena,highlighting the use of history as a reference and the close integration with that era.Thomas Hardy's representative works of “Novels of Character and Environment” reflect the living and spiritual conditions of English rural women after the Industrial Revolution.This kind of novel contributes to a deeper understanding of the living conditions of women in late Victorian England.