A Study Of Three Heroines In Hardy's “Novels Of Character And Environment” In Light Of Reception Aesthetics

Thomas Hardy(1840-1918)is one of the greatest and most classic Victorian novelists.His works have been the focus of literary studies so far.Since Hardy's novels were published,especially The Return of the Native,Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure among his “character and environment” novels have attracted wide attention of readers.The images and fate of the heroines of each of three novels,Eustacia,Tess and Sue,have caused great controversy among Hardy's contemporary readers in many aspects.This thesis summarizes,sorts out,and presents the critical research of Hardy's works under the influence of the times,and observes the readers' acceptance of Hardy's three works and their heroines from different aspects.However,over the years,different readers have looked at these three women from different angles and made different answers to their destiny.They have interpreted many disadvantages of the late Victorian society in many dimensions and aspects through these women.In the author's opinion,this is exactly the result of a new type of reader-writer cooperation,that is,readers actively seek answers from the text.On the other hand,Hardy's contemporary readers' acceptance of these three female characters also reflects a certain social reality at that time.As we all know,these three works of Hardy have high aesthetic value and have played a certain social function over the years.They are still hot research points in the literary world.This is inseparable from the acceptance and its role.Hardy's novels have gained some significance and status in the history of literature without the readers' acceptance.Therefore,this thesis examines the reader's synchronic and diachronic acceptance of Hardy's three tragic works----The Return of the Native,Tess of d'Urvervlilles and Jude the Obscure from the perspective of reception aesthetics.And here are five parts in all as following:The first part is the introduction of the thesis.It briefly introduces the author Thomas Hardy and his three novels,the research on Hardy's works at home and abroad,and points out the significance and innovation of this thesis.This part also provides the research purpose and background of this thesis,introduces the theory of reception aesthetics,mainly its “Horizon of expectation” and “calling structure”,especially the blank theory,and finally presents the structure of the thesis.Chapter One discusses how the work attracts and satisfies the reader's expectation horizon in combination with the theory of “horizon of expectation” in reception aesthetics.At the same time,this part summarizes the reader's response caused by the tragedy of three female characters,Eustacia,Tess,and Sue.Besides,this part was used by me to analyze the thematic research focusing on Hardy's work in the era from the perspective of expectation,and the author found that the three female characters' moral,religious,marriage,and gender attitudes have caused more controversy among readers.In particular,they caused readers' disappointment,thereby expanding readers' horizons of expectation and allowing readers to harvest new aesthetic effects.In addition,readers play a certain role in influencing and restricting the creation of works.Chapter Two combs the changes in the readers 'expectations of the three female characters combined with the impact of changes in literary thoughts in history,,and points out that the focus of research on Hardy's work in the critical circles has shifted with the development of the times.Chapter Three analyzes the calling structure of the three works,points out the embodiment of blank art in the texts,including the blanks in the titles of stories,the protagonists' names of novels,the character images,the plots and the environment depictions,and this part also points out the rhetoric means used by the author to create the blanks.In addition,the author summarizes the functions of these blanks in this chapter,which include expanding the capacity and deepening the themes of works,making the works more concise and concentrated,and increasing the aesthetic appeal of the works.Chapter Four is the conclusion of this thesis,which points out that Hardy's literary creation has an active role in the reader's horizon of expectation.At the same time,readers' horizon of expectation also affects and restricts Hardy's literary creationactivities.It is Hardy's own rich inner meaning,unique blank art,and contemporary social and literary influences that have allowed different expectations to obtain different answers,and help restore the late Victorian society more comprehensively.Therefore,from the perspective of reception aesthetics,different expectations of readers have different interpretation of Hardy's works.There is no doubt that the horizon of the reader's expectations plays an important role in maintaining the influence of the work and maintaining the value of the work effect on the other hand.At the same time,this part points out the shortcomings of the study and some explanations and suggestions for further study.