The Illusion Of Destiny—a Study Of Male Group Portraits Under The Background Of Wessex Changes

Hardy is a great writer in the history of English literature.He wrote a lot of works in his life.As the title of Hardy's series of novels,"Wessex" has quite rich meanings.It includes both rural natural scenery and customs,as well as the economic structure and social order of British patriarchal villages in late Victorian.It is the geographical and cultural background of the characters in his novels.Hardy created male characters of different geographical and educational background in different periods.They are not only the main labor force in the partly real,partly dream world,but also the witnesses of the change of Wessex.They are also the protagonists of these novels.Based on the relationship between the characters and Wessex countryside,I classify them into three categories,the "Wessex guardians","Wessex old generation" and "Wessex new generation".The representative figures of the "Wessex guardians" are Gabriel Oak,Diggory Venn,Giles Winterbourne and the group of peasant employees.They adhere to rural traditions and their characters are relatively perfect.However,in the later stage of Hardy's creation,these characters gradually weaken or retire,reflecting that the Wessex tradition is losing ground in the face of capitalism.William Boldwood,Michael Henchard,George Melbury,John d'Urbervilles belong to the second category.They also keep the rural tradition,but there are obvious mistakes and deficiencies in their thinking and disposition.These mistakes and flaws,to a large extent,mean some of Wessex's bad habits.The frustrated endings represent Hardy 's reflection that the Wessex's inherent flaw is the internal reason why the old order lost to the new one.The last one includes Clym Yeobright,Angel Clare,Jude Fawley and so on.They come from the township of Wessex and have received modern education.They often sway between rural world and modem civilization but fail to integrate any lifestyles.The marginalized outcomes show the lack of rural traditional internal vitality and the crush of modern civilization on human beings.As there are no two leaves that are exactly alike in this world,the male characters all show their differences in age,personality,etc.Surprisingly,wiping their specific names,we find that they have lots of similarities with Balzac's "the human comedy" series of images.Both of them have its own internal logic,as Hardy's form a clear clue to the chronic of Wessex world.Hardy's attitude toward Wessex rural tradition and industrial civilization can be clearly presented through the male group image.The old tradition must disappear because of the impact of the new order and its own defects;the arrival of the new one not only means progress,but also brings about new difficulties and confusion.To a certain extent,this change also represents a certain universality of history.