A Critique Of The Pastoral Illusion:The Rural Writing In Thomas Hardy’s Novels Of Character And Environment

Thomas Hardy’s Novels of Character and Environment are the most highly regarded of his fictional creations.The rural writing in these novels constitutes an essential feature of Hardy’s works,embodying his unique thinking and complex attitude toward rural literature:while seemingly inheriting the British pastoral writing conventions,Hardy criticizes the“pastoral illusion” constructed through literary imaginations and writings in the past.Mainly drawing on Robert Tally’s Geocriticism and Raymond Williams’ s investigation into the country and the city and also referring to some relevant spatial theories,this thesis attempts to examine Hardy’s triple critique of the English pastoral illusion: subversion of the rural Paradise,shattering of an imagined Acadia,and demolition of idealized country houses.Firstly,by portraying the bitter winter,harsh weather,and arduous work overshadowed by British traditional pastoral imagery,Hardy subverts the countryside-paradise illusion of merely summer and autumn,harvests,and people’s carefree and abundant life,which has been constructed by traditional pastoral literature.Secondly,Hardy shatters the Arcadian rural imagery by shaping the countryside as an invested place that has been invaded and transformed by urban capital and an exploited place that has become the material basis for the city’s development.In addition,Hardy criticizes the country-Arcadia illusion through the protagonists’ failure of Arcadian escape and the imagery of the “frustrated shepherds”.Thirdly,in his description of country houses,Hardy demolishes the idealized country house images constructed by the traditional pastoral poetry by satirizing the gradual waning of aristocratic spirit and the degradation of the idyllic moral ideal and by representing the actual living conditions of the intermediate class in rural England.