Abstract
It is always interesting and challenging to examine the shaping influences of an artist’s mind and writings. Sometimes, we understand their goal and sometime we don’t. Thomas Hardy is no exception. He offers an exceptionally intriguing case where his major novels call ‘’ Novels of characters end environment’’ have what can be called a significant element of thought. Today, without any apparent sense of incongruity, critics and readers frequently accuses Hardy to be a pessimist novelist but without examining the real causes and impact of such a vision. He is used to thrusting abstraction and theories on his artistic creation. Hardy explore in his Wessex novels major issue which is either his pessimism or realism. An in-depth study of his novels will obviously persuade us that his attitude towards life is pessimistic. In discussing the causes of his pessimism, let’s focus on his living environment and how he was influenced by his own Victorian society. This paper is an attempt to discuss Hardy’s pessimistic vision with the ultimate goal of finding a better understanding of that issue.
Keywords
- Critics
- Pessimism
- Readers
- Understanding
- Victorian society