Sunday, December 19, 2010
Pessimism, Fatalism, Determinism: Words
like pessimism, fatalism and determinism have freely been used by critics
and readers to describe Hardy’s philosophy of life. These labels largely convey
his outlook and attitude. Every where in the novels of Hardy, human beings
appear to us crushed by a superior force. He is pessimistic because
he believes that man is born to suffer and he is fatalistic because he believes
that destiny is hostile to man and that it governs human life, allowing very
little free will.
Whether his creed is fatalism or
determinism, Hardy is haunted by the vision of necessity. He shows us the sad
consequences of a conflict of contradictory wills and the development of this
conflict is crossed at every moment by accidents which interpret them. Hardy,
however, is not cynic. He doesn’t regard man as essentially mean and wicked.
There are villains in his novels; but he believes that there is more goodness
than evil in human nature. Man is capable of heroic endurance of misfortune.
Therefore it is possible to call Hardy a determinist than a fatalist. Fatalism
implies a blind supernatural power and determinism implies the logic of cause
and effect.
Character and Fate responsible: Hardy
believes that “happiness is an occasional episode in a general drama of pain.”
He didn’t think life to be a boon. Hardy’s conception of life is
essentially tragic. The conflict is one in which there is only the remotest
chance of escape. Man suffers from a lack of foresight and from an
inability to subdue his own insubordinate nature and this suffering is
aggravated by the chances and incidents and a strange overwhelming power. The
Tragedy in RN is due largely to the weaknesses and faults of the characters
themselves. To that extent, character is fate, but tragedy is also caused by
the natural and fateful forces working on the other end.
Clym’s responsibility: Human
weaknesses largely determine the course of events in the novel. Clym is a noble
man and would like to serve his fellow human beings by educating them. He is
not a materialistic man. In fact, has forsaken the fashionable life
of Paris and returned to Egdon Heath. We should not expect such a man
to be unhappy; but he has his shortcomings. He fails to perceive Eustacia’s
unsuitability as a wife to a man like himself. He is unable to see
materialistic nature of Eustacia and love for worldly gaiety. She warns him
that she doesn’t have the makings of a “good some-spun wife” and his mother
emphatically tells him that he would regret his marriage to Eustacia whom she
rightly describes as an “idle, voluptuous woman” but Clym doesn’t see to these
warnings. Having fallen in love with and married Eustacia, fails to keepthe
marriage. He also fails to balance between his wife and mother. Both the
couples are incompatible with each other.
Mrs. Yeobright’s responsibility: Mrs.
Yeobright, though a respectable matron for whom we feel great respect, is rigid
and obstinate. Being worldly and practical, she is unable to read Clym’s
mind and feels unsympathetic to his humanitarian projects. She objects to her
educational plans and marriage to Eustacia.
Wildeve’s responsibility: Wildeve
is the villain of the piece and is the author of much of the misery that the
characters suffer. He is an unscrupulous man, with a shallow nature and
shifting loyalties. He fluctuates between one woman and another, marries one of
them but keeps running after the other. His intimacy towards married Eustacia
triggers more crises in the lives of characters.
Incongruities of the situation: The
tragedy in RN results from the incongruities of the situation in which these
characters find themselves. For example, the incongruity of incompatibility
between Clym and Eustacia, she hates Edgon Heath as much as Clym likes it. She
like the glamour of Paris and thinks Heath a hell. Describe the
tragic story in brief…
The role of destiny: The
responsibility of the characters for their tragedy is obvious. We repeatedly
have a clash of wills and a conflict of purposes between the various
persons involved, each pulling in a different direction. The tragic situation
keeps mounting and the characters reach the limit. We are unable to
understand the force working behind their tense and tragic life. It is destiny
which manifests itself in the form of accidents and incidents. It is just when
Mrs. Yeobright has determined to reconcile between the couple that the demon of
mischance begins its game. Mrs. Yeobright’s death is the result of many ironic
accidents and coincidences. She arrives at her son’s house at a time when
Wildeve is having an intimate conversation with Eustacia and when she cannot
immediately open the door. Mrs. Yeobright turns back and on herway back home is
bitten by an adder and is killed. Before her death, she tells the boy, Johnny
whom she meets purely by chance that Eustacia had discarded her. Clym has
driven out Eustacia; fate resumes its flippant jests. He writes a
letter to her to come back; but the letter miscarries by a few minutes. Clym,
unaware of this, sits in his house waiting for Eustacia to knock. The
night is the worst imaginable. The Heath is beaten by wind and rain. At length,
a woman’s footstep is heard. He feels excited. Thinking it to be Eustacia, he
finds Thomasin who breaks the news of Eustacia’s elopement with
Wildeve which ends in drowning. We must remember that almost all Eustacia’s
meetings with Wildeve after her marriage to Clym have been accidental. All
these incidents are responsible for their tragic ends and are supplemented by
human weaknesses and get aggravated.
The Part of Nature and Egdon
Heath: In Hardy’s stories, nature is always a personage and this personage
is embodied here in Egdon Heath. Heath is the dark immemorial environment whose
influences control the lives and destinies of those who dwell here. Egdon Heath
symbolizes the whole cosmic order, win which man is but an insignificant
particle. Eustacia looks upon Heath as a great enemy. She regards it as
her cross, as her shame and as the potential cause of her death. Egdon Heath is
swept by rain and wind causing death to Eustacia and Wildeve and it also kills
Mrs. Yeobright with its venomous adder from its bosom.
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