The Pessimistic Thomas Hardy 3u411w

Thomas Hardy has often been described as an extremely pessimistic and morbid individual. Most of, if not all of Hardy’s work is inclined towards negative thinking of events occurring around him and life’s experiences in general. Hardy often engaged in combat with the view of him being pessimistic, stating that he was in fact a realist and that “such questioning is the exploration of reality”. Hardy lived a long life and witnessed many changes taking place before his eyes, however, he did not adapt well these changes.He was critical in thought and input into the Victorian Society in which he lived to see the beginning of. Hardy’s poem The Darkling Thrush was composed in the 1900s and is believed to be on the last day of the 1900th century. This change sparked Hardy’s creative expressive format resulting in its composition. Since the poem is being written at the beginning and end of something great significant, the readers/ audience may have expected a piece more complimentory and welcoming of the new century. Instead, Thomas writes about the last moments of the 1900 th (dregs of a drink) century as if it were dying. The use of his comparison of the sharp features of the landscape and the extended metaphor of the death of the century through the usage of the winter season both unite to form Hardy’s usual outlook, being pessimistic. His attraction to the morbid scene also paints a clear picture of his pessimistic perspective on life. Another of Hardy’s poems that cause him to stand out as very dark and morbid is his composed piece pertaining to the death of his wife Emma, God’s Education. In this poem Hardy speaks to God about some impolite action taken upon him, being the removal of the breath of his wife. Hardy is recognized not to have instead composed a piece of appreciation of the life of his wife, but to instead mull over her death and seek out someone to cast the blame about on for what in his mind would have been an untimely death, as he was bitter about it even though she had lived to see an acceptable amount of years. Hardy’s use of literary devices in this poetic piece brings out his harsh and again pessimistic outlook on life. Hardy uses alliteration with letters harsh to the human ear in describing the death of his wife. (cold control) The example should be fully explained Lastly, but not limited to of Hardy’s poetic pieces which bring him to being widely viewed as dark and morbid is Hap of the Wessex group of poems. Similarly to God’s Education, Hardy questions God’s treatment of man. Hardy has convinced himself over a few select poems that God is indifferent to man and does not care about their suffering. In this poem also, his view is seen. Hardy’s dark and morbid characteristics come out when, considering the amount of years that he has been allowed by this very God and the privilege of having not only one wife, but two, that he does not fail to recognise that everything must eventually die and be replaced with something else, or even better in some cases as Henry King highlighted in his poetic piece A Contemplation Upon Flowers. Hardy was an individual trapped within life. An individual that seemed more likely to prefer being free of capture of his physical body and wander about spiritually with the power and respect of a God. His complex thinking and “exploration of reality” as defined by himself, cause critics from his time to until even today, to have the general idea that Hardy is of pessimistic nature. He is truly a topic to be studied and serves mainly as an example to those that do not appreciate what they have.