Hardy, the novelist, was essentially a poet and an artist rather than a philosopher. Hardy was primarily a story-teller and should be viewed
more as chronicler of moods and deeds than
a philosopher. He repeatedly affirmed that the 'Views' expressed in his
novels were not his convictions or beliefs; they were simply
"impressions" of the moment. In The Return of the Native,
Hardy proves a dismal view of life in which coincidence and accident conspire
to produce the worst of circumstance due to the indifference of the Will.
In order to understand Hady’s
philosophy, we should have a fair idea of Hardy’s biography. Hardy lived in an
age of transition. The industrial revolution was in the process of destroying
the agricultural life, and the subsequent shifting of population caused a
disintegration of rural customs and traditions. It was a period when
fundamental beliefs — religious, social, scientific, and political — were
shaken to their core and brought in their stead the "ache of
modernism." The new philosophies failed to satisfy the emotional needs of
many people. As a young man, Hardy read Darwin's Origin
of the Species and Essays
and Reviews (the manifesto
of some radical clergymen), both of which influenced Hardy’s attitude toward
religion profoundly. He found it difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile the
idea of a beneficent and benevolent, omnipotent, and omniscient deity with the
fact of omnipresent evil and the persistent tendency of circumstances toward
unhappiness.
Hardy's
novels can be best understood in the light of the author's fatalistic outlook
on life, for Hardy fluctuates between fatalism and determinism. Fatalism is a
view of life which acknowledges that there is some malignant power that
controls the universe, and which is out to thwart and defeat men in their
plans. It is especially hostile to them who try to assert themselves and have
their own way. Determinism, on the other hand, acknowledges that man's struggle
against fate is futile and man is but
puppet in the hands of destiny. In Tess of D’urbervilles, we are told
that,
“Justice was done, and President of
Immortals(in Aeschylean phrase) had ended his sport with Tess.”
In The Return of the Native, Hardy again reminds us that,“What a sport for Heaven this woman
Eustacia was!”
In
Hardy's novels, then, Fate appears in the form of chance and coincidence, nature, time and woman.
None is Fate itself, but rather all of these are manifestations of the Immanent
Will. Fateful incidents are the forces working against men in their efforts to control their
destinies. In addition, Fate appears in the form of nature as a powerful agent,
that affects the lives of the characters. Those who are most in harmony with
their environment can find some solace, but those who are indignant and
rebellious, it destroys all their
happiness.Eustacia suffers in The Return of the Native, because of her direct
confrontation with Edgon Heath, which symbolizes nature. In the end Eustacia
laments:
“How I have tried and tried to be a splendid
woman, and how destiny has been against me. I do not deserve my lot…I have been
injured and blighted and crushed by things beyond my control.”
Hardy
remarks: “
What of Immanent Will and its designs? It works unconsciously as heretofore,
Eternal artistries in circumstance.”
In Hardy's considered view,
all life is suffering. Man suffers from the moment of his birth upto his death.
Happiness is only occasional, it is never the general rule: "Happiness is but an
occasional interlude in a general drama of pain"
There is none who gets more
than he deserves but there are many who get much less than what they deserve.
Not only man suffers, but all life suffers. Suffering is writ large on the
face of nature. A ruthless, brutal struggle for existence is waged everywhere
in nature. All nature is red in tooth and claw and life lives upon
life. Thus all life, including human life, is subject to this law of suffering
and none can escape the operation of this law.
Hardy’s characters are also
a prey to irony of circumstance. Right things never happen at the right time :
they happen either not at all, or too late, when their happening brings nothing
but misery and suffering in their train. The heroines of Hardy, like Tess and
Eustacia, as well as his male characters, like Clym, Henchard, Angel, Alec are
all the victims of the irony of circumstance. In ill-conceived scheme of things
there is nothing but “strange oschestra
of victim shriek and pain.” Almost all of the Hardy’s characters are
susceptible to this omnipresent evil power.
In The Return of the Native,
Hardy suggests the philosophy of Rustic Resignation. Man must be resigned to
one’s lot. It is useless to complain or resist for nothing can refom “ill-conceived scheme of things.” If he
is rash, hot-headed and obstinate, like Henchard or Eustacia, he can bring
about his own downfall. On the other hand, if he is contended ang resigned to
his own lot like Thomasin, he can make much of his limited opportunities.
Summing up, Hardy’s
philosophy in The Return of the Native is certainly ‘twilight’ and gloomy one
but it is not too much pessimistic or nihilistic, for nihilism implies negation
of life, a wish not to have been born at all. It is only in his last novel
“Jude of Obscure” that some cynicism enters, and Hardy becomes pessimistic
otherwise he is an acute realist. “My
practical philosophy”, says Hardy, “is
distinctively meliorist”, an
honest facing of human suffering.
“If a way to the better there be, it implies good look at
the worst.”
Hardy is a humanist, a poet who wants men
to turn from nature to their own kind for
“There at least discourse trills around There at least smells abound There same-time are found Life-Loyalties.”