This motivational analysis of the protagonists in Thomas Hardy's
three most widely read novels--Tess of the d'Urbervilles, The Mayor
of Casterbridge, and Jude the Obscure--highlights an
often-overlooked aspect of his art. Bernard J. Paris shows Hardy's
genius in creating imagined human beings. He demonstrates that
while Hardy tends to blame external conditions for his characters'
painful fates, their downfalls are due to a very complex
combination of cosmic, social, and psychological factors.
Hardy's characters are usually discussed primarily in thematic
terms. The characters are are so richly portrayed, Paris argues,
that they can be better understood independent of Hardy's
interpretations, in motivational terms and he utilizes the
psychologist Karen Horney's theories to recover Hardy's intuitions.
The characters are full of inner conflicts that make them difficult
to fathom, but the approach Paris employs explains their
contradictions and illuminates their troubled
relationships--shedding light on these expertly crafted imagined
human beings.
This psychological approach to Hardy's characters enables us to
understand his characters and gain insight into the implied authors
of the works. In addition, the approach shows Hardy's authorial
personality. We can see that Hardy treats some defensive strategies
more sympathetically than others. Given his view of life as "a
general drama of pain," resignation, like that of Hardy's character
Elizabeth-Jane, is the strategy he prefers.
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