Table Of ContentThe Theme of Alienation
in the Major Novels
of Thomas Hardy
by
Ahinad Elsayyad Ahxaad Abuzeid
Thesis Submitted to the
Department of English Literature
in the University of Glasgow
For the Degree of Ph.D.
University of Glasgow September 1987
I
Acknowledgements
It would be impossible to acknowledge, or even perhaps to
know, all the intellectual debts one has incurred over the years
and in the course of writing this study. I would particularly wish
to acknowledge my general indebtedness to the outstanding studies
by Jean Brooks, John Holloway, Irving Howe, Hillis Miller and
Michael Millgate. But there are three critics whose influence I am
particularly conscious of, Philip Drew's chapter in The Meaning of
Freedom, Robert Grant's lectures on Hardy and Ian Gregor's The
Great Web. These have formed immeasurably my thinking about Hardy
and contributed much to whatever value this study may have.
I must record my incalculable debts to Dr Robert A.D. Grant,
my supervisor, for his advice and encouragement, and for his
corrections of numerous errors that my laboriously learnt English
could not altogether avoid.
I must also record my deep respect and gratitude to Professor
Philip Drew who kindly agreed to supervise me temporarily during
Dr Grant's sabbatical year. He gave me much of his time,
scholarship and expertise.
I am happy to take this opportunity to express my thanks to
Professor Andrew Hook, Head of the Department of English
Literature, for his kindness, help and caring attitude and Mr
Robert Cummings for his fine course on sources of research.
On a more personal level, I owe a great deal to my parents,
brothers and sisters. I am deeply grateful to their blessings and
good wishes.
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I should like to thank the many friends and colleagues, too
many to name individually here. Special thanks are given to Shebi
Elkomy for his help and encouragement.
I wish to thank the staff of Glasgow University Library,
particularly Mary Sillitto, Moira Coley and Jackie Dowd, for their
efficiency, friendliness and helpfulness.
Finally, this study could not have been made without the
loving support, the patience and good humour of my wife.
III
Contents
Page
Summary 1
Part One Alienation and Literature
Chapter I Alienation Defined 4
Chapter II Alienation in Victorian Literature 32
Part Two Alienation in the Major Novels of
Thomas Hardy
Chapter III Far from the Madding Crowd 98
Chapter IV The Return of the Native 126
Chapter V The Mayor of Casterbridge 159
Chapter VI The Woodlanders 196
Chapter VII Tess of the D'tJrbervilles 232
Chapter VIII Jude the Obscure 273
Conclusion: Thomas Hardy and Alienation 312
Selected Bibliography 324
Sunuliary
The predicament of human isolation and alienation is a
pervasive theme that has not been sufficiently studied in Thomas
Hardy's fiction. This study investigates the theme of alienation
focussing on Hardy's major novels.
Although the term 'alienation' is one of the most outstanding
features of this age, it is not very clear what it precisely
means. The writer has to draw extensively on Hegel, Marx, Fromm
and other thinkers to understand the complex ramifications of the
term. The numerous connections in which the term has been used are
restricted to include only a few meanings and applications among
which the most important refers to a disparity between one's
society and one's spiritual interests or welfare.
The theme of alienation, then, is investigated in
representative texts from the wide trajectory of Victorian
literature. It is clear that the central intellectual
characteristic of the Victorian age is, as Arnold diagnosed it,
"the sense of want of correspondence between the forms of modern
Europe and its spirit". The increasing difficulty of reconciling
historical and spiritual perspectives has become a major theme for
Hardy and other late Victorians.
Next, each of Hardy's major novels is given a chapter in
which the theme of alienation is traced. In Far from the Madding
Crowd, Boldwood's neurotic and self-destructive nature makes him
obsessed with Bathsheba, and as a result, murders Troy and suffers
the isolation of life imprisonment; Fanny Robin's tragic and
lonely death, only assisted by a dog, is a flagrant indictment of
society.
1
In The Return of the Native, Clym is the earliest prototype
in Hardy's fiction of alienated modern man. He returns to Egdon
Heath only to live in isolation unable to communicate with the
very people whom he thought of as a cure for his alienation.
Eustacia has consistently been leading a life of alienation in
Egdon Heath which leads to her suicide.
In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Henchard's alienation may be
more ascribed to his own character, recalling Boldwood, than to
incongruity with society. Yet Hardy emphasises the tendency of
society towards modernity which Henchard cannot cope with.
In The Woodlanders, not only does wild nature fail to be a
regenerative and productive force bet also human nature fails to
be communicative and assuring. The people of Little Hintock fail
to communicate with iry other. The relationship between Marty and
Giles is an "obstructed relationship"; Giles dies a sacrificial
death, and Marty ends as a wreck in a rare scene hardly credible
in a newly emerging world. Fitzpiers and Mrs Charmond, on the
other hand, are isolated in the sterile enclosure of their own
fantasies. Grace, anticipating Tess and Sue, is torn in a conflict
between two worlds, neither of which can happily accommodate her.
In Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Tess, after her childhood
experiences at Marlott and later at Trantridge, soon discovers how
oppressive society is,particularly when she is rejected by Angel,
whom she loves and through whom she aspires to fulfil herself.
Angel suffers from self-division in his character, and the
conflict between received attitudes and advanced ideas leaves him
an embodiment of an alienated man hardly able to reconcile the
values of two worlds.
Jude the Obscure is Hardy's most complete expression of
alienation. Jude's alienation is explicitly social and implicitly
2
cosmic, and his failure to identify himself in society constitutes
a major theme of the novel. The novel foreshadows the modern
themes of failure, frustration, futility, disharmony, isolation,
rootlessness, and absurdity as inescapable conditions of life.
In conclusion, the theme of alienation in the major novels of
Thomas Hardy is a pervasive one. Nevertheless, not all his
characters are alienated; however their happy condition, like that
of the rustics in Gray's Elegy, is seen to stem from their
intellectual limitations.
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Part •
Alienation and Literature
Chapter One
Alienation Defined
Chapter One
Alienation Defined
Our life nowadays is commonly characterized in terms of
"alienation". Reference is constantly made to it in connection
with the growth of superficiality in interpersonal relations, the
stunting of personal development, the widespread existence of
neurotic personality traits, the absence of a sense of meaning in
life and the "disappearance" or "death" of God. There is almost no
C
aspect of contemrary life which has not been discussed in terms
of "alienation". Whether or not it is one of the most outstanding
features of this age, it would certainly seem to be its watchword.
In spite of the term's popularity, few people have a very
clear idea of precisely what i& means. "Alienation" is a term
which most people understand in terms of their acquaintance with
the writings of certain philosophers, psychologists and
sociologists whose uses of the term are most significant. It would
make no sense to say, "Never mind what Hegel, Marx or Sartre say
what they mean by "alienation", I want to know what the term
itself means". For it is largely through the influence of these
and other recent writers that the term has come to have whatever
meaning it has today.
Hegel's and Marx's discussions of "alienation" are of
considerable significance and they constitute the background of a
good deal of the contemporary ideas on "alienation". It seems to a
number of contemporary social scientists who have attempted to
generalize about the way the term "alienation" functions, that,
however different the contexts in which it is employed may be, its
various uses still share a number of common features. Arnold
Kaufman, for example, offers the following general analysis:
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"To claim that a person is alienated is to claim that
his relation to something else has certain features
which result in avoidable discontent or loss of
satisfaction"
Lewis Feuer suggests that "the word 'alienation' is used to
describe the subjective tone of self-destructive experience" and
states,
"Alienation is used to convey the emotional tone which
accompanies any behaviour in which the person is
compelled to act self-destructively"2
Kenneth Keniston contends that
"Most usages of 'alienation' share the assumption that
some relationship or connection that once existe that
is 'natural', desirable, or good has been lost."
From the linguistic point of view, and long before Hegel and
Marx, an important use of "alienation" which goes back to Middle
English and has its roots in Latin usage, is in connection with
the state of unconsciousness and the loss of one's mental powers.
"Alienation" means "withdrawal, loss, or derangement of mental
faculties; insanity" (4) . "Alienist" is "one who treats mental
(5)•
diseaSeS,a mental pathologist, a mad-doctor" Another important
use of the term is "to make estranged, to estrange, or turn away
the feelings or affections of any one, to convert into an alien or
stranger, to make averse or hostile or unwelcome"6.
Hegel
It is in The Phenomenology of Spirit that Hegel for the first
time used the term "alienation" systematically in anything like
the special ways in which it is used today. He provides an
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Description:pervasive theme that has not been sufficiently studied in Thomas. Hardy's fiction.
This study investigates the theme of alienation focussing on Hardy's major
