[hardy-l] Hardy's intent

[Pauline Guerin]

Firstly, we cannot discern Hardy's intent, unless we 'hear' it from the man
himself, to try to second guess any author and their intent is a rather
dodgy thing to do, we cannot know, we can only study the text in front of
us, and merely wonder at his 'original intent'.  

 

Secondly, I think I have to disagree that Hardy was not making social
comment, of course we cannot know for sure, but it seems strange that
someone of his era should write the novel 'Jude the Obscure' which carries
very strong social concerns and messages without wishing to make social
comment.  We all know that Hardy's love life was somewhat obscure and to me
the novel suggests that to 'live in sin' will ultimately destroy society.
Also, if there was no social message or comment in the novel, then why did
Hardy receive so much 'stick' over it, and subsequently retire from novel
writing?   Again we cannot know if Hardy was putting across any kind of
message, but for me the book is one great big warning that society should
conform to its own standards, and that to stray spells disaster.   

 

Similarly, if we 'learn a bit of what Hardy thought about the world in which
he lived,' surely this also suggests that he was making social comment.  If
we learn that he felt that marriage was the only way society could survive
and anything else was wrong, that is social comment.... is it not?

 

(I loved Jude by the way, such a complicated, and yet fascinating story, way
ahead its time in my humble opinion.)

 

How interesting

 

Pauline

 

 

Pauline Guerin MA

 

My point is that Hardy wrote these books to tell the story of those who came
into his imagination and that what happened in these stories were events in
the everyday lives of the characters themselves. It doesn't seem likely that
he was putting forth treatises on society or the meaning of life. Those were
by-products of the stories, not the original intent. We are supposed to
enjoy reading them and, in the process learn a bit of what Hardy thought
about the world in which he lived.

 

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