Thomas Hardy Religion Analysis

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AP Lit.
Thomas Hardy and Religion Famous author and poet, Thomas Hardy, was born June 2nd in the year of 1840 into a small town called Higher Bockhampton in Stinsford Parish. He lived in a lower class family, aware and content with their position. Hardy’s father was a master mason while his mother stayed at home and encouraged Hardy’s education. His mother taught him to read, and continued educating him through his years until the age of 16. At this point, a friend of Hardy’s father, John Hicks, took Hardy in as his pupil. Next door to Hicks’ office was a school run by a well-known poet that ended up cultivating Hardy’s literary potential. The poet, William Barnes, and Thomas Hardy formed a friendship that led to Hardy pursuing the
literary arts (Rollyson). Thomas’ father’s work often involved masonry for the Catholic Church. This and his family being Catholic caused Thomas to be raised as a Catholic; though, his parents’ religious prospect was less than Thomas’. Like his father, and his grandfather, Hardy fell in love with the music of the church. As a child, Hardy’s religious values were brought forth by his religious teachings from the Church, but his parents thought differently. His parents thought not much could come from Christianity; they saw that Christianity was simply a belief to be followed and that it would yield little actual value. As Hardy aged and became more mature, he saw things in the world that affected his religious beliefs. In his twenties, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was released unto the world, affecting many religious faiths. Hardy saw this new advance in science and theory along with the flaws it unveiled within faith as a whole, and religion became distasteful in his eyes (Pite, 108). A late quote from Hardy was as follows: “I have no philosophy”. This quote could be a simply put, yet very accurate expression of Hardy’s full philosophical belief, and that is that there is no philosophy. Hardy in most of his years saw humanity as a result of laws of nature; that humanity came from evolution and the principle of heredity. In other words, humanity was random luck that happened to gift humans with the consciousness of one’s misery in life, allowing them to make their own decisions against or for the laws of their environments however they may choose, and the results will be hardly, yet slightly, relevant in the universe. Thomas Hardy’s new outlook on religion did not solely come from his parents and Darwin’s new theory. The introduction of new science and technology around the world caught Hardy’s eyes. Critics can infer that three individual theories directly correlate with Hardy’s religious beliefs: “Darwin’s theory of ‘Ever-watchful Nature’, Herbert Spencer’s ‘Absolute’ theory, and Arthur Schopenhauer’s Immanent Will theory” (Morgan, 183-184). Though this morbid “idea” was Hardy’s philosophy (or lack of philosophy), his outlook on life was not changed along with his views. Because of his childhood and how he was raised, people could see Hardy continuing to live in a similar manner of Catholics, but was not held to their rules or expectations as Catholics (Morgan). Arthur Schopenhaur’s Immanent Will theory and Hardy’s view on religion are almost parallel with one another, and could be seen as very similar in many of their aspects.
One could see Hardy’s belief to be a median drawn between Schopenhaur’s theory and Darwinism (Morgan, 185). Some studies lead to believe, though it is still in question, that Schopenhaur’s theory was in some way responsible for influencing Hardy’s conclusion in his beliefs. This is because Hardy’s belief is, in part, a distorted look at Shopenhaurism directly. Schopenhaurism is a philosophy in which all as viewed in part of a huge universe. As humans, people have come to know consciousness through what could be natural selection, or some form of evolution. Our “will”, as referred to in the philosophy, is relatable to our “representation” in the vast universe. Our actions are purely interpretation and perception. In theory, there is no religion because there is no god, and life has no true purpose. This is where Hardy and Schopenhaurism meet very strongly; they agree that the overall picture is that life just is. Hardy only varies from Schopenhaurism in that he sees people doing things and living for purpose, just not any specific one. That one’s purpose is a deliberate, personal affair that is what you will it to be. The two different theories are so similar that they seem like two pages of the same book, yet they manage to fray from one another just enough for scientists to label them as
different. Some critics draw conclusions that Hardy’s loss of religion was from something some would find ironic, his name. Baptized as a child, Hardy was given the Christian name “Thomas”. Some critics found this being his baptized name to be a bit ironic, since Thomas was also the name of the doubting apostle. Doubting Thomas is a commonly used term, and when it comes to Hardy’s philosophy, it is an interesting one. Thomas was one of Jesus’ 12 apostles who spread the gospel. In the New Testament of The Bible, he began by questioning Christ’s word. the apostles were the closest and most faithful to the lord, and yet Thomas asked the lord in front of the other apostles how he could follow Jesus without knowing where it was he was going. Thomas was the only apostle who questioned Jesus’ resurrection. He said “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (King, John 20:25). Many critics find it interesting that Hardy was named this as a child because of this story, but no direct correlation can be made. Many still found it an interesting relation though since Hardy had similar purpose in his change of philosophy. He began seeing science and theories proven around the world while religion stood by its stories, so he let go of faith and held on to proof. Hardy’s works of literature often display his philosophical position when thought of analytically. His poetry was some of the largest of these displays. A popular poem of his was Human Life On the Denial of Immortality, which almost directly describes his philosophical views. The poem describes life as though it is in motion, like clockwork, and was just meant to run, not to perceive. It says “Oh man! Thou vessel purposeless, unmeant, Yet drone-hive strange of phantom purposes!” This particular phrase shows Hardy’s thoughts on the lack of true purpose in life. “Phantom purposes” would relate the many things man comes up with, such as religion, or science, or education, or anything that makes man seem like something meant to be and that has a future when truly, it was a “Blank accident” (Marsden, 15). The poem has another meaningful phrase, when it says “She formed with restless hands unconsciously” (Marsden, 15). Hardy is referring to the unconscious forming of consciousness humans developed purely out of chance. This phrase points out his reasoning behind life being pointless. It is that human kind is a conscious within an unconscious universe, helpless, and without reason, while always looking for it. (Marsden)
Another poem that reveals Hardy’s outlook on life is The Darkling Thrush. In the poem Hardy displays the image of a man leaning on a grey fence, cold, miserable, and dark. The man can be looked at as representing mankind, or human-kind, while the dark torturous surroundings are referring to life. The man seems upset at the misery he is surrounded by, that there is no good around him, only pain. That is when he heard an unexpected sound, a bird calling. The man in the poem wonders why a bird would bother since there is no point in calling or singing, no purpose or meaning why it should (Hardy). This is a direct metaphor to his belief. In a world without purpose or meaning, why should mankind bother living? In the poem there is no answer, and an answer can rarely be found. A question such as this reveals the truth behind Hardy’s philosophy, and that is that it is for each person to decide. One may not have a purpose, but even so, mankind was “cursed” with consciousness, so it should be used. Though life may seem miserable, the fact that it lacks purpose could be what it is meant for, perhaps to make it purposeful. The Darkling Thrush is not one of the most popular of Hardy’s poems, but even so, it still reflects his opinions on how to live. Thomas Hardy displays his relationship with his philosophy and his past within Jude the Obscure. Like Hardy, Jude Fawley during his childhood enjoyed entertaining his time with religion. Jude looked forward to a future in religion, as a bishop. After aging, Jude begins to dismiss his religious values, ultimately leading to him completely lacking faith in religion. Meanwhile; his lover, Sue Bridehead, progressed in contrast with his own. She began in the story as a woman that trivialized religion and merely went through the motions. Jude’s religious progression directly relates with Hardy’s own, as Hardy grew older, he saw less value in religion, eventually leading to his dismissal of it. Hardy does something different with Sue’s religion. He writes her belief in a way that could correspond with his parents, along with his own view of the society that follows religion. Hardy was introduced to religion by his parents, as is commonly done, and therefore was introduced seeing the way the valued it. Since his parents mostly saw religion as a convenience, it is likely Hardy saw much of Catholicism to be meant for just that purpose; a mere convenience. Sue’s religious views within the story follow a pattern outlining this thought. Sue began non-religious and once her children died and she needed somewhere to turn, she found her peace in religion (Hardy). Sue could have simply understood the events that occurred and attempted to move on, but she saw an easier way to handle her sorrow. It can always be convenient to go to religion when problems arise, as such happened in the story, and that was Hardy’s point in this development. Hardy sees society using religion as a happy lie to shield them from facing the sad truth. I believe that society’s view being this way was partly another cause to Hardy’s conclusion of his philosophy. Since religion is considered vastly as a convenience, justification could be acting in large against Catholicism popularly whilst influencing Hardy. There is a particular instance within Jude the Obscure in which this is strongly relevant. As previously mentioned, Sue had begun in the story with little true religious affiliation other than that of going to church, though that could be seen mostly as a social standard of the day as simple as it would be of wearing clothes deemed popularly “appropriate”. There is a scene at the museum where Sue’s class is inspecting a model that supposedly represents Jerusalem at the time of Christ. At this point, Sue makes an inquiry that most would not see appropriate being of the time, she points out that what is the point of the model since no one could truly know what Jerusalem was truly like at the time of Christ. She is arguing the validity in studying the city at all merely because there were no actual records, only those based off the current layout of the City. She cannot outright reveal her lack of religious value, so she rebels in the way she can, which is through question. Phillotson does rebut her statement, and she quickly backs down, but she could justify that it was merely a question meant for discussion, and that it had no real value as an argument (Hardy, 125). The fact that Sue can make a conclusion like this, looking for proof in Catholicism, and recognize that there is little value in what the religious deem righteous, and then later, quite conveniently start being wholly Catholic just further shows Hardy’s view on the falsehood of religion. Sue’s role on displaying Hardy’s case does not end with her just being indecisive with her religion; he also uses her to undermine the importance of it in general. Before being properly introduced with one another, Jude witnessed an event of Sue’s, where she buys two figurines of Greek gods, Venus and Apollo. Sue leaves the city to the border to meet a merchant whom sells her these figurines, since they are considered quite unethical, especially seeing as the city, Christminster, was a hearth to Catholicism in whole. After she has bought them she nervously finds some leaves and shrubbery to wrap them in so to prevent a public display of her having them. After she arrives to her home with them, her landlord comes in and asks what the figurines might be, and Sue responds that they are Saints. The fact that she not only lies about their true identity, and even specifically comes up with two Saints to defend her lie, but that she uses such a vast lie about the statuettes is what makes the scene impactful. That she has two Greek deities that she lied and called Catholic Saints undermines the value of religion in itself. She is lying directly to her landlord and hiding them from her society because she wants to appear as still a Catholic. And what emphasizes her lack of confliction with her decision to have them is that Hardy points out that she puts them on her shelf where there was “a candle on each side of them” made her seem to actually spotlight the figurines, as she proceeded to read a non-Catholic volume of poems. This shows a major point that Sue really does not care for religion, but only what most interests and intrigues her, which is why she has no trouble waking up the next morning and going to church (Hardy, 109-113). Hardy uses this entire scene as a model highlighting the lack of seriousness taken into religion. He shows that a person is capable of just simply covering up what would not want to be seen so that they can justify what they are doing. Thomas Hardy lived in an interesting time for religion, with Catholic revivals beginning to come back and along with scientific innovation beginning to take off.
Raised in southern England, where Catholicism prospered, Hardy saw much of religion and its’ followers. Hardy produced his own philosophy from his own will and knowledge, which was an unusual, partly brave act for his time. Some thought it wrong that someone would do such a thing, but Hardy did not falter. Hardy moved to London and pursued his career in literature, subtly sharing his obscene views with all who followed his works. It was because of the messages within his stories that many of them were banned throughout areas popular with the church. Yet Hardy continued to write, marking his place with the top poets and writers of history, while also leaving his unique mark upon philosophers of the ages.

Works Cited

Rollyson, Carl E. Critical survey of long fiction. Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press, 2010. Print.
Pite, Ralph. Thomas Hardy : the guarded life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Print.
Morgan, Rosemarie. The Ashgate research companion to Thomas Hardy. Farnham, Surrey, UK Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010. Print
King James Version popular award Bible. London: HarperCollins, 2001. Print.
Marsden, Kenneth. The poems of Thomas Hardy: a critical introduction. London: Athlone P, 1969. Print.
Hardy, Thomas. Jude the obscure. Belle Fourche: NuVision Publications, 2004. Print.
Hardy, Thomas, et al. The darkling thrush : and other poems. Middlesex, England New York: Viking, 1985. Print.