Investigating the Concept of Mortality in Thomas Hardy’s Novels – An Analytical Literary Study

Abstract

Thomas Hardy was deeply concerned with his novels with many signs rooted in his belief in the human situation and failed human relations. He did not really represent mortality in his work, but he showed it in social and philosophical aspects and in different literary contexts. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the mortality (death) in the novels of Thomas Hardy (14 novels). Death in Thomas Hardy's novels took various forms from novel to novel, influenced by his unique experience and the ideal social context he intended to convey through his writings. The problem of this research is about the concept of death in three main dimensions: historical, political and social to discover other implicit or explicit factors that affect Hardy's characterization and his plan within the concept of mortality as a central point of his subjects. The methodology used in this study is based on the descriptive and analytical approach that entails a critical literary analysis of the concept of death, the philosophical form and the content of narrative events to develop the criterion of social reality, taking into consideration the good and bad things and traditional beliefs that lead the lower, middle and upper social classes from the late Victorian and early 20th centuries. The research concluded that Hardy used a degree of increasing diversity of mortality (death) in most of his novels as a tool for social change and reform. The research finds that Thomas Hardy deals with natural death not only as a manifestation of a normal life problem or a divine destiny; it aims to propose solutions to society. In Hardy's novels, the caliber is not limited to the laws of nature only (natural death), harm or man-made crimes, but it also has a clear influence in the novels. Hardy is a master of the ideas of the mortality. He does not mean death in his novels as an ordinary event, but rather as a tool or technique for writing to serve the overall fabric of the literary plot to develop work or to seal tragic results.