ABSTRACT

Thomas Hardy’s fiction is well known for its powerful descriptions of characters and settings, which, rather than being merely background to the plot, also serve as symbolic images, assisting our understanding and interpretation of underlying meanings and strands in the text, whether highlighting previously known patterns of significance or shedding light on new ones. Those powerful descriptions are related to another special feature of Hardy’s style: the extreme visuality of his narratives when describing landscapes or people. Analysis of his visual descriptions of people lead to Hardy’s unique take on the psychological representation of the characters’ minds, that is, the strategies used by the author to present the characters’ moods, feelings, and other traces of their personality.