ABSTRACT

The only portion of Hardy’s outlook represented is the importance he attaches to accident and coincidence, and even this side of his philosophy is emphasized less than usual. A mediocre novel, it deserves only brief treatment. Hardy offers the consolation for the worst possible contingencies of existence which he offered in A Laodicean. If one does not choose to battle heroically with destiny as Henchard does, he may find a reasonable degree of content in a stoical philosophy such as Somerset, Paula, and, now, Elizabeth Jane embrace. There may be philosophic inconsistency in Hardy’s attitude, for if human nature is determined, so is society—but there can be no doubt that he joins to his indictment of the cruelty of the universe an indictment of social evils that he feels to be remediable. An artist and an agnostic before he is a dogmatic philosopher, Hardy honestly shows life as, with its mysteries and contradictions, it impresses him.