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Thomas Hardy

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Thomas Hardy

was born in 1840 from a quite poor family: his humble origins will always be a source of shame for him, and that’s why he will always try to hide them. Moreover, his origins determinate his absolute pessimism about the chances of being fulfilled in this context and, in general, about humans’ destiny.
He believes that every man has a sort of predestination to failure, without any help from society or love. As a matter of fact, the middle class is self-righteous, full of prejudices and pretender, money is owned only by a small part of the society, whereas all the other people starve to death.
He tries to denounce this awful situation (despite the censure to which he is forced), and that’s why his novels are so provocative: as a matter of fact, in “Tess d’Ubervilles”, the main character is always described as pure, lovely and innocent, even if she’s an unmarried mother and kills Alec, her first husband. This murder, as a matter of fact, is caused only by circumstances and not by the will of doing violence on him.
His pessimistic ideas are caused not only by the reality in which he lives, but also by scientific movements and the new geological discoveries: because of them, he rejects Christian doctrine and the Bible and starts to think man is insignificant.
One other really important element is Hardy novels (which also determinates his tragic view of life) is Nature: it isn’t just the background of his novels, but a real character; it is a lively force always close to men, who are always influenced by it. As a matter of fact, he’s a “naturalist”, because he thinks that every man is the product of his native place, his historical context and other external factors. Despite its importance, Nature isn’t a source of joy and pleasure, but a sort of “stepmother”, hostile and indifferent to humans’ destiny.
As a matter of fact, in the conclusion of “Tess”

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