The Return of the Native, Tess of the D'urbervilles and The Mayor of Casterbridge-Thomas Hardy
Well, I gave Hardy a chance. I went in thinking that I would love his
work because I am a lover of Victorian Literature, but I was three
times disappointed. The first novel I tried was The Return of the Native.
I was fascinated when I met Eustacia Vye in the first chapter.
Initially I thought that she was going to be similar to Scarlett O'Hara,
a dark headstrong beauty, spoiled and tempestuous but of strong moral
fiber. Nope, she was a selfish biznatch hell-bent on destroying everyone
around her.
So...strike one, the first main character of Hardy's that I didn't like. Reluctantly, I finished the book.
Years later I decided to try Tess of the D'urbervilles.
I waded through that novel too, never really connecting with, the
supposedly, "fabulous" Tess. I think I was supposed to care for her. I
didn't . To me, she was nothing more than a wimpy "femme fatale" whose
main goal in life was to get all the men to fall in love with her.
Strike two against Hardy.
I
grew older and thought maybe I would see something in Hardy's writing
that I had missed before as a younger person, so I tried The Mayor of Casterbridge. Nope, I couldn't stand that main character either.
Strike three.
I
understand that the best, most realistic characters should be
multidimensional, but Hardy puts his characters into such gray areas,
the reader can never connect with them, let alone like them. I don't
have to idolize my characters, but I do have to care about them. In his
efforts to write about the deterioration of rural England, Hardy
succeeded. He succeeded in the same the way Charles Dicken's uncovered
problems with urban Victorian life. But in the process of criticizing
society Hardy made sacrificial lambs out of his characters, a mistake
Dickens never made. I found little to like about the work of Thomas
Hardy. I hope you have a better luck than me.
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