THE TREATMENT OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN THOMAS HARDY’S FAR HARDY’S FAR FROM THE THE MADDING CROWD, THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE , THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE CASTERBRIDGE AND AND TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES D’URBERVILLES
BY
BILKIS AKHTER A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Human Sciences (English Literary Studies)
Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences International International Islamic University Malaysia
JUNE 2009
ABSTRACT
The aim of the thesis is to analyse the presentation of women characters in Thomas Hardy’s selected novels and to explore to what extent Hardy accepts the Victorian view of women. Is Hardy’s approach to women often influenced by Victorian soci ety in which he lives? Does he show sympathy or does he put much blame on women while presenting them in his novels? At that time, the society itself was largely controlled by men and male superiority was not questioned at all. As a result, women suffered injustices at the hands of the men. Women are mothers, wives and lovers. They are exposed to different roles during different stages of their lives. In the course of time while performing their legitimate duties they are sometimes oppressed by men rather than they oppress men. They are more victims than victimizers. They are not prone to sinning, rather they are sinned against. Thomas Hardy in his novels shows women performing their different roles in various manners. Sometimes they are independent and sometimes they have to depend on others for their survival. They frequently become the victims of male domination or patriarchy. The study will also explore the issues of women’s oppression in the Victorian society on the basis of the selected novels. In general, f emale emale characters in Hardy’s novels are always depicted as docile and submissive. Hardy’s major female characters, characters, despite their individuality, share the same sentiments and suffer from the same class and gender oppression. It is always their effort to fight back that bring them anguish and tragedy. Some of them though hardened and stoic are still unable to overcome their social and economic deprivations. In Hardy’s celebrated novels, Far novels, Far from the t he Madding Crowd (1874), (1874), The Return of the Native Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge Casterbridge (1886) and Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) d’Urbervilles (1891) women are subjected to all kinds of human indignities by men. They always fail in their attempts to extricate themselves from their social and economic entrapment. Hardy’s enigmatic and unforgettable u nforgettable heroines, Bathsheba Everdene, Fanny Robin, Eustacia Vye, Thomasin Yeobright, Susan Henchard, Elizabeth-Jane, Lucetta Templeman and Tess Durbeyfield in their actions, reactions and interactions are embodiments of social wretchedness and inferiority. This thesis analyses the treatment of women in the selected novels in an attempt to explore feminist ideas in his works. The study also explores Hardy’s novels from novels from the Islamic perspective on women.
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. . . . . . . Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), )Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891)
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ABSTRAK
Tujuan tesis ini adalah untuk menganalisis tentang persembahan watak-watak wanita dalam novel-novel terpilih Thomas Hardy. Ia juga untuk mengkaji sejauh mana Hardy menerima pandangan cara Victoria tentang wanita. Adakah pendekatan Hardy terhadap wanita dipengaruhi oleh masyarakat Victoria di mana dia tinggal? Adakah dia menunjukkan simpati atau pun dia menyalahkan wanita apabila menggambarkan mereka dalam novel-novelnya? Pada zaman tersebut, sebahagian besar daripada masyarakat dikuasai oleh lelaki dan kelebihan lelaki tidak dipersoalkan langsung. Kesannya, wanita menderita di atas kezaliman lelaki. Wanita merupakan ibu, isteri dan kekasih. Mereka didedahkan dengan pelbagai peranan semasa melalui peringkat hidup yang berbeza. Sewaktu mereka menjalankan tanggungjawab dan kewajiban mereka, mereka tidak menzalimi lelaki sebaliknya dizalimi oleh lelaki. Mereka lebih cenderung menjadi mangsa daripada pemangsa. Mereka tidak cenderung untuk berdosa tetapi dilayan seperti orang yang berdosa. Thomas Hardy menggambarkan dalam novel-novelnya bahawa wanita melaksanakan pelbagan pera nan mereka dengan cara yang tersendiri. Kadang-kadang mereka mampu berdikari dan kadang-kadang mereka perlu bergantung pada orang lain untuk terus hidup. Mereka kerap menjadi mangsa penguasaan lelaki ataupun patriarki. Kajian ini juga mengkaji isu-isu tentang penindasan wanita dalam masyarakat Victoria berdasarkan novel-novel terpilih. Secara amnya, watak-watak wanita dalam novel Thomas Hardy selalu digambarkan dengan sifat jinak dan submisif. Walaupun watak-watak utama wanita Hardy mempunyai identity tersendiri, namun mereka berkongsi penderitaan yang sama akibat penindasan terhadap golongan wanita. Selalunya usaha mereka untuk melawan balik akan membawa penderitaan dan tragedi kepada mereka. Walaupun sebahagian daripada mereka gigih dan cekal, namun mereka tidak dapat mengembalikan hak sosial dan ekonomi mereka. Dalam novel-novel Hardy yang terkenal seperti Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) dan Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), wanita tertakluk kepada semua jenis penghinaan oleh kaum lelaki. Mereka sentiasa gagal dalam percubaan mereka untuk membebaskan diri mereka daripada kurungan sosial dan ekonomi. Heroin-heroin Hardy yang penuh misteri dan tidak dapat dilupakan seperti Bathsheba Everdene, Fanny Robin, Eustacia Vye, Thomasin Yeobright, Susan Hechard, Elizabeth Jane, Lucetta Templeman dan Tess Durbeyfield digambarkan melalui perbuatan, reaksi serta interaksi mereka yang melambangkan rendah diri dan penderitaan masyarakat. Tesis ini juga bertujuan untuk menganalisis tentang layanan terhadap wanita dalam novel-novel yang terpilih dengan usaha untuk mengkaji fikiran feminisme dalam hasil kerja Thomas Hardy. Kajian ini juga melihat novel-novel Hardy dari perspektif Islam.
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APPROVAL PAGE
I certify that I have supervised and read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a dissertation for the degree of Master of Human Sciences (English Literary studies) ............................................................................. Umar Abdurrahman Supervisor
I certify that I have read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a dissertation for the degree of Master of Human Sciences (English Literary studies)
............................................................................ Aimillia Mohd Ramli Examiner
This dissertation was submitted to the Department of Psychology and is accepted as a partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Human Sciences (English Literary studies) ............................................................................ Mohammad A. Quayum Head, Department of English Language and Literature
This dissertation was submitted to the Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences and is accepted as a partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Human Sciences (English Literary studies) ............................................................................ Hazizan bin Md. Noon Dean, Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences
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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently submitted as a whole for any other degrees at IIUM or other institutions.
Bilkis Akhter
Signature ………………………….
Date….……………………..
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INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA
DECLARATION OF COPYRIGHT AND AFFIRMATION OF FAIR USE OF UNPUBLISHED RESEARCH Copyright © 2009 by Bilkis Akhter. All rights reserved.
THE TREATMENT OF FEMALE CHARACTERS IN THOMAS HARDY’S
F A R F R OM T H E M A D D I N G C R O WD , T H E R E T UR N OF T H E N A TI V E , T H E MAYOR OF CA STE R B R I D G E AND TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES
No part of this unpublished research may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder except as provided below. 1.
Any material contained in or derived from this unpublished research may only be used by others in their writing with due acknowledgement.
2.
IIUM or its library will have the right to make and transmit copies (print or electronic) for institutional and academic purposes.
3.
The IIUM library will have the right to make, store in a retrieval system and supply copies of this unpublished research if requested by other universities and research libraries.
Affirmed by Bilkis Akhter
……………………………. Signature
…………………. Date
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This work is lovingly dedicated to my parents-in-law Mahmuda Begum and Md. Fazlul Haque who inspired me to pursue my studies overseas.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, praise be to Allah (S.W.T.) for the good health and motivation bestowed upon me to complete this research. I would like to express my profoundest gratitude to all those who were involved and had assisted, either directly or indirectly in making this study possible. I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation and sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. Syed Nasir Raza Kazmi, for his assistance in the completion of this study. I am truly grateful to Associate Prof. Dr. Arshad Islam for his fatherly care and affection throughout this difficult period of completing this study. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Umar Abdurrahman, who has shown great patience in guiding me. My affectionate gratitude too goes to my second examiner, Dr. Aimillia Mohd Ramli, for the valuable suggestions concerning the content and arrangement of the thesis. I also owe my sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Mohammad A. Quayum for his assistance throughout the hard time in completing this research. I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to Dr. Nor Faridah Abdul Manaf and Dr. Juliana Othman for their constant encouragement in completing this study. I would also like to express my utmost gratitude to my dearest family and friends, especially my parents and my husband Mahfuzul Alam Taifur, for their endless support and prayers during the course of my studies. Lastly, I am deeply indebted to all my teachers who have shown me the light of knowledge. May Allah (S.W.T.) reward them all and forgive me for all errors and shortcomings.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ................................................................................................................. ii Abstract in Arabic ................................................................................................. iii Abstract in Bahasa Malaysia ................................................................................. iv Approval Page....................................................................................................... v Declaration Page ................................................................................................... vi Copyright Page...................................................................................................... vii Dedication ............................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. ix
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................... 1
1.0 Background of the study ...................................................................... 1 1.1 Statement of the Problem .................................................................... 6 1.2 Objectives of the Study........................................................................ 7 1.3 Significance of the Study ..................................................................... 8 1.4 Scope of the Study ............................................................................... 10 1.5 Research Questions.............................................................................. 10 1.6 Literature Review ................................................................................ 11 1.7 Theoretical Framework........................................................................ 17 1.8 Methodology ....................................................................................... 19 1.9 Limitations of the Study ...................................................................... 20 1.10 Islamic Point of View ........................................................................ 20 1.11 Organization of Chapters ................................................................... 22
CHAPTER TWO: F A R F R OM T H E M A D D I N G C R O WD ............................ 24
2.0 Introduction ......................................................................................... 24 2.1 The Predicament of the Life of Bathsheba Everdene .......................... 24 2.2 The Tragedy of Fanny Robin Versus Bathsheba Everdene ................. 33
CHAPTER THREE: T H E R E T UR N OF T H E N A TI V E ................................. 41
3.0 Introduction ......................................................................................... 41 3.1 The Predicament of the Life of Eustacia Vye...................................... 42 3.2 Eustacia’s Idealization of Love ........................................................... 47 3.3 The Predicament of Thomasin Yeobright ........................................... 53
CHAPTER FOUR: T H E M A Y OR OF C A ST E R B R I D G E : A STORY OF A MAN OF CHARACTER .............................................................................................. 63
4.0 Introduction ......................................................................................... 63 4.1 Selling of Wife and Child is a Violation of Human Right .................. 65 4.2 The Sublimation of Passion ................................................................. 68 4.3 Elizabeth-Jane is a Role Model of Self-Sacrifice ................................ 71
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4.4 The Predicament of Lucetta and Susan ............................................... 74
CHAPTER FIVE: TESS OF THE D’URBERV I L L E S .................................... 81
5.0 Victorian Notion of Female Purity ...................................................... 81 5.1 Tess and Alec: Rape or Seduction ....................................................... 84
CHAPTER SIX: THEORY OF FEMINISM AND ITS BRIEF IMPLICATION IN THE NOVELS ............................................................................................... 96
6.0 Exploration of Hardy as a Feminist ..................................................... 96 6.1 Orthodox Values in Hardy’s Depiction of Female Characters ............ 100 6.2 Hardy’s Portrayal of Traditional women ............................................. 118 6.3 Feminist Ideas in Tess of the d’Urbervilles ......................................... 121
CHAPTER SEVEN: SELECTED NOVELS OF THOMAS HARDY: AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE ................................................................................ 132
7.0 Significance of Marriage and Men-Women Relationship in Islam ..... 132 7.1 Marriage and Divorce .......................................................................... 135 7.2 Freedom of a Woman in Choosing Her Life-Partner .......................... 135 7.3 Responsibility of a Husband ................................................................ 138 7.4 The Qualities of a Good Wife .............................................................. 144 7.5 Intoxicating Liquor or Drug is Haram in Islam .................................. 145 7.6 The Inhumanity of Michael Henchard................................................. 146 7.7 Solution of Family Disputes in Islam .................................................. 148 7.8 The Nobility of Forgiveness ................................................................ 148 7.9 Obedience to Parents ........................................................................... 150 7.10 Taking Good Care of Parents in Their Old Age is Admired ............. 152 7.11 Erotic Gaze is Forbidden in Islam ..................................................... 157 7.12 Forgiveness is Appreciated by Islam ................................................. 158 7.13 Avoidance of Fithnah ........................................................................ 158
CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION ............................................................... 161
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 165
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CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Women in Thomas Hardy’s novels function in accordance with social norms and prescriptions, which privilege men over women. Women’s position of utter inferiority makes them vulnerable to all forms of abuse and exploitation by men. Female characters are treated harshly and unjustly to the extent of being reduced as mere chattels to be disposed of at will by men. For instance, in The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Michael Henchard, careless and drunkard husband sells his wife, Susan and his daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, for only a few shillings. Even more importantly, Henchard’s behavior is motivated by a strong desire to satisfy his alcoholic and gambling habits. In this case, a man’s selfishness and material obsession has lead to the humiliation of his wife and consequently, the destruction of cherished fundamental societal humane and family values. This tragic incident underscores the gravity of the situation in which human decency is no longer valuable. Female characters in Thomas Hardy’s novels are always depicted as docile and submissive. These stereotypical images are often created and enforced by reactionary values of the intensely patriarchal society to which Hardy belongs to and addresses. A majority of Hardy’s female characters is portrayed as less endowed intellectually which often inhibits their desire and struggle for social and economic justice. As a result, their social and economic status and welfare are predetermined by the norms compatible with the patriarchal system. Although a few women either by luck, strong will or destiny manage to openly challenge marginalization of women by the society
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through stereotyping and gender bias. The rebellion and non-conformity of these women are usually crushed by the male dominated society in a dramatic way by enforcing the negative stereotypes in literature. Hardy’s female characters continue to suffer from all forms of gender discrimination, sexual exploitation and abuse, economic exploitation and physical and mental enslavement by men. Hardy probes these predicaments of female characters with sensitivity and candor. Hardy’s presentation of women as victims of men and the patriarchal culture is a subtle way of condemning the systematic dehumanization of women by civilized societies. Hardy believes that these archaic social values not only entrench but also perpetuate a patriarchal system detrimental to women’s social and economic well being. Like some other novelists of his time, Hardy draws them with sympathy and understanding. In their moral conducts and actions, female characters are always pitted against formidable and destructive human and natural forces. Hardy graphically portrays them facing challenges of life, sometimes winning, other times losing, but never giving up. But ultimately, their destinies either individually or collectively collide with those of men, some of whom are dominated by excessive material tendencies. Thus the women often end up losing the battle. The nineteenth century, when Hardy had his roots, was a period of debate and shifting beliefs. England became the workshop of the world and the first industrial nation, but at a horrific cost in human suffering and anguish. Industry brought with it insecurity of employment with the cyclical changes of trade. New slums grew and diseases spread without any control. Longevity became a matter of social class. The average working class length of life was seventeen years for Liverpool and nineteen for Manchester. Industrialization had started showing its ugly face in the form of
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urban poverty and unemployment. The social and economic gulf between the upper and lower classes widened. The world of home and domesticity got idolized. The responsibility for making the home a heavenly place fell on the shoulders of the women. Women were taught to experience satisfaction and fulfilment in their roles as wives and daughters. The conventional Victorian ideology ignored the sexual desires in women except in the mistresses or prostitutes. Sexual reticence was adopted and practiced by media and publishing houses. Any knowledge of sex was considered dangerous for women for its amoral effect on them. The novelists of this period remained in constant fear of their books being banned or censored by the editors of the magazines and the lending libraries. The Victorian novelists took special care to keep their women characters within the acceptable standards of society and literary tradition. Women’s main concerns were marriage, love, home and family. Any deviation from the set standards of morality on the part of women would receive authorial lashing. The women’s private sexual experience would hardly be talked of by the authors. The novels in that time have to convey that a ‘fallen women’ can be accepted by the soci ety if she purges herself of her sin through a life of moral purity and asceticism. The Victorian novelists were unable to question the basic assumptions of society that brought women to their degrading and subordinate positions. Nevertheless, by the end of the nineteenth century, a gradual change in the outlook of society began to take place. People spoke about private sexual experience in public. The complexity of the female mind was treated with intellectual subtlety. English writers turned to direct realistic analysis of love, marriage and sex. Alternatives to marriage such as divorce and free-sex were offered. In other words, morality came to be redefined. A number of novels depicting strong, independent and unorthodox women appeared. These novels attacked the
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mores and conventions of society, which curb the individual growth of women. Sarah Grand’s The Heavenly Twins (1893), Mona Caird’s The Daughters of Danaus (1894), Grant Allen’s The Women who Did (1895), are some of the novels worth mentioning in this context. During this time, Hardy along with writers like Elizabeth Gaskell and George Meredith made pioneering effort to do away with the unsurmountable barrier placed upon English fiction by the society. As a subject sex was taboo in Victorian fiction. They wanted to push the subject under the carpet. Even marriage in Victorian fiction is largely a matter of property. Young men look for wealthy heiress not pretty women. Hardy aimed to break down the sexual taboos and presented his themes of love, marriage and sex with frankness. He openly condemned the double sexual morality endorsed by the prevalent ideology and voiced against the torture of marriage system in his last novel Jude the Obscure (1895). He even criticized the Divorce Law that went in favour of men. Hardy’s commitment to the unconventional notions led to much criticism as he published novel after novel. The most vociferous condemnation greeted his last two novels; Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure. This was the price he had to pay for challenging the Victorian ideology and raising voice against it. The feminist sensibility achieved by Hardy towards the later part of his career as a novelist was a steady growth of his stance from the feminine to feminist. Hardy’s early novels beginning with Desperate Remedies (1871), Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) and Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) to some extent deal with his women characters portrayed in light of accepted female stereotypes. Hardy became bolder and bolder as his fame grew; he cared less and less for conventional morality. When his last two novels were published, he decided to
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turn from prose fiction to verse rather than make a compromise with his social and religious conventions. Consequently, his women characters grew increasingly independent, self-assured and liberal in the broadest sense of the term. The gradual shift of Hardy’s women towards feminist stance is linked with Hardy’s growing sympathy for the suffering women in the patriarchal society. Hardy lashes out at the system of double moral standards for men and women who live in the same society and in the same era. He also criticizes the male characters for their misunderstanding of women and their inability to shake off the conventional moral judgment. Hardy’s criticism of conventional morality with regard to women becomes more intense in Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Indirectly he puts forward his belief that sex and marriage should be left to the individual to consider. No social law can assume control over these areas of human experience. Tess’s surrender to Alec, is innocent as it lacks tact or experience on her part. Hardy even considers her self-blame irrelevant. In his subtitle, he calls Tess ‘a pure woman’ and challenges the idea of female purity upheld by Victorian moral standards. In The Return of the Native (1878), Hardy offers a touching description of the death of Eustacia Vye who too is a ‘fallen woman’ in the eyes of the orthodox society. Hardy seems to hold contemporary English society responsible for not acknowledging Eustacia’s aspirations and abilities. He also exposes the inadequacy of a sexual ideology which forces women to suffer personal and emotional disasters. He also comments on the invalidity of sexual ideology that conditions women to remain confined to purely personal and emotional sources of satisfaction. Hardy’s criticism of the traditional marriage system which condemns the women too much is a reflection of the contemporary feminist debate on the subject. In
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novel after novel, he invites the attention of the readers to the injustices of marriage system which do not permit their freedom through divorce. Hardy has always been interested in emphasizing the futility of the marriage system. In his novels, marriage rarely brings happiness. His novels especially, the later ones are replete with antimarriage sentiments. The early novels of Thomas Hardy such as Desperate Remedies, Under the Greenwood Tree, Far from the Madding Crowd end with the happy reunion of lovers. But there is a hint that the future may not be rosy for them. In The Return of the Native and The Woodlanders (1887) the traditional concept of marriage is already brought into question by the adulterous unions and relationships presented. In Tess of the d’Urbervilles, the very idea of an unmarried mother being called a “Pure” woman is a reflection on the sanctity of marriage. Tess’s state of being as an unmarried mother and her staying with Alec as his mistress are all indications of people’s disrespect for marriage.
1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Some critics have judged Hardy by his negative generalization of women and other anti-feminist views in his writings. One of the main characteristics of Hardy’s work is the dominance of women characters in his fiction. His deep sympathy for women lies in the new sensitive portrayal of their sufferings in the Victorian era. It is noteworthy that tragedy in Hardy’s novels is associated with the fate of the individuals revolting against the society’s conventional standards of behaviour. Women in Hardy’s novels struggle to achieve self-fulfilment in the society which is deeply entrenched in the Victorian concept of male superiority over women and female submission to men. Hardy showed a considerable sympathy for these women who are enmeshed in the
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idealistic view of virgin lovers, submissive wives and loving mothers. The dignity of womanhood consisting in the limited role of a woman as wife and mother lies in the sphere of home. Home is heaven presided over by women. Those who find his novels full of female stereotypes and misogynist generalization about women will assume this present study of showing Hardy’s deep compassion for female characters as an exaggeration. In fact, Hardy has been both condemned and praised for his portrayal of women. The contradictory mixture of praise and condemnation continued with the heroines of his novels. In reality, it was a time when writers were expected to adhere to the society’s moral values that did not allow women to be portrayed as sexual objects. The aim of the study is to analyse the gradual development of Hardy’s view of women in terms of their femininity to that of his portrayal of women as independent and progressive. This will be done by studying the four selected novels from the viewpoint of his presentation of women characters in Victorian era and his sympathetic attitude to the issues concerning women and their liberation in the society.
1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objective of this thesis is to analyse the presentation of women characters in Hardy’s selected novels and to explore to what extent Hardy accepts the Victorian view of women. Is Hardy’s approach to women often influenced by the Victorian society in which he lives? Does he show sympathy or does he put much blame on women while presenting them in his novels? At that time, the society itself was largely controlled by men and male superiority was not being questioned at all. As a result, women suffered injustice at the hands of men. The study will also explore the issues of women’s oppression in the Victorian society on the basis of the selected
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novels. The study will not only examine to what extent Hardy’s women characters bring on their own suffering or tragedy on themselves, but also explore to what extent other people, especially men, are responsible for causing their suffering. This study has several objectives. Firstly, it aims to critically examine Hardy’s portrayal of women as victims of men and the patriarchal society in the Victorian era. Secondly, this study hopes to seek the social and religious perceptions of women in the Victorian society. Thirdly, this study aims to assess female characters in Hardy’s selected novels in terms of their relationships with men and to show how these relationships undermine the integrity of women and reveal the deep-seated social stereotypes and prejudices against women in the Victorian society. Fourthly, the objective of this research is to show Hardy’s profound sympathy for the Victorian women caught in the mesh of patriarchal ideology. Finally, this study seeks to deal with Hardy’s consciousness for the women cause; which can be termed as feminist. There is a degree of feminist consciousness in the novels which is revealed through his artistic skill in the presentation of his themes concerning women. Hardy was sympathetic towards the sufferings of female characters and sincerely wished for a change in their lives.
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The present study will focus on Hardy’s presentation of women characters an d his ideology related to women in the selected novels. Hardy has often been considered as anti-feminist for his negative generalization of women in his novels. The present study is an attempt to exonerate Hardy of this biased view by highlighting the aspects which reveal his sympathy for the women cause. Examples of Hardy’s sympathetic attitude towards women will be shown in the analysis of the four novels sele cted in this study.
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The importance of the study is, to add a new perspective to the list of studies on Hardy’s portrayal of women. Although there is a vast amount of critical writings on Hardy’s novels, it is not a major barrier for this study since not many attempted to look into Hardy’s female characterization from the Islamic perspective of women’s rights in society. Hence, the thesis contributes significantly to the literary tradition of Victorian portrayal of women in the light of Islam. Feminism which can be broadly termed as the fight for women’s rights is a universal ideology that is widely popular around the world. It is born out of oppression against women by men in the patriarchal society. Feminism is a phenomenal study that critically explores the tasks of feminist critics and also exposes the male dominance over females. A feminist is one who is awakened and conscious about women’s life and problems. Hardy is also conscious about the life and problems of women in his society. The novels selected for the purpose of this study conform to the conservative portrayal of women. Moreover, the women characters, at one point or another in their lives, have been the victims of male tyranny. Sometimes their indecisions cause their sufferings and in some cases, they become the silent victims of their own fate or destiny which brings harms to their lives. This study will focus on such issues. This study will also analyse women as individuals rather than mere shadows of men. Though women depend on men for their social security, they are still able to assert their own independence and show their capability of proving their own skills in business as we see in Bathsheba Everdene in The Return of the Native. The aim of this thesis is to discuss Hardy’s Victorian heroines in the light of Islamic perspective.
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1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The research will examine the portrayal of women in Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd , The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Castrbridge and Tess of the d’Urbevilles. Special attention will be given to Hardy’s depiction of the treatment of women in the Victorian society which is intensely patriarchal and therefore prejudiced against women. The prejudices against women by men and other social stereotypes of women undermine their integrity and make it difficult for them to be successful. This study will investigate how and why women are regarded as men’s property to such an extent that they can be sold by men as in The Mayor of Casterbridge or can be raped in Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Themes such as marriage, religion, domination of women by men, morality and hypocrisy will be examined. This study will also compare and contrast the treatment of women in Hardy’s Victorian society and in the present day. In addition, this study will include the Islamic perspective of the rights of Muslim women in the society.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.
Was Hardy sympathetic towards his female characters?
2.
How does he show sympathy for the Victorian women caught in the patriarchal ideology?
3.
How does Hardy’s artistic skill reveal itself in the presentation of his ideas concerning women’s sufferings in his novels?
4.
In what ways does Hardy uphold the deep- seated causes of women’s sufferings in his novels?
5.
To what extent is Hardy successful in appreciating the feminine mind in his novels?
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6.
Is it fair to call Hardy a feminist?
1.6 LITERATURE REVIEW
Kristin Brady says that the works of Thomas Hardy have been explicitly and obsessively associated with matters of gender. 1 To speak of understandings about sexuality is, by definition, to speak of gender. Victorian notions of sexuality are intriguingly obvious in nineteenth-century reviews of Hardy’s fiction, beginning with the 1871 publication of the first novel, which provokes a set of responses that remain roughly consistent at least until the 1891 appearance of Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Kristin Brady asserts that Hardy’s treatment of sexual desire as sensational, violent, pagan, and bestial. Hardy’s f emale characters especially are seen as manifestations of an inborn, involuntary, unconscious emotional organism. Hardy offers an unusually explicit descriptions of female desire; more unconventional and troubling. Hardy’s inconstant depiction of that female desire provokes contemporary reviewers to comment on Hardy’s female sexuality as sensational, violent, pagan, and bestial. Through the characterization of Tess Durbeyfield, Hardy shows that even the fallen woman is expected to remain fixated on her first sexual partner. These heroines are more like rapacious animals than like monogamous ladies, and their behaviour digresses in disconcerting ways from the sentimental formula of love-at-first-sightfollowed-by-engagement-and-marriage. Kristin Brady is summarizing the opinions of critics on Hardy’s treatment of female sexual desire. Though Brady has insights to offer, he does not treat the subject with sufficient elaboration.
1
Kristin Brady, “Thomas Hardy and matters of gender” in The Cambridge companion to Thomas Hardy, edited by Dale Kramer (Cambridge :Cambridge University Press, 1999), 93.
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Susan Beegel expresses condescending and self-congratulatory affection for the unvirtuous side of Hardy’s heroines.2 Each heroine possesses the charm of the simplest and most familiar womanhood, and the only character they have in common is that of having each some serious defect, which only makes the readers like them more. In the subject of matrimony, no young woman knows her own mind. Their indecisions to choose the right partner make them first to have two lovers and then marry a third. This instability in Hardy’s heroine makes them unappealing to the female audience. Beegel says that the wavering desire of Hardy’s heroines makes them attractive to many male readers because it reassures the male readers that they are comparatively stable in the matter of sexual desire. Thus, Beegel is more appreciative towards the male characters’ sexuality than the females’ presented in Hardy’s novels. Penny Boumelha refuses to think of Hardy’s female characters as mimetic of actual women who are likeable or unlikable, realistic or unrealistic, positive or negative
stereotypes.
3
Boumelha
sees
Hardy’s
women
as
cultural
signs,
representations of historical ideas about women and about gender. Rather than presuming that a fictional representation can be “natural” (or “unnatural”), Boumelha offers a historical analysis of how Victorians understand the “Nature” of “Women” and she links this “sexual ideology” to Hardy’s use of conventional narrative structures, which themselves embodied particular ideologies. Boumelha says that the radicalism of Hardy’s representation of women resides, not in their ‘complexity,’ their ‘realism’ or their ‘challenge to convention,’ but in their resistance to reduction to a single and uniform ideological position. Thus Boumelha is aligning herself with an 2
Susan Beegel, “Bathsheba’s lovers: Male sexuality in Far from the Madding Crowd ” in Sexuality and Victorian literature, edited by Don Richard Cox (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984), 148. 3 Penny Boumelha, Thomas Hardy and women: Sexual ideology and narrative form, (Sussex: Harvester, 1982), 5.
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understanding of ideology as a framework of beliefs and social practices which gives the power of resistance to the female characters against the patriarchy. Kristin Brady says that critics have been giving more concerns about the construction of masculinity in Hardy’s novels since the publication of his works . 4 Significant attention has always been given to Hardy’s male characters, but only in recent years, with the rise of feminist and queer theory, have critics begun to look at masculinity itself as contingent and changing rather than as normative and stable. Elaine Showalter focuses on the issues of masculinity rather than solely on male characters in Hardy’s novels. The description of Henchard selling his wife does not celebrate women rights in the Victorian era. Elaine Showalter says: To shake loose from one’s wife; to discard that drooping rag of a women, with her mute complaints and maddening passivity; to escape not by a slinking abandonment but thorough the public sale of her body to a stranger, as horses are sold at a fair; and thus to wrest, through sheer amoral willfulness, a second chance out of life-it is with this stroke, so insidiously attractive to male fantasy, that The Mayor of Casterbridge begins.5 Through the character presentation of Michael Henchard, Hardy investigates the Victorian codes of manliness, the man’s experience of marriage, the problem of paternity. Showalter also shows a kind of assimilation of female suffering in Hardy’s novels. Showalter argues that Hardy understands the feminine self as the estranged and essential complement of the male self. Graham Handley, in Thomas Hardy: Tess of the d’Urbervilles provides the illustration of Hardy’s artistic awareness of the centrality of the heroine, Tess Durbeyfield.6 Graham Handley focuses upon the phases of Tess’s existence through a
4
Kristin Brady, “Thomas Hardy and matters of gender” in The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy, edited by Dale Kramer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 104. 5 Elaine Showalter, “The unmanning of the Mayor of Casterbridge” in Critical approaches to the fiction of Thomas Hardy, edited by Dale Kramer (London: Macmillan, 1979), 102. 6 Graham Handley, Thomas Hardy: Tess of the d’Urbervilles, (London: Penguin Books, 1991).
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