FREE ESSAY ON THOMAS HARDY

THOMAS HARDY

Thomas Hardy was an English Writer who was born on June 2, 1840 in Higher Brockhampton
Doretshire, England (Something About the Author 129). Hardy wrote form personal knowledge
and experiences, his characters were real people of the time and settings consisted of
places he had been. Many Things influenced Hardy's writings throughout his life including
his early life, work experiences and his first wife Emma Gifford 
Thomas Hardy did not begin his education until late in his childhood. He started to go to
school at the age of eight years old and continued on through public school for eight
more years. Following these eight years of general schooling Thomas went off to London to
study at Kings College for five years after which his father, a stonemason, apprenticed
him early to a local architect engaged in restoring old churches. The Royal Institute of
British Architects awarded him with a medal because of the excellent work he had done as
an architect (Dorset May 12, 1999). Thomas inherited his fathers business, but decided to
give it to his brother Henry to take care of, which gave him more free time towards his
passion of writing. Hardy worked for this architect for five years while at the same time
took up poetry writing with little success.
Thomas started writing many poems after he had completed his apprenticeship, but all were
rejected except for one entitled "How I Built Myself A House." This particular piece of
literature was initially written for the entertainment of his friends, yet somehow
appeared in Chambers Journal in 1865 (Dorset May 12, 1999). After minimal success with
poetry Thomas turned to novels as a more reasonable approach to financially supporting
himself through writing. By 1874 he had achieved his goal and was now able to maintain a
stable life. The novels he wrote were not directly written as books, but in fact they
were mostly published in monthly sections through magazines (as were many famous books of
the time). Hardy apparently had to partially fund his first story that was named
"Desperate Remedies."
"Under the Greenwood Tree" was his first truly successful novel that was published
anonymously in 1872. (Dorset May 12, 1999) Hardy used many of the places he had been and
things he had experienced so far in his life to write this particular story. For example:
the local village school he attended when was a boy makes an appearance in the book.
Thomas Hardy was considered to be a fairly sharp person and he noticed that the way he
wrote "Under the Greenwood Tree" had a positive response, so he decided to continue to
write in this manner.
"In 1870 he met Emma Lavinia Gifford, sister-in-law of the vicar of St. Juliot in
Cornwall to whom he had been sent to plan a church restoration." (Dorset May 12, 1999) At
the time social standings usually affected who got married to whom, but in this case,
despite her high social position, Emma and Thomas fell in love and became married four
years later.
After the success of his first novel Thomas was hired to write a novel for Tinsley's
Magazine. The title was to be "A Pair of Blue Eyes" and in parts reflected his
relationship with his wife and was published in 1873. This novel was well received by his
audiences and after good reviews he began another story, "Far From the Madding Crowd."
The setting was in Puddle Town where he had family, so he knew it well, but it was
renamed in the story to Weatherbury; an example of how he used places he knew in his
writings.
"Tess of the d'Urbervilles" was published in 1891 (Something About the Author 129) and is
considered to be one of his greatest pieces ever written. This story was recently made
into a movie (1979) named Tess because of how popular this proclaimed story had been.
The final novel written by Thomas Hardy was "Jude the Obscure" in which he subsequently
stated that "...sexual attraction is a natural force unopposable by human will"
(Microsoft Encarta "Hardy, Thomas"). English critics very harshly criticized "Jude the
Obscure" and his wife Emma was outraged at him because "...she took this as an attack on
the sanctity of marriage and feared that readers would consider it autobiographical."
(Dorset May 12, 1999) That in turn led him to the conclusion that he no longer wanted to
write novels, but instead decided to concentrate on writing poetry again as he had
earlier in his life.
Poetry was now Hardy's main focus of attention. He released "Wessex Poems" in 1898
followed by "Poems of the Past and Present" in 1901. These were both collections that
were almost completely written before hand. During the fives years between 1903 and 1908
he wrote what some of his readers considered being his best poetry and titling it "The
Dynasts."(Microsoft Encarta "Hardy, Thomas") In 1910 he was awarded the Order of Merit
for his poetical works.
Emma unexpectedly died in 1912 and that left him completely stricken with grief and
remorse. Following this tragic event flowed rich and beautiful poetry from his pen about
memories and the love for his late wife. During this sad period of his life his writing
career prospered immensely. 
Thomas Hardy died on January 11, 1928 in Dorchester, England and his ashes were placed in
Poets' Corner in the famed Westminster Abbey. (Something About the Author 129) He was now
considered to be one of the great men of English Literature.
Thomas Hardy had a prosperous career in literature and is considered among many readers
to be one of the best writers. Hardy learned early in his career that readers liked is
work when we wrote from personal wisdom (places he had been, people he new and things he
had experienced). If it were not for his wife Emma Gifford he may have not of even
achieved his standings now as a famous writer.
Bibliography
Dorset County Council Thomas Hardy.
May 12, 1999. http://room101.thoughtcrime.org/~whales/mayor/hardy.html
"Hardy, Thomas" Microsoft Encarta 95. 
United States of America: Microsoft 1995
"Hardy, Thomas 1840-1928" Something About the Author. Volume 25
Location and Publisher not specified.