Hardy and His Reading Heroes (2)

Home , Egdon Heath, The Return of the Native

SUMMARY ― 149 ―

KITAWAKI Tokuko

Thomas Hardy deeply explored the psychological problems of modern men and women, as he is

significantly called“psychological novelist” by Rosemary Sumner. Hardy’s main protagonists are

“frequently intelligent young people who have diﬃ culty in ﬁ nding harmony of mind and body.”(Sumner

3) Here in this paper, I mainly discuss Clym Yeobright in The Return of the Native , Angel Clare in

Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude Fawley in Jude the Obscure. Clym, Angel and Sue Bridehead (I

have already discussed her in vol.38, The Bulletin of Kyoto Seika University ) are the inheritors of

Henry Knight in A Pair of Blue Eyes . They are educated, thinking people suﬀ ering from a conﬂ ict

between ﬂ esh and spirit, reason and emotion. As for Jude, he is a well-balanced character thwarted by

his visions of Christminster and Sue.

Clym, disillusioned at the modern life in Paris, returns to his native land Egdon Heath, which is“the

primitive, primal earth, where the instinctive life heaves up.”(Lawrence 8) He is a true child of the

ancient heath who loves heath and his comrades. And also he is an idealist. His ideal is to set up a

school for heath dwellers to liberate them from ignorance, superstition, and irrationality. However,

“Clym’s modernity remains theoretical and abstract, on the periphery of the story.”(Sumner 108)

Clym has already showed“thought is a disease of ﬂ esh,” (RN II 6) and becomes half-blinded, because

of three antagonistic growths:“his mother’s trust in him, his plan for becoming a teacher, and Eustacia’s

happiness.”(III 4) His ideal is never realized. When he ﬁ nds out that his mother’s death is Eustacia’s

fault, Clym insanely accuses Eustacia of killing his mother. His insane accusation against his wife

drives her into death. “Clym’s idealism accompanied nothing, while incidentally destroying the lives of

his mother and wife.” (Langbaum 97) Even though he ﬁ nds his way as the career of an itinerant open-

air preacher, he still remains an idealist who cannot perceive that the people listen to his lectures

because“the story of his life had become generally known.” (XI 4)

Angel is also an intellectually advanced young man, who is unconventional in his head but

conventional in his mind. “Intellectually, he has rejected his father’s dogma, but emotionally he is torn

between austerity and sensuousness, rigidity and spontaneity.” (Sumner 131) He loves the idealized

vision of Tess and rejects her when she is not a rustic innocence. This“advanced and well-meaning

young man . . . was yet the slave to custom and conventionality, when surprised back into his early ― 150 ― SUMMARY teachings.” (TD 39) Though he deserts his wife once, he comes back to her after the harsh experiences in Brazil and the kind advice from a broad-minded stranger. Angel accepts the whole Tess, even after she killed Alec. Angel grows into a well-proportioned man and helps her to fulﬁ ll her desire for death after a short wedded bliss.

Unlike Clym and Angel, Jude is inwardly well-balanced. His conﬂ ict is not between his spirit and

ﬂ esh. He is rather a victim of society. He is alienated not only from Christminster but from any place he goes. He is an outsider at any time and any place until his death.

Jude is an orphan who has no protectors or advisers. He ﬁ nds something to cling to in his vision of

Christminster. Aspiring to become a university student, he studies Latin, Greek, theology and ethics by himself. However, his vision of Christminster is shattered. After he has thrown his ambitions away,

Jude lives with Sue, who“damages and destroys all the men she encounters” (Sumner 151) with her egoistic and inconsistent character. Jude is not an exception. He clings to the vision of Sue instead of

Christminster vision, and regards her as“my guardian-angel.” ( JO VI 3) The murder and suicide of

Little Father-Time, however, smashes her freedom of thought. Sue neurotically flies back into conventionality. She deserts Jude and hurries to her former husband Phillotson for remarriage. There is only one hope left in Jude to see Sue again and to die. Jude is dying whispering Job’s curse.

Hardy stops writing novels after the publication of Jude the Obscure , which is full of his advanced ideas of marriages, university education and Christianity. Jude is Hardy’s poor puppet and an outsider to the end of his life, who ﬁ ghts“against man and senseless circumstance.” (XI 3) Signiﬁ cantly, Thomas

Hardy’s reading heroes and heroines except Elizabeth-Jane are all tragic characters.