The Heresies of Thomas Hardy :: Biography Biographies Essays

The Heresies of Thomas Hardy       Thomas Hardy is widely recognized as a poet who went against the conventions of his contemporaries by calling religion into question. Hardy's writing style is so prone to allow random natural events to decide the course of his novels that he often seems to be asking why God, if he existed, would let such bad things happen to basically good people.    Another philosopher who expressed heretical views about conventional religion during Hardy's era was Auguste Comte, founder of positivism. In his writings on positivism, Comte "set forth a comprehensive theory of the historical development of human knowledge" (Mitchell 619). According to Comte, humanity has thus far moved through three phases: theological, metaphysical and positive. The positive stage, based on scientific reason, had been achieved about the time of the industrial revolution (Mitchell 619-620). "Comte and his followers rejected traditional religion, substituting a religion based entirely on historical and sociological principles" (Mitchell 620). Comte's central principle was the idea that the laws governing human thought and action are a subclass of the laws of nature (Mitchell 620).    Hardy seems to be able more readily to espouse this idea than traditional religion. For Hardy, traditional religion made no sense because there was no proof that God existed, only speculation (Hynes xviii). It seems more logical that if there is a set of laws governing nature, then there should be a set of laws governing how humans think and interact.    Hardy is not able to fully lend his writing to an idea of logical order, however; he seems to believe that often there is no controlling force, and that is why life can seem so cruel. In his novels, we see completely random actions, either of people or nature, which lead to the unhappiness or downfall of characters. In Far From the Madding Crowd Bathsheda sends the valentine to Boldwood merely on a whim (79); this single act, however, contributes to the downfall of the man, which also manifests itself in the random storm which destroys the ricks. In The Mayor of Casterbridge the wife selling (79) is brought about by Henchard's drunken anger; it is the random arrival of Farfrae, on his way to the new world, that eventually leads to the impulsive Henchard's downfall.