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Tragic is not used to solve real world problems. Its aim is to reveal conflicts. And some of the conflicts are able to give rise to people’s feelings as if they are personally in the predicament faced by the characters. Tragic effects can be pided into two categories, emotional shock and emotional output. Emotional shock is the specific feelings the author expected to trigger in the readers. They are pity, fear, sadness, etc. Emotional output is vitality; this is the sublimation of the spirit after emotional catharsis of the emotional shock. We learn things when we are happy. But epiphanies do not only exist in happy experiences. We also like those bitter, thrill stories, because those stories can give us more intense stimulation than happy ones, and they make us understand the meaning of life under acid challenges.
1.2 Hardy’s Perspective about Modern Life
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) is a 19th century English novelist and poet. He is highly critical of much Victorian society, and places his focus mainly on social events which happen in countryside.
Firstly, he takes a pessimistic attitude towards industrialization and thought it would destroy the preserved culture not only in daily life but also in literature. He laments the result of industrialization, but he does not appeal to change the contemporary situation. Here lists several aspects to spy his opinions about the changes of time. At that time, the railway construction made people closer to the outside world, and more and more were moving to another place for a better job. He felt sorry to the loss of the sense of belonging to one’s hometown. In fact, nineteenth Century British society was not so pleasant for people to live. The economy just began to take step. Enormous social problems were emerging, such as the large gap between the rich and the poor. Hardy war rather disappointed by the real world. That is why he created the virtual “Wessex” region.
Secondly, he has an advanced perspective about the modern life. Though he disliked the modern progress, he admitted that the progress is irreversible and irresistible. Its benefits to society and economy could not be denied, as well as its disadvantages. Traditions were broken and moral disciplines were violated. He shows his regrets in his works just to let people know his feelings.
In Far from the Madding Crowd, with infinite love for his homeland, and great passion for simple rural life, Hardy sings high praises of beautiful love and marriage. However, he gradually begins to describe the cruel reality under the historical background: farmers becoming slaves after bankruptcy; village girl being abandoned and left to die; gentlemen indulging into a wanton life. The tragic atmosphere created by those events already outweighs the comedic one built by the happy marriage of the two main characters, Bathsheba and Gabriel, in the end of the story. The fierce conflicts between society and character, destiny and will just demonstrate hardy’s view of tragedy and modern life in this book.
1.3 Hardy’s Explorations of Tragedy Writting
Hardy shows great ingenuity in plots managing, plots with ups and downs. In his novel, accidents and coincidences can be seen everywhere. “Accidents and coincidences” (Ding Shizhong, 47) or “failure to meet the opportunity” is the author’s unique and superb skill to manipulate or to offer circumstances to the performance of the heroes in his book. These coincidences often elicit some disasters; meanwhile, they do not violate character’s logic, so that every step of the development of the story will be perfectly logical and reasonable. However, in Hardy's novels, chance and coincidence are not used as gimmicks that attract audience by deceiving them. They are based on inevitable conflicts which promote and intensify the potential tragic. They make readers feel the predetermined and irresistible fate of human kind. They strengthen the ideal tragic effect of a work.