4。1。 Sophy 15

4。2。 Randolph 17

5。 Conclusion 19

5。1。 A Summary of This Essay 19

Reference 。。。20

1。 Introduction

1。1。 Background and Significance

   Thomas Hardy ( 2 June 1840–11 January 1928), who receives great acclaim as a novelist, plays an irreplaceable role in English literature。 During his sixty years of creation, he revealed the complex and profound change of the Victorian Era by his unique writing styles。 With his great poetry, he also inherited and carried forward Victorian literary tradition and developed English literature of the 20thcentury ( Qi Yonghui, 2013)。 He witnessed the great changes between the Victorian Era and the 20thcentury。 Because of his unique status, numerous scholars are keen on his life and works。 Researches on Hardy’ s works at home and abroad are abundant and various。论文网

    However, this thesis intentionally chooses Hardy’ s pictorial art to analyze The Son’ s Veto for the following reasons。

    One the one hand, most of the researchers analyze Hardy’ s long novels, but study about his short novels is insufficient and unsatisfactory。 However, it doesn’t mean that they are less significant。 They offer us a mirror to that society with his unique writing style。 The Son’ s Veto is a typical one。 This short novel is one of Hardy’ s most popular works。 On the other hand, Hardy was actually an artistic master。 He combined his unique writing style with pictorial art to reveal the true character of that society。 When it comes to his pictorial art, we should never ignore the environment around him。 Hardy’ s works are mostly related to his hometown-- Dorset County, which is called Wessex in his stories。 He was born in Higher Bockhampton。 It was a picturesque country full of rural color with idyllic atmosphere。 This nature left a great impression in Hardy’ life, and his parents deepened it。 His musical talent came from his father, the love of words from his mother( Merryn Williams, 2005:7)。 Besides, at twenty-one, he went to London to pursue art and the science of architecture。 During the day he worked conscientiously at architectural drawings, and in his free time he visited the museums and art galleries and read voraciously( Merryn Williams, 2005:9)。 He thought architecture was related closely to nature。 And many researchers finds that his notebooks are full of drawings of plants and animals and other natural things。 It is not hard to see that though he gave up architecture later, he still used this artistic thought in his writing。 Obviously, Hardy had his own artistic characteristics in his works, and he endowed them with aesthetic perception in painting。 Therefore, by studying this aspect, we will appreciate his pictorial art in this short novel and how did he reveal theme through it。文献综述

1。2。 Reseaches Both at Home and Abroad

1。2。1。 Researches Both at Home and Abroad about Hardy and The Son’ s Veto

    As the first one to study Hardy in the late 19th century , Leonel P John published an article titled The Art of Thomas Hardy, which studied on the achievement in thoughts and arts of Hardy’ s novels。 Later, great progress in researching field has been made in the following aspects: Hardy’ s philosophical thought; local conditions and customs; character images; the relationship between his works and the modern society; Hardy' s biography and so on。 At home, as the first one to introduce Hardy and his works to China, Xu Zhimo made relevant comments and further research on his thoughts ( Qi Yonghui, 2013)。