THE CONFLICT BETWEEN HUMAN DESIRE AND SOCIAL REALITY IN HARDY’S FICTION

Abstract

Thomas Hardy is one of the most important Victorian novelists who always play with the conflict between character's choices and the restrictions of social circumstances. His characters struggle against a rigid social hierarchy, social norms, gender norms and fate as they seek out love, happiness, class mobility and personal freedom. The present paper looks at the clash between social reality and human desire in Hardy's fiction with a primary emphasis on the novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), Jude the Obscure (1895), and Far from the Madding Crowd (1874). The study aims to show the influence of society on individuals' ambition and emotional fulfillment in these novels by analysing them. The paper states that Hardy's tragic vision is the result of the conflict between man's aspirations and the social world of Victorian England. Hardy reveals the pain that social norms and institutional barriers inflict, criticizing Victorian morality and emphasizing the vulnerability of people who are fighting against forces that they cannot control.