Hardy lived a great part of his life in the 19th century. That was an age where the development of Darwin's theory of species had shaken the faith and belief in God of many Christians. As a result, new materialistic and atheist ideas were developed supporting the ideas of Darwin in denying the role of God in the process of Creation. Indeed, the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species swept over England as a flood that paved the way for many liberal thinkers who rejected traditional religion in favour of materialism. Such developments placed religion as one of the most significant variables in 19th century English life.
In literature, religion and religious debates contributed significantly to the thematic formation of 19th century English
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In one way or another, religion was a starting point for many novelists to build their plot structures. It is claimed that “the nineteenth century novel, including, and especially, the novels written by women, enacts the complex and shifting role of religion in Victorian culture” (Nixon, 2004: 8).
The crisis of faith was a central concept in the writings of 19th century novelists. They expressed such concerns in the autobiographies they wrote. It is claimed that the Victorian autobiography came to be the genre of the crisis of faith in 19th century literature. On one hand, a sense of distrust and even hatred was developed among many writers towards traditional religion and the Church. Needless to say, such a controversial context led many of them to lose their belief in God altogether. The most remarkable example of the period was arguably George Eliot, who embodied many
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• Religion is one of the central themes in Hardy’s prose fiction. In his novels and short stories, we can observe quite obviously the frequent use of the Bible and biblical names.
• Influenced by controversies of the age, Hardy used what came to be known as the evolutionary narrative. This is an alternative to a narrative which assumes that God created the world in its present state.
• Hardy expressed morality in a unique way. Morality is not based on traditional Christian beliefs. It is a social construct enforced by human intelligence rather than divine authority.
The involvement of religious considerations in literary criticisms is however not favoured by some critics. Many critics, for instance, still assume that both Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins were not concerned with the religious controversial debates that divided the English community during the 1850s and 1860s. Instead, they stress their liberal attitudes and even their satire of some Christian and Evangelical beliefs and doctrines. This applies to Thomas Hardy too. While some critics have long considered him as less sympathetic to Evangelical beliefs and traditional Christianity altogether, there are some critical reviews today that provide evidence of Hardy’s strong belief in God. There is a range of views against involving religious considerations in literary criticisms of 19th century writers
Some works show their true colors right away. Gene Edward Veith’s book, Reading Between The Lines, addresses philosophical ideas, literary sub genres, and reader criticisms in order to ascertain a Christian’s role in literature. He also goes through various historical periods and examines their more prominent works and schools of thought. While a select few of his conclusions about Christianity in relation to the arts have merit, others contain more damaging implications. Specifically, his statements regarding television represent inaccurate and offensive thinking.
In the late eighteenth century arose in literature a period of social, political and religious confusion, the Romantic Movement, a movement that emphasized the emotional and the personal in reaction to classical values of order and objectivity. English poets like William Blake or Percy Bysshe Shelley seen themselves with the capacity of not only write about usual life, but also of man’s ultimate fate in an uncertain world. Furthermore, they all declared their belief in the natural goodness of man and his future. Mary Shelley is a good example, since she questioned the redemption through the union of the human consciousness with the supernatural. Even though this movement was well known, none of the British writers in fact acknowledged belonging to it; “.”1 But the main theme of assignment is the narrative voice in this Romantic works. The narrator is the person chosen by the author to tell the story to the readers. Traditionally, the person who narrated the tale was the author. But this was changing; the concept of unreliable narrator was starting to get used to provide the story with an atmosphere of suspense.
Reynolds, David S. Faith in Fiction: The Emergence of Religious Literature in America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Harris, Laurie Lanzen. Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Vol. 3 (Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism). Vol. 3. Belmont: Thomson Gale, 1983. Print.
Brewer, Nadine. "Christ, Satan, and Southern Protestantism in O'Connor's Fiction." Flannery O'Connor Bulletin 14 (1985): 103-111. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 132. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Nov. 2013
Since the first storytellers, religion has played an important part in developing both character and plot. From Ancient Greece to Egypt to Judaism to Christianity, the basic stories of human origins have stood the test of time. Classic books such as The Great Gatsby, The Stranger, and Lord of the Flies are full of religious parallels and imagery. Conceptually, main characters of each work--Gatsby, The Stranger’s Meursault, and Lord of the Flies’ schoolboys attempt to be Christ-like figures, but whose demise is ironically brought about by their own sins.
In this analysis, we will be looking at just how Flannery O'Connor accomplished this seemingly impossible task, non-didactic Christian fiction, by examining elements of faith, elements of style, and thematic elements in her writing. While secondary sources are included for perspective, I have focused primarily upon Miss O'Connor's own essays and speeches in my examination of the writer's motivations, attitudes, and technique, most of which are contained in the posthumous collection Mystery and Manners. Unlike some more cryptic writers, O'Connor was happy to discuss the conceptual and philosophical underpinnings of her stories, and this candor is a godsend for the researcher that seeks to know what "makes the writer tick."
"We stood by a pond that winter day," (1) This line indicates a still quietness, with lack of the movement of life. There is a vast difference in appearance and movement around a pond in winter and a pond in the midst of summer. This indicates no leaves, and no visible signs of life. The poet is painting a stark and lifeless scene.
most obviously conveyed by the writers of the time. Houghton examines the dogmatic framework behind the ideals presented by Victorian writers, as such dogmatism is often seen as one of the defining characteristics of the age. A profound difference between the Victorians and the Romantics, for instance, seems to be expressed when he writes:
Wolffe, J. 1997. Religion in Victorian Britain. Manchester: Manchester University Press in association with the Open University
Phelps, William Lyon. “The Novels of Thomas Hardy.” North American Review 190 (1909): 502-514. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski. Vol. 153. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 April 2014.
In British Literature religion plays a role in a vast majority of works. Even if the role is not explosively apparent, there are a generous amount of small inspirations and distortions in the texts. Some texts are theorized to have even been altered from their original state to reflect an amount of religion in them. Other texts are formatted as a result of religious influence. Religion has an elaborate and intricate influence in a variety of ways in many works throughout the development of British Literature.
At the start of the nineteenth century, religion and science coexisted as one. The idea behind the creation of man and nature was seen as the work of God, thus the issue of religion and science were one in the same. As the Victorian era progressed, there was an emergence of scientific thinkers that began to question the creation and miracles of God, which in turn led to turmoil within the Victorian society. What Victorian society had was a constant clashing of ideals between the emerging science group and the religious believers. People did not care to listen to each other’s beliefs, which led to an overall lack of mutual respect among the groups. It is through Emily Bronte’s The Prisoner. A Fragment that the tensions based on religion can be seen through the male and female characters who represent the clashing groups in Victorian society.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age: Introduction." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age: Introduction. 2010. Web. 23 Feb. 2014
Colvile, Derek. Victorian Poetry and the Romantic Religion. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1970. 34-42.