Tradition and Modernity in Thomas Hardy’s Wessex

Abstract

Nearly all of Hardy’s novels take place in Wessex: Egdon Heath, Casterbridge, Blackfield Valley. They are set in both rural and urban spaces, but the rural space is the most important. In his work the rural space is charged with symbolic meaning signifying specific social and cultural circumstances. Compared with other spaces, it is unique and described as marginal with its own specific customs and landscapes. However, the Wessex constructed by Hardy is not a closed, traditional rural space, but an open space which is constantly influenced by the outside world, which are urbanism and industrialism. It is continually undergoing new changes, adding to it both new aesthetic and modern connotations. In conclusion, Hardy shows us how modernism affects Wessex comprehensively, including production method, education, population change, structures of feeling, and the identity definition of people.