thomas hardy's perspectives
there are two kinds of perspectives:
_the location of the narrator in the **************** ; whether in or out side.
_the distance between the narrator and the characters.
in the return of the native, thomas hardy adapted three different perspectives:
*human perspective.
through the human perspective, hardy presents men and women as human beings who have miseries, and they're not compared to gods or goddesses. They lost their sense of direction because they're directed by fate. They are either small or great. When they become a play thing for fate (their plans would be always determined and stopped by fate) and follow their instincts, they are being small and primitive. While they become great and civilized through their morals, values and consciousness.
he is not concerned with the existence of god but with the nature of god; being unmoral.
*cosmic perspective.
hardy portrays the cosmos as being unresponsive, unsympathetic and mysterious. He sees that man is alienated and estranged as if he is being cut from the world. His role is very small in this cosmos and thus he is represented in the size of a spec.
*phenomenological perspective.
according to this perspective, hardy upgrades man to be a god or a semi-god; in the sense that he can choose whether to like or dislike, depending on the criterion of pain and pleasure.
the combination of the second and third perspectives treats thomas hardy's sympathy and empathy towards human beings.
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