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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A twelve page paper looking at the influence of Charles Darwin's 'Origin of Species' on Thomas Hardy's novel. The paper argues that Hardy was a devout disciple of Darwin's theory and used it to explain the forces operating against the novel's protagonist. No additional sources.
Page Count:
12 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_KBdarwin.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
that each species of plant and animal had been individually made by God, one by one. Not so, Darwin argues; early species evolved into later ones better suited to adapt
to changing conditions, and less well-adapted ones died out. This theory, known as "the survival of the fittest," would, by the mid- to late-nineteenth century, come to underwrite economic and
political philosophy as well as the fields of anthropology and genetics. Although we generally examine Darwin from the contributions he made to the theory of evolution, it was in terms
of natures competitive and adaptive nature, and its brutal extermination of those organisms which cannot succeed, that caught the imagination of his contemporaries. For example, it is well-documented that
Darwins ideas made a profound influence on Thomas Hardy. Whereas the popular mind had believed up to that time that God cared for each little soul he put on
earth, Hardy took from Darwinism a conviction that the universe was ultimately indifferent to mans problems and concerns. Nature operated, not by what was fair or morally justifiable, but by
the domination of the powerful over the powerless, with the powerless ultimately facing extermination. This is perhaps best exemplified in his novel Tess of the dUrbervilles. In this novel,
Hardy presents the tragic story of a young dairymaid, descended on her mothers side from rough peasant folk and on her fathers from decayed aristocracy. She is seduced by a
distant cousin, Alex dUrberville, and this begins her lifes downward spiral. Because she has committed a cardinal sin in Victorian days -- she has given in to passion -- she
will never be completely acceptable again. Eventually she marries, but is rejected by her husband on their wedding night when he learns she is not a virgin. Hardy stresses throughout
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