Hardy was the painter of darker side of life as it was no wonder if people charged him of “pessimist”. The opinion is both right and wrong in this context. Infact, there are some factors that compels us to believe him a pessimist. He was hypersensitive; his own life was tragic and gloomy. For a speculative soul, this world is a thorny field.…
Killing another human being is something that most people would find very hard to do. Do a person's feelings towards violent actions change in the course of a war? In the poem, "The Man He Killed," By Thomas Hardy; he illustrates a story of a man who questions his own actions of doing harm to another person. Throughout the poem, Hardy uses tone and word choice to get his point across in the poem.…
What is a pessimist? The word “pessimist” means “a person who habitually sees or anticipates the worst or is disposed to be gloomy.” Pessimists are always sad and self-pity, paying more attention to bad side of everything, and don’t believe their ability to withstand the negative effects of bad.…
In open contrast, studies carried out by Peterson and Seligman, that were prevalently directed towards the understanding of the psychological bases of pessimism, lead to conception of its opposite, optimism, as an “attribution style”, characterized by the tendency to believe that negative events are inconstant (the negative event will not repeat itself), external (I am not responsible for the event) and specific (the…
The poem Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy is one of his earlier poems that was included in the collection Wessex Poems and other Verses. The title of the collection immediately alerts the reader to the possibility that the landscape that appears in Neutral Tones will be that of countryside associated with Wessex. The title of the poem establishes the notion of impartiality and of musicality of poetic voice. However there is also the idea of colour in contained in the word tones. The title seems to play on the idea of an impartial and distanced poetic voice and of colour that lacks brightness. In my reading of this poem, I plan to explore the manner in which the poetic voice neutrally depicts the tragedy of love. I shall do this through a close examination of the use of language and its devices in order to show how the neutral shades of the title are reproduced within the poem.…
Both Hardy’s short stories, ‘The Son’s Veto’ and ‘The Melancholy Hussar’ follow the tales of Sophy and Phyllis, two young women succumbing to the social conformities of their time and their seemingly predetermined fates. Throughout the 19th Century, a rigid class structure - defined by one’s possessions, upbringing, wealth, parentage and education - totally dominated society. With regard to Sophy and Phyllis in ‘The Son’s Veto’ and ‘The Melancholy Hussar’, it is these social constraints that ultimately impact the choices that they make, hindering their lives in one way or another and leading to their eventual unhappiness; they are prevented from following their hearts desires. Hardy often shows his sensitivity to social rank and privilege in his stories, explicitly making clear his views by critiquing the societal pressures that ensure such strict conformities. As a son of a stonemason and a servant, Hardy’s acute consciousness of his humble class origins and modest education remains apparent in his writing. Particularly in these short stories, he uses the detrimental quality of social pressures to add to the sympathy created for Sophy and Phyllis, who both find love with those that are considered ‘socially unacceptable’ and suffer as a result of this.…
“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.” This is a quote from the inspirational, Hellen Keller. She opened up the can of worms that discusses pessimists. Should we look at life like it is a void that is darkness, misery and routine? Absolutely not! Should we look at life like a rainbow of happiness, self-content and countless good times? Not really that either. We should be REAL about life and the things in it.…
Expect the best from life and you will receive the very best. Life doesn’t care whether you are a pessimist or an optimist, whether you focus on the good or the bad, whether you expect the worse or the best from life. Life will treat you exactly the way you expect to be treated and if that’s the case then you should definitely start cultivating your optimism.…
A pessimistic existentialist is a person that has a negative outlook on life. They are usually more realistic about the way that things can turn out. This prepares them for something bad to happen, so they won’t be surprised and will be able to deal with it. Being a pessimist can also have some negative effects though. If someone is always expecting the worst, they can become very depressed and would have a hard time just going through life.…
Pessimism is an emotion shared by a large percentage of the human race and has a defined effect on critical thinking. Excessive pessimism is somewhat like depression and can interfere directly with a person’s ability to accurately and effectively interpret or analyze information. However, when thinking in a pessimistic manner if done effectively can assist management in a positive manner because pessimists can look at things from a different angle. For example: Two people are working on a project one is an optimist and the other a pessimist. The optimistic person is always looking at the good the project will do for the company, which is good however the pessimist will see the bad in the project and how the project could destroy the company if not done in a proper manner. Pessimistic people can assist in management even though the pessimist is always looking at the negative side.…
What would the world be like if everyone was pessimistic? Would there be anyone who would do anything when they already knew that it was unlikely to have a positive result? I try to visualize the world where everyone has no hope about the future, and because of that, they misuse the present. I imagine life full of failures, living without thinking about any success, any goals and dreams, and of course this is the origin of misery for the whole lifetime! I believe that optimism makes my future bright since it makes me have dreams and set goals for my future. It builds confidence in me, calm me to do things properly because I really know what I want, hence my dreams become true, and I become very successful.…
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."--Winston Churchill,…
In the beginning of the novel, Hardy introduces Michael Henchard as a crude, ill-tempered man; “and had assumed that, being out of work, he was, as a consequence, out of temper with the world, and society, and his nearest kin” (17). In addition to his ill-tempered character, one serious flaw that Henchard possesses is his impulsive choices that he makes based on his emotions. In the first chapter of the novel, Hardy ensures that this flaw is obvious to the reader as Henchard, drunk and angry, sells his wife Susan, and his daughter Elizabeth-Jane, for five guineas at a county fair (19). Anger, stemmed from an unhappy marriage at a young age, contributes to Henchard’s intolerable character, in combination with the intoxication of alcohol. The fusion of anger and intoxication results in Henchard’s intensified emotions and exaggerated behaviour. The combination of emotional instability and an unhappy marriage had sealed the protagonist’s fate as he committed the transaction. Due to this, it can be assumed that if Michael Henchard had not been drunk that day, he would not have sold his wife and daughter and, in turn, his life would not have ended in such tragedy. This proves that one’s…
Throughout the poem it is easy to tell that the flow of this poem is non-traditional, for example, Hardy expresses hesitation in lines one and two of the third stanza. The form of the poem is five quatrains written in iambic trimeter with an end rhyme scheme of: (a,b,a,b,c,d,c,d,e,f,) “metâ€â€”a, “innâ€â€”b, “wetâ€â€”a, “nipperkin!â€â€”b, “infantryâ€â€”c, “faceâ€â€”d, “meâ€â€”c, “placeâ€â€”d, “becauseâ€â€”e, “foeâ€â€”f.…
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”Winston Churchill.…