Thomas Hardy’s Poetry: A Jungian Perspective

Thomas Hardy’s psyche can be explained effectively by the relationship of the child with its mother, suggesting that he was dominated throughout his life by the mother archetype. His pessimistic vision can be understood in terms of his strong attachment to his early life and subsequent disillusionment with the way in which the world operates. This dominant archetype seems to have impeded the activation of the anima, the rival archetype of the mother, putting his relationships with women into trouble. The hostility Hardy displays toward the Prime Cause also tells us that the strong influence of the mother led to his failure to cultivate a harmonious relationship with the Self, the psychological equivalent to God. This book explores psychological grounds on which some differently categorized groups of Hardy’s poems were produced.