ABSTRACT
Thomas Hardy, as one of the most outstanding author in Victorian age, keeps paying attention on female’s destiny and devotes himself to creating new women who deviate from the traditional view of value and moral codes. This paper first introduces women’s status in Victorian age and the current study on feminism, and then analyzes the superior activities of Eustacia and Sue and concludes similarities of new women in Victorian age. Thirdly, it makes a conclusion by discussing the tragic endings that the main cause of the tragedies is the limitation of age. Finally, it realizes Hardy’s advanced and distinctive understanding towards women from the detailed description of females in his novels. And it also discovers Hardy’s restriction of gender and time which reflects on his limitation of describing feminism.
Key words：Hardy; feminism; Eustacia; Sue
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Background Studies 2
2.1 Conception of feminism 2
2.2 Female status in the Victorian age 3
3 The analysis of the feminism in Hardy’s work 3
3.1 Resistance against the control of Patriarchy 4
3.2 The tragedy of new women in the Victorian Era 7
4. Analysis on Hardy’s feminism 10
4.1 Hardy’s advanced feminism 10
4.2 Hardy’s limitation on feminism 11
5. Conclusion 13
Acknowledgements 14
References 15
