It is only human to ponder the meaning of life, but to me
Thomas Hardy had a much more interesting way to look at the subject. Not that all people ponder the subject
aimlessly, but within his sonnet Hap he seems to have less conviction, but more
of the feeling why should we even try in life?
He even seems like it would be a breath of fresh air if he were to know
that there was a vengeful god that gets kicks out of ruining human’s
lives. That there is a reason for misery
and a reason that Thomas has had such a hard go with life, love and pursuit of
happiness. At least if he knew that he
could deal with it and be more willing to accept his problems in life if he
knew he could blame someone for it.
However, Thomas feels that there is no control over his life; there is
no fate, no destiny and definitely no meaning to life. By the way he explains everything that
happens in life is absolutely by chance.
When he realizes the idea for himself it definitely is a hard hit to his
morale. He speaks of the randomness with
“dicing time” as to infer the idea of gambling.
For if there is no fate, no destiny or meaning in a person’s being then
they are simply rolling the dice of life to see how everything pans out. Whatever choices the person makes within
their lifetime sets them into an indefinite path of progress to nowhere.
Thomas even speaks about those individuals that say they
know the future. The “purblind Doomsters”
are saying that no matter how one may choose to progress their life it is all
in vain since they will end up the exact same way that everyone else has;
dead. Whether it is natural death or a
cataclysmic ending we will all have the same destination. The only thing that I really cannot figure out
what Thomas wants us to think is about how he does mention “purblind” and the
fact that they enjoy discussing his own “pilgrimage as pain”. After examining the possibilities I want to
conclude that that was his last spark of hope about “the meaning of life”. Since he calls the Doomsters half blind it
shows that they do not know the whole story.
The path that they see he has taken is only within their own eyes, but
not taken from a different angle. So the
Doomsters see his life as wasted, useless, and trivial where he shows us just a
small amount of hope for the future from his past. The Doomsters see his “pilgrimage as pain” or
his life as just pain, but it seems that Thomas says that life it not about the
destination, but it is about the journey that we take. His hopeful attitude is based off of what he
has already experienced within his own life, the choices that he has made, the
relationships that he has created, and hopefully all of the memories he will
have attained. So in a much more
dignified way of saying it Thomas has simply put that life is not whether you
win or lose, but how you play the game.
Since in life there is no win or lose there is only death in the end,
but hopefully if you could do it all over again you would choose not to hit the
reset button by being content on how you lived your life.
I like the way that some of your blogs read against the text. I'm wondering, though, how you understand or make sense of "Doomsters." You give them a lot of agency and suggest that they have at least some specific knowledge of the speaker's life. Are they gods? Or God? What does it suggest that they are as likely to cause bliss as to cause pain for the speaker?
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you really understand what's going down in this poem. I'm not sure about the positiveness that might be presented in the poem, but I do admit that the use of the word "purblind" might mean that there is still hope. Overall, well done!
ReplyDeleteI really like the title of this post...funny! I like your reading that the journey is the part of life that makes it worth living. I personally subscribe to that belief as well. I think that he is criticizing all of the people who choose not to see it that way, all of the people before him who have been so concerned with a vengeful and angry God who is just waiting for a reason to smite them. Seems like an awful way to live life and I think Hardy is calling them out for it. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you examined the role of purblind doomsters. It's in that last part of the poem that I felt that he was getting a little cryptic about who's to blame and all that, so I liked how you looked at those people. I also found that positive outlook, "it's about how you play the game" and "would you do it all over again" morals that you seemed to receive from the poem in the end, really interesting. I never read this poem as being so positive but more like "What's the point?" So I really appreciate your opinion and how it makes me take a second glance at the meaning of the poem. Good job!
ReplyDelete