Presentation on Thomas Hardy's Dead Man Walking.pdf

Presentation on Thomas Hardy's Dead Man Walking.pdf

1. Thomas Hardy
Novelist and Poet
Dr. Neelam Mulchandani

2. Timeline
Born in
Dorset
2 June 1840
Apprentice to an
architect
1856
Moved to
London
1862
Began writing
novels
1868
Meets Emma
Gifford, his wife
1870
Married
1874
Emma dies
12 Nov. 1912
Marries his
secretary
1914
Pleurisy
Dec. 1927
Dies
Jan. 1928

3. Biographical Details
•Born on 2ndJune 1840, in the English village of Higher
Bockhamptonin the county of Dorset
•Father was a stone mason and fiddler who taught Hardy to
love music
•Had 3 brothers and sisters
•Mother Jemima Hardy was a maid servant and a cook who
taught him to read and write as well as keeping folklore and
her love for rural life alive.
•After his elementary education as the family could not afford
to send him for University studies, in 1856 he became an
apprentice to the Architect John Hicks in Dorchester

4. •Worked restoring Churches
•Made educated friends and had many discussions with them
•In 1862 Hardy moved to London to work as an architect with
Arthur Bloomfield and alsobegan to write poems but his
poems were rejected by the publishers
•He worked in the office which specialized in restoration of
churches
•He got involved with London’s vibrant literary and cultural
scene but was disillusioned with the social class structure
•In 1868 he begins to write novels
Biographical Details

5. •In 1870 he meets Emma Gifford, his future wife who was also a minor writer
•They get married in 1874
•Soon he becomes very ill and is forced to dictate his work
•They move from London back to county of Dorset
•From 1871-1897 he became very famous as a Novelist
•Most of his novels were published as serials in Newspapers and magazines
Biographical Details

6. •His wife Emma died suddenly on 12thNovember,1912 and Hardy
was heart broken by her death
•In 1914, he married his secretary, Florence Emily Dudgalewho
was 39 years his junior
•He became ill with Pleurisy in December 1927 and died in January 1928
•Hardy narrated his final poem to his wife while on his death bed
•His heart is buried in the cemetery of St.Micheal’schurch in
Stinsford, Dorset, where Emma and Florence also rest
•His ashes were interred in Poet’s corner of West Minister’s
abbey, London, England
Biographical Details

7. Hardy’s life in relation to his works
1840–1870
Childhood, adolescence,
apprenticeship, first marriage, early
poems and his first unpublished
novel
1871–1897
Resulted in the publication of 14
novels and number of short stories
1898–1928
During the writer’s rising fame, he
abandoned writing Novels due to
severe criticism and returned to
writing poetry

8. https://youtu.be/lwy5xyDqIN4

9. Analysis of the poem
•The poem discusses the concept of death or more
accurately death as a loss of will to be alive
•Lyric poem, centering on the theme of despair and
pessimism
•Completed in 1890-and presented in the volume of
poems Time’s laughingstocks and other verses
•The tone of the poem is dark and gloomy.

10. •In stanza 1,2 and 3 though the speaker is physically alive but feels like a dead man
•Uses death images to dehumanize himself
•A feeling of death slowly and progressively takes hold of him
•Enjoyable and normal life activities do not make him happy
•In stanza 4, 5 and 6 the speaker cannot specify any particular momentwhen he ‘died’
•Remembers that in his youth he had a passion for playing flute but now has no desire to do so
Analysis of the poem

11. •Is unhappy with the practical reality in the real world and
and little by little he ‘dies’
•In stanza 7,8,9 and 10 the speaker remembers that every
time any of his family member, friend or loved one died he
was sad and depressed
•His wife becomes estrangedand he dies a little more
•His death happened so slowly and gradually that he is not
even aware when his soul ‘died’
•He realizes that he has no reason to live now and is just
going through the motions of living and actually waitingto
die physically
Analysis of the poem

12. Poetic devices and imagery in the
poem
•The rhyme scheme of the poem is abcdexcept the last stanza which is abab
•The tone of the poem is gloomy and sombre
•The attitude of the speaker is depressed. He feels resigned and detached from the happenings around him
•The theme of the poem is ‘Despair’.
•The purpose is to convey a sense of loss and sorrow
•Humanity is corrupted and so happiness is unattainable

13. Thank You