Dialectical Relations between Humans and Non-Humans in D.H. Lawrence and Thomas Hardy

Abstract

The aesthetic sensibility to nature displayed in D.H. Lawrence’s and Thomas Hardy’s works is undeniable and, although the extent to which each writer’s imaginative writing purposefully engages with concerns of human responsibility towards the nonhuman world is debatable, I would contend that their explorations into the dialectical relationships between human and nonhuman beings may prompt readers of any given time period to give thought to such concerns. Taking account of Sultzbach’s caution that the absence of an ecological “solution” (Parham 266) in their works does not lessen the discourse of ethical responsibility they strive to establish, this article will trace the modalities, tensions, aspirations and limitations of Lawrence’s and Hardy’s green writing, with a focus on the dialectical relationships between human characters and nonhuman beings, which Hardy subtly calls attention to in his novels, and Lawrence dramatizes in his fiction, poems and essays.

Keywords

• sentimentality
• idealisation
• responsibility
• didactic
• sensual
• tree