SEMINAL GOTHIC DISSEMINATION IN HARDY’S WRITINGS

Abstract

I think I am one born out of due time, who has no calling here.

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If way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst.

— Hardy, “In Tenebris II,” Poems of the Past and the Present

CRITICS HAVE TOO OFTEN dismissed the Gothic elements in Thomas Hardy’s writings as superficial trappings to be found mostly in his minor fiction.¹ The aim of this article is to show that the diffusion of Gothic motifs in the whole of Hardy’s literary production is something both intentional and fruitful. The Gothic is indeed a vital part of Hardy’s artistic vision, and it adds to the aesthetic value of his works. His major novels and his poetry are as rife with Gothic lore as his early “minor” fiction.² This propagation of Gothic elements is central to the dialectic between impregnation and dispersal contained in the etymology of the word “dissemination” (meaning both “sowing” and “scattering”).³