Louis Althusser and Thomas Hardy: How Victorian Ideologies Work in Under the Greenwood Tree

Sasani, Samira; Davari, Hossein

doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.50.155

ILSHS > ILSHS Volume 50 > Louis Althusser and Thomas Hardy: How Victorian...

< Back to Volume

Louis Althusser and Thomas Hardy: How Victorian Ideologies Work in Under the Greenwood Tree

Full Text PDF

Abstract:

In his early novel, Under the Greenwood Tree, Thomas Hardy attempts to show the readers how the inhabitants of a small village are repressed by the ideologies the dominant class or capitalism defines for them. The aim of these suppressive programs is to oppress the individuals by making them good and subordinate subjects. Althusser calls these ideologies created by the dominant class, Ideological State Apparatuses; however, in this novel one observes how some of the subjects try to revolt against these cruel rules by defining their own ideologies. One can also recognize that how the blatant break of these ideological programs by the revolutionary subject makes the subject look weird and eventually how he/she is alienated and marginalized by the society. On the other hand, the good subjects are made to believe that following these ideologies is usual and breaking of them is synonymous with interfering with the discipline and order of nature. Brought up in the Victorian age, Hardy understands how people are controlled by the ideologies and how they subscribe to them unwisely. In this novel he shows how a new and up-date product of capitalism—the organ—is introduced to a very traditional atmosphere in order to indoctrinate new changes in it. The so-called good subjects simply believe that change is necessary and inevitable. But this change has wisely planned by the oppressive capitalist powers for whom this change means the manipulation of these docile subjects, not only by separating them from their music community but also by depriving them of their traditional music.

Info:

Periodical:

International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences (Volume 50)

Pages:

155-161

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.50.155

Citation:

S. Sasani and H. Davari, "Louis Althusser and Thomas Hardy: How Victorian Ideologies Work in Under the Greenwood Tree", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, Vol. 50, pp. 155-161, 2015

Online since:

March 2015

Authors:

Samira Sasani, Hossein Davari

Keywords:

Louis Althusser, Oppressive Ideologies, Under the Greenwood Tree, Victorian Ideology

Export:

RIS, BibTeX, Text

Distribution:

Open Access

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

References:

Abjadian, A. A Survey of English Literature(II). 6th ed. Tehran: SAMT, 2010. Print.

Althusser, L. Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. In Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan (Eds). London: Blackwell, 2004. 693-702. Pdf.

Chattopadhyay, A. Women in Victorian Society as Depicted in Thomas Hardy's Novels. International Journal of Educational Planning and Administration. 1 (1) (2011) 23-28. Pdf.

Hardy, T. Under the Greenwood Tree or the Mellstock Quire: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School. London: Macillan and Co LTD (1995). Print.

Ideology,. In Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory: Approaches, Scholars, Terms. Irena R. Makaryk (Ed. ). 5th ed, Toronto: University of Toronto Press (2000). Print.

Keshavarzi, A, and A. Abjadian. Thomas Hardy's Under the Greenwood Tree: An Althusserian Perspective. The Journal of Teaching Language Skills. 3 (1) (2011) 99-118. Print.

Levine, G. Hardy and Darwin: An Enchanting Hardy? In A Companion to Thomas Hardy. 1st ed. Keith Wilson (Ed. ). London: Wiley-Blackwell (2009) 36-53. Print.

Mathieson, Ch. Introduction: Sex, Courtship and Marriage in Victorian Literature and Culture. Victorian Network. 4 (2) (2012) 1-9. Pdf.

Payne, M. Reading Knowledge: An Introduction to Barthes, Foucault and Althusser. 1st ed. London: Blackwell (1997). Print.

Showalter, E. A Literature of their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing. New Jersey: Princeton University Press (1997). Print.

Tyson, L. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge (2006). Print.

Show More Hide

Cited By:

This article has no citations.