ABSTRACT:Thomas Hardy was a well-known traditional English novelist and poet in Victorian times, he occupied an important status in British literature. He passionately explored all kinds of advanced thoughts and often used in his novels，it was one of them and the core meaning is survival of the fittest. Social Darwinism was used in his several works, especially The Mayor of Casterbrigde. It mainly described a tragic protagonist—Henchard, who tried his best to become the mayor of Casterbrigde, but declined and died lonely at last. This thesis will try to find Henchard’s tragedy from three aspects—family tragedy, career tragedy and love tragedy from the perspective of Social Darwinism and analyze the reasons of Henchard’s tragedy and make readers have a better understanding of Thomas Hardy and his works.

Keywords:  Thomas Hardy; Henchard; Social Darwinism; survival of the fittest; tragedy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

摘要

ABSTRACT

1 INTRODUCTION-1

2 LITERATURE REVIEW-3

2.1 Research Review-3

2.1.1 Overseas research review-3

2.1.2Domestic research review-4

2.2 Theoretical Basis-5

3 BACKGROUNDS-7

4 HENCHARD’S TRAGEDY-9

4.1 Family Tragedy-9

4.2 Career Tragedy-11

4.3 Love Tragedy-14

5 REASONS OF HENCHARD’S TRAGEDY-17

5.1 Social Surroundings-17

5.2 Coincidence-19

5.3 Character-21

6 CONCLUSION-24

REFERENCES-25

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS-27