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Purpose--Part 1
In my thesis, I plan to discuss the effects of male homosocial desire in three Thomas Hardy novels: Far from the Madding Crowd, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Jude the Obscure. I want to discuss the effect male homosocial desire has on the major male characters, on the major female characters, and on the endings of the novels. By choosing these three novels, I will be able to compare works spanning from early to late in Hardy’s career as a novelist. I also chose these three because of the different settings: rural, urban, and, with The Mayor of Casterbridge, somewhere in between the two. Finally, the endings are an interesting cross-section as well. Far from the Madding Crowd appears to have a happy ending for at least two of the characters; Jude the Obscure clearly has an unhappy ending for everyone; and The Mayor of Casterbridge again falls in the middle, with a seemingly happy ending for two of the characters, and an obviously unhappy ending for the main character. I will show that, regardless of the time of the novel’s publication or the setting Hardy used, male homosocial desire is a destructive force in the lives of all of the major characters, and the endings of the novels must be read as entirely negative even if they seem somewhat positive on the surface. I also hope to discover why these male relationships are so destructive, and I am very interested in discovering the role women play in these relationships because I do not believe that any of the major female characters are passive participants.