As human beings, every individual has a different perspective or attitude in achieving life. Our attitudes and mindset are shaped by the surrounding environment and the attitude we choose to follow in life sometimes remains difficult due to that environment. Even though our personality and attitude towards life are shaped by the environment we live in, it is still an individual choice to live with a pessimistic or optimistic outlook. Many people channel a pessimistic outlook on life due to the trepidations they have encountered in the world. A common example used to describe this would be if the individual saw the glass as half full or half empty. A pessimist would see the glass as half empty. The nature of a pessimist tends towards a negative outlook while an optimist is believed to have a positive outlook towards situations. There have been many morbid circumstances that humanity has encountered, from murder to terrorism to the terrors of war, that could lead to a pessimistic point of view. With all these tragedies that humans have encountered throughout the ages, is pessimism considered a negative outlook or is it a step towards “realism”? Thomas Hardy's perspective on life was based solely on an absolutely pessimistic view in which he believed that human problems were unsolvable. With an element of irony in each poem, Thomas Hardy portrayed his absolutely pessimistic views on humanity in four poems titled “Ah, are you digging on my grave?”, “New Year”, “Channel Firing” and “In Church”, to bring forward what he believed was 'realism' and a critique of humanity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Thomas Hardy's poem “Ah , Are You Digging on My Grave" emphasizes themes of death and disappointment. When thinking of the afterlife, an individual would recognize it as peaceful, however, Hardy's depiction of the afterlife provides an insight into the darkness even after death , not caused by the wrongdoings of the person but by the self-centeredness of human beings The poem creates a paradigm that represents the negativity that human beings continue to release into the world. structure of the poem allows the reader to visualize the circumstances in which he was narrator and how this led to the disturbing conclusion. The title of the poem explains the narrator's situation. A woman who has already faced the reality of death was awakened in her grave because someone disturbed her. “My beloved? - plant rue? — No: yesterday he went to get married." When the woman is first troubled, she believes that it may be her husband, however, her husband has already "gone to get married" yesterday. Her husband believes that since she is dead "he can't hurt her now." The first stanza opens by showing the selfishness of a human being and the reality that the woman had to face her husband with another woman who no longer cared about his dead wife. The woman tries to guess again assuming that it is her "dearest relative", but is once again disappointed due to the selfishness of a human being. “No strain of his mound can free his spirit from the gin of death.” His children believe that there is no point in visiting and bringing flowers to his grave because it will only bring pain to them and not to his back. “He thought I wasn't worth his hatred anymore.” Thomas Hardy continues with the woman guessing if she was her enemy, but her enemy also believes that since she is dead there is no reason for them to waste their thoughts on her. Starting from verse 4 ending with verse 6,Thomas Hardy uses the element of irony to demonstrate his message. The woman has given up guessing who is digging her grave and I believe her question is answered by a higher power. Hardy uses God to highlight the great disappointment and who the woman had to turn to to get her answer. These stanzas are significant to the poem because of Hardy's contribution to the appearance of a dog digging the grave. “That one true heart has been left behind!” Initially it suggests a message of hope as dogs are considered the most loyal animals, full of compassion and known to be man's best friend. They are known to be noble, especially when compared to humans and this is what the woman believed in too. “The loyalty of a dog!”. However the dog depicted in the poem depicts the same nature as selfish humans and shows an ironic turn of events. The dog was accidentally digging up the grave to hide a bone along the way in case he needed it later and didn't even remember that this was his grave. “I completely forgot it was your resting place.” Thomas Hardy's use of irony conveyed a significant message about the prospect of death. The woman remembered her husband, her closest relatives, her enemy and her dog, however now that the woman is dead no one remembered her or kept her memory alive by visiting her. It shows that once a person is dead, they no longer have meaning to the world, however, the world continues to disturb their graves for its own selfish reasons. With Thomas Hardy questioning the existence and selfishness of humans, his relationship with God can be seen to have reached a plateau. In his poem titled “New Year” he brought forward a message about human existence. The poem is written as a dialogue between God and the narrator which portrays Hardy's instability in maintaining a relationship between himself and his God as he begins to question his own existence. “In grey, green, white and brown; I scattered the leaf on the root ball, I sealed the worm in the root ball.” The first stanza begins with God having finished another successful year on earth, establishing the seasons, leaves and living things and sealing them in the 'sod'. The first verse opens readers to the power of God, where He organizes and manages an entire universe and it seems so simple. “And what is the advantage?” The change in his relationship with God can be seen in the second and third stanzas where he questions the need of humans. I believe this thought comes from his pessimistic attitude in life as it influenced his views on God. “What reason made you call From the formless void this earth we tread.” He wonders why God would create humans if humans were the problem and their problems remained unsolvable. “How much joy no man would have wanted to gain if he had never known it!”. Through these lines, you can see that Hardy has portrayed the narrator in a way where he believes that if humans had a choice they would wish they didn't exist. Through the narrator he carries forward his negative and pessimistic representation of the world, where it is no longer worth living for the joy of living. When faced with these questions, God seems to have no answer and instead is shocked by how he “developed a conscience to ask for reasons why” and how his creation even exceeded its limitations “using ethical tests I had never known , or intended for." The last stanza of the poem shows Hardy's true perspective on God as even after the narrator questions the reason for human existence, God continues to have no answer and "has continued to work ever in his wayunhappy." For most people, religion acts as a comfort blanket providing answers to all the obstacles and worries you face in your life. Religion can lay the foundation of our morals and values. However, ironically , the perception of God represented in “New Year's Eve” represents a version that is not interested in the problems that human beings have created in the world and reveals himself to be someone who cannot give answers to the chaos he has created, rather, he is focused on bringing finished his job in his "unpleasant way". In most of Thomas Hardy's works an absolutely pessimistic narrative is depicted as he believes that human problems are unsolvable. The poem “Channel Firing”, Hardy describes the underlying problem of the world i.e. human beings.themselves. Human problems remain unsolvable as human beings continue their ways of spreading negativity on earth which other individuals also encounter and then spread. It's like an epidemic in his eyes, it continues to spread to the next individual, but how can we stop this perception and actually use humans for something beneficial for the environment and the earth. The poem begins with the lines "That night your great guns, unknowingly, shook all our coffins as we lay." The dead have awakened in their coffins due to the tumult outside which has led them to believe that Judgment Day has arrived. However, after speaking with God, he states that these are "artillery exercises at sea". The loud sounds of gunshots caused by humans disturb the dead and animals surrounding the area so significantly that they break windows and cause the animals to howl and scurry away from what they are doing to find more space. Safe. This shows how significant the impact of the shootings which caused so much disruption is. Hardy uses the narrative of the dead, just as he did in "Ah, You're Digging My Grave", however, he shows a different aspect of human selfishness and disappointment through "New Year's Eve". “Just like before I came downstairs; The world is as it once was:". In this poem humans are seen as what they have always been and 'the world is as it once was', showing that the same issues preached by people in the past are still the same issues that individuals preach but do not pursue in the future. “All nations strive to make the red war even redder. Mad as hatters, for the love of Christ they do not do more than you who are helpless in such matters. Nations and individuals continue to rub salt in the wound and make red wars even redder, leading to further bloodshed and violence. It shows that humans walking the earth are as incapable of spreading Christ's message of peace and love as humans buried underground. And God says that if this were the day of judgment, then humans would all be in hell because of their heinous sins committed on earth. There is irony present in the sixth verse as it shows a humorous side of God and him stating "if I ever do" until all humans know that it contradicts what people believe. The dead are told to go back to rest, but continue to wonder if the world will ever be sane again, implying that individuals face the same problems as centuries ago, but remain "indifferent". “In our indifferent century”. This poem was written before the First World War and Hardy's message was to show that our world has been indifferent to violence, that we live in it and yet choose to do nothing about it as the war was.