Enter Thomas Hardy Essay

Enter Thomas Hardy, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Gerard Manley Hopkins and William Blake. The poets are seated around a small table in a crowded and agitated Chinese restaurant, at the heart of Texas. After the initial shock and excitement of their unwonted experience, they all meditate on the state of the world in which they have accidentally landed, poring over a newspaper cut that announces the death of a young girl as a result of heroin overdose. A heavy silence has set on the poets’ table, in strange contrast to the loud mirth of the small Chinese restaurant. Raising his brow, Hardy interrupts the silence. He speaks slowly, with a clear but tired voice: Hardy: Surely my beliefs are strengthened by this terrible mishap. If only there was a malevolent ruler of the universe to blame for the cruel death of this young girl. Then all our voices would roar against him, accusing him of injustice and absurdity. We would feel betrayed and angry that the supreme ruler of the world ill-uses his creatures so. But I see it clear now, as I have seen it and heard it so often in the mysterious and neutral voice of nature all around me: the universe is a hollow shell; there is no other voice in this world than that of nature and chance echoing through the ages and creating havoc in our poor, mortal existence. The death of this beautiful child is the answer of the impersonal and cruel force of chance to all our hopes and ideals. There are many of us who have fallen in love with the world and its wonders, as there are many of us who have always hated it. I have heard the world speak to me many times, warning me not to look for meanings where there are none. I have long heard it say to me not to look for promises in the web of uncertainties and in the play of chance. This is what the world has long said to me: `I do not promise overmuch, Child; overmuch; Just neutral-tinted haps and such’. This fair warning still rings in my ears today. There is only chance in this world, that is all there is. Nothing lasts and no sense can be made of all we see around us. We look for meanings where there are only occurrences. One happening follows another and we are at the mercy of chance and time. Despite our passionate search for answers, the nature sends back only a dispassionate, neutral response, playing its games and rolling the dices. Casualty is the most powerful governing law we have and there is no hope for escape. It is this â€Å"crass Casualty† that â€Å"obstructs the sun and rain†, giving us the good moments and the bad moments by turns. Nature follows its own logic, not ours. And time plays dice with the world, casting its sums of moans and joy and making us obey its impersonal and mute force. I do not see any other meaning in the death of this young girl. She, like the rest of us, was in the hands of chance. Had her life been long and happy, she would have owed it all to chance still. There is too much arbitrariness in everything to believe we are ruled by a God who reasons and who loves. Nothing happens for a reason. Do not further look for meaning in this my friends, for there are none and never expect much, for there is nothing more†¦ The others have listened in silence to Hardy’s disconsolate speech. When he ceased however, Tennyson began in a tremulous, shaken voice: Tennyson: Oh, my friends, these would have been my own words once. Like you, I would have looked upon this young girl’s death as the substantiation of all my aching questions. I have often felt like an infant crying desperately for knowledge, for the light of meaning to suppress the darkness of the world! At times there seemed to be no answer anywhere. I wanted to see that â€Å"nothing walks with aimless feet†, that there is no destruction of life and that everything that happens has a purpose and a meaning in the larger, unseen order of things. I wanted to understand God as the careful designer of all, the divine force that gives meaning to everything there is and does not allow anything to perish. I painfully wavered between belief and disbelief†¦ At times, I could not endure the thought that anything in the world was useless or devoid of purpose. If God was here with us, a mere worm would have its significance in the world and its place in eternity along with the whole of the creation. But oftentimes my belief and my need for knowledge stumbled on the carelessness of nature. I wondered many times whether â€Å"God and Nature† were â€Å"at strife†, seeing â€Å"that Nature lends such evil dreams†. The hope in a divine order of things seemed to be shattered every time I beheld the evil workings of nature. Truly, nature seems not to care for the individual life. It crushes and destroys and casts life away â€Å"as rubbish to the void†. To me also then nature was a nightmare I could not make any sense of. A while ago, this innocent girl’s death would have seemed another evil deed of nature, an unjust robbery. Life and man’s entire existence seemed so futile at certain moments†¦A mere girl dying for no reason, a whole life cut short because of a misplaced step†¦Oh, how easy it is for reason to doubt everything and for faith to die in the soul of man! But since, I have been shown a different path and for me faith has been renewed. Even at times like these, I feel that we have God in our souls, even if it difficult to perceive him in nature. I now know that it was the voice in my heart that has kept me from disbelief. Each time the voice of ‘cold reason’ interfered and questioned the meaning of all, â€Å"my heart stood up and answered: ‘I have felt’! †Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Reason made me blind at times, but my heart cried out and melted my anger with its passion. Our knowledge of God comes only in these moments when the heart answers eagerly and warmly to all our questions. The death of a child makes me sad beyond speech, but it does not harden me anymore. I now believe that death is just a brief moment that takes us from life’s shore to death’s domain and God’s infinite ocean. God awaits us on the infinite ocean and he will be our Pilot ever after, our guiding light in the infinite sea of time and matter. Once I cross over, â€Å"I hope to see my Pilot face to face†, and I hope that this young girl has already seen him†¦ Tennyson had spoken warmly and tremulously, his whole soul into the words that tumbled from him. From his shaded place at the table, Browning replied: Browning: Your soul is as pure as your faith, my dear Tennyson. We have reached this strange time and place in history to meet death itself and behold it through the eyes of a child. Mortals fear death, with its unknown grip that will surround each of us as a mist and transport us to some mysterious realm. Life is strange and death seems even stranger. Any mortal would feel shaken in front of this last and final struggle. But what could it be in the end, but one more experience and the last in this life? â€Å"I would hate that Death bandaged my eyes, and forbore and made me creep past. † I want to taste death to the full as I have tasted this life and feel the moment in its fullness. The girl has left this world but someone will be waiting for her on the other side and her soul will be filled again. Once I am gone from this world, I know that I will regain my lost love and clasp her in my hands once more. Death is but a brief moment, a struggle that will takes us to a place of eternal peace, where we will rest with God. This world is indeed full of chances and mishaps, but all these will be resolved once we are on the other side†¦If love has remained unfulfilled in this life, it will be rekindled in eternity. I do believe that we lose nothing by death and that the other life is as rewarding as this one. I do not fear death and only expect it to carry me back to my lover†¦This girl must have led a tormented life, the prey of her own restless desires and questions, like all of us. She will find her peace in the eternal life and she will find her place there. There is nothing to fear, not even death†¦I will wait for it but not as an end, only as a new and fresh beginning. Browning had but uttered these words that Hopkins began: Hopkins: Shake off the discontent that has intruded upon your hearts, my friends! You see the death of a child as a black and tragic event, and it certainly seems so when our mortal and untrained eyes behold it. Man is frail in the hands of the divine will, his powers are limited†¦. But the more mighty seems the everlasting ruler of the world! The drudgery of our existence seems to hide God’s glory from our eyes. â€Å"Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; and all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The earth itself smells of man and his works. Yet, in the midst of all this trade and toil we the world appears â€Å"charged with the grandeur of God. † His creation and power and infinite and so are the possibilities of the world. It is through God’s almighty design that we see light disappear in one part of the world, knowing that it suddenly begins to shine in another. Just like light and darkness always coexist, nothing reigns in nature for an unlimited period of time. Through the power of God, the good and the bad coexist in the world at all times. This girl’s death is compensated by another design of God, perhaps unknown to us at present. Only God could make all these different things come into existence at the same time. â€Å"Nature is never spent, there lives the dearest freshness deep down things. † Tasting life, with its good and bad moments, we taste of the very glory of God, who is careful to pour his infinite essence into everything there is. Death is not an end as long as God lives in everything, as long as joy springs up from each fresh beginning. Each day begins with a morning and ends with a night, and yet nothing is ever the same. God’s glory shines through all things, like a foil that you shake in the light. There are no dead things in this world; all matter becomes translucent and fiery with God’s light. With a death, the world may seem bent like a hunchback, crushed underneath the weight of loss, but overall I see the shining spirit of the Holy Ghost shaking its bright wings! The body of the world will ever be lifted by the wings of the almighty spirit! There is no permanent death and no reason for sorrow in a world in which we see the proof of God’s greatness in everything. Learn how to see the world anew, rejoicing in the immense power of the Lord, that is without beginning and without end†¦