The Sublimation of Passion

Abstract

Curious though it may seem, Hardy, as is evident in the novels, tended towards a mysticism of love not dissimilar to Plato’s, in spite of his conscious criticism of the Platonic metaphysics of Beauty. Hardy’s ideal lover illustrates in his conduct what William Blake wrote in ‘The Clod and the Pebble’:

Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.¹

He is always anxious for the well-being of the beloved, not for his own personal happiness. Loss and disappointment only lead to the deepening of his feeling that always offers, asks for nothing, and yet is positively satisfied in a loftier sense. He sees and worships the image of the beloved enshrined in his heart. Such communion with the ideal of the abstract, as deeply felt, real and more satisfying than the concrete flesh, is almost mystical.