With the continuous researching about Hardy’ s, people began to notice his short novels。 Reilly (1928) maintained that were it not for the fame of his longer masterpieces, he would have been accounted one of the greatest modern short story writers。 Virginia Woolf, an English writer and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century, concerned him as “the greatest master of tragedy in English novels”, and Weber, a German physicist, thought he was the “Shakespeare in English novels”( Ma Li, 2009)。 But Samuel Hynes, in his introduction to Great Short Works of Thomas Hardy, offered Hardy’ s lack of understanding of the form of the short story itself : “ He seemed to have no conception of the story as a distinct form of fiction, beyond the notion that a tale should be unusual, and the people interesting。。。” But still no one can deny his contribution。

These years some researchers start to pay more attention to Hardy’ s short stories for their high artistic value。 The Son’ s Veto is a important one that should not be ignored。 Hardy remarked that it was his best short story ( Merry William, 2005:122)。

    The Son’ s Veto was first published as a serial in the London Illustrated News in 1891, and then it appeared in Life’ s Little Ironies。 It was a story of marriage tragedy about Sophy, who was a servant to Reverend Twycott in a remote village in North Wessex。 

    Though few people study on his short stories, we still can find some precious essays for The Son’ s Veto。 First is about the theme。 As is known to us, Hardy always expressed his sympathy to the misfortune of most working people in his novels, and this article is no exception。 The theme is about the main character Sophy’ s tragedy, so critics develop their thesis based on it。 According to Qu Daqing’ s The Victim under the Hierarchical System of Capitalism--The Analysis of the tragedy in The Son’ s Veto (2011) , it was the hierarchical system that ruined Sophy’ s life。 The hypocritical moral values in the Victorian age devastated the people in working class。 Professor Zhang Yiming (2008) holds the same viewpoint。 In his Cage of the Upper Class -- An Analysis about Ethics Interpretation in The Son’ s Veto, he acclaimed that the hierarchy deeply rooted in people’ s heart was the chief culprit。 Both of them analyze the influence of that society in the upper class。 Sophy was a typical victim and she could never get rid of the hierarchy。来*自~优|尔^论:文+网www.chuibin.com +QQ752018766*

Except for the analysis of that society, people are very interested in Hardy’ s writing style。 As a tragedy master, Hardy knew how to perfect his works by making use of language features。 Li Jing(2013) pointed out that Hardy could select the most suitable and expressive words to enrich and vivify his content by his keen sense, to endow a character with more artistic charm。 For example, when the author described Sophy, he just used the simple language to emerge Sophy’ s tragedy。 She also analyzed the appropriateness of what characters said。 What they said reflects their identity and personality。 Niu Jianwei(2001) argued that Hardy highlighted the theme of this novel with the help of the symbols。 In his article, many symbols are mentioned, all of which stands for profound meaning。 It finds the change of the color of Sophy’ s face, which implies Sophy’ s mental activities。 He also analyzed the cross to reveal the hypocrisy of that society。 And that is Hardy’ s writing style。 He preferred to describe the characters and reveal the theme with the help of the symbols instead of showing it directly。 It always gives the readers more space for their own imagination and to read between the lines by themselves。