Tess, an Unfortunate and Tragic Woman.doc

苔丝，一个不幸的、悲剧性的女性Tess, an Unfortunate and Tragic WomanContentsAbstract1Key words1I. Introduction.2II. Literature Review.31. The views of the author.3 2. The views of other scholars.33. Influence on the society.4III. The Main Analysis.51. The background of the society at that time in England.52. The background of the novel and the motivation of this writing.63. Description of the main characterTess.6IV. Symbols of Tesss Story.8V. Conclusion.9References10Abstract: This thesis sets out several reasons of forming the unfortunate and tragic fate of the novels protagonist. Tess is a beautiful, loyal young woman, living with her impoverished family in the village of Marlott. But everything has changed after she is seduced by Alec. She has to bear the blame from the local people. Although she meets Clare who loves her, he casts her off when he knows the affair of Alec. And this makes her kill Alec last. So, I think the fate of Tess is unfortunate and tragic, and she is a typical representive at that times in British society. From some analysis studies to the protagonist of Tess of the DUrbervilles, we know well that Hardy wanted to return her clean and pure nature. He strongly criticized the crisis which brought to the capitalist society, and also criticized the moral conception and vanity of Victorian Age. Hardy paid the sympathy for the poor farmers. Tesss tragedy exactly becomes the epitome of tragedy of thousands of labor people under that society.Key words: Tess; unfortunate; tragic摘要：这篇论文例举并分析了小说主人公苔丝悲剧命运的原因。苔丝是一个生活在马略特的贫困家庭里的美丽的农村姑娘。当她被艾雷克诱奸之后，她不得不忍受当地人们的指责，从此她的命运发生了巨大的变化。之后她遇见了深爱她的克莱尔，但是当克莱尔得知她曾经不幸的遭遇后决然地抛弃了她，正是这一打击促使了苔丝最终杀死艾雷克。因而，苔丝的命运是不幸及悲剧性的，她更是当时英国社会的一个典型代表。从对德伯家的苔丝主人公的一些分析和研究中，可以很好的了解到哈代想要还给苔丝纯洁单纯的自然特质，他强烈的批评了资本主义社会所造成的危机，并批评了维多利亚时代的道德观，哈代同情那些贫穷的农民。苔丝的悲剧事实上成为了当时成千上万的下层劳动人民悲剧的一个缩影。关键词：苔丝；不幸的；悲剧的 I. Introduction In the world of the literature, Tess of the DUrbervilles has its important position. Thomas Hardy, last and one of the greatest of Victorian novelists was born in Dorset on June 2, 1840, in the centre of the Wessex country which later figured in his works. He was one of the greatest of Victorian novelists, and his worldwide reputation took second place compared with that of Shakespeare. As a critic realistic novelist, Hardy paid close attention to human destiny and his soul.In Victorian Age, the economic crisis intruded into the countryside of England. The small agricultural economy was abolished. The peasant gradually came into pinching poverty and even went bankrupt. Hardy lived in a time of slow and painful transition from an old-fashioned agricultural nation to a modern industrial nation. It was a difficult social change. The country capitalism got a rapidly development, and the businessmen and entrepreneurs, or “new money” became the social elite, however, the old-fashioned aristocracy or “old money” were fade away from the social stage. These were the real reflection of the reality at that time. Tesss family illustrated this change in Tess of the DUrbervilles.Whats Tesss story? Tess is an intelligent and pure woman, in her youth she is seduced by Alec DUrbervilles, the son of a rich merchant. So, she leaves home and works at a distant farm as a dairymaid. There she meets Angle Clare, a clergymans son. The young people fall in love. On their wedding night, Tess confesses to Angel the affair of Alec. So Angel leaves for Brazil. Misfortune and hardship come upon her and her family. Alec presses his attention upon her later. So she lives with him together. Clare, returning from Brazil, finds her in such a situation. Clare leaves her again. At last, Tess kills Alec and falls into the claws of law. She is hanged.Actually, Tess is the central character of the novel. She is an intelligent, attractive and kind woman who has deep moral sensitivity and passionate intensity. The thesis mainly analyzes the characteristics of the protagonistTess, and the analysis of why she suffered from the unfortunate things and the cause of the tragic fate of Tess. So Tess is an unfortunate and tragic woman. What leads her into this ending, herself or the society? Tess is the daughter of the nature. The society, family, she and other factors form a powerful pressure to destroy her. The value of the society combines with the inferior position of the family lead to the tragic ending because her family belongs to the class that exclude from the local people. The poverty of her family is one of the most important factors of her tragic ending. It is the society that pushing her to the hopeless situation. Tess, the character of herself takes shape of her tragedy.On the whole, Tess of the DUrbervilles is full of the sorrow of aesthetic feeling and existence. This is a sad story, have seen the film for several years. I was shocked because of the beautiful landscape. I like the character very much for her pureness. I can learn from the story that Tess is intelligent, strikingly attractive, and her deep moral sensitivity and passionate intensity. And now I can feel something of the story from some other books or scholars. In my opinion, Tess of the DUrbervilles is a symbol of that period. Its really a great book and its worth to read and study. Actually, Tesss tragedy becomes the epitome of tragedy of thousands of labor women in low class under that social system. II. Literature Review 1. The views of the authorHardy lived in a time of slow and painful transition from an old-fashioned, agricultural nation to a modern and industrial one. It was a difficult social change. In Victorian age, the economic crisis intruded into the countryside of England. The peasant generally came into pinching poverty and even went bankrupt. The country capitalism got a rapidly development, and the businessmen and entrepreneurs, or “mew money” became the social elite, however, the old-fashioned aristocracy or “old money” were fade away from the social stage. These were the real reflection of the reality at that time in British society. Tesss family illustrated this change in Tess of the DUrbervilles.From some analysis and studies to the protagonist of Tess of the DUrbervilles, I know well that Thomas Hardy was to argue offense for Tess, returning her clean and pure nature. He strongly criticized the crisis which brought to society by the capitalism, and also criticized the moral conception and vanity of Victorian Age. The author sent the sympathy for the poor farmers. So, he wrote this novel to express his emotion and he wanted to reveal the situation of the inferior class from the description of Tess.2. The views of other scholarsLinda M. Shires writes The Radical Aesthetic of Tess of the DUrbervilles. From this passage, I can know some comments of this author to Tess of the DUrbervilles, “Tess, however, relies on a self-conscious send-up of standard narrative conventions not only for its aesthetic effects, but also for its political and ethical effects, which should not be divorced from discussion of its artistic form. The general story and the plot, by which I mean the choice and organization of events and the temporal order into which they are arranged, were hardly unique in fiction at that time. The temporal order of events is reassuringly sequential, yet linearity is doubly complicated.” “Tess of the DUrbervilles, however, takes the Victorian novel to its limits without turning it into a didactic diatribe, a satiric parody, or a series of lyric moments. This is its achievement and its power.”There are some other comments of other critics, for instance, Professor Webster begins with a discussion of Hardys intentions in writing Tess. According to his views, Tess of the DUrbervilles is a contribution to Hardys war against mans inhumanity. Arnold Kettle takes a different point of view. For him the subject of Tess of the DUrbervilles is not the tragedy of a “pure woman”, but rather the destruction of the English peasantry. 3. Influence on the society The writer described that in Victorian Age, the female was in the inferior place and man made the most use of the social position and economic position to occupy the female very forcibly. However, in this period, the conception of morality and the conception of class system penetrated into peoples heart, and woman must keep virginity. If anybody violated this moral conception, she had to live in peoples discrimination. Tess was the one of the many unfortunate women in the Britain. This was the fact that Tess lost her virginity, but who would find out the reason why she would lose her virginity? The man occupied the female very forcibly, why did he not bear the sanction of law? But the society required woman to keep virginity. It was very unjust, wasnt it? It was very hateful, wasnt it? Although Tess lost her virginity, she never sold her soul, and the outer things never penetrated her soul. From Tess, we may confirm the saying “richness could not sell oneself; poorness could not make one humble.” She held the high nature, while this noble nature fated her tragedy. In Victorian Age, this traditional conception of virginity and vanity impressed itself on her heart, which made her involved in serious contradiction. Peoples indifference and discrimination forced her to become hopeless; the unjustifiable country, economy and law made her come into damaged abyss. Finally, Tess became a murderer for Angel Clare, was it really worthy? Angel didnt deserve her love.From Todays Most Popular Study Guides: the value of the society and the law position of Tesss family lead to her tragic fate. Her misfortune is one example of various sorts of sorrow which suffered by the farmer for earning a living. So, the fate of Tess is not an accidentally tragic event but the inevitable tragic event. Meantime, the tragic fate of Tess is the evitable result of the capitalism societys traditional moral. The injustice of existence is one important point. Unfairness dominates the lives of Tess and her family to such an extent that it begins to seem like a general aspect of human existence in Tess of the DUrbervilles. Tess does not mean to kill Prince, but she is punished anyway, just as she is unfairly punished for her own rape by Alec. Nor is there justice waiting in heaven. Christianity teaches that there is compensation in the afterlife for unhappiness suffered in this life, but the only devout Christian encountered in the novel may be the reverend, Clare who seems more or less content in his life anyway. For others in their misery, Christianity offers little solace of heavenly justice. The converted Alec preaches heavenly justice for earthly sinners, but his faith seems shallow and insincere. Generally, the moral atmosphere of the novel is not Christian justice at all, but pagan injustice. The forces that rule human life are absolutely unpredictable and not necessarily well-disposed to us. The pre-Christian rituals practiced by the farm workers at the opening of the novel, and Tesss final rest at Stonehenge at the end, remind us of a world where the gods are not just and fair, but whimsical and uncaring. When the narrator concludes the novel with the statement that “justice as done, and the President of the Immortals had ended his sport with Tess,” we are reminded that justice must be put in ironic quotation marks, since it is not really just at all. What passes for “justice” is in fact one of the pagan gods enjoying a bit of “spot,” or a frivolous game. In that cruel reality, the rich man Alec can insult her arbitrarily. After she is seduced, she had to suffer the secular prejudice and the public opinion. Also, Clares desertion exposed the hypocrisy of the western capitalism society.III. The Main Analysis1. The background of the society at that time in EnglandTess of the DUrbervilles presents complex pictures of both the importance of social class in nineteenth-century England and the difficulty of defining class in any simple way. Certainly the Durbeyfields are a powerful emblem of the way in which class is no longer evaluated in Victorian Age as it would have been in the Middle Agethat is, by blood alone, with no attention paid to fortune or worldly success.Indubitably the Durbeyfields have purity of blood, yet for the parson and nearly everyone else in the novel, this fact amounts to nothing more than a piece of genealogical trivia. In the Victorian Age, money matters more than lineage, which explains how Simon Stokes, Alecs father, was smoothly able to use his clan into the Stoke DUrbervilles. The DUrbervilles are relly nobility and the Durbeyfields truly are authentic nobility, but the definitions of class have changed. Thus, the three main characters in the Angel-Tess-Alec triangle are all strongly marked by confusion regarding their respective social classes, an issue that is one of the main concerns of the novel.The way in which men can dominate women, exerting a power over them linked primarily to their maleness is the other one of the recurrent themes of the novel. Women should keep virginity at that time in society, and she would be denounced by the people if she lost her virginity. It was not fair, but this was the fact. 2. The background of the novel and the motivation of this writingThomas Hardy, last and one of the greatest of Victorian novelists was born in Dorset on June 2, 1840, in the centre of the Wessex country which later figured in his works. He was one of the greatest of Victorian novelists, and his worldwide reputation took second place compared with that of Shakespeare. As a critic realistic novelist, Hardy paid close attention to human destiny and his soul.Tess was a woman who was idealized by Hardy in Tess of the DUrbervilles. Hardy believed that Tess was the symbol of beauty and incarnation of love. She represented the excellent aspects of Wessex country, such as beauty, pureness, kindness, humanity and toleration. She had the courage of self-denial and she kept hope to the life. She was a combination of gentleness and bravery. Tess had pure spirit and honourable moral, but she was considered as a type of corruption in the capitalism societys traditional moral. The opinions of Hardy opposed to the prejudice of the society. He criticized the hypocrisy of the capitalism societys traditional moral, and he held on that the pureness was in the heart not the occasional mistake. So, Tess was a pure woman. On the other hand, the society insisted on that the traditional mor