Tess论文

The Pure natural flower--The tentative Analysis of Tess’s tragedyThomas Hardy is a famous critical realistic writer at the turn of the 19th century.As the industrial movement swept England in the 19th century, many farmers and agriculture workers found themselves in devastation. People lost their homes, jobs, and the simple lifestyles . Thomas Hardy was very concerned with the loss of beautiful rural land during the industrial development. His main belief system was founded upon the ideal that nature is the core of all existence .Tess of the D’Urbervilles which was published in 1891 is the most influential masterpiece of all his works . In this novel , Hardy demonstrates his deep sense of moral sympathy for England’s lower class , particularly for rural woman. Under Hardy’s pen, the heroine Tess is created as an attractive and warm-hearted pure woman, who has the quality of endurance andself-sacrifice. However, the life of this pure woman is tragic.The causes of Tess’s tragedy have been concerned all the time.Who killed Tess?What is responsible for her tragic ftate?First ,the Social Causes.Tess lives in the late 19th century, in which the cruel capitalist exploitation has ruined the English countryside severely, Wessx is not immuned from the destruction. Capitalism brings a great harm to this old, rural and agricultural life of the place.The family of Tess is no exception. Their life is so hard that Tess has to work under capitalist exploitation and oppression for many times. It is under the capitalist exploitation that Tess is seduced and ruined badly in her body.Tess lives in the Victorian era which capitalism invade the rural region. In the capitalist society, law is served for the capitalist class. Farmers are at the bottom of the society, they have never equal rights as the capitalist class. Alec ,the representative of capitalist power and violence dares to do what he desires, not only because he has money and power, but also because his evil behavior is protected by the capitalist law and rules.Obviously, she is the victim of the unjust, hypocritical law.The highest virtue of the Victorian woman is sexual purity, and adultery is the worst f all possible sins. Her dress concealed her whole body except the hands and face, and to show an ankle or a shoulder is considered improper .The sexual morals are rooted in people’s rationalminds: when either man or woman engaged in sexual lapses, the former would be forgiven, but the later would be condemned. The whole society turns against Tess .Second, the Direct Murder —Alec and the accessory —Angel Clare In the novel, as a bourgeoisie gilded youth, Alec is the vicious incarnation, directly causing Tess’s tragic life. Alec is a symbol of evil, he can escape legal sanctions , unaffected. He, who represents a larger moral principle rather than a real individual man, symbolizes the base forces of life that drive a person away from moral perfection and greatness. Therefore, it is Alec who kills Tess directly without mercy. It can be said Alec represented evil force is the direct reason to cause Tess’s tragedy, whereas the traditional ethics morality survives on Angel derivates Tess is invisible, and much severer spiritual injures. On Angel’s body, not only has the enlightened thought, but also remains the traditional moral prejudice. It is Angel who kills Tess indirectly but more cruelty. He is educated, reserved, subtle, sad, differing.He looks down on the material distinction of rank and wealth. But,on the wedding night, Tess tells him all her past with Alec, thinking that Angel would forgive her as she does, but she is deserted.Although he claims to be independent judgment opinion, once the thing is very crucial, he is still upholding the decadent bourgeois social customs and moral hypocrisy.Alec d'Urberville destroys Tess physically, while Angel Clare makes a fatal blow to Tess's mental. The loss of chastity does not kill all Tess's desire for love and hope, but Angel's desertion and her hopelessness of love for Angel make her lose courage to live. Because of her innocence and helplessness, she is seduced. But because of Clare's moral callousness, she is forced to comeback to Alec for the second time. Clare's moral callousness completely comes from the cruel social conventions and moral standards of that timeThird,the reason is Tess herself.Tess’s tragedy not only results from the external causes, but also the internal ones. And only via the internal causes, can the external causes become operative. The tragedy that rusults from the conflict between man and himself is the tragedy of character. Tess’s tragedy is the tragedy of character as well.Tess is a fresh country girl who is full of the sense of the of respnsibility for her family because of her father’s laziness and mother’s siple mindedness. The horse’s death makes her think she is responsible for this accident and she must earn money to support her poor family.On the one hand, Tess struggles bravely against her destiny and the conventional morality. She desires for happiness and true love. On the other hand, she can not completely get rid of social conventions and moral standards of the day, which makes her believe that she has to pay for what she has sinned. She yields to the arrangement of the fate. The latter is the weakness in her characterIn a word, through the above analysis, it is obvious that the poverty, Alec's wickedness, Angel's conventional ideas, Tess's character as well as Hardy's fatalism are the direct causes of Tess's tragedy. But these direct causes are deeply rooted in the cruel social environment: the impoverished peasant, the unjust law and cruel convention. So we can draw a conclusion that the social environment is the real and root cause of Tess's tragedy. Tess’s tragic fate is not only of herself, but also of the time she lives in.From the tragic story of Tess’short life, I can see in a deeper sense that it is the evil capitalism that has ruined her. Living in a society overwhelmed by capitalist Law, and religion, Tess, a poor peasant, inevitably leads a tragic life and finally goes to her collapse.No matter what happened to Tess,she is always pure in my eyes,like a Pure natural flower.。