苔丝的悲剧成因 社会原因

Social Factors

1.Hypocritical Religion

In the history of moral development in the west, the influence of religion is quite profound and extensive. In the novel of Tess, people regard Sunday as the most important day during a week. People often equate religion with morality. Religion ascribes the morality of human society to god, and preaches that god created human beings "in his own mode and likeness" and made moral precepts for people. Religion restrains people's thoughts and behaviors with strict moral discipline and governs people spiritually. Christian doctrine has become the standard for judging people's moral behaviors. When Tess told her mother she had been seduced, her mother believed it was right. Not only did she endure the pain of being raped, but she faced an even greater disaster. In a capitalist society, the bourgeoisie so that they safeguard the interests of its own class, tends to integrate religious morality with its own ethics. Angel’s father insists that a wife who agrees is more important rather than who can manage a farm well. It is under the judgment of religious morality that Tess becomes the model of moral depravity and the embodiment of evil. Tess's destruction relates to religion.

2. Legal System

The hypocritical religion destroyed Tess, just like the unjust legal system. In capitalist society, morality, religion and law are closely linked. The bourgeoisie protects its own interests by law and punishes those who violate bourgeois morality and religious morality. Tess was sentenced to death for violating the so-called "law" of the bourgeoisie.

Tess is not an adulterous slut, a victim instead. The essence of this religious morality is reactionary and serves for the ruling class. Under the pretext of the slogan of god, the bourgeoisie cheats and fools the laboring people, and religion becomes the opium that paralyzes the people's spirit and a ruling tool that oppresses the people.

When Tess got home, she found herself pregnant. n capitalist society, Tess could not escape. The only way out is to be arrested and sentenced to death. It was in the unequal trial of bourgeois law that Tess was completely destroyed. Victorian law considered Tess an immoral woman. An accident is the beginning of tragedy. Tess delivered beehive for her drunken father. The carriage collided with the mail coach with the result of dead horse. The only means of making money for the family was gone. The mail-driver didn’t compensate for their lose but blame for her and ran away. Since then, Tess miserable life began. After Tess’s farther died, their house was withdrawn. The new law made by the bourgeoisie only for their own benefits. Judges wouldn’t give a reasonable verdict to the weak and the poor. This is an inevitable tragedy in the process of social reform. Tess is a victim of the unjust legal system.