An Analysis of the Causes of Tess's Tragic Fate

石河子大学毕业论文

题目：对苔丝悲剧命运的原因分析

An Analysis of the Causes of Tess’s Tragic Fate

院（系）：外国语学院

专业：英语

班级： 2011级2班

学号： 2011505024 姓名：汤晓红

指导教师：叶春莉

完成日期： 2015年5月18日

Abstract

Thomas Hardy is an outstanding novelist in the nineteenth century. He hasproduced numerous works including novels and poetry. His most famous work--Tess of the D’urbervilles has a great influence on the world literature. The paper focuses on the exploration of Tess’s tragedy. Tess’s tragedy can be illustrated by three factors--Hardy’s fatalism, socia l reasons and the reasons of herself which included the relationship between Tess and Alec and Clare, her family and the weakness of her character. There is also some enlightenment fromTess’s tragedy. It is believed that women play a crucial role in society. Tess is a woman with good qualities and her experiences give a warning to woman today:the proper treatment of one’s behaniors is critical by the social rules.

Key words:Thomas Hardy;Tess’s tragedy; Causes; Enlightenment

摘要

托马斯.哈代是20世纪一位杰出的小说家。他一生创作了大量的作品和诗歌。他最有名的代表作是德伯家的苔丝。德伯家的苔丝对世界文学有着重要影响。本文的焦点是探究造成苔丝悲剧命运的原因。造成苔丝悲剧命运的原因有三个：哈代的宿命论，社会原因和自身因素，而自身因素又包括苔丝和亚雷，苔丝和克莱尔的关系，苔丝的家庭和苔丝自身的性格弱点。本文也将讨论从苔丝的悲剧命运我们得到的启示。我们坚信女性在社会中扮演重要的角色。拥有美好品质的苔丝和她的经历警示我们社会规则通过评判人们的行为给予合适的对待。

关键词:托马斯.哈代;苔丝的悲剧;原因;启示

Contents

I. Introduction (1)

II.Literature Review (1)

III. Causes for the Tragedy of Tess (3)

A. The Effecfs of the Social Discrimination (4)

1. Social Environmen (4)

2. Unfair Law (5)

B. The Inner Elements of Tess (5)

1. The Relationship between Tess and the Two Men --Alec and Clare . 5

2. Her Family (7)

3. The Weakness of Her Character (8)

C. Hardy’s F atalism (10)

D. Enlightenment (11)

V. Conclusion (11)

Works Cited (12)

I. Introduction

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was a great English novelist and poet. Hardy’s works reflect the change of the society, economy, politics, moral and traditional culture when the bourgeoisie became popular and strong in England.Bourgeoisie society changed the morals, law and religions of the England and result in women’s tragic fate. His works was not only inherited the great tradition of English realism，but also pioneered the 20th century British literature. Tess of the D’urbervilles is not only one of Hardy’ masterpieces but also one of the greatest tragedy works in the history of English literature.

In this novel, we can learn that Tess’s attitude to ward her unjust fate is to resist it; however, she failed to change her fate time after time. We can not help thinking about Tess’s tragic fate and feeling pity for her. At the same timewe can deeply feel that her tragedy is inevitable.

So the reasons of her tragic fate have become a concern for us. This paper will try to make a detailed analysis of the reasons of Tess’ tragedic fate. And I will discuss it in three parts, they are as follows: the social reasons, the reasons of herself, and theory of Har dy’s fatalism.

II. Literature Review

Tess of the D’urbervilles is regarded as the greatest work of Thomas Hardy and the most mature work. It was published one hundred years ago. It is still very popular and attracts generations of scholars’ attention and interests.Manyreaders and critics at home and abroad tend to feel that the most prominent achievements of this novel is that it successfully created the image of theheroineTess, but they interpreted heroine Tess from a different points ofview.Like Liu Kaifu interpreted Tess’s fate from the perspective of pessimism. And Tess’s fatewas influenced by British society, economy, law, religion and moral hypocrisy in people's lives in the19th century. Qian Yanqiu(15) analyzed Tess’s rebellious spirit through Tess's resistance of her fate. We could find the changeof Tess’s thoughts from three parts: from passive to active, from unconscious to rational ,from blind to mature, the complicated description of Tess’s inner heart modeled the charmingheroine image. Yang Yang(23) from two aspects: therelationship between men and women and the relationship between human and