苔丝悲剧命运简析A Female On Altar

A Female On Altar：Brief Analysis of the Origin of Tess’s T ragedy in Tess of theD’UrbervillesTess of the D’Urbervilles written by Thomas Hardy is a tragic novel. The heroine Tess not only has been one of the most touching characters in world literature, but also is a classic tragic character we sigh with regret. In the following paragraphs, I will briefly analyze the origin of Tess’s tragedy mainly from three asp ects: the writing background and ideology of author, the personality, social and family background of Tess, and the tragic coincidences of the story.First, this novel is based on the Victorian era. During that period, British capitalist economy widely intruded countryside and the new agricultural machinery aggravated the burden of laboring people. We can get details from the text which describes the scene of using wheat scourers: “Those, too, on the corn-rick talked a little; but the perspiring ones at the machine, including Tess, could not lighten their duties by the exchange of many words. It was the ceaselessness of the work which tried her so severely, and began to make her wish that she had never some to Flintcomb-Ash”. Because of the limit in times, H ardy could not find a suitable solution for laboring people who were trapped into capitalism plight. In addition, affected by Darwin’s Evolutionism and Schopenhauer's life pessimistic philosophy, Hardy produced his own ideology called fatalism which meant Tess’s tragedy was predestinate. We can acquire evidence from the text in the plot in which Tess was raped by Alec:” one may, indeed, admit the possibility of a retribution lurking in the present catastrophe.”The retribution referred to maybe Tess’s ancestor had also raped peasant girls of their time. Therefore, as an epitome of millions of suffering working people, and because of her predestinate fate, Tess is destined to die.Secondly, what pays much contribution to her tragedy is her personality. As Hardy’s subheading described, she is” a pure woman”. But according to Darwin’s Evolutionism, she is too naïve to survive in this complicated world. In novel, we can see her naivety made her lured by sophisticated womanizer Alec. And we can see herfrankness to Angel (even her mother had warned her did not told her past to he) resulted in his discard, which led to her second tragedy. We can also see her high self-esteem. When she heard some severe comment from Angel’s two brothers accidently, she left and was not acquainted with them, therefore, after her father’s death, she had to give in to Alec. She is also obedient and full of spirit of dedication to her lover. All of these are good qualities; however, because of such society and such people she met, she still had a bad ending. For instances, the first man she met was Alec who lured her, and because she did not love him and out of self-esteem she did not turn to he when she gave birth to a baby. The second man she met was Angel who she loved very much and got many pains as well as happiness. Angel is a thoughtful young person who has advanced thoughts, but because affected by the traditional thinking from his family, he used different moral standards to evaluate men and women. He held back when he heard the past of Tess, even he also had the same experience. Comparing with Alec, he hurt Tess much more. Tess also had weakness, as Hardy had written in the the text: “the greatest misfortune of her life was this feminine loss of courage at the last and critical moment” Although Tess is tough and self-dependent, she was also easy to compromise, especially to Angel. On one hand, she dared to struggle, but on the other hand she still cannot get away from traditional thinking.The society and Tess’s family are also responsible for her tragedy. Tess is a pure woman spiritually, but in her society, because of her experience, people regarded her as a bimbo, therefore, after the death of her father, the family was driven away by the villagers. In the novel, Tess was the downfallen descendant of nobility; however, this fact did not bring her any fortune but misery. About her aristocratic name, Hardy wrote: “So much for Norman blood unaided by Victorian”. As for her family, it is her parent’s vanity that causes the origin of Tess’s tragedy. To some degree, they a re irresponsible and ignorant. After Tess was raped, her mother said she should be more careful, and then Tess cried to her mother: “I was a child when I left this house four months ago. Why didn't you tell me there was danger in men-folk? Why didn't you warn me? Ladies know what to fend hands against, because they read novels that tellthem of these tricks; but I never had the chance o' learn-ing in that way, and you did not help me!”. Hearing these words, her mother fell into silence.Thirdly, there were many tragic coincidences which happened to Tess. At first, Tess’s father discovered that he was the last descendent of the D’Urbervilles, an ancient noble family. Then, because of the death of horse which was family’s mainstay, Tess had to ask help for their rich kindred who actually was not descendent of D’Urbervilles. Then she met with womanizer Alec, not his mother. When Tess worked at Alec’s farm, one day on their way back from town, she had troubled with a peasant woman, and to get rid of the plight, she mount Alec’s horse who brought her to a remote forest deliberately and lured her. In order to get rid of her past, Tess worked on another farm and fell in love with Angel. Before marriage, suffering Tess wrote a letter to confess which unfortunately was plugged under the carpet. Everyone was busy with arranging their marriage, so Tess had no chance to confess. After marriage; however, Angel thought he was tricked then fled away to Brazil. In order to get some information about Angel from his family, Tess went to his home, but unfortunately, she heard some severe comment from his brothers accidently, then she left and did not turn to Ange l’s family anymore. In the text, Hardy also wrote: ” it was somewhat unfortunate that she had encountered the sons and not the father, who, despite his narrowness, was far less starched and ironed than they, and had to the full the gift of charity“. On her way back, unfortunately she met with Alec again who now became preacher but at last abandoned his enthusiasm for preach and harassed Tess again after he heard the principle Tess told him that she heard from Angel. In pain, Tess wrote a letter full of love to Angel, before that Angel had brought back his love to her, so it was very likely to accelerate his return, but he lived deep in the interior so did not receive the letter in time. So, after her father’s death, Tess had to be Alec’s lover again to support her family. Now, to some degree, Tess lived a smooth life, but Angel’s return changed everything. In the quarrel, she killed Alec and fled away with Angel. On their way, Tess’s bright-colored clothes caught people’s eyes, and made her caught easily.Throughout these series of coincidence, there are also many opportunities thatcan change her fate, the fatal elements are her personality and temporal social background. Because of these inevitable aspects, Tess was destined to be a woman on altar who was sacrificed to temporal traditional thinking and capitalist society.Until now, there are still many people keen to discuss the origin of Tess’s tragedy, as a girl, in practical term; I think I should consider how to prevent my personality from bringing me to the altar.。