20.Characterization theme of Tess

Characterization of TessCharacter---Tess DurbeyfieldThe heroineThe eldest child in familyThe wife of AngelThe mistress of AlecTess DurbeyfieldA simple country girl with some education•As a country girl, she is pure, and noble; industrious and diligent. •As a family member, she is kind, responsible and dedicated.•As a friend, she is sympathetic and sincere.•As a lover and wife, she is honest and loyal, and with high-standarded moral.•Facing all the sufferings, she is strong and fortitudinous. She is self-respecting and self-dependent.Character---Angel ClareThe youngest son in his familyTess’s husbandAngel Clare•Gentleman from the appearence•Physically progressive and rebellious•Independent from his family•Mentally deep-rooted with conventional mores•Double-standarded morality•Hypocritical and self-centered•Be cruel to Tess•Stubborn and snobbish•Idealist•Mixture of modern thoughts and conventional ideas•Stands for masculine reasonCharacter---Alec•The son of a arriviste•The man who ruined TessCharacter---Alec•A typical villain•Libertine(sensual): have affairs with many women•Satanic character: wicked and devil•Hypocritical in religion•Selfish, rude and arrogant•Seduce and trouble Tess all the time•Stands for masculine sexual desireOther characters•John Durbeyfield: father of Tess•He is poor,ignorant higgler. He is a weak man, to a considerable extent under the infulence of his wife, and is also largely a comic character. His weakness and lack of guidance have bad effects on his family and especially on Tess. Like all the rest of Hardy’s country people, he is fatalistic, accepting whatever happens to him.Other characters•Joan Durbeyfield: mother of Tess•She resembles her husband in her weakness, ignorance, and self-centeredness. In addition, she is vain and superstitious. Moreover, she is basically a good person, foolish but always well-intentioned. Other characters•James Clare: father of Angel•He is very active in spreading his beliefs, and never hesitates to act upon them; he is an out-spoken and very courageous man. In human terms he is a very good, almost saintly person. He is idealistic, unworldly, and attempts always to lead a truly Christian life. Because of this he is admired by his son Angel, who otherwise disagrees with him on matters of doctrine and faith.•Mrs.Clare: mother of Angel•She is religious, like her husband, but somewhat more worldly than he is. She is less restrained than her husband, expressing her feelings more directly. She is a good woman.Other characters•Izz Huett: a milkmaid at Talbothays, a friend of Tess. Like all the other maids at the dairy she is in love with Angel, good natured, kind and ignorant. Also like the others she exhibits a strong amount of peasant fatalism. She is a loyal friend to Tess throughout. She joins Tess and Marian at Flintcomb-Ash.Other characters•Marian: another of Tess fellow milkmaids, also in love with Angel. She is somewhat coarse and cowlike, and after Tess and Angel marry she begins to drink. She is working at Flintcomb-Ash and it is though her Tess gets work there. She is a good, simple person and helps Tess whenever she can.Other characters•Retty Priddle: the third of the milkmaids at Talbothays, also in love with Angel. She is the youngest of the group, and she is very emotional. She inclines towards hysteria, and after the wedding of Tess and Angel tries to drown herself, but is rescued. Like Tess, her family was once great and powerful but has declined in the world.The Theme of TessFurther Appreciation•Omens in Tess•Symbolism in TessSeasonSettingThe image of birdThe image of roadOmens in Tessomens about the marriage•Omen1: Chpter 32 She did return upstairs, and put on the gown. Alone, she stood for a moment before the glass looking at the effect of her silk attire; and then there came into her head her mother's ballad of the mystic robe--•她没有回到楼上去，而是把长袍穿上了。

她站在镜子跟前把自己端详了一会儿，看看自己穿上丝绸衣服的效果；这时候，她又想起了母亲为她唱的一首关于一件神秘长袍的民谣——•That never would become that wifeThat had once done amiss,•曾经做过错事的妻子, 永远穿不了这件衣服。

•选自于《英格兰与苏格兰流行歌谣集》中的《小孩和长袍》一诗，大意说一小孩献给亚瑟王一件长袍，可以试妻子是否忠于丈夫。

王后因不忠心，穿袍后袍变色。

Omens in Tess•Omen2 The fight between Angel and Groby, the man who knows Tess’s past (Chapter 33)•Omen3Angel’s bad drea m in which he fighted with Groby again (Chapter 33)Omens in Tess•Omen4•The cock crowing in mid-afternoon, which is certainly an unusual, even an unnatural action, and which is felt by everyone to be warning of evil. (Chapter 33)Symbolism in Tess1. Season:The states of nature are related with differrent life periods of Tess, different experiences with a bad and predetermined end.1.Season: differrent life periods of Tessspring : hope, new beginningMay-Day dance, May leave for Talbothayssummer: hot, strong emotionfall in love with Angelautumn: good fortune weaker and weakerSeptember be raped,October look for job in Flintcomb-Ashwinter: worstthe parting of marriage, hard work in Flintcomb-Ash2. Setting: TalbothaysChapter16 Marlott -Talbothays•The bird's-eye perspective before her was not so luxuriantly beautiful, perhaps, as that other one which she knew so well; yet it was more cheering. It lacked the intensely blue atmosphere of the rival vale, and its heavy soils and scents; the new air was clear, bracing, ethereal. The river itself, which nourished the grass and cows of these renowned dairies, flowed not like the streams in Blackmoor. Those were slow, silent, often turbid; flowing over beds of mud into which the incautious wader might sink and vanish unawares. The Froom waters were clear as the pure River of Life shown to the Evangelist, rapid as the shadow of a cloud, with pebbly shallows that prattled to the sky all day long. There the water-flower was the lily; the crowfoot here.Chapter16 Marlott - Talbothays•俯瞰呈现在她面前的那片风景，虽然不如她无比熟悉的另一片风景绚烂华美，但它却更能使人欢快振奋。