Tess 论文(英美文学)(24号)

Analysis of Tess of the D’Urbervilles
学院：外语学院
姓名：葛一明
班级：B1203
学号：13
Outline: I: introduction of the novel
II: The factors of causing the tragedy of Tess
A. Poor family environment
B. Social environment and social moral standards
C. Tess’ character
III. Fatalism and pessimism of Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet, and one of the greatest critical realistic English writers of the 19th century. He had lots of famous works in his life. And Tess of the D‟Urbervilles was the most influential and representative one of all his works. At the same time, the heroine Tess has long been regarded as the most exceptional woman character in English literary history. Under Hardy‟s pen, Tess was created as a pure and warm-hearted woman, who had the quality of endurance and self-sacrifice. While her destiny was not as beautiful as her beauty or mind. Then let‟s go together into Tess‟ sad story and experience her ups and downs life.
I. Introduction of the novel
Tess was a young woman who came from low social status, yet she endowed with the good personalities such as beauty, benevolence and diligence. One day, his father heart of their family was descendant of a nobility D‟Ubervilles. So he let Tess claim relative with a good dressing. Then the tragedy happened. Tess was seduced by Alec D‟Urbervilles and subsequently Tess pregnant. After that, she returned home and gave birth to a baby who died youthfully. Since this time, Tess‟ destiny was changed completely. People around her including the church all despised her and thought her a bad girl. Even if her own family also did not show any sympathy or say anything to comfort her, but took Tess as a shame. Then the wretch Alec wanted to compensate Tess by some money and some material conditions. But Tess refused him insistently. Although she was poor, she was a man of character. She said to Alec:” I have never love you, Alec, and I never will. I don‟t even hate you, I feel nothing. You are just dust and ashes to me now”. After reading these, I appreciated Tess very much. I thought she was so righteous and proud. The most important thing was that she did not low her head to evil influence. Even in that society, money and position meant
almost everything, she still could be herself. But God did not stop playing jokes with such good a girl.
In order to avoid this kind of environment, after a long-time release of spirit, Tess went a meadow working as a milkmaid. Then she fell in love with the son of a gentleman, Angel Clare. However she showed her innocence again. She believed Angel would forgive her past. So she confessed all her past to Angel at the wedding night. But the result was totally opposite to what she thought before. Angel could n‟t forgive her and abandoned Tess even though he also made the same mistake. What left Tess was just the endless waiting. Finally Tess decided to gave up on Angel. Under the circumstances, Alec appeared again and wanted to seduce her to go back to him by materials temptation. Tess became numb. For giving a comfortable life to her family, this time, she did not reject. To her surprise, Angel came back and wanted to forgive Tess later. For the sake of getting rid of the entanglement of Alec and going with Angel, Tess killed Alec. Without expression，Tess became a murder and was sentenced to death.
II. The factors of causing the tragedy of Tess
After finishing it, I couldn‟t help crying. I wanted ask why, why so good a girl would got such a bad ending. What caused that? Family environment, cruel society or Tess herself? I thought maybe all they did. But I think her family factor is just the blasting fuse.
A. Poor family environment
Tess was the daughter of a very poor villager. Her parent was very benighted. On one hand, her family was very poor. Her father was a lazy vendor and her mother was a vulgar wash worker. She had young brothers and sisters who needed care. “Every
day s eemed to throw upon her young shoulders more of family burdens” . So she has no choice but to try her best to make money to support her family. On the other hand, her parents wanted to live a better life and showed off the so-called “aristocrat” status. Especially When her father found he was the descendant of an ancient aristocratic family, D …Urberviles, he was immensely proud of himself although there was nothing valuable left in his hand. They were eager to send Tess to the d‟Urbervilles family to work and marry the wealthy gentleman. To some extent, it was Tess‟ parents who made the chance for Alec. In other words, Tess was a tool used to get money and reputation for her parents. Tess would not enter d‟Urbervilles family if her family was better off; Tess would not be insulted by Alec If her family did not give her any pressure. What‟s worse, her family never t aught her anything that a girl needed to know. Tess says, “Why didn‟t you tell me there was danger in men-fold? Why didn‟t you warn me? I never had the chance of learning in that way , and you did not help me”. This proved how her mother treated her. Therefore, “it was this homeless despair of a family which had lost its rights and independence in the village community that gave Tess finally into the invader‟s power”.
B. social environment and social moral standards
If we say the family factor is the blasting fuse, then I think social environment and social moral standards are the very root of tragedy. Tess was a poor peasant girl who wanted to rely on her hands to pursuit individual happiness right, but the power forces of society couldn‟t letting off a weak girl. She lived in the late 19th century of “Britain's Victorian era”, in which the cruel capitalist exploitation had ruined the English countryside severely and Wessex was not immune from the destruction. In this
time, Capitalist class controlled all right, and the law were serviced for them. Farmers were at the bottle of the society, they had never equal right as the capitalist class. Tess as a woman in the Victorian era，she could not avoid the “Hegemony” father right consciousness to “woman” nature understanding and severe social etiquette. And the patriarchal social system made women lost their independent status. By the Capitalist invasion，those Self-reliant farmers who had a small amount of land and the means of production had followed the insolvency. Female beauty not only regarded as the "Troubles" but also became an excuse for men to shirk their crime；The male requested feminine to be loyal and the bodily pure and chaste, actually disregarded own indulging. But in under male power suppression, feminine thought pattern also was controlled solidly by this kind of strong trend was even melting. The family of Tess was no exception. The death of the horse destroyed the family's livelihood and finished the family? Tess thought that she had dragged her parents into this quagmire. So she worked there as an employee of Alec. Later, she was seduced by him. Several years later, she went to look for a job again, but there was almost nothing to be found. So she had to go on to Flint- com-Ash and the work was so hard that few care to do. Alec comes to her again when she was absolutely exhausted physically and mentally. What made matters worse, after her father death, the family was evicted and has no place to live in. To support the family, Tess had to accept Alec for the second time. It was at the cost of Tess ? The poor life pushed Tess into the trap of the wicked man, and the capitalist exploitation brought about their poor life. Alec, maybe everyone who read the novel would hate him, a yellow dog. He destroyed Tess‟ chastity and reputation, which were the most important things for a girl. He absolutely robbed Tess of the right to the happiness. Actually we could say that Alec was the newly-born representative of capitalism,of social environment, who was bold, realistic and full of thoughts. But was Alec the most hateful man? I thought the answer was not. But Angel was. But was Alec the most hateful man? I thought the answer was not. But Angel was. After he knew
Tess‟ past, he did not have courage to face the reality and escaped. In my view, Angel was a coward, a pure coward. He once made a promise to Tess, while where was he now? He believed strongly that a woman once tainted, should be looked down upon and punished. According to the Victorian custom, a man could live a dissipating life as he had once done while a woman could not. The double standard for man and woman made it impossible for angel to forgive Tess even Angel had ever made the same mistake. In fact, his unfair standard for Tess was quite representative, because "the male demand for purity in woman and the use of the double standard in sexual matters were essential features of the social life of the nineteenth century." let‟s assume that if Angel forgave Tess at that time, they would have lead a happy life. Whereas the reality always being cruel. Angel was so cold and selfish. Consequently, Tess seemed to be to torn between the evil social force and the hypocritical religion in characterization of Alec and conventionality, Christian morality and bourgeois view of class distinction in character of angel. Neither of whom could be better than the other. It seemed that she now jumped out of the frying pan into the fire and then out of the fire from the frying pan. To be honest, Alec and Angel were just the representatives of the society at that age. The poor had to endure the exploitation of the capitalist. Just like Tess, she was the victim because the rape of Alec. While Tess was the only person punished and she had no any ability to resist the insult of Alec. Meanwhile, she was inculpable, but she had to bear the discard of Angel. She wanted to dominate her own destiny, while she had no choice but being the victim and the sacrifice lamb of the society. In conclusion, Tess‟tragedy is due to the moral root of society and the stable view of women chastity in the society which male is center.
C. Tess’ character
When we mentioned Tess, we all knew the most moved character of Tess to
people was her self-respect and fortitudinous. It was not easy for people in that century, especially for poor country girl. Her father was drunk and could not work, her mother advised her to choose one of dancing partners to help them, while Tess rejected. She did it by herself. In Trantridge, facing the Alec‟s adoration, she tried her best to keep away from Alec. Maybe accepting him could make her life easier and short of hard work, but she refused him time and time again. From this aspect, we could say she was a heroine. But d idn‟t Tess make any mistake? Of course, she did. On the one hand, Tess shouldn‟t accept Alec for money, though she was for her family. As we all know, there are a lot of poor people in the word, but everyone can lead a good life by their own efforts rather than others‟ help. On the other hand, She was too “brave”. It was hard for people to think that a young girl drove the horse on an all-night trip alone, but Tess did; under the suffering of losing her baby, without hesitation, Tess went to a farm as a milkmaid at Talbot hays. Because of braveness Tess killed Alec and started wandering to Stonehenge with Angel, even when she woke up only to find the arrest, Tess dealt with it calmly. These all showed Tess ‟ courage was no match for others. But just because of the braveness she paid her young and gold life for the cost. The good quality on that pure girl became the guide to the tragedy. In others words she was too ultra. It was really necessary for Tess to kill Alec? Obviously not. It was not the only way to deal with the problem. But actually she did so. What‟s more, there was also a disadvantage of Tess‟ personality.Tess couldn‟t keep a sane mind in the bad general mood of that society. she always thought she was sinful and tortured herself. It caused a lot of avoidable problems.
III. The fatalism and pessimism of Thomas Hardy
All these things just fitted the fatalism and pessimism of Thomas Hardy. Just like Tess in this novel, her misery was inevitable and unchangeable. Finally she went to a
tragic ending. In the blood of Tess, traditional morality and fatalism run from her birth to her end. We could witness it clearly just from the relation between Tess and Angel. Just as Hardy said most of the misery had been generated by her conventional respect and not by her innate sensations? Tess had drifted into a frame of mind which accepted passively the consideration that if she should have to burn for what she had done, burn she must, and there was an end of it! After Alec seduced Tess, although she was a victim, actually and essentially she was pure, she felt herself guilty. Therefore, at the beginning, she refused Ange l‟s love, because she thought that she was far less worthy of Angel. After marrying him, she obeyed Angel as a slaver, Angel told her that she couldn‟t write to him and she did in-deed. For the sake of getting Angel? s forgiveness, she could do any-thing including losing her life. While the fate didn;t give her the same in return. And Tess should get rid of Alec in some other way but killing him directly. But all these things seemed to be fated, nobody could go against it. So all of those showed that she was affected by traditional morality and fatalism, this idea became a part of her body, and it made her go to the tragedy step by step.
Above these, following the internal character of Tess we discussed, it was no hard to see that the tragedy was complicated, maybe we could say it was ambivalent; yes, ambivalent life, ambivalent society, ambivalent and lamentable people.
To be honest, my heart couldn‟t calm own for a long time. Although after the punishment of Tess, Thomas Hardy encountered the repulsion, at least I think he is successful; although the so-called impureness was denounced by people, at least I sympathized Tess from my deep heart. I cried for Tess for Tess‟ miserable fate. I really didn‟t hope the tragedy like Tess would happen again. Because love is inclusiveness, love is understanding. If you love her, please love her all. After all, love is the most precious thing in the world.。