苔丝悲剧原因分析

An Analysis of Tess‟s tragedy in Tess of the d‟Urberville s
Abstract
Tess of the D‟Urbervilles is one of the great works by Thomas Hardy. It is a great tragedy，which was published in 1891.This tragedy centers on Tess, a peasant girl
born in a po or family. Everything happening has its causes. Tess‟s tragedy is also not accidental. There are several aspects about the causes. In this paper,I try to explore the
causes for Tess‟s tragedy in three aspects: (1) the influence of fatalism; (2) the social
factors concerned; and (3) Tess‟s dual personality.
Key words: Tess of the D’Urbervilles;Thomas Hardy;tragedy; the causes
摘要
德伯家的苔丝是哈代的巨著之一，1891年出版的一部悲剧。

这部悲剧围绕
着出生在贫苦农民家庭的少女苔丝展开。

一切万物皆有因果，苔丝的悲剧也不例
外。

苔丝的悲剧结局并不是意外，有各个方面的原因所在。

在这里，我将从以下
三个方面，即：哈代的宿命论，社会因素，和苔丝的性格来分析苔丝悲剧命运的
原因。

关键字：德伯家的苔丝，哈代，悲剧，原因
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. (i)
Abstract (ii)
摘要................................................................................................................................................ i ii Table of Contents .......................................................................................... 错误！未定义书签。

Introduction . (1)
Chapter One Hardy's Fatalism in the Tragedy of Tess (3)
1.1 The Development of Hardy's Fatalism (3)
1.2 Hardy's Pessimitic Fatalism in Tess' Tragedy (3)
Chapter Two The Social Factors in Tess' Tragedy (5)
2.1 The Social Environment and the Development of Capiatalism (5)
2.2 Tess' Poor Family and Her Parents' Stupid Requirements of Tess (5)
2.3 The Social Morality and its Influences on Tess (7)
2.3.1 The Hypocritical Social Morality (7)
2.3.2 The Influence of Moralism on Tess (8)
2.4 Male's Domination of Female (9)
Chapter Three Tess' Personality in Her Tragedy (11)
3.1 Tess' Rebellion (11)
3.2 Tess' Weak Point in Character (13)
Conclusion (14)
Works Cited (15)
Introduction
1 A brief introduction to Hardy
1.1 Hardy and his life environment
Thomas Hardy was a famous British novelist and poet in the nineteenth century. He carried forward and developed the literary traditions of the Victorian Age. He described the tragic plots vividly and truthfully in his works. He was considered as “Shakespeare of British novels”. Hardy was born in an a mason‟s family in Drossier, south west of England, the area that later became the famous “Wessex” in many of his novels .He was expected to become an architect by his parents, and then he was trained as an architect and worked in London and Dorset for ten years. Hardy began his writing career as a novelist in 1871 publishing Desperate Remedies(《计出无奈》). He was soon successful and left architecture for writing. He became a great critical realist in the nineteenth century—the Victorian Age, during which great changes had happened in the history of western civilization. As is well known, a great social reformation took place in Britain. The various social factors including religion, politics, science, influenced people and tried to transform their mentality. Capitalism was highly developed and stretched to the vast countryside, and the British people were struggling for a bright future bravely and difficultly. It was during this special period that Thomas Hardy inherited and developed the Victorian literature, producing a lot of great novels，especially Tess of the D‟Urbervilles.In these novels,he exposed the hypocritical morals, laws and people‟s miserable life, especially the women‟s life in social economic, politics, morals, custom, etc. after the invasion of industrial capitalism to the British villages.
1.2 Hardy's philosophical idea—fatalism and his novels
In Hardy life, he has written many novels. His major works are The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Caster Bridge (1886), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1896), the latter two considered masterpieces. Hardy's novels are all set against the tough and frightful Dorset landscape (known as Wessex
in the novels). The tragedy in his novels was certainly arranged by God's will. No matter how hard people worked and resisted, they couldn‟t get rid of the domination. The characters of his novels, for the major part of the poorer rural classes, are sympathetically and often humorously portrayed. Their lives were ruled not only by nature but also by rigid Victorian social conventions. Hardy's style is always pessimistic and tragic. His idea had been vividly expressed in his novels. Everything in his story leads to one inevitable tragic ending. One‟s personality determines one‟s fate, as is thought, thus the heroes and heroines in Hardy‟s novels are mostly rural men and women whose characters were provincial, tinted with the traits of rural people—passionate like fire, naive,innocent and narrow-minded—which on one hand make them so lovely and worth sympathy, but contribute to their tragedy on the other hand.
2 An tntroduction to the novel- Tess of the D’Urbervilles
As is well known, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is the most famous novel of Thomas Hardy. Focusing on the tragic experience of its heroine Tess,a peasant girl, who was born in a poor farmer‟s family. She had lived a poor but peaceful life. However, God, began to play a cruel joke on this innocent girl when her father, John D'Urbervilles learned that they were descended from the D‟Urbervilles, an ancient family o nce renowned in England. Tess‟s parents were in an ecstasy of delight over the news. Her mother urged Tess to claim kinship with the remaining D‟Urbervilles, so that Tess could marry a gentleman,and then they will get rid of the poor life. She was very unwilling,but when she thought of the death of their horse, the only means to make their living, she came to the D‟Urbervilles. There she met Alec D‟Urbervilles, who was attracked by Tess‟s beautiful appearence and always tried to seduce her. Having received a job of tending to chickens, Tess stayed in the D‟Urbervilles. Her tragic life had just begun.
Soon Tess was raped and lost her chastity.She returned home and told her mother of her terrible experiences,hoping to get consolation from her mother, but what her mother only worried about was whether Alec would marry Tess or not. Alec
utilized the fact of her poor family and wanted to help her. The brave girl refused and went to work in the field, but worse still, Alect followed her from place to place in order to possess her again. At last, Tess managed to get rid of Alec to give birth to her baby. The baby did not live long, however, and after its death, Tess went to a dairy farm as a dairy maid. It was here that Tess met Angel,son of a clergyman,and fell in love with him. He thought of her as a beautiful and innocent young girl. But her innocence caused her to feel that she was wicked, so she rejected Angel Clare's love. She refused his love and urged him to turn to one of the other girls even though she suffered much from a great grief. But Angel, acting against the wishes of his parents, insisted on marrying with her. Finally, they got married. It seems Tess would be happy from now on. On their wedding night, they told each other about their past hoping to be forgiven by each other. Tess forgave Angel's past, and then she told about her nightmare with Alec, thinking that he would forgive her as she had. But in contrast Angel deserted her and left for Brazil. In order to keep herself and her family alive, Tess had to became a labor in the field again. What‟s worse, her father died. With the bad condition of her family and no hope to obtain Angel's return, the poor girl went to Alec again ,seeking help from Alec, who is a preacher now,and lived with him as his mistress.Unexpectedly, Angel returned from Brazil and repented of his cruel treatment of Tess.But Tess's relationship with Alec stopped her from living with Angel happily. She hated Alec and believed all her tragedy was caused by Alec. She killed him. After a short happy life with Angel, Tess was arrested by the police and hanged.
Chapter One
Hardy’s fatalism in the tragedy of Tess.
1.1 The development of Hardy's fatalism.
Fatalism is "that view of life which says all actions is controlled by the nature of thing or by fate which is a great impersonal, primitive force existing through all eternity absolutely independent of human will and superior to any good created by man. "(Force,Lorrain.M.1996). Hardy's pessimistic fatalism developed in his surrounding environment. He lived in times of a freedom of capitalism to imperialism by the United Kingdom after a period of a prosperous economy, but also deepened the plight of poor people at lower levels, especially in the nineteenth century. Hardy was born and bred in rural England which was full of the fatal idea by which his novels were deeply impacted. Thus he witnessed the invasion of capitalist farmers in rural areas led to bankruptcy, he depicted in his works that the capitalism had brought disaster to rural farmers, and sympathy to the plight of the farmers, but due to Hardy's social limitations of the era, even though he would like to find a way out to solve these problems,there was no right way to free poor people of their misery and to embrace a bright future, he ultimately failed,which led him to be a pessimist.In fact,Hardy did not understand the root causes of this decline and rules of social development.Therefore, he attributed the peasants' tragedy to blind chance or mysterious fate. This kind of fatalism is revealed in Hardy's many works especially in Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Hardy gave to the interpretation of the story in accordance with his pessimist and determinist view of the world.( In a sense, Tess is the victim of Hardy's fatalism, and her tragedy is the tragedy of the time when Hardy lives.
1.2 Hardy's pessimistic fatalism in Tess' tragedy.
Tess's miserable life is linked with Hardy's fatalism.Hardy tried to explain the misfortune of his characters in the perspective of the superior power. In his novels, the characters' misfortunate fate is inevitable, and even hard to resist. In Tess of the D‟Urbervilles,Hardy thought that it was the god‟s will that made Tess‟ tragedy,
including her ups and downs of life, her painful love and her tragic death. He demonstrated his deep sense of moral sympathy for the pure, loyal, intelligent and charming young girl, Tess. He showed in many ways that Tess's fate was not determined by her own efforts but by the fatalistic fate. There were lots of coincidences and hints that show us the inevitability of Tess' miserable death.
Her misfortune starts from the sudden death of the only horse,which cut off all the family‟s income. Just at that time, Tess's father learned of a rich family—Alec D'Urbervilles whi ch was his kinship. This was the start of Tess‟s tragedy.So Tess is forced to claim kinship and not long after she is seduced. After the great frustration, desiring to live a tranquil life, Tess met Angel Clare and fell in love with him. Not wanting to deceive Angel, Tess wrote a letter to confess her "wrong doings", but the letter was misplaced and escaped the notice of Angel.It seems Tess would win happiness while actually this coincidence made her hurt much deeper. At that time, there were dual standards on morality: women are considered immoral if they conduct sexual intercourses before their marriage, be they passive or active. However men were not to blame if they have had sexual affairs before marriage, they could be easily forgiven. Just as Tess could forgive his sexual experience, but he couldn't accept Tess on similar grounds, thus he deserted her and left for Brazil. Though Hardy knew Tess was a victim and very innocent, at that time Hardy himself was also influenced by the social concept, as can be seen in Tess' miserable fate.
Father's death made the family lose their house and hardly able to survive. Tess came to Angel's family for help because Angel was her nominal husband anyway. Unfortunately, they all went to church and Angel's brother found her broken shoes and threw them away casually, so Tess missed the chance. She could not get a hand from husband's family so that she had to find a job to support her family. The next plot of the story is the best example of Hardy‟s fatalism. He led Tess t o meet Alec—the man who ruined her life in the way back home from the Angel at this critical point. Faced with such a desperate situation, Tess had no choice but be Alec's mistress again and lived with him. Tess didn't surrender to fate after being insulted, for she was determined to overcome difficulties by herself, but after a series of resistance she had
to give up to the fate which was that powerful. Her life and the tragedy is really inevitable when Angel came back to look for her. If Angel didn't find her and told he had forgiven her and still loved her, Tess might just as well have lived with Alec and would not have killed Alec out of rage, and would not have been hanged as a murderer at last. Hardy devised this plot to show his dissatisfaction with the hypocritical society, as is manifest in the subtitle, Tess is a pure woman in spirit, what the society could insult was just her body.
Hardy's novel in this series of coincidences, on the surface, as if the tragedy of Tess's fate escape the fate of the arrangement, but from a deeper perspective, is Hardy's fatalism philosophy due to the environment.
Chapter Two
The social factors in Tess’ tragedy.
Throughout the story, Tess' experience has been rather miserable and rough, which makes readers deeply sympathetic with her. From the vivid description in the novel we can get a panorama of every social stratum in the Victorian Age. Tess, a beautiful, innocent and pure girl, is the victim of society. In this paper, it is thought that the bourgeois society should assume a great responsibility for Tess‟s miserable death. Tess' s tragedy is the product of the society.Hence a probe into the causes for Tess' tragedy in terms of social factors in four aspects.
2.1 The social environment and the development of capitalism
Tess lived in the late 19th century in Britain,, in which the cruel capitalist exploitation had ruined the English countryside severely, Wessx was not immuned from the destruction. Capitalism brought a great harm to this old, rural and agricultural life of the place. The bourgeoisie controlled all rights, and the law served them. Peasants were at the bottom of society; they never had equal rights. Worse still, with the development of the industrial revolution, tremendous changes had taken place in almost every aspect. (Long Qiyu, 2010: 1) There is no doubt that agriculture could not be an exception, for the traditional life-style of the rural area had collapsed. Most farmers lost their land and were bankrupt.The self-supporting peasants were displaced and impoverished. They were extremely poor and lived a very miserable life and had to struggle for existence on the brink of death.
Tess, a daughter of a poor villager, and a wage labor later, seemed unlikely to live a better life with her family. All the family's income came from an old horse, whose death cut off all their income. To support the family, Tess had no choice but to follow her parents' advice to come to a more prosperous branch of the D‟Urbervilles family for help. It was there that she was seduced by her so-called cousin, the son of the house, Alec, which led her to her misfortune fate.
2.2 Tess’s poor family and her parents’ stupid requirements ofTess
Tess‟ family is another important reason for her tragedy. 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 seemed to throw upon her young shoulders more of family burdens” (Hardy p37), so she had no choice but to try her best to make money to support her family out of her sense of responsibility. On the other hand, her parents wanted to live a better life and showed off the so-called “aristocrat” status.Her father went into ecstasies when he got knowl edge of their kindred with the noble D‟Urbervilles. He began to spend his time thinking of ways to restore his family name to its former reputation. In fact, this dream could not support the family at all. But the father was only concerned about his reputation and did not want to get a job which he thought would sully(玷污) his dignity as an offspring of D‟Urbervilles. So they compelled Tess to D‟Urbervilles family to work and marry the wealthy gentleman. As the oldest daughter of the family, Tess had to come to Alec's family for help, which led to her loss of virginity. Even at this point, what her father considered utmost was other people's thought about the collapse of his reputation rather than his daughter's misfortune. Tess's mother hoped that Tess would marry with Alec without considering Tess' feeling. After Tess was seduced by Alec and went home, her mother thought Tess was stupid for her unwillingness to marry with him. To some extent, it is Tess‟ parents who make the chance for Alec. In other words, Tess is a tool used to get money and reputation for her parents. Tess would not enter D‟Urbervilles family if her family is better off; Tess would not be insulted by Alec if her family does not give her any pressure. What‟s worse, her family never teaches her anything that a girl needs 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 o‟learning in that way (reading novels), and you did not help me” (Thomas Hardy p89). This proves how he r mother treats her.
Tess loved her younger brothers and sisters, for her sense of responsibility compelled her to protect them. Alec was aware of this aspect and utilized his assistance to her family to possess her again. Tess‟ hatred of Alec‟s conduct ma de her refuse and fight with him at first. But after the death of her father, oppressed by her
responsibility for her family, she became Alec's mistress again, which made Tess much more grieved and led to her killing of him in that she thought that it was Alec who had deprived her of her right to pursue happiness. Therefore, “it is this homeless despair of a family which has lost its rights and independence in the village community that gives Tess finally into the invader‟s power” (Albert J LaValley p327).
2.3 The social morality and its influences on Tess.
2.3.1 The hypocritically social morality.
For women in the Victorian era, the key virtue is sexual purity, while adultery is the worst of all possible sins. At that time, even exposing an ankle or a shoulder is considered "improper" (Kramer, 1970: 136). Public conceptions on sexual morals are that women must remain virgins before marriage,or she would commit the most serious sin. In addition, a woman should be loyal to her husband all her life.Numerous examples can be found in many great novels, such as Tess and the heroine in The Scarlet Letter. The sexual morality is deeply rooted in people's mind. But these notions are always unequal for females. In the same case, men engaged in sexual lapses(丧失) would be forgiven, whereas women would be condemned, even if it is known that the woman sometimes is actually the victim. In the opinion of most common people, “all women are considered serious offenders " (Kramer, 1979: 227) People didn‟t condemn Alec, the wicked rapist, while in contrast, they looked down on Tess who was pregnant due to a wicked man‟s rape. For in their eyes, Tess‟ loss of her virginity was a shameful thing. So, though with similar sexual experiences, Angel was forgiven while Tess, the real innocent victim, was abused. While Angel swore his deep love for Tess, Tess won no consolation or sympathy, even from her parents. What she got was jeer and abuse and lots of ill words. Everyone around despised Tess, which made her feel sinful and guilty. At the very start, he loved Tess and did not care whether she was born in a good family or not. He regarded Tess as a girl completely innocent and pure, for in his eyes, Tess is “what a fresh and pure daughter of nature that dairy-maid is” (Hardy 1992: 91) .It seems that his love to Tess was true love. But in fact, he was a representative of the traditional moral concepts.When it comes to marriage, he still considered Tess‟s social status. He wanted Tess to take “mistress
Teresa D‟Urbervilles as her name and he claimed that the change “may take an appreciable difference to （society‟s）acceptance of you as my wife”. Angel said, after he have made Tess the well-read woman that he mean to make her, his mother will think much better of her (Hardy p206). So all he wanted is a good wife who could serve him and he had never abandoned the Christian moral concepts even though he himself did not realize.After learning of Tess' past story Tess was nothing but a fallen woman who just looks like his lover, as is ev ident in his remark, “you were one person, now you are another.”(Hardy, 1992: 374). He loved Tess but could not forgive her. He used the conventional social morality which he criticized to judge Tess without considering whether it was fair to her or not, and finally deserted her. The whole society with deep-rooted traditional social morality was prejudiced against Tess, which somewhat led to her miserable fate.
2.3.2. The influence of morality on Tess
As a social system, the deep-rooted concept of chastity controls women tightly. It is very natural to judge a woman's purity in line with the traditional conception; Tess was influenced by the social morality though she thought it is unfair. She also wanted to resist against it, for example, when her mother asked her to marry Alec, she didn‟t accept and replied “perhaps any woman will, but I am the exception” (Hardy 1992: 156) Tess was the victim of society full of hypocritical ethics. She really wanted to start a new life but she could not shake off her past.
After she was insulted by Alec, Tess suffered a sense of sin, guilt and self-abasement. she felt much guilty for not being pure in body. When Tess falls in love with Angel Clare, she still cannot get rid of her sense of guilt. At first,she dare not tell Angel her past story, let alone have the courage to accept his love. "Her love for him acts to blot out the memories of the past in her, but she is always aware that her forgetfulness is only temporary, that the doubts, fears, and shame were only waiting like wolves just outside the light. One night, when the two of them were sitting indoors, she suddenly exclaims that she is not worthy of him."(Thamas Hardy, 1993). After their wedding ceremony, Tess is sad by the time they come back to the farm. She is tortured by guilt. She asks herself, if she has any right to be Mrs. Angel
Clare. Tess's deep sense of guilt makes her submit to Angel's maltreatment without resistance, thinking she deserves it.So in her mind it was all her fault to lead Angel to desert her. It can be seen apparently that Tess's chain to morality made her suffer much more in spirit, thus deepening her tragedy.
2.4. Male’s domination of females
Critically speaking, men and women should be equal; however, it is not the case in reality. You will find that the entire development of western civilization is a history in which males have dominated. In this kind of society men are the center of the society at Victorian times. Women are just the possession of men. They have no right to make any decisions. A male made all decisions and controlled everything, his wife was only supposed to be his faithful companion.
Tess‟s family had a strong sense of male chauvinism. When the horse died and her family lost the only possession. Tess‟s family thought that the“fine chance” to get rid of poverty and get into the upper class was to marry a rich man. Her mother asked her to “claim kin” with the D‟Urbervilles, hoping that the “gentleman” would marry her and got their poor family condition improved. As a woman and the elder daughter of her family, all she should do is making money to support her family. She had no choice but to follow what her family‟s advice. In Alec's view, it's very natural that he could use his power and social status to get what he wants. He began to think of how to possess this girl when Tess first appeared in front of hm. What he thought of was how to possess the beautiful and pure girl. What‟s worse, Alec has never had the idea to marry her even after he raped her. He just treated her as one of his possessions. But men would never have any fault even if they commit the most serious sin. Tess was rumored by people around her after she was raped by Alec. No one helped her out of the despair, including her family. While Alec was a typical representative of hypocritical bourgeois society. He was not affected by the affair at all. Instead, he finally became a clergy who could represent the mercy of GOD and was respected by people. There was no law which could give Alec any punishment for his fault. But the law did exist when Tess killed Alec for her true love for Angel. In Tess' opinion, Angel Clare was her …god‟ who would protect her and guide her to happiness. But even the
man who loved her denied the true identity of her just because her loss of virtue and deserted her. At that time, a woman deserted by her husband means she would be deserted by the whole society. Tess got the punishment, but men never did. . If we say it was Alec that insulted Tess and destroyed her happy personality, it was Angel who ruined Tess' mentality and was the executioner of Tess.That was the society under men‟s dominion.
Chapter Three
Tess’ personality in her tragedy.
Tess's tragedy not only results from the external causes, but also the internal ones. And only through the internal causes, can the external causes become operative. The tragedy that results from the conflict between man and himself is the tragedy of character. Tess's tragedy is the tragedy of character. On the one hand, Tess struggles bravely against her destiny and the conventional morality. She desires for happiness and true love. On the other hand, she can not completely get rid of social conventions and moral standards of the day, which makes her believe that she has to pay for what she has sinned. She yields to the arrangement of the fate.This is the so-called Tess‟s dual personality. The paradox of Tess‟s personality was one of the important causes for her later tragedy.
3.1. Tess' rebellion
During the Victorian Age, women began to struggle against oppression in unfair bourgeois society. Tess was one of these women. In Tess' brief miserable life, she had never given up rebellion.
Tess fought against the male chauvinism all her life. A good way to become rich and get comfortable life was to marry a rich man at Victorian times. But Tess did not follow trends. On one hand, when the horse died, Tess‟s family asked her to “claim kin” to D‟Urbervilles, she was reluctant. She believed that she could make a living by working but not by marryin g a rich man. At Tess‟s time, chastity was very important for a woman. If a woman was raped, the best choice was to marry the man without considering whether she loved the man or not. Otherwise, she would be rumored and lost all her face. Tess should have married Alec after she was raped by him for the sake of herself and her family. And Tess could avoid her miserable life if she married him in line with her parents‟ wish. Tess‟s mother was disappointed that Tess would not marry Alec and bring some money and good reputation for her family. For Tess, that was silly and absurd. She did not want to betray herself even though she。