Tess of the D'Urbervilles读后感

My Reflections on Tess’s Fate

“Tess of the D'Urbervilles”——written by Thomas Hardy As is well-known, “Tess of the D'Urbervilles” is the most famous novel of Thomas Hardy. The imaginary story of this novel happened in the Victorian period. A rural clergyman in England told Durbeyfield, a simple farmer, that he was descended from the illustrious d'Urberville family, now extinct or maybe not. Therefore, Durbeyfield sent his daughter Tess to check on a family named D'Urberville living in a manor house and the distance of which was less than a day's carriage ride away. There Alec D'Urberville was delighted to meet his beautiful cousin, and he seduced her with strawberries and roses. But Alec was no relation to Tess; he had gotten his illustrious name and coated of arms by purchasing them. Soon Alec fell in love with Tess, even seduced her. Then Tess left, pregnant; back at home, the baby died. Some time later, Tess began to work as a milkmaid, and there she met her true love Angel Clare, who believed her completely innocent. However, Angel did not learn of her previous relationship with Alec until their wedding night, and rejected her. Deserted by her husband, Tess met Alec again, and poverty forced her to resume their relationship. Years later, Angel returned from travelling abroad, remorseful at his treatment of Tess, but found her with Alec. Finally, Tess murdered Alec in order to run away with Angel. And they spent one night of happiness together, before she was arrested.

This wasn’t my first time to read “Te ss of the D'Urbervilles” Actually, the first time I read the novel was in high school. At that moment, I thought that Tess was really a tragic figure in the book “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”. She was seduced by a so-called gentleman—Alec, and from then on her life totally changed from the loss of innocence. People looked down on her and respected her no more. Virtually, she did nothing wrong because before she was seduced she knew nothing of men. She was just a girl when she first met that terrible man. Nonetheless, she was forced by the gossips and the church to blame herself for this accident, so she thought she deserved nothing good. In order to get rid of the past, she decided to go to a distant dairy farm but was still saying to herself that she was wron g. Maybe God didn’t agree with that, because the Lord gave her someone she loved with her whole heart and life—Angel Chare. Unfortunately, it was still a sad ending.

When I read the story again, I had different affections to the figures of this novel. Why, I meant why Tess fell so much in love with Angel and ended herself up in such misery? I could not tell any merits from Angel from the very beginning, even back to that May Dance on the lawn. Honestly, at the first glance, I concluded that he was an emotional unstable youngster who can barely bear any responsibility. He adopted dual moral standards, I bet Tess's life would be getting better, or even a happy ending with Alec or other normal but kind man without ever