The Tragedy of Tess

An Analysis of the Tragedy in Tess of the D’Urbervilles1. Introduction (2)2. Author’s control of the work (3)2. 1 The Social Circumstances of Thomas Hardy (3)2. 1. 1 The social morality of the Victorian Age (3)2. 1. 2 Life of the author (5)2. 2 Thomas Hardy’s fatalism (6)2. 2. 1 The definition of fatalism (6)2. 2. 2 Hardy’s fatalism and its presentation in the work (6)3. Locating the causes in the work (9)3.1 social status (10)3.1 .1 Social status of different families (10)3. 1. 1. 1 Tess’s family (10)3. 1. 1. 2 Angel’s family (11)3. 1. 1. 3 Alec’s family (12)3. 1. 2 Unequal statuses of men and women (13)3. 2 Individual characteristics of the characters (14)3. 2. 1 Tess (14)3. 2. 2 Alec (15)3. 2. 2 Angel (17)3. 2. 4 Tess’s parents (18)4. Conclusion (20)References (21)1. IntroductionIn the Victorian Age,Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles caused a great disturbance. His moral concept that purity came from soul could not be accepted by the people of that age, and was even strongly criticized. With the century went far away from us gradually, people started to recognize the work in a new way. Since twenty century, there emerged a large numbers of reviews on the novel of Tess of the D’Urbervilles. In these reviews, what most people paid close attention to is the causes of Tess’s tragedy. Professor Webster attributed the main reasons to the controlling forces in human life, which were the “heredity” of beauty and character, the sexual attraction between the opposite sex and the operation of chance, while Arnold Kettle considered that Tess’s tragedy represented the disintegration of the English peasantry, and proposed that it was Tess’s low social status that made her unable to get rid of the tragic fate; in addition, Van Ghent analyzed the causes from the point of view of nature in front of which man is feeble and insignificantly small or lowly; and Yu Kun analyzed the causes from economy, showing that the essence of the modern mechanization was ruthless and it was the speedy development of urban economy and those stagnation of rural economy that led to the severe polarization between the rich and the poor (Net. 1). The predecessors’ achi evements were authentic, however, we should pay more attention to the thought of the author, for it was him that createdthe heroine’s tragedy and it was the influence of the social environment on him, his conception and intentional arrangement of the work that finally made an end of a tragedy. Thomas Hardy was the realistic writer in the nineteenth century. He gave a firm critical standpoint to the development of the capitalistic civilization, and therefore was named “pessimist”. As a humanist writer, Hardy thought that people’s life was miserable, the fate of the poor was also a tragedy, and the heroine’s fate was an epitome of human destiny. Hardy’s pessimism made his novels full of pessimistic shades and fatalism thinking, which was represented deeply in Tess in the work. Moreover, there are also other reasons, such as the social morality (virginity notion), the family social status and the character of figures in the work that cause the tragedy of Tess. Therefore, this paper will discuss the causes of Tess's tragic fate from the aspects of both the author himself and the work.2. Author’s control of the work2. 1 The Social Circumstances of Thomas Hardy2. 1. 1 The social morality of the Victorian AgeThere is no doubt that everyone is in the society in which ideology affects most people and their thought, and it is just these people and their thoughts that directly or indirectly lead to the tragic fate of Tess. The author, Thomas Hardy, is the person who created the tragedy. The reasonwhy he made this tragedy has something to do with the social environment in that age.Hardy’s tragic novels have the realistic ground. The social environment and his life experience in that world played an important part in the creation of the tragic novels. The age in which Hardy wrote was the late Victorian Age. According to Han Ting, who is a famous historian, at the time of Victoria, the social structure of England was undergoing an enormous and deep change, which represented obviously in London, as a result, various conflicts and critical crisis produced. Besides, people’s values had also been changed(Net. 2). These changes had a great effect on Hardy, and so most of his works mirrored these fierce class contradictions. As we mentioned above, in the Victoria age, the prosperity remained in the surface, most of the English were not aware of these great changes and kept the blind optimistic life attitude. They sought quick success and instant benefits, being satisfied with the present condition. Until the late Victorian age, enormous change had taken place in people’s values. Instead of being positive, they turned to be negative and doubtful of the society. Malthusian Theory of Population, Benthan’s Utilitarianism and the Liberal Trade Principles of Manchester were struck strongly by the new trend of thought and science such as the theory of evolution of Darwin, Author Schopenhauer’s Will Theory of Life. Hardy read a large number of their works and influenced by their theories andlife attitude to a high extent. Eventually, he became a full fatalist, so when he could not find other ways to vent his grief and indignation, what he only could do was showing them through the form of novels. Therefore, his novels were always full of the tones of tragedy.2. 1. 2 Life of the authorThomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Dorset, a small town in the southwestern England. Young Hardy could not accept good education, but he read all of the books he could read at his home. At the age of sixteen, Hardy left school, and turned to be an apprentice of architect. Despite his regular learning was broken off, he did not stop his study by himself. In 1862, he gave up the work of an architect in Dorset and came to London. Compared with London, Dorset was an agricultural region which was isolated completely from the outside world. Therefore, when he came to London, his horizon was widen greatly, which influenced his literary creation later on. In 1868, he completed his first novel The Poor and the Lady. Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obsure were his two representative works, which were full of the pessimistic color and criticized the social morality at that time. These works led to great disturbances in the England society. Hardy received severe censures or even personal attacks for them. Consequently, he left off his writing of novels and went back to his poetry. In the year of 1928, when his last poem was published, he died.2. 2 Thomas Hardy’s fatalism2. 2. 1 The definition of fatalismThe definition of fatalism in the Advanced Lea rner’s English-Chinese Dictionary is that the belief that events are decided by fate and that you can not control them or the fact of accepting that you can not prevent something from happening(2004: 626). In other words, fatalism is a life attitude that fate is caused by the accidental factors which can not be predicted and which is doomed and can not be changed by any manpower or will.2. 2. 2 Hard y’s fatalism and its presentation in the work In Hardy’s novels, there was full of some driving force that controls the Universal, which was called “the Universal Will”(Net. 5) by him. He considered that the will of man was not free completely, and was also not free incompletely. When he was controlled by the Universal Will (usually he was bound to be a part of the Universal Will), he would be the person who lost his freedom. And what Hardy indicated about the Universal Will was the inevitability, whose power embodied in Hardy’s work was “God’s will” of “fate”(Net. 5). The abiding “Stonehenge”(Hardy, 1996: 502), which was mentioned in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, was just the symbolization of it. In front of this power, personal will was feeble. Therefore, Hardy’s work revealed strong fatalism. He thoughtthat “fatalism was not only regarded as an effective external force, but also appeared as an effective power obtained by heart”(中载, 1998: 102). People helped the mandate of heaven with their actions, which struck them not from the outside world, but from the inside world through their own desire and uneasy emotion by turning into the social conditions and disease. Consequently, when the personal will of man could not gain freedom, it promoted the outcome of fatalism.Hardy’s novels were full of fatalism, which was represented particularly in the book of Tess of the D’Urbervills. This composition reflected the author’s spiritua l life by the behaviors of the heroine he described in the novel. Hence it showed that Hardy could not understand the phenomenon of the enormous change of social economy and the big change of people’s life, he attributed them to the arrangement of fatalism, and represented it by the heroine Tess.The tragedy of Tess originated from an accidental event: poor Durbeyfield knew the fact that he was the lineal representative of the ancient and knig htly family of the D’Urberville, so he wanted to send his daughter Tess to claim kin. While at the same time, their old horse, which was the vital economic source for them, died. Consequently, as the eldest daughter of the family, Tess had to take the burden of his family, promising to claim their “kin” out by Tra ntridge. Beginning with an accidental occurrence, Tess went forward her miserable journey. The novelrevealed the ominous atmosphere at the beginning of the story. The sentence “But Joan Durbeyfield must mind that she don’t get green malt in floor”(Hardy, 1996: 28) presages that Tess would lose her virginity. After she married Angel, the misfortune of her marriage id indicated by the omens of the story of the big horse-drawn carriage, the afternoon crow of the cock, and “those horried women” (Hardy, 1996: 273) in the residence of the D’Urbervilles. All of the constant omens appearing at the plots betoken the tragic fate of Tess.Hardy used a series of coincidence and suggestion in Tess of the D’Urbervilles showing that the tragic fate of Tess was arranged beforehand and was inevitable.The following omens just embodied such fatalism of Hardy’s. The death of the old horse seemed to be coincident al, but implied an inevitable result. In order to save the economic crisis of her family, Tess had to do what she did not want to, go to Alec and work in his family, which brought about the tragedy of her whole life. It also showed that Hardy could not find a bright future for the people who lived in the poor condition, but ascribed their misfortune to the result of coincidence. For the purpose of lightening the guilt, she confessed everything about her in the past to Angel, while got the result of abandonment. After that, Tess went to work alone again. And the only time when she went to Angel’s home asking for help,her shoes were taken by Angel’s brother. Because she could not find a suitable job, could notget the help of her husband and his family, and had to support her family, she had to turn to Alec who made the tragedy of her life. The hardship of her life deepened the tragedy, which seemed to be predestinated previously. The ending showed that things would not move into good way, but would go to a further inevitable tragedy. Finally, Tess killed Alec and ran away with Angel, ending her life by the accusation of murder ultimately. Hardy considered this as a punishment for Tess. After she was seduced by Alec, Hardy wrote that, “One may, indeed, admit the possibility of a retribution lurking in the catastrophe. Doubtless some of Tess D’Urberville’s mailed ancestors rollicking home from a fray had dealt the same wrong even more ruthlessly upon peasant girls of their time”(1996: 86). He thought the suffering of Tess was a retribution for the sin which was made by her ancestors, and Tess was doomed to accept it.3. Locating the causes in the workTess’s fate was miserable. As we mentioned above, the fatalism of the author was the basic reason of it. When we analyze the causes from the work, we can find that the different social statuses of different families and men and women, the character of figures in the work were also the direct or main reasons to produce the tragedy.3.1 social status3.1 .1 Social status of different families3. 1. 1. 1 Tess’s familyThe family of Tess belonged to a special rural group--a small dealer which worked together with farmers but the status was slightly higher than that of the traditional farmers. They were “a set of people who owed a certain stability of aim and conduct to the fact of their being lifeholders like Tess’s father, of copy holders, or occasionally, small freeholders” (Hardy, 1996: 449). They had rich experience, and were primary the mainstay of the rural life, so they were relatively independent. However, they never did the physical labors, so the peasantry did not like them, because “cottagers who were not directly employed on the land were looked upon with disfavor as a rule” (Hardy, 1996: 449).With many children in this family, Tess’s parents should have taken the burden of fostering them, but on the contrary, as the eldest child in this family,although still not old enough, Tess shouldered the burden of the family. While the parents of this miserable family did not work hard to raise the social status of this family, instead, they depended on the direct trivial achievement. Her father often drank, and “a certain way she (Mrs. D’urbervilles) had of making her labors in the house seem heavier than they were by prolonging them indefinitely” (Hardy, 1996:53). They believed that there would be good luck in their life. “We must take the ups wi’ the downs, Tess” (Hardy, 1996: 37), her mother said, “You must go to her and claim kin, and ask for some help in our trouble” (Hardy, 1996: 38). They never try to solve the problem, consequently, the family got very poor.The poverty of the family was the very beginning and was also the most direct element which led to the tragic fate of Tess. If not because of the poverty, Tess would not have to “take the journey with the beehives”(Hardy, 1996: 29), would not be forced to claim the kin, would not receive the humiliation before the coming of Clare, and would not turn to Alec for help at last. Therefore, it was just the inferior social status of this family that drove Tess to meet her doom.3. 1. 1. 2 Angel’s familyAngel lived in a family whose father was one of the last of the strict devout, old-fashioned clergymen of the Evangelical school and whose mother was also a faithful religious believer. Although they were kind and simple, and often gave financial help to the poor people, they were also the guards of the social morality. When Mrs. Clare knew that her son wanted to marry Tess, she asked,“Is she of a family such as you would care to marry into -- a lady, in short?” (Hardy, 1996: 205) and “and that she is pure and virtuous goes without question?”(Hardy, 1996: 332).It shows that though they were not hypocritical as other people in upper class, the social status of themselves decided them to keep the social morality to maintain their interest.The religious family had a great effect on Angel. Though he was out of the religion of his family, he did not find a real belief that could save himself in a new way. Therefore, when he knew the secret of Tess on the night they married, he couldn’t forgive her in any way, which in fact was the presentation of having not got rid of the imprisonment of the morality that was instilled by his parents. At last, he chose leaving, which was the direct reason that made Tess go to the condition of despair.3. 1. 1. 3 Alec’s familyAlec’s fa ther was a rich businessman coming from the north of England. Thinking that “D’Urbervilles” was a surname of an aristocratic family which had quite died out of knowledge and could hardly be said to be known at all, he added it behind their original surname, Stoke, to raise their social status. If not the surname of “D’Urbervilles” and the richness of the family, Tess would not have come to their house, would not have been seduced by Alec, and the tragedy would not have happened.3. 1. 2 Unequal statuses of men and womenIn the Victorian age, the equality of men and women was impossible. Why? People thought that “women should be hard-working, faithful, loyal, and virtuous and the most important thing is that she must be a maiden”(Net. 5). If she lost her virginity before she married, she would not get the forgiveness of her husband, and would gain a very bad reputation. People would go far away from her. Tess was just the example of them.However, in that age, people did not care whether a man was an experienced man or not, nor did they care about his character. They thought “man equals power and power equals rights” (2002: 159). When the “im moral thing” was done, women always r eceived the most injury not only from the body but also from the spirit, while men went on their peaceful life without the guilt of themselves and the condemnation of people.Tess lost her innocence, however, it was not what she wanted, but only that she had no power to defend herself. She should have been shown sympathy for this suffering; nevertheless, she was derided, humiliated, and spurned by people around her. Even her husband, after knowing the truth, abandoned her. As for Alec, the man who hurt her, turned to be a clergyman who saved people’s souls in a village of Evershead. Besides, Angel also did the wrong thing and it was possibly even more serious than Tess’s crime, but he was not blamed for it. Therefore, due to the inequality of men and women, Tess could not get out of the miserable fate, and eventuallywent to the extreme.3. 2 Individual characteristics of the characters3. 2. 1 TessIn the novels of Hardy, the character of figures always closely connected with fate. In this novel, Hardy said that Tess was a pure woman. And it was just because of her pure, kindhearted and credulous characters that formed her inevitable depravity, which made her fail to meet happiness by a narrow chance.Her sense of responsibility sent her to deliver the honey, while the old horse died in the crash because of the carelessness. Therefore, she had to go to claim the kin for the sense of guilt and responsibility. Though she had realized the evil attempt of Alec at the beginning, she did not guard against him carefully. She was even grateful of Alec’s teaching her how to whistle and made her out of the insulting from people on the night when she lost her virginity. Without the vigilance, she jumped into the carriage of Alec’s and even slept leaning against his back. When she found his deception, she did not leave, meanwhile produced a guilty conscience for the presents which Alec gave to her families. Therefore, her carelessness and purity sunk her into the great crisis and offered an opportunity that could be exploited to Alec’s advantage. Such a credible girl definitely would lose good reputation and her husband. However, if not the purity and innocence, she would not have loved Angelso much, would have guessed the denouement of her love, would not have had the guilty conscience, would not have told her secret to Angel, and so the tragedy would not have happened.Another prominent character of Tess was her bravery of resisting the society. “She sought happiness in the whole of her life, dared to love or hate, and resisted the old religious doctrines boldly”(董桂茹, 2005). She despised and defied religion. When the fetter of religion conflicted with the natural instincts, she queried the religion without reluctance, throwing an egg against the rock with her slim strength. She lingered around the rim of morality all the times. During her firm resistance to the society, we saw the mournful beauty of which nice thing was torn by the strong and irresistible power. However, although she tried her best to make a stand against the fate, she still could not free herself from the miserable end as other ordinary women at that time.3. 2. 2 AlecAlec was an incarnation of devil, who was rich, handsome, frivolous and libidinous -- a killer of the arena of love. He was also a deceiver, a scum of morality. Hardy racked his brains to make a comparison between his sham noble mind and Tess’ genuine lofty soul. Tess was a daughter of nature who possessed pure love and soul, yet Alec was a devil who specially came to destroy her. Alec made use of the purity of Tess, madea trap, trampled on and stained her, destroying the happiness of her whole life. At the first sight of Tess, his dissolute nature unmasked without remains. Lacking of experience, innocent Tess was cheated and hurt by him. Although he once turned good after the help of clergyman Clare, his evil practice had not been uprooted.With the violent nature, he was also spoiled by the modern civilization. His fervor and vigor were too much to find a “normal” vent; therefore, he became an unscrupulous and dissolute person. And it was also this vigor that made him become a “fire and brimstone” evangelist. However, when he saw Tess once again, his beastliness raised again with all the previous efforts of several years nullifying. After that, Alec pestered and intimidated Tess, threatening that, “remember, my lady, I was once your master. I will be your master again. If you are any man’s wife, you are mine” (Hardy, 1996: 422). He took advantage of Tess’s difficult position, had her and meanwhile dug a grave for himself.Being a prisoner of individualism, Alec could not make out any difference between love and carnal desire. He thought too much of himself, and so could not sacrifice himself to the love. Therefore, he could not cope with a truly good and morally whole person like Tess whose quality went far beyond the attraction of sex which was a threat to him and that indicated his limitation. Consequently, when he could do nothing to her, he destroyed her.3. 2. 2 AngelAngel was the husband of Tess, whose personal character was quiet different from Alec’s, but there was similarities between them which was more important than that. That was both of them pushed Tess to the abyss that could not be rescued. In this novel, Hardy presented the conflicting character of Angel. He also had his dissolute behaviors, which was forgiven by Tess, while he did not forgive the sinless Tess; he resisted the traditional notion and the class prejudice, but in fact did not get rid of the brand of classes in his deep heart; he despised the blue blood, looked down upon the nobles, while still had an idea that different statuse had different morality.He only treated a woman’s purity from the traditional chastity notion. Clare had no sympathy for Tess, even could not forgive her. When his illusion was broken, he used the snobbish words which his two brothers might use to insult Tess, “d on’t, Tess, don’t argue. Differrent societies, different manners. You seem like an unappreciative peasant woman, who has never been initiated into the proportions of things”(Hardy, 1996: 293). Besides, he said, “I wish half the women in England were as respectable as you. It isn’t a question of respectability, but one of principle”(Hardy, 1996: 305). Such moral callousness was not even Alec might have been capable o f. He was blind to Tess’s deep love to him, abandoned her with cruel coldness, and trapped Tess into despair. If itwas Alec that hurt the body of Tess, then what Angel brought to her was the strike of spirit. The loss of chastity brought Tess great misery; however, it had not wiped out her desire of survival, while the abandonment of lover and the frustration of love destroyed her spiritual stay, which made her lose the courage of living.If it was because of the ignorance for being young of age and poor condition of Tess that made Tess cheated and insulted by Alec at the beginning, then it was the conflicting character of Clare which was mixed with gentleness and ruthlessness that forced her to go back to Alec’s side for the second time, which deepened the misfortune of Tess.3. 2. 4 Tess’s parentsTess’s parents were the indirect killers of Tess. If it was not because of their weakness and self-centeredness, Tess needn’t have goone to claim the kin, and the tragedy would not have happened.Tess’s parents should had been industrious and taken the burden of bringing up their children, but they shirked their duty and kept the hope that Tess would marry that rich fop. When they knew they were the descendants of the blue blood, and there was a rich relative beside the village, they sent Tess to visit them and thought of the benefits they would probably get, while did not consider the danger which Tess might meet. When they found they could not get anything from that family, theyfelt it was a disgrace. Instead of comforting and helping the hurt daughter, the mother just blamed and said, “And yet th’st not got him to marry ‘ee! Any woman would have done it but you”(Hardy, 1996: 98). Besides, she even impute d the fault to Tess’s ignorance, “You ought to have been more careful if you didn’t mean to get him to make you his wife!”(Hardy, 1996: 99), while forgot to raise the family was her responsibility. If she had told her daughter the danger in menfolk, and if she had warned Tess before she went, Tess definitely would have kept the vigilance to that devil. Her father even felt more shameful about the scandal, refusing the clergyman to come to their house to reform the rite for her child. Such cruel coldness could not be done by any parents who truly love their children.Furthermore, the other characteristic of Tess’s parents was vain. When Tess was forsaken by Angel and bore her suffering, they did not go into the truth of this matter, but flaunted their d aughter’s happy marriage to the people in their village. They thought that they were highbred and their daughter married a rich man, so they did not need to work any more. For this vanity, Tess had to take half of her money to satisfy her parents’ greed, p retending they were extremely rich and happy. Ignor ing their daughter’s misery and seeking their vanity, they eventually sent their daughter to a road to ruin.4. ConclusionTo sum up, Tess of the D’Urbervilles is a masterpiece of Tomas Hardy which criticizes realism in the nineteen century. Tess is one of the tragic females in Victorian age. After more than one hundred years, the image of the heroine Tess has been set in the gallery of literature, which shows that it is not only the traditional morality has been surpassed, but the enormous allure in the deep soul of the heroine in the work made her the image of the most appealing woman. Hardy shows deep sympathy for Tess, considering that only the seduced Tess is the pure woman. The tragedy of Tess ha s something to do with the author’s life attitude. Due to the influence of the age and his experience, the fatalism is formed by Hardy. He can not give vent to his anger to the world, but express his thought in his work. Therefore, the tragic fate of Tess is a presentation of Hardy’s fatalism. What is more, the tragedy also connects closely with the social status of different families and the character of figures in the work. Hardy molded a moving character Tess, who makes various mistakes owing to subjective or objective reasons, which makes a result of her tragic fate. However, such tragedy is not occasional, but is a mirror of women’s fate in that age. Therefore, we should think deeply of the age of Victoria from this tragedy, and free women from the old notion and the traditional morality.ReferencesAckerman, Robert. Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’urbervilles. Beijing: Simon & Scjister, 1996.Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 2004.Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D' Urbervilles. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1996.。

Causes of Tragedy of Tess of the D’Urbervilles时间: 2008年10月29日来源:不详作者: 佚名浏览次数: 4549《德伯家的苔丝》悲剧成因探析Abstract Thomas Hardy was a famous critical realistic writer at the turn of the 19th century in England; Tess of the D’Urbervilles is the most influential one of all his works. This novel describes a tragic life about one beautiful and pure girl after disgrace. The article describes the society environment, then begins to analysis of characters’ personality and religion factors open out at that time. T ess’s tragic life is caused by that society and it’s the result of that time. Except this, it can’t be separated from her own weakness in character, because she obviously has the dual nature of the society character---resistance and compromise. As a common person, Tess fought with the society helplessly. In the end, she turned out to be the sacrificial victim of society like all other things which disobey the morality and ethic. Key Words Tess’s Tragedy; Social Environment; Family Environment; Moral ethic; Character 摘要托马斯．哈代是19世纪英国著名的批判现实主义作家，《德伯家的苔丝》是他最为有影响力的一部巨著。

The Analysis of Angel Clare’s Tragedy in Tess of The D’urbervilles中文摘要：文学作品是现实生活的一面镜子，反映了生活的方方面面。

越来越多的学者开始从文学的角度研究一个国家的经济，政治和文化根源。

悲剧是小说创作的手法之一。

西方早在古希腊时期就有了悲剧创作。

悲剧不是简单的艺术形式或艺术技巧，而是对现实社会的特征的再现，它可以通过尖锐、激烈的事件展示令人怜悯、悲痛、同情、哭泣等的情节。

英国著名作家托马斯•哈代是维多利亚时期著名的小说家之一。

他塑造了许多悲剧人物，展现出各种人物魅力。

小说除了给人以命运悲剧庄严凝重以外，还蕴涵了作者深厚的理性主义，蕴涵了对人类历史逻辑矛盾深邃反思的社会悲剧。

哈代的悲剧小说《德伯家的苔丝》真实地反映了其当时的社会现实。

小说成功地塑造了女主人苔丝的形象，无情地揭露了资产阶级社会虚伪的伦理道德。

本文试从男主人公安琪儿•克莱尔的社会背景和人物心理两个方面，探讨导致其悲剧的成因。

关键词：托马斯•哈代悲剧安琪尔•克莱尔Abstract: Literature is a mirror of real life which can reflect all aspects of people’s lives. More an d more scholars have begun to study a country from the roots of economy, politics and culture. As early as ancient Greece, there were some creations of tragedy. Tragedy is a kind of literary creati on, which is not a simple artistic form or technique but the repeat of real society. It can depict the piteous, sad, distressing and sentimental plots by describing some tortuous or complicated events. The British famous writer Thomas Hardy was one of the excellent novelists of the Victorian age. He delineated a lot of characters of tragedies, showing various persons’ enchantment. Besides prov iding the dignity of life tragedy to the readers, the novels contains the profound rationalism of the writer and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’urbervilles reflected his real society. Hardy succeeded in portraying the image of heroine Tess and revealing the hypocritical ethics and morals of bourgeois society. This paper will discuss the causes of Clare’s tragedy from the hero –Angel Clare’s social background and psycho logy.Key words: Thomas Hardy, tragedy, Angel ClareChapter1 IntroductionLiterature is not only an art but also a mirror of real life. When studying a literary work, scholars actually study history. Nowadays an increasing number of scholars have begun to study the histor y of a country’s economic, political and cultural forms from the perspective of literature because thr ough different kinds of literary works, we can see all sorts of feelings such as joy, anger, sorrow a nd various truths. The manifestation of literature is manifold, one of which is tragedy. The writers often want to show the piteous, sad, distressing and sentimental plots by describing some tortuous or complicated events. In the tragedy, it is inevitable that the heroes or heroines should suffer a s etback or disadvantage, cover themselves in dishonor, experience tribulation or even fail or die tho ugh they have reasonable motivation, wishes, ideal, or passion which may indicate a victory or suc cess. But finally they will either die or get mad. With a bad ending, tragedy often contains a certai n philosophy of life. There are lots of tragedies in western literature such as Oedipus, Prometheus Bound, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, Faust, etc. And the famous tragedians are also legion like Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, etc –Thomas Hardy for one. He was a prolific and excellent writer, publi shing fourteen novels and four volumes of short stories. His works were noted for the intense tragi c spirit and sense of fortune, from which we can feel the atmosphere of tragedy brought by fortun e deeply.“Tess of the D’urbervilles” is one of the Hardy’s tragedies, a masterpiece which brought him into a number of literary critics notice. It reflected the writer’s real society and its social system and m orals; therefore studying this novel can help us to know about the history of his age. But many pa pers showed that most of critics used to research the writing background from the tragedy of Tess. Many scholars have always put emphasis on the tragedy of Tess for a long time. Only a few sch olars made researches for the tragedy of its hero Angel Clare. He was a contradictory unity –he w as bold in struggling with the traditional view but in the meantime he could not break the shackles of feudal ideas. This paper will see the society from this perspective –Angel Clare, the hero’s trag edy and discuss the causes of Clare’s tra gedy from his social background and psychology.Chapter2 A brief account of Tess of The D’urbervillesIt seems that the fictional works do not concern with the real world. But we know that before th e writers begin to create their works, it can be said that their social experience may be their prima ry material for creation. Some writers created the roles and environments in order to revolt against the worldly prejudice of their ages. These kinds of words are expected to tell people the truth of a soci ety. In many cases, the social background of the novel is the writer’s background. Before an alyzing the roots of Clare’s tragedy, this paper will discuss two aspects of this novel, namely “the writing background” and “the writer and his works” from which w e can see the background of this novel.。

The tragedy of Tess（苔丝的悲剧）“Tess of the d'Urbervilles ” is generally regarded as Hardy's finest novel. A brilliant tale of seduction, love, betrayal, and murder, Tess of the d'Ubervilles yields to narrative convention by punishing Tess's sin, but boldly exposes this standard denouement of unforgiving morality as cruelly unjust. Throughout, Hardy characterizes Tess as a daughter of nature who endures the brutality of industrialism through the people and circumstances in her life. Using specific language, character depiction, and story development, Hardy provides a strong argument against the urban movement by showing the reader its harsh effects on the agrarian lifestyle. The novel centers around a young woman who struggles to find her place in society.Tess is a beautiful,intelligent and distinguished woman.But those advantages do not take her happiness or good lucky. It didn't like Jane Eyrea good ending the satisfaction of all with the help of oversea colony's money. In her life is full of Suffering and Unfortunate.Who and what couse the tragedy of Tess? I think there are four factors.At first of all, Tess is the tragedy of the times. Tess was living in the late nineteenth century .At that time, British capitalism begin invading rural. This Phenomenon sets conflicting betweeting country and city. In part, Tess represents the changing role of the agricultural workers in England in the late nineteenth century. Hardy shows that life as a maiden begins in the natural country and ends in the brutal city. Tess's life begins in the rural secluded town of Marlott where the country atmosphere allows her to grow into a virtuous caring young girl. In contrast, Tess's downfall occurs in the city. Towards the end of the tale, when Tess is once again in Alec's possession, negative consequences ensue. She murders Alec in the city of Sandbourne that was like a "fairy place suddenly created by the stroke of a wand." (Pg. 296) The suddenness with which the city is created parallels the quick actions of Tess in murdering Alec d'Urberville. In both scenarios it seems like there was no thought before the action was orchestrated. Once Tess is put to death in the city, the harsh realities of justice and punishment remind the reader of Hardy's pessimistic view of industrialism. Hardy purposely begins and ends Tess's life in such a manner to show her as a sacrifice of rural landscape to the urban movement. Through his portrayal of Tess, Hardy is able to use her entire being to make his negative attitude towards urbanity known.Many people in England were forced to make sacrifices during the industrial revolution. Through language, character depiction, and specific scenes in the novel, Hardy illustrates the harsh effects of industrialism on certain agrarian lifestyles. He shows the reader that the commercialism and emphasis on modernistic ways of life did not fall well with all the people in the land. The substitute of machinery to manual labor came at a heavy price for the beautiful English land and the families who inhabited it. Hardy allows his readers to see that progress may not always be a positive occurrence and good intentions may cause dire consequences.At the beginning of stoy,Tess is a naive country girl. She is primarily a daughter of nature upon whom urbanity will leave its lasting marks. but one day , When her fathe discovere that the low-class Durbeyfield family is in reality the d'Urbervilles,he want Tess to recognizes the relative. Because the family circumstances are poor.tess complies by unvoluntary,even if she feels very ashamed.In there she meets master’s son Alec d’Urberville,who plays a character as chief criminal in her tragic life.An insouciant twenty-four-year-old man, heir to a fortune, and bearer of a name that his fatherpurchased, Alec is the nemesis and downfall of Tess’s life. His first name, Alexander, suggests the conqueror—as in Alexander the GreatZ，who seizes what he wants regardless of moral propriety. His full last name, Stoke-d’Urberville, symbolizes the split character of his family, whose origins are simpler than their pretensions to grandeur. After all, Stokes is a blunt and inelegant name.At the very end of the novel,he becomes a reverent Christian On surface.But when he remeeting Tess, he quickly abandons his newfound Christian faith. It is hard to believe Alec holds his religion, or anything else, sincerely. His supposed conversion may only be a new role he is playing. Indeed Alec is diabolical. Alec creeps up on Tess in the darkness of the Chase and lies with her without her knowing it.He deco nstructed the tess’s chastity and pure.At last,he forces tess to be his lover.Not aslo he really love tess,but only regards tess as his toy. It can be said,he is the immediate cause of tess’s tragedy.Angel Clare is also one of the important factors, caused more serious and terrible harm on tess psychological. Angel Clare is a complex art image. On the one hand,he is Bourgeois intellectuals , having Open minds and independent thinking.He hope depend on his own labor to survive and do not want to inherit his father's mantle..He is a secularist who yearns to work for the “honor and glory of man,” as he tells his father in Chapter XVIII, rather than for the honor and glory of God in a more distant world. A typical young nineteenth-century progressive, Angel sees human society as a thing to be remolded and improved, and he fervently believes in the nobility of man. He rejects the values handed to him, and sets off in search of his own. Indeed Angel Clare is a fascinating and good-hearted man. When he was working on the Pasture,a lot of girls admired him. But his love for Tess, a mere milkmaid and his social inferior, is one expression of his disdain for tradition. This independent spirit contributes to his aura of charisma and general attractiveness that makes him the love object of all the milkmaids with whom he works at Talbothays.But on the other hand, Angel Clare aslo is one of the male chauvinist supporters. In his heart, he is still difficult to get rid of controling by feudal morals.His love for Tess may be abstract, as we guess when he calls her “Daughter of Nature” or “Demeter.”. Tess may be more an archetype or ideal to him than a flesh and blood woman with a complicated life. So Angel deserts Tess when he finds the innocent country girl he fell in love with is not so pure.On their wedding night, tess confesses that she is not a virgin and explains what happened with Alec d'Urberville. Even though he himself has also had an affair out of wedlock, he becomes upset and is unable to reconcile his real affection for Tess, his wounded pride, and his image of Tess as a pure and virginal figure. He can’t forgive her for having another man’s child even though she forgives him everything. Angel abandons Tess and tells her she cannot contact him; he will contact her. But he has not divorced with tess, because of Men's dignity.At last, after his failure in Brazil, and only then Angel realizes he has been unfair to Tess. His moral system is readjusted as he is brought down to Earth. But to his sorrow, when returning to England to find Tess, he discovers tess living in a hotel with Alec d'Urberville.Everthing is too late.In addition, Tess’s character is also an important reason for the tragedy.Although Tess has great courage to against social injustice,she can’t get rid of astrology from her own moral traditions. She understood herself is a victim of the social violence and ethics morals victim. But in while receives which the native place person’s censures, she also consider herselves guilty. To forget the past ,she is Far away her family and home to Tabou Lei. Falls in love with Angel Clare makes her happiness,howere,her heart still fell suffered.Facing Angel Clare’s abandon,she think that is her own crime. Thus she silently endures the unjust fate.In herthingking, strong moral consciousness and religious sense is very obvious. The intense moral sensitivity and psychological atonement causes her to fall into the mire of suffering and tragedy. Tess has a lot of advantages, for instance saidindustriously, selfless, simple. Among them, her most Prominent advantages is pure, as the author described in subheading-“A pure woman”.But the such commendable moral excellence makes her go to the Abyss of tragedy. She is unable to live with Alec for the matter to enjoy ,while she can’t deceive Angel for Own happiness. If Tess is willing, she can request Alec to marry with her,when she was pregnant with his child, and does not have to endure other people's criticism.On wedding night, Listening to the advice of her mother,she can chooses to Hide her busband the matter happened with Alec d'Urberville,like any other women who have suffered simila matter as her.but her pure don’t allow her to do such “simple” matter.Tess thus represents what is known in Christian theology as original sin, the degraded state in which all humans live, even when—like Tess herself after killing Prince or succumbing to Alec—they are not wholly or directly responsible for the sins for which they are punished. This torment represents the most universal side of Tess: she is the myth of the human who suffers for crimes that are not her own and lives a life more degraded than she deserves.In a word, Tess is a really pure woman. She has many valuable advantages.But because of Personal reasons, soc ial reasons and time reasons,she didn’t have a good end. Her tragedy is inevitable.摘要：《德伯家的苔丝》是英国文学的瑰宝。

苔丝悲剧的原因也表现在世俗道德偏见的作弄以及伪善的宗教迫害。

苔丝生活在19 世纪80 年代,按世俗道德,妇女失去贞操就是不洁、不忠,所以一个女子失去贞操就只能与这个男子结合。

正是这样一种世俗道德使苔丝在被亚雷玷污后身心备受煎熬,即使是受过先进资产阶级进步思想教育过的克莱也未能摆脱世俗道德偏见。

苔丝在新婚之夜说出了自己未婚先孕的不幸往事,但未得到克莱的同情和原谅。

克莱认为她是“一个冒名顶替的骗子,一个伪装成纯洁少女的罪妇。

”莱最终抛弃了苔丝,使她再次陷入绝望之中。

可见世俗的偏见葬送了苔丝的爱情,也剥夺了苔丝追求爱情的权利。

社会普遍的道德观都是与宗教紧密联系在一起的。

资产阶级道德视她为伤风败俗的不洁的女人,而宗教思想的渗透也使苔丝本身承受了巨大的精神压力,使苔丝精神上一步步陷入悲剧的深渊。

苔丝思想上深受宗教教义影响,当她的私生子快要病死的时候,她想到的还是婴儿没有受过洗礼,死后无法升入天堂,因此急忙去牧师那里希望可以得到洗礼却被拒绝。

尽管苔丝因绝望而对宗教产生过质疑,但她始终无法摆脱宗教的阴影,不停地用宗教观念想像、解释、象征自己的不幸遭遇。

在她与克莱的关系上,也暴露出资产阶级婚姻制度和道德观念的虚伪和残暴。

品德败坏的资产者可以任意玩弄女性,但一切后果又都归罪于女性。

正如恩格斯所说:“凡在妇女方面被认为是犯罪并且要引起严重的法律后果和社会后果的一切,对于男人却认为是一光荣,至多也不过被当作可以欣然接受的道德上的小污点。

在资产阶级社会里,宗教只是反动统治阶级用以麻醉、欺骗和愚弄劳动人民的工具,道德与法律也只是维护和服务于上流阶层社会的。

T ess of the reasons for the tragedy but also in secular bias and moral hypocrisy of the religious persecution. Tess lives in 19 in the 1980s, according to secular ethics, women lose their virginity is dirty, infidelity, a woman can only lose virginity with this man on the combination. It is exactly such a secular morality that Tess in the Ya - lei been tarnished after the physical and psychological torment, even if progress is well advanced bourgeois ideological education Klein had failed to shake off the secular moral prejudices. Tess in the wedding night expressed their unwed pregnant unfortunate events of the past, but not Klein's sympathy and forgiveness. Klein that she was "a liar the identity of a girl disguised as a pure crime of UNIFEM." Levin eventually abandoned T ess, she once again into despair. Visibility secular bias resulted in the love Tess, Tess also deprived of the right to the pursuit of love. Society in general moral values and religion are closely linked. Bourgeois morality to corrupt public morals as her dirty woman, and the infiltration of religious ideology also Tess itself under severe psychological pressure so that the spirit of Tess step by step into the abyss of tragedy. Tess ideologically affected by religious doctrine, the illegitimate child when she died about the time she thinking about the baby have not received baptism, unable to ascend to heaven after death, rushed to the pastor baptized there can be hope was rejected. Although Tess of religion because of despair have been questioned, but she has never been able to shake off the shadow of religious goal to imagine with a religious concept, explained that the symbol of their unfortunate experience. In her relationship with Klein, has also revealed that bourgeois marriage and the moral values of hypocrisy and brutality. Moral corruption of the assets can be playing with women, but also all the consequences of all blame women. As Engels said: "Where women are considered serious crimes and to the legal consequences and socialconsequences for all, the men he considered it as a glorious, and at most can only be regarded as morally embrace of a small stain. in bourgeois society, religious reactionary ruling class is only for the anesthesia to cheat and fool the working people the tools, moral and legal only in the maintenance and service sectors of the upper reaches of society.苔丝在小说中露面时，家庭已经到了崩溃的边缘。

Literature ReviewC12 英语〔1〕 X X XTess of the D’Urbervilles is generally regarded as Tomas Hardy’s finest novel. Since its publication in 1891, it has encountered considerable concern in literary criticism. Among these numerous essays dwelling on Tess, most criticisms and interpretations focus on probing into the root of Tess’s tragedy. These scholars ponder Tess’s tr agedy from various perspectives and give a multitude of interpretations on this topic. But no one can exhaust such a great work，there is still much room for further consideration about Tess’s tragedy. Through several months’ efforts in searching, collectin g and reading an abundance of scholars and professors’ literature concerning causes of tragedy of Tess, I have learned much and gained a lot of data and create the following essay which summons up the essence of the literature.1．Analyses of Objective F actors in Tess’s Tragedy.The Age Characteristic and the Rebel in Tess of the D’U rbervilles – A Feminine Decoding on Tess of the D’U rbervilles by Jiang Lu introduces the economic background of the story. Jiang states that the story of Tess happened during the late half of 19th century, which witnessed the decline and destruction of the English peasantry. It was an age of transition and great social upheavals. With the development of capitalism, England was slowly developing from its former state of a mainly agricultural country to its new condition of a primarily industrial society, because of which the traditional self-sufficient society order in the country was broken. Helplessly confronted with the change, the country villagers were deprived of their lands, houses and other possessions. Then, in possession of few things they were forced to immigrate away from their accustomed land and to be employed as farm workers. Therefore, country peasants were inflicted tragically by the industrial development. This part clearly demonstrates the economic situation of the farmer at Victorian age which is quite beneficial to my paper.An Ecofeminist Reading of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles by YuKun discusses the tragedy of Tess from the perspective of Ecofeminism, this paper practically explores the close relationship between women and nature and women’s tragic fate as the result of industrialization and patriarchal society, which helps me understand Tess’s tragedy from a new angle. It points out that at the late Victorian Age when industrialization began to encroach upon the countryside rapidly and capitalism developed further, the peasants lost their land and many of them were impoverished. Tess’s family,without exception, was poverty-stricken, which turned out to be the very root of her tragedy. Tess, impelled by the economic pressure from her family, had to go to claim kindred with prosperous D’Urbervilles family where she met evil Alec who deprived of her virginity; and it was her poor family that made Tess return to Alec. Besides, the society in the Victorian period was a man-dominated society, woman had to suffer the injustices of man-made law, the law by which man and woman were not equally treated in terms of morality. Angel who set a double moral standard for man and woman certainly couldn’t conceive of a relationship of equality with Tess. He couldn’t forgive Tess for her lost of virginity although he himself had dissipated past. Thus he finally abandoned Tess because of her “impurity〞, which gave Tess a fatal blow.The Connotation and Characteristic of “Angels in House〞in Victorian Period of England by Zeng Yayin demonstrates perfect women’s image in people’s mind in Victorian period. It says that a traditional Victorian woman is supposed to be a perfect woman. First, they should be gentle, graceful and charming, that is to keep an attractive appearance. Second, they should be submissive. They were taught to be sympathetic, gentle and considerable to other people. And the most important thing was to be submissive to their father or brothers, and after being married, their submission turned to their husbands. Third, they should have pure bodies. Traditionally, virginity was worshipped as a symbol of honor for an unmarried woman. It was very important for a younger woman to be a virgin before marriage and be loyal to her husband after she married him, and virginity was a girl’s virtue and value as well. Fourth, home was her whole world. She should sacrifice herself for her husband and the family. Taking care of the family and making the home healthy andcomfortable was undoubtedly all her duty. Besides, they were economically dependent, what they should do was to stay at home which was the shelter for them, and to seek for support and protection from them, so marriage was pretty much their best choice. All in all, the idle Victorian woman should be devoted, pure both mentally and physically and submissive. This paper gives me a general idea of the image of women in Victorian period, which will help me a lot in my paper.Analysis of Tragedy of Tess by Tang Xuan points out that Tess is a typical female tragedy, considering the convention and the bourgeois morality of her time. The last years of the nineteenth century were the Victorian period. Victorian morality imposed rigid norm on women, which demanded women to be pure. The loss of virginity was a fatal blow to Tess as she was turned against and crushed by the social convention. It was a man-dominated society, in which woman had to suffer the injustices of man-made law, the law by which man and woman were not equally treated in terms of morality and the use of double standard in sexual matters was the essential feature of the Victorian society. This was why Tess, being violated by Alec, unfairly suffered from being morally and socially spurned and punished while Alec remained free from any social reprimands. What is more, according to the Victorian customs, a man could live a dissipating life as he had once done while a woman could not. This double standard for man and woman made it impossible for Angel who was dominated by the conventional social custom and the bourgeois view of morality to forgive Tess. This part helps get a better idea of the impact of social convention and morality on Tess’s tragedy.The Ruin of a Pure Woman — Analyses of the Tragedy of Tess by Zhou Hong says that Tess is the victim of capitalist law and hypocritical religion. It states that Alec dared to do evil at his pleasure not only because he was a man of money and power, but also because he was under the protection of bourgeois law which was employed as a tool to rule ordinary people and was always at bourgeois’ interest. According to the law, it was ironic that the man who seduced Tess was justified while Tess who suffered damage was sinful. Oppressed by so strong social prejudice, Tess was deprived of the right to protect herself and forced to accept the unfair treatmentimposed on her. Thus, she was doomed to be a victim of power and violence. Besides, hypocritical religion was also closely related to Tess’s tragedy. In capitalis t society, religion was just used as a tool to lull and enslave people. When Tess met Alec again, to Tess’s as tonishment , Alec, the man who seduced her and ruthlessly pushed her into the abyss of tragedy, could resort to Christianity and became a priest who asked people to do good deeds. From this part I can see that both bourgeois law and religion are hypocritical.2. Reflection on Subjective F actors in Tess’s Tragedy.Analysis of Tess’s Character by Xu Haibo focuses on Tess’s character to explain the cause of Tess’s tragedy. It points out that the character of Tess is closely related to her fate, it is the tension in her character that leads her to the tragedy. The most obvious ones are those between humility and pride, and between innocence and sensuality. Ultimately it can be said that the tension is the one between obedience and rebellion within her character. It presents that both historical conditions and living environment contribute to the formation of Tess’s character. Tess has the qualities of kindness, honesty, diligence and loyalty which are shared by the label people, besides, she also inherits the pride traditionally associated with noble families, but her pride is conflicted with her social and economic position. In this paper, the author gives a detailed explanation with examples about the tension in Tess’s character which helps me better understand his idea. Besides it points out that there is also conflict between acquired conventional belief and instinctive independence of mind, and between ignorance and education in Tess’s character, which can also be seen from many cases. From this article, I get a good knowledge of Tess’s character as well as its relationship with her fate.Study on the Tragic Fate of Tess by Zhou Zhongxin and Wang Yanwen points out that Tess is a pure woman, but, ironically, her purity becomes the decisive factor of her tragedy. It states that Tess’s pure nature is fully embodied by her strong sense of responsibility and self -sacrifice to her family. When their horse is killed in an unexpected accident, nobody blames Tess as she blames herself, therefore, she doesn’trefuse once more her parent’s suggestion to claim kin with the wealthy D’Urbervilles family although she is not willing to do so. This is the very action that ruins all her life, she is seduced by Alec and later gives birth to an illegitimate baby. Moreover, her sense of responsibility is also clearly revealed when she becomes a mistress of Alec because of the desperate situation of her family. Tess’s purity is also displayed in her honesty and loyalty to love. When she is seduced by Alec, she bravely chooses to leave him at once irrespective of the pressure of her family and the society, because she realizes that she has never loved Alec.As to Angle, she falls in love with him deeply, but she continuously refuses Angle’s wooing because she thinks her being his wife is a shame for him. In order to protect Angle, she is willing to sacrifice her own feeling and happiness. Although she accepts Angle at last, she decides to disclose her past to him because of her honesty and true love for Angle. But her confession only results in an end of their marriage, she is deserted by her heartless husband, which leads to her miserable life soon afterwards. This paper offers me a good idea of the relationship be tween Tess’s purity and her tragedy.A Multi Perspective of the Tragedy of Tess of the D’Urbervil les by PengYan mentions the persecution of religion on Tess. Brought up in a heavily religious environment, Tess is deeply poisoned by religious thought, which forces Tess to bear enormous psychological pressure and induces her to sink into tragical abyss. Tess is a victim of religious doctrine. When her baby is dying, she suddenly realizes that she hasn’t been baptized and therefore will die without salvation a nd go to hell, but no parson is willing to do it for her baby, so she decides to baptize her baby by herself. Obviously, all her terrors about the hell are coming from the religious doctrine taught to her. Besides, although she used to doubt the existence of God when she feels desperate toward life, she can’t free herself from the shadow of religion. She always uses religious thought to imagine, explain and symbolize her miserable life. When she meets a man writing biblical texts on walls, she consciously feels ashamed and guilty for her loss of virginity, although it is not her fault. She is always self-contempt and keeps torturing herself by hypocritical religion thought. From this part I get to know religion’s impact on Tess.My Opinion about Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Li Honglan points out her family’s role in causing her tragedy. It says that Tess’s parents are ignoran t and vain，which leads directly to Tess’s tragedy. Tess’s father, Jack is lazy, selfish and foolish. When he hears of the news about his noble ancestry, he thinks his family will surely become rich if only Tess go to claim kinship with the wealthy family. When Tess is seduced by Alec, he doesn’t care about his daughter’s feelings and lock the door to prevent Tess from going out, the only thing that worries him is what others will think of this collapse of his family pride.Besides, Tess’s mother Joan is no better than Jack. The news of ancestry also affects her, she wants her daughter to rise in the world by making a successful marriage and thus bring fortunes to the whole family. When Tess chooses to leave Alec, she blames Tess for not marrying him and when Tess is deserted by Angle, she thinks it is all Tess’s fault. At the same time, her father doesn’t show sympathy for Tess either, he even doubts about her marriage, which makes Tess unable to live at home any more. Since her parents cannot be relied on, Tess takes on her younger shoulder the family burdens. She has a strong sense of responsibility towards her family and at almost every stage of her life it is her concern for family that influences her actions-from her agreement to claim kinship to family D’Urberville right to her final decision to return to Alec is totally due to her responsibility to support her family. From this analysis, I get a comprehensive knowledge about the influence of Tess’s family on her tragedy.Tess一A Pure but Tragic Woman by Zhang Qun discusses the influence of two men —Alec and Angle on Tess’s tragedy. It explains that Alec, typical of a bourgeois villain, m etamorphoses himself into the more dignified style of Alec D’Urberville and decorates himself as a man of nice heart. He takes advantage of Tess’s poverty and innocence, and seduces her on purpose. Thus , Tess intends to look for a way out but is driven by him to a way with a dead end. On the other hand, Angle is a representative of bourgeois intellectuals. He regards himself as a man full of new thoughts who isn’t bound by social customs. However, as a matter of fact, he couldn’t free himself from it. He idealizes Tess as symbol of purity and pursues her enthusiasticaly, but desert her as soon as Tess’s confession. Given up by her husband,Tess can’t support her family on her own and she is foeced by the death of her father and consequent loss of their cottage to succumbe to Alec to be his mistress. But out of her expection, Angle comes back, she is so shocked and regretfull that she kills Alec, because she thinks it is the only way out. From this analysis, I get a sense of these two men’s impact on Tess and I will use some of his idea in my paper.3. Introduction to the A uthor’s Outlook Reflected in the Novel.On Fatalism and Pessimistic View in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Hu Ye says that Tess’s t raged y is related to Thomas Hardy’s fatalisti c outlook on life. Tess’s life can be divided into several stages and every stage is sprinkled a series of coincidences that push Tess to the doomed abyss. In this paper, it gives details about these coincides. At the outset, Tess’s father John Durbeyfield is so excited at the news of her ancestor that he drink himself drunk, so Tess has to replace her father to send the beehives to the market. Then the accidental death of the horse Prince destroys the family’s livelihood, so Tess is forced to go to claim k in with the wealthy D’Urbervilles family, where she is seduced by Alec.After this great frustration, she happens to meets Angle and falls in love with him. When she is about to marry him, Tess decides to write her past in a letter and thrusts it from unde r the door into Angel’s bedroom. But the paper gets mislaid under the carpet and Angel does not see it, which directly leads to the break of their marriage. When Tess eventually decides to visit Angel’s parents and asks them for help, she unfortunately ove rhears the conversation of Angel’s brothers, then she give up asking help from them. There is also the coincidence that she reencounters with Alec at exactly the moment when she is most vulnerable, then she becomes her mistress. Considering these coincides, I think that there is close relationship between Tess’s tragedy and these coincidences, although they all happen by chance.Tragic Consciousness Inherited and Future Developed in Hardy’s Novels On The Tragical ness in Tess of D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure by Zuo Yanru says that Thomas Hardy is an inheritor of classical tragedy, so he naturally transplanting the ideas of fatalism into his tragedy novels, and Tess of the D’Urbervilles is a typicalone. It tells that Hardy’s perspective of fatalism ha s two distinctive features. First, his fatalism often arises from the external environment, both social and physical, and the internal character of the protagonists. This realistic concern is a new aspect of fatalism. Second, in order to achieve the desire d tragic effect, Hardy’s destructive forces are reflected as the combination of accidents and inevitabilities, which aims to produce a strong sense of fate. The two features makes Hardy’s novels produce a strong sense of fatalism. This introduction lets me know the character of Hardy’s fatalism and its influence on the novel.Having read the above literature concerning the analyses of Tess’s tragedy, we have no difficulty to find that more and more scholars and professors both at home and abroad begin to p ay attention to the field of the cause of Tess’s tragedy. Most of them probe into this field from the perspective of social background, the heroine’s inner factors or the heroes destructive impact, there are not many other interpretations, however, all of them give me good guide to this topic and help me gain a better understanding of various elements relating to Tess’ tragedy, it also evokes my interest towards this topic and stimulates me to study this topic from a new perspective. In my paper, I tend to analyze the tragedy of Tess from individual choices with the help of the achievements of the critical study done by the former Hardy scholars, and I hope that I can make some contribution to this field by reading extensively and analyzing the literature.ReferencesXu Haibo. Analysis of Tess’s Character [J]. ?语文学刊(高教·外文版)?2007(06) Zhang Qun. Tess—A Pure but Tragic Woman [J]. Journal of Donghua University (Eng.Ed.) 2003(20).胡艳.论哈代?德伯家的苔丝?中的宿命论和悲观主义色彩[J].?太原科技大学报?2021(02).蒋橹.?苔丝?中的时代特征与叛逆形象—苔丝的女性主义视觉解析[J].?电影评介?2006(14).[J].?青海师专学报(教育科学)?2005(05).彭焱. “苔丝〞悲剧的多层次透视[J].?内江师范学院学报?2005(20).唐璇.?苔丝?悲剧根源剖析[J].?南华大学学报(社会科学版)?2006(01).于坤. An Ecofeminist Reading of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles[J]. ?高等教育与学术研究?2007(01).—?苔丝?悲剧分析[J].?电影评介?2007(11).左燕茹.Tragic Consciousness Inherited and Future Developed in Hardy’s Novels On The Tragicalness in Tess of D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure [D].济南：山东师范大学. 2004.“家庭天使〞的内涵和特点[J].?达县师范高等专科学校学报(社会科学版)?2005(04).[J].? 电影评介?2021(11).。

The Analysis of Tess’s Tragedy in Tess of the D’UrbervillesAbstractTess of the D’Urbervilles is the most influential one of all Thomas Hardy’s works. The novel tells a tragic life about a beautiful and pure girl after disgrace. This thesis analyzes the personal character and society tragedy open out at that time. The author, Hardy, revealed a common girl, Tess, fought with the society helplessly. Finally, Tess’s tragic life can not be separated from her own weakness in character. Key Words:Tess; Tragic Life; Victim of Society摘要《德伯家的苔丝》是托马斯·哈代最为有影响力的一部巨著。

该小说主要讲述了一个美丽纯真的少女失身后悲惨的命运。

论文通过对小说中社会环境的描写，从分析人物性格和社会悲剧着手。

苔丝的悲剧生活于其自身的弱点是分不开的。

作者哈代揭示了一个普通女孩，苔丝无助地与当时社会抗争，最终苔丝成为社会的牺牲品。

关键词：苔丝；悲惨的命运；社会的牺牲品ContentsAbstract (i)摘要................................................................................................................................ i i I. Introduction . (1)II. Reasons of Family for Tess’s tragedy (3)A. Family Background (3)B. Her Parents for Tess’s Tragedy (3)1. Her Father to Tess’s Tragedy (3)2. Her Mother for Tess’s Tragedy (3)III. Reasons of Her Own for Tess’s Tragedy (5)A. Her Sacrifice for the family (5)B. Her sacrifice for love (5)IV. Character and Social Elements for Tess’s Tragedy (7)A. Character Element for Her Tragedy (7)1. Facing Alec (7)2. Her Nature Character—Industrious and Brave (7)B. Dual Nature of Character for Her Tragedy (7)1. Resistance (8)2. Uncompromise (8)C. Social Element for Her Tragedy (8)1. Capitalism of social background (8)2. Male Consciousness Leading to Tess’s Tragedy (9)V. Conclusion (10)Acknowledgements (11)Bibliography (12)I. IntroductionTess was born in a poor family. One day, her father was told that he was the lineal descendants of ancient family of the D’Urbervilles, then he turned his head up. He and his vain and vulgar wife decided to sent Tess to a rich family also called D’Urbervilles’s descendant. In order to get support their society status, Tess went to the rich family, after that being raped and pregnant. The child was born, then died soon. Several years later, she left home to a milk factory to work. There did she meet her true love Angel Clare. They fell in love and engaged. She greatly admired Angel Clare and loved him. But Angel did not learn of her previous relationship with Alec until their wedding night.On the wedding night, Tess told all about it to his husband, but she did not get his understanding. After that Angel abandoned her then he went to Brazil to develop his business alone. When Tess and Alec met again, because of the hard life, she lived with Alec again. Several years later, Angel returned from abroad. He was very sorry for what he did. And he told Tess his thought. For Tess loved him so addicted, she wanted to back to Angel. So Tess murdered Alec.After she spent a few days of happiness with Angel, Tess was arrested and then died.Thomas Hardy was the last important novelist of the Victoria ages, an age of realism rather than of romanticism –a realism which strives to tell the whole truth showing moral and physical diseases as they are.Victorian literature in general truthfully represents the reality and spirit of this age long—realistic, thickly plotted, and crowded with characters. Hard y’s expression of the truth of this age which came from the agitation of life and fatalism of human being also had a high place in Western literature.The tragic idea in Hardy’s novels spring and develop in form and connotation. The tragedy consciousness in Hardy’s novels originated from Western traditional tragic spirit which was full of rationalism and profound reflection on the contradictions of human society. And it also revealed an ineluctable and inevitable conditionality of fate. That is to say, the heroes or heroines would slip into the tragicpath of life in the end in Western literature no matter whether they liked or not, or where they hided. Tragedy was their final arrangement.When he was young, he derived a love of music from his father and a devotion to literature from his mother. He grew up in the Dorset shire, of which the environment there became the main backdrop of his writings. Thomas Hardy was afamous critical realistic wreter at the turn of the 19th century in England, His writings often reflected the change after capitalism intruded the countries in England and the people’s hard life. Hardy began to creating the novels in the early 1870s.In the late 1890s, he turned to write poetry. The Britain in this period was undergoing a transition period from laisser-faire capitalism to imperialism. The capitalism thought that the social system of this period could not be changed. But Hardy’s works exactly clashed with it, which reflected the tremendous changes of society due to the invasion of industrial capital to the village.Tess of the D’Urbervilles was published in the year of 1891, which was one of his most famous novels. This novel explosed women’s tragic life in that time.The thesis discribs two reasons, one is Tess’s personality character, another one is so ci ety reasonsII. Reasons of Family for Tess’s tragedyA. Family BackgroundAt the beginning of the novel, Tess was a daughter of poverty descent which had once magnificent .She was a dairymaid, who lived in the country, as a daisy on the village roadside, beautiful but humble, and being with her family was broken up and decimated sixty years ago before the story began. And as the writer express emotion, “Norman's descent, not for the support of Victoria 1800, the wealth, a very inconsequential!” Distinguished background doesn’t bring any benefits to Tess, but her tragic life was begun..B. Her Parents for Tess’s Tragedy1. Her Father to Tess’s TragedyTess’s father, a carter in Marlott, who is a lazy alcoholic. He hated to work hard when he learned that his family is descended from nobility. In order to get some porfits When pastor said “D’Urbeyfield, that you are the lineal representative of the ancient and knightly”He became excited and walked in a profound reverie. He began to make his noble dream: “tell them to send a horse and carriage to me immediately, tocarry me home” Even more, D’Urbeyfield put his hand in his pocket, and produced a shilling, one of the chronically few that he possessed. He sent it to the lad with the lavish expression.As if a pedigree can change his poverty, he became complacent and full of the unlimited dream. The unrealistic illusion changed Tess’s tragedy fate.2. Her Mother for Tess’s TragedyTess’s mother, whose ambitions were much simpler. She wanted Tess to rise in the world by making a successful marriage. Tess returned to home after having been raped by Alec, and she told her mother what had happpened in the forest with Alec. Her mother told her “You ought to be more careful if you did not mean to get him to make you his wife”. Tess answered, “Oh, mother, my mother! How could I be expected to know? I was a child, when I left this house for months ago. Why did you tell me there was danger in man folk?” Tess did not have the knowlwdge about men,because of her lower education. Tess’s mother was frustrated with the reasons why Tess did not marry Alec. Her mother believed that if Tess married Alec, her family’s situation would be changed greatly.The attitudes of her parents determined Tess’s tragic end in a large property. If Tess was not born in this poor family or her family was also a noble one. If she was not so responsible for her duty, and she was not so kind, her life would not end up in this way.III. Reasons of Her Own for Tess’s TragedyA. Her Sacrifice for the familyTess sacrificed herself for her family. As a rural girl from a peasant family, she maintained the simple innocent qualities of peasant. Her family was very poor. All they lived on was a weak horse，Furthermore, Tess’s parents would not work to support themselves. The family lived a hard life, because there were seven younger sisters and brothers. Poverty forced Tess at the age of 17 to take her parents’ duty of financial burden of the whole family. Tess was too young! At that age most people are still in school!Tess’s father, John Durbeyfield is a plain haggler in the village of Marlott, when he learned that he is the lineal representatives of ancient and knightly family of the d’Urbervilles. He is very proud of his aristocratic ancestry and celebrates in a tavern. There, he decides to send Tess to claim kinship with the d’Urbervilles. He is hypocritical and ignorant. He thinks Tess should marry a rich man, through which will give his family we alth and fame. Besides, Tess’s mother is also a selfish and hypocritical rural woman; she is attracted by her husband’s noble blood. When she learns that old lady d’Urbervilles is blind and his son, Alec is still unmarried, she should and could realize the risk sending Tess there, for her chastity. And she can’t accept and understand Tess’s refuse to Alec’s proposal. Her parents even can’t meet their ends meet. Then, we come to Tess’s seven younger brothers and sisters. They are all very young, and can’t sh are the burden of the family. Thus, the heavy burden of supporting the family falls on Tess’s family. She is willing to work hard and share the burden, and sacrifice her own happiness. It’s all out of her responsibility for the family. Alec to him is a devil, a destroyer, she never loves him, but she still subjects to him for his material aid to her family. That is a great spirit and love for the family.B. Her sacrifice for loveIn Tess’s life, she encountered with two men, namely, Alec and Angel. Hercredulity to Alec and infatuation to Angel.How uncompromising she was in life. But she was not a successor in love. She was a slavery of love. Tess’s physically was injured by Alec, and mentally was affected by Angel. Alec is portrayed as a spoiled; almost evil person and a high class snob. From the first time, she met Alec, Tess can not escape from his palm. While, working on the dairy farm, Tess met Angel. They fell in love. Tess was very admire Angel Clare, and loved him. Unfortunately, when Tess told him what happened to her past, Angel abandoned her. Because he had an idea of egoism, which is deeply affected by the traditional society morals and conventions. Even though he , himself, was not a pure man, he could not accept Tess who was not a really pure bride. Tess’s love made her to death. After Angel left, due to the pressure of life, Tess had to return to Alec.After that, Angel came back from Brazil, he told Tess that he forgave her past. By the reason of her love to him, Tess murdered Alec. “To her su blime trustfulness he was all that goodness could be… knew all that a guide, philosopher, and friend should know she thought every line in the contour of his person the perfection of masculine beauty, his soul the soul of a saint, his intellect that of a seer. The compassion of his love for her, as she saw it, made her life up her heart to him in devotion.” Her love was so cheap that Tess lost herself, and her own dignity. This blind and unequal love made Tess lose some rights of a true wife who could seek happiness. This directly led to Tess’s tragic.IV. Character and Social Elements for Tess’s TragedyA. Character Element for Her TragedyTess’s personal characteristics were also the cause of her tragedy. Towards life, Tess is never surrendered. No matter life is difficult, she tried her best to overcome the hardships.1. Facing AlecFacing Alec, she always resisted the temptation. She gave up enjoying the comfort of life, raised children alone. She was not knocked downed by the discrimination around, and she kept silently, endured the injustice of life. Although her life was full of combat and disaster, but she endured, and never made excessive demands of life. When she met Alec again, which were also the most difficult times of her life, however she was unmoved upon temptation. As it is said in the book 〝Passionately swung the love by the gauntlet directly in his face…A scarlet oozing appeared where her blow and alighted, and in a moment the blood began dropping from his mouth upon the straw〞2. Her Nature Character—Industrious and BraveTess was a daughter of poor peasants had been reduced to a wage laborer. Her nature character concentrated reflection human nature industrious and brave, is refracting the quality of human nature’s brave benevolence. Tess’s beauty and temperament was harmony with the nature, she was “the nature’s daughter”, and her mind which is contaminated after the common custom has not been good and the rich sympathy, she never even a fly, worms were not cruel enough to injury and a little bird in a cage could make she cry. Tess this own character decided she had no ability to protect herself, and the efforts required to pay in excess of her endurance. The tragedy of her fate set the tone early, and the tragedy’s happen ed only the problem of time or might different in form.B. Dual Nature of Character for Her TragedyTess experienced major changes in human relationships. She obviously has the dual nature of the social character---- resistance and compromise.1. ResistanceTess was in a difficult position, but she never spiritless. Tess was only her parents’ tool, and this field confirmed blood relation's transaction has ruined her pure and chaste, and also made Tess doubt her own nature. From then on, “Almost at a leap Te ss thus changed from simple girl to complex woman.” Marries the tentative plan wa s disillusioned; Tess’s inner asked “Woman's chastity, really time has lost, forever has lost? All organisms have the ability to restore the source, why shouldn't the sole mai den's chastity have this kind of ability?” (Thomas Hardy,)“why the sun do shine on the just and the unjust alike？”Treat with the bad young man Alec. Tess revolts constantly (Thomas Hardy, 145, 164, 184).2. UncompromisedAlthough she became a disgraceful woman, she always held an inviolable attitude to Alec. She fostered the child lonely, although without it she might have enjoy easy and comfortable life,. Periphery discriminated the judgment had not certainly frightened her; she silently endured the unfair in the life. Although life gave her only attack and disaster，she all can tenaciously endure and undertake and never set the excessive request to the life. The second time, Tess meet Alec just her lives in the most difficult time. Faced every enticement of Alec, she basic remained unmoved, Tess was not willing to compromise.C. Social Element for Her Tragedy1. Capitalism of social backgroundThis story happened in the late of Britain's Victorian era，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 cannot avoided the “Hegemony”father right consciousness to “woman”nature understanding and severe social etiquette。

The Analysis of Tess’s Tragedy in Tess of t he D’Urbervilles外国语学院 09级英教5班103012009157【Abstract】Thomas Hardy was a distinguished critical realistic writer in 19th century in England. And Tess of t he D’Urbervilles is the most influenced and monumental one of his works, which describes the tragedy life about a rustic and pure women called Tess. The subheading of this noble is “a pure woman” for she was innocent and pure although she had lost virginity and killed someone. She struggled against the fate with her tenacious vitality. However, she was finally ruined. What are the main factors that make Tess’s tragedy? In this paper, I would like to have a detailed discussion and make a further analysis of Tess’s tragedy.【Key Words】Tess’s tragedy; external causes; internal causes; the irony of fateThe Women’s Liberation reaches its climax in the end of 19th century. Hardy’s works reflect the thought of women emancipation which is in line with the zeitgeist. Besides, females in his works array themselves vehemently against the traditional mores and society. Hardy set his sight audaciously on countryside and paid close attention to the tragedies of common families. He is good at depicting the tragic fate of females, to expose the damages brought to females by patriarchal society and to criticize the Androcentrism.Tess of t he D’Urbervilles describes a virtuous, tough, self-respected and tolerant woman--- Tess. In quest of the family genealogy, the girl comes in contact with Alec D’Urberville, whose claim to the ancient family name is dubious. Before long the rich and guileful Alec manages to seduce the girl and make her pregnant. She gives birth to a child, who dies soon. Out of financial need, Tess goes out to find work on a dairy farm [1]. She didn’t give herself up as hopeless and blame everyone and everything but herself. She chooses to face setbacks valorously and undertake the heavy burden of the family without complaint. Later, in the farm she meets Angel Claire and they fall in love with each other and become engaged. At the wedding night, Tess makes a confession about Alec’s sexual trap and begs Angel’s pardon. However, Angel leaves her in disgust. After Angle’s departure, Alec continues to harass Tess. Out of financial need, Tess has to gives in and living with him. Then the joke goes on with redoubled intensity when the remorseful Angel Claire resurfaces and throws Tess into the abyss of despair. She stabs Alec for hurting her so, and runs away with Angel. They manage to hide in a wood where she is arrested. She is hanged later [2].There is no doubt that Tess is wretched but brave. She has subverted the traditional moreswhich Hardy tries to knock out. What kind of evil things convert the angelical girl to a murderer? What kind of evil things that push an elegant and gracious woman to death? What are the roots of Tess’s tragedy? As far as I am concerned, there are four main factors.1.External causesIt is the society that brings about Tess’s tragedy. She is the victim of social compression which not only comes from the bourgeoisie, but also comes from the bourgeois ethics and religion. Tess is a lugubrious girl who has been suffering privation and hardship since young. When she comes to the Durbeyfields, she was seduced by the guileful Alec. Surely Tess is an innocent victim, and she deserves people’s sympathy and help. But instead of sympathy and compassion, she is persecuted relentlessly by the bourgeois apologists. They regard her as a representative of shame and decadence.Later, bowing to pressure, Tess leaves her hometown for a faraway dairy to do casual labor. She falls in love and come together with Claire who recalls her hope of life and love. Claire is liberal-minded and he loves Tess very much not only because of her beauty and kindness, but also because of her diligence. He proposes to her, “I shall soon want to marry, and, being a farmer, you see I shall require for my wife a woman who knows all about the management of farms. Will you be that woman, Tess? [3]” We can say that his willing to marry her is partly based on the bourgeois egoism. Besides, at the wedding night, when he is informed of Tess’s tragic experience, he discards her ruthlessly, which reflects his hypocritical essence of the bourgeoisie. Tess’s dream of living with Claire blissfully is completely broken. Once again, she suffers the spiritual persecution of the bourgeois society.Her family becomes insolvent after her father’s death. Their life becomes more difficult and they are unable to make ends meet. At the moment, Alec takes advantage of the Durbeyfields’poverty and becomes a churchman. He reappears in Tess’s life and continues to harass her. In the hypocritical appearance of bourgeois religion, he dispossesses Tess inhumanly once again and makes her turn into a complete toy and sacrificial lamb of the bourgeois society.Claire’s return directly pushes Tess under the butcher’s knife of bourgeois criminal law. It is the capitalist society that finally ruins Tess. The society which Tess lives in is full of evils and crimes. And the evils are indulged by the society, while kindness and justice are against existence. Because of the injustice of the society, the pure Tess becomes a sacrificial lamb. Therefore, Tess’s tragedy is mainly caused by the capitalist society. It is the external cause of her tragedy. 2.Internal causes2.1 Lake of educationJuliet Mitchell, the feminist ideologist in England, once indicated in her book Women: the Longest Revolution that “The whole pyramid of discrimination rests on a solid extra-economic foundation—education. The demand for equal work, in Britain, should above all take the form of a demand for an equal educational system, since this is at present the main single filter selecting women for inferior work-roles. [4]” Based on this theory, we can say that lake of education is one of the factors that lead to Tess’s tragedy.At the first beginning, Tess dreams to become a teacher, but things didn’t work out. Due to privation, she has to step into the society and do many manual labors which reward a low income. She cannot get a decent high-paid job because she hasn’t got enough education. Therefore her life becomes more and more difficult and she has to turn to Alec for help. Another important influence education brings to women is that it can improve women’s intelligence and awareness. Beingcheated and seduced, Tess accuses bitterly that “How could I be expected to know? 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 tell them of these tricks; but I never had the chance of learning in that way, and you did not help me! [5]” There is an old saying in china that “Innocence is the virtue for women” which equally explains the social exclusion to women’s education. Under the control of such a traditional conception, Tess’s dream cannot ever come true.2.2Compromising characterTess has the courage to react against the traditional mores and concentrate on the pursuit of her own happiness. There is no doubt that she is an uncompromising mutineer. However, she cannot thoroughly break away from the fetter of traditional morality. There still exit some conservative and unenlightened ethics in her character. Of course she knows that she is an innocent victim of violence. However, when facing to the censure of villagers, she also regards herself as guilty.Her relationship with Claire also shows another kind of compromising in her character. The relationship between lovers should be equal. But Tess constantly raises Claire while blindly belittles herself as it is said in the novel: “She loves he extremely, she looks he as the god. [6]” What ardent but hangdog love! Her miserable past does not receive Claire’s forgiveness but relentless discard. Even so, her love to Claire never reduces. Letters after letters, she doesn’t regain Claire’s love. She loses her self-conscious and dignity in front of love. It is the blind and unequal love that deepens Tess’s tragedy for she gives up her right as a wife to strive for happiness.2.3InferiorityTess suffers great pain and pressure after losing her virginity. But we must point out that it is her inferiority that intensifies her pain.For Tess, most of her pains are psychological. She judges her own past on traditional customs and public opinion as well as religions thoughts. This kind of judgment not only warps her normal psychological states, but also brings her a heavy burden that cannot be evaded. It is because of the secular fallacy that this kind of inferiority comes into being on Tess, which explains that Tess develops an extremely deviant mentality in that social environment. In this way, she spins an invisible ethical net to tie herself. Her consciousness of self fettering is based on a extremely profound history and it has been a specific performance of the consciousness of the whole society.2.4 Lake of self-awarenessTess’s lake of self-awareness is distinctly reflected on her attitude towards love.As we all know, at the first sight, Tess is immediately attracted by the distinctive look of Claire. From Hardy’s pen, Tess is described as a perfect individual who represents the ideal consummate woman. However, there also exits a little bit of weakness in Tess’s characteristics. She falls into the love affair and paces up and down between two men all the time. Meanwhile, she constantly takes other’s needs into account while she always loses sight of her own needs and happiness. In a male-privileged society, Tess always places herself in an indifferent position as well as in the edge of the society. The image of Tess in Hardy’s pen contains his deep sympathy to the humble women in his society, and his furious lash to the so-called profane civilization, as well as his intense accuse to the traditional male-privileged society. Besides, it also reflects the most popular female image under the control of a male chauvinism in 19th, which is self-sacrifice,tolerant and compliant, as well as tough and unpretending. It is to say that women have to place themselves behind men all the time. Women that the patriarchal society praise and honor are those who are lake of self-awareness. The whole society requires women to sacrifice themselves and to take good care of the families and husbands. Tess is just one of the women who are hurt deeply and ruined completely. It is the complicated and ruthless society that Tess loses her virginity firstly and then goes into a painful abyss, which in some way directly pushes Tess into a tragedy.3.The irony of fateThere is no doubt that Tess is a paragon of innocence. She possesses simplicity, nobility and devotion so that she deserves of happiness and other s’ love. However, the fate plays a cruel joke on her and finally pushes her into a tragedy.If her father hadn’t met the Parson at the first beginning who told him that they were the descendants of the D’Urbervilles, Tess would not force to contact with the D’Urbervilles in quest of the family genealogy; if the horse had not died, Tess would not have to go and look for Alec; if Tess had not fallen into Alec’s sexual trap, she would not need to confess on her wedding night about it; if Alec had read her letter of confession and appeal, there might be no wedding and Tess would not be abandoned by Alec. But all of these coincidences did happen which become an important reason for Tess’s tragedy.After Angel’s leaving, Tess must decide to succumb to Alec’s pressure. Angel must wake up from his hypocritical dream of romance and come to his senses and return to look for a Tess now already spoken for. Tess must still love Angel and have no choice but to stab Alec—“the curse of her life’’----in the back. Alec is not worthy of Tess’ life, but “the President of the Immortals” must have his way with the mortals before he decides that it is high time now she went back to whence she came[7]. What a tragic life!4.ConclusionWhen reading Tess of t he D’Urbervilles, we can draw a conclusion that this novel holds up a mirror for the spirit of the time. The indifference and ruthless of the capitalist society is one of the main reason for Tess’s tragedy. Besides, there are also some internal reasons, such as lake of education, compromising character, inferiority, lake of self-awareness, which in some way lead to her tragedy. Meanwhile, we can not ignore the irony of fate playing a cruel joke on the poor girl. All of these factors lead to her tragedy and death.References[1][2] 常耀信, A Survey of English Literature. 南开大学出版社, 2009, 289[3] Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles. 上海世界图书出版公司, 2003[4] Juliet Mitchell, Women: the Longest Revolution. Pantheon, 2008[5] [6] Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles. 上海世界图书出版公司, 2003[7] 常耀信, A Survey of English Literature. 南开大学出版社, 2009, 290。

《论苔丝悲剧的成因》On Causes of Tess’sTragedy摘要：《德伯家的的苔丝》被认为是哈代的悲剧剧作品的代表作，这也是他的的最著名的悲剧小说。

这部部以副标题为“一个纯洁的女女人”的长篇小说于18999年出版，对于这部小说读者者的反应不一。

这部小说讲的的是一个乡村女孩苔丝的爱情情故事，她是怎样由一个单纯纯的女孩变成一个杀人犯。

爱爱情在苔丝的生活之中扮演十十分重要的角色，虽然爱情使使她幸福但同时也给她带来灾灾难。

一系列的不幸构成了苔苔丝的生活且慢慢地毁灭了她她的人性。

苔丝家的马的死去去是她的首先的不幸，这意味味着苔丝命运的转变。

丧失了了家庭的依靠苔丝非常自责，，苔丝对她的家庭的强烈的责责任意识是这部小说的最重要要的部分。

自始至终苔丝都是是受害者，她的悲剧是由内外外因素造成的。

她被动，屈服服，单纯，缺少怀疑的精神，，所以最容易成为环境，社会会和男性唯心主义的俘虏。

尽尽管她一生都在苦苦挣扎与命命运较量，但最终她还是被她她的负罪的自我毁灭意识，对对生命的否定意识和两个残忍忍的男人所击垮。

关键词：：哈代苔丝爱情悲剧纯洁贫穷资本主义社会会Abstrac t: Tess of the D‟Urber v v illes is ge n n erally rega r ded as Hard y y‟s tragic m a a sterpiece, a a nd certainl y y it is his m m ost ambitio u u s tragic no v v el. This no v v el, subtitl e e d …A Pure W o o man‟ was fi r st publishe d d in 1891to a mixed rec e e ption. For H H ardy himsel f, the haunt i ng and trag i c figure of Tess was th e e character w w ho meant th e e most to hi m m. This nove l is basical l y the story of a countr y y girl, Tess whose fate i s tragic an d d in the end she becomes a …tragic h e e roine‟. The book reveal s s Tess‟s lif e e, how the f i rst-present e e d innocent g g irl turns i n n to a tragic heroine. Lo v v e plays an i mportant ro l e in Tess‟s life becaus e e love does n n ot mean hap p p iness to he r but it cau s s es her trag e e dy. Her lif e e is a serie s s of misfort u u nes which s l owly destro y y s her perso n n ality. The f irst misfor t une is of T e e ss‟s family when their h h orse dies i n n a fatal ac c c ident. The d d eath of the horse can b e e interprete d d as the sym b b ol of …chan g g e‟, her lif e e changes in t o a series o o f tragedy. T T ess blames h h erself for l oosing the f amily‟s mea n n s of liveli h h ood. Tess‟s sense of re s s ponsibility for her fam i ly is one o f the book‟s most import a a nt elements.Tess Durbey f ield is a v i ctim of ext e e rnal and un c c omprehended forces. Pas s s ive and yie l ding, unsus p p icious and f undamentall y y pure, she s s uffers a w e e akness of w i ll and reas o o n, struggli n n g against a fate that i s s too strong for her. Te s s s is the ea s s iest victim of circumst a a nce, societ y y and male i d d ealism, who fights the h h ardest figh t yet is des t royed by he r ravaging s e e lf-destruct i ve sense of guilt, life denial and t he cruelty o o f two men.Key Words:Hardy Te s s s Love T T ragedy pu r e poor c c apitalist s o o cietyC O O NTENTSI.I n n troduction (1)II. Anal y y sis of the C C auses of Te s s s‟s Tragedy (2)2.1Capita l istSociety (2)2.1.1EconomicPov e e rty (2)2.11.2 The Unju s s t Law Syste m m (2)2.1.3 The Hyp o o critical Re l igion and S u u perstition (33)2.1.4 The H H ypocritical Morality (3)2.1.5 The C C apitalist E x x ploitation (3)2.2 The P P oor Family (3)2.2.1 The D i sintegratio n n of Peasant r y (3)2.2.2 Th e e Old Wessex......................................................... .. (44)2.3 Tess Hers e e lf (4)2.3.1 Te s s s‟s Beauty (4)2.3.2 Tess‟s s Purity (4)2.3.3 Tess‟s Ch a a racter (5)2.3.44Tess‟s Opi n n ion on Love (6)2.44Other Pers o o n (7)2.4.1 A l ec D‟Urberv i lle (77)2.4.2 Ange l Clare (8)2.5 Coincidents (99)III.Con c c lusion (10)《论苔苔丝悲剧的成因》On C C auses of Te s s s‟s TragedyI Introduc t ionThomas H H ardy(1840-19928)the repr e e sentative o f critical r e e alism was b o o rn and brou g g ht up in Do r set, an agr i cultural di s s trict in th e e south ofE n n gland. Son o o f an archit e e ct, he star t ed out to f o o llow his fa t her‟s profe s s sion. After studying in Dorset and t hen in Lond o o n, he retur n n ed to settl e e down in hi s s native pla c c e. Architec t ure did not really inte r est him so h h e turned to literature.When Tess o o f the d‟Urb e e rvilles app e e ared in 18911, Thomas Ha r dy was one o o f England‟s leading men of letters.He had alre a a dy authored several wel l known nove l s, includin g g The Return of the Nati v v e, Jude the Obscure, Un d d er the Gree n n wood Tree, T T he Mayor of Casterbridg e e, The Woodl a a nders and n u u merous shor t stories.D e e spite this s s uccess, the novel was o n n e of Hardy‟s s last. Tess brought him notoriety, i t was consi d d ered quite s s candalous. H H e was deepl y y wounded by some of the particularl y y personal a t tacks he re c c eived from r eviewers of the book. I n n 1892, he w r ote in one o o f his noteb o o oks, quoted in The Late r Y ears of T h h omas Hardy,1892-1928, c c ompiled by F F lorence Emi l y Hardy, “W e e ll, if this sort of thi n n g continues no more nov e e l-writing f o o r me. A man must be a f o o ol to delib e e rately stan d d up to be s h h ot at.”In s s pite of his reputation,Hardy had d i fficulty fi n n ding a peri o o dical willi n n g to publis h h the book w h h en he offer e e d it for se r ialization t o London‟s l eading revi e e ws. The sub j ect matters a milkmaid T T ess, who is seduced by A A lec Clare, m m arried and r ejected by A A ngel Clare a a nd eventual l y murdered t he first on e e. It was co n n sidered unf i t for publi c c ationswhic h h young peop l e might rea d d. To appeas e e potential p p ublishers, H H ardy took t h h e novel apa r t, re-wrote some scenes and added o t hers. In du e e course, a p p ublisher wa s s secured. W h h en it came t ime to publ i sh the nove l in book fo r m, Hardy re a a ssembled it as it was o r iginally co n n ceived.Har d d y is a Vict o o rian writer,and while t he evils of the Industr i al Revoluti o o n surround h h im, so do t h h e wonders o f science an d d progress s u u ch as the s t eam engine.Rather than hide from E n n gland‟s new industrial s s ociety, the Victorians,and Hardy, b b elieved tha t the ills o f society co u u ld be fixed if, instead of running a a way, we fac e e d the probl e e ms head on.Such as his description s s of the Tal b b othay‟s Dai r y, it encom p p asses a rou n n der perspec t ive. Hardy does not ta l k about a r e e turn to chi l dhood innoc e e nce; he tal k k s about a g i rl getting p p regnant out of wedlock w w ith a baby w w ho dies sho r tly after b e e ing born. H a a rdy‟s Natur e e is idyllic in that it i s free from social conv e e ntion, but i t is filled with life a n n d death. Ha r dy‟s Nature is more pra c c tical and u s s eful. Hardy does not ru n n away to Na t ure to esca p p e; he sets u u p his Natur e e as a model to explore t he idea tha t middle cla s s s Victorian values caus e e many of th e e ills of so c c iety.Tess o o f th e d‟Urb e e rvilles dea l s with seve r al signific a a nt contempo r ary subject s s for Hardy,including t h h e struggles of religiou s s belief tha t occurred d u u ring Hardy‟s s lifetime. H H ardy was la r gely influe n n ced by the O O xford movem e e nt, a spiri t ual movemen t involving e e xtremely de v v outthinkin g g and action s s. Hardy‟s f a a mily member s s were prima r ily orthodo x x Christians and Hardy h i mself consi d d ered enteri n n g the clerg y y, as did ma n n y of his re l atives. Y et Hardy event u u ally abando n n ed his devo u u t faith in G G od based on the scienti f ic advances of his cont e e mporaries, i ncluding mo s s t prominent l y Darwin‟s O O n the Origi n n of Species.Hardy‟s ow n n religious e e xperiences c c an thus be s s een in the c c haracter of Angel Clare, who resist s s the conser v v ative relig i ous beliefs of his pare n n ts to take a a more relig i ous and sec u u lar view of philosophy.The novel a a lso reflect s s Hardy‟s pr e e occupation w w ith social c c lass that c o o ntinues thr o o ugh his nov e e ls. Hardy h a a d connectio n n s to both t h h e working a n n d the upper class, but f elt that he belonged to neither. Th i s is reflec t ed in the p e e ssimism con t ained in Te s s s of the d‟U U rbervilles t oward the c h h ances for T e e ss to ascen d d in society and Angel‟s precarious p p osition as n n either a me m m ber of the u u pper class n n or a workin g g person equ i valent to h i s fellow mi l kmen at Tal b b othays. Aga i n, like Ang e e l Clare, Th o o mas Hardy f o o und himself torn betwee n n different s s ocial spher e e s with whic h h he could n o o t fully ali g g n himself. T T ess of the d d‟Urber ville s s reflects t h h at The fac t that Tess‟s s fate moves the readers so directly and profoun d d ly somehow o o bscures the beauty of t h h e book, its aesthetic d e e pth and sub t lety. Donal d d Davidson o n n ce wrote, “A A ction, not d d escription,is always f o o remost; the event domin a a tes, rather than motive, or psychol o o gy, or comm e e nt.” But th e e descriptio n n and psycho l ogy are ver y y important i nthe novel; from these we could kn o o w what caus e e s Tess‟s tr a a gedy.As En s s tice points out, “two o p p posing elem e e nts struggl e e for domina n n ce with Tes s s: the law o f nature and the law of V V ictorian mo r ality”. Har d d y asserts i n n the subtit l e that Tess is a faithf u u lly present e e d pure woma n n instead of a morally l o o ose woman a s s many Victo r ian critics believed. T h h ough Tess l o o oses her ch a a stity she i s s pathetic. W W e should kn o o w Tess‟s tr a a gedy is cau s s ed by socie t y, family, t wo men, her s s elf. Among t hese societ y y is the sou r ce of her t r agedy; Hard y y criticized the bourgeo i s society r e e lentlessly.From this t h h esis we wil l get some k n n owledge abo u u t the cause s s of Tess‟s t ragedy, esp e e cially the c c apitalist s o o ciety in Vi c c torian time s s.II Anal y y sis of the C C auses of Te s s s‟s Tragedy2.1 Capita l ist SocietyIt is obviou s s that Hardy tried to sh o o w how all t h h e supposedl y y criminal o r immoral ac t ions commit t ed by Tess----from her i mproper rel a a tions once a a nd again wi t h Alec to h e e r final act of murder----are the co n n sequences o f economic c o o nditions as well as the legal, mora l and the re l igious stan d d ards of bou r geois socie t y, for only the utter p o o verty of Te s s s‟s family,the double m m oral standa r d for man a n n d woman and the religio u u s concept o f sin made i t inevitable for her to g g o to work o n n the farms a a nd to fall i nto the tra p p s of Alec a n n d the accus a a tions of An g g el untilhe r remorse an d d her bitter n n ess over he r fate led u p p to the mur d d er. She is a a victim of e e conomic opp r ession and s s ocial injus t ice. Though much of the story has t o o do with lo v v e and marri a a ge, the rea l theme of t h h e novel has a much wide r significan c c e, it is th e e social tra g g edy of Tess from the la b b ouring mass placed agai s s t the moral and religio u u s prejudice s s as well as the legal a n n d education a a l systems o f a class so c c iety. To Ha r dy the conf l ict seems t o o be one bet w w een an indi v v idual and t h h e society, a a ctually it i s the confl i ct between a a n individua l of the opp r essed and t h h e society o f bourgeois o o ppression. H H ardy‟s defi a a nce against the status q q uo of Victo r ian England is both fie r ce and unre l enting and t hat is why t he novel me t with terri f ic accusati o o ns from the bourgeois a u u thorities a n n d the criti c c s.2.1.1 E E conomic Pov e e rty本科毕业论文，Q Q Q583301131。

On Causes of T ess’ Tragedy郭海涛辉县市高级中学摘要：该论文集中分析了《德伯家的苔丝》一书中造成苔丝悲剧的主要原因,苔丝生活在世纪之交，她深受传统观念的影响又受到新的生活方式的影响，在这种情况下，她既摆脱不了传统观念的束缚，又不敢突破自己去寻找自己的幸福，使她最终走上了毁灭的道路。

造成这样结果的原因可以分成三大类:社会原因,家庭原因以及苔丝自身原因。

为了更好地支撑这一主题,该论文分成五大部分:第一部分对作者和小说做一简介;第二部分集中分析社会原因;第三部分着力分析家庭原因;第四部分对小说中苔丝自身原因加以分析;第五部分为结论,重申主题。

关键词:苔丝；悲剧；社会原因；家庭原因; 自身原因English abstract：This present paper concentrates on an analysis of the main causes of Tess’ Tragedy in the novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Living at the turn of the century, she is influenced by the past traditional ideas and the modern life. In this case, she can not break away from the old social moral and find her happiness. At the end, Tess has to kill her own will and passion and return to her former destructive way of life. The cause can be devided into three groups: social cause, family cause and the cause of Tess herself.To support the thesis, the paper is divided into five parts. The first part gives an introduction to both the author and the novel. The second part makes an analysis of the social cause in the novel. The third part makes an analysis of the family cause. The fourth part makes an analysis of the cause of Tess herself. The fifth part is the conclusion, restating the thesis of the paper.Key words: Tess; tragedy; society cause; family cause; herself causeⅠ. Introduction1.1 A brief introduction to the authorThomas Hardy was born in the southwest of England on 2 June 1840 and it was where he spent most of his life apart from a short time in London and Weymouth in Dorset, the area that later became the famous “Wessex” in many of his novels. His father was a master builder who inherited the cottage from his father. Jemina, Hardy's mother, was a domestic servant but whose love of books and the countryside influenced young Thomas. From his parents, Hardy gained all the interests that would appear inhis novels and his own life. Thomas was a sensitive and intelligent child; he received education at local schools until he was 15 years old. At the age of 16, he was apprenticed to a local architect. Six years later he was apprenticed to a famous architect in London. During his spare time, he studied widely: language, literature, history, philosophy and art, and he even won two prizes for essays on architectural subjects. But architecture was never his desired profession. Soon he was writing poetry; when that failed, he began to write novels.Then under the influence of an editor of publishing company he met by chance, Thomas Hardy began to write novels. He wrote a total of twenty long novels, eight volumes (total 918 poems) and a lot of short novels named “Wessex”. In 1895, Hardy didn’t write novel any more, but he had a good reputation all over the world. When he died, he had already become a great man in English history, and was regarded as the last great litterateur. His works especially were famous for tragic spirit and destiny sense. He was also thought as a great critical realistic and naturalistic writer.Protagonist Tess possessed many excellent qualities in the book, however Hardy chose the word “pure” to describe her, which is an essential way to write Tess of the D’urbervilles. This challenges the traditional chastity idea, and negates the trimly-hold chastity idea that man is the center, exposing its unfairness and harm.1.2 A brief introduction to the novelTess of the D’Urbervilles, known as “novel of character and environment”, was the most outstanding and most famous works by Thomas Hardy, and in it the author uttered his sharpest social criticism. He truthfully depicted the impoverishment and decay of small farmers. They were mercilessly exploited by the rich landlords.This novel told us a beautiful but tragic story. Tess was a beautiful and kind-hearted rural girl. The poverty of the family forced her to claim kinship with the sham but rich d’Urbervilles. Tess was seduced and impregnated by Alec, the young master of the d’Urbervilles, a dandy that she did not and would never fall in love with. Tess returned home disgraced and later gave birth to a baby, who died soon. People’s opinion forced Tess to leave her hometown and worked as a milkmaid at a dairy-house, where she met with the second man in her life-Mr.Angel Clare, son of a clergyman. Naturally, the two fell in love with each other. On their wedding night, Angel made a confession about his past dissipation and was readily forgiven by Tess, but when Tess told her own past to her lover, expecting his understanding and forgiveness, Angel could not accept the disgrace in any case and deserted her to go abroad alone. Helpless and hopeless, Tess had to wander from place to place, doing the hardest work and bearing the harshest insult. Then D’Urbervilles who met Tessagain by chance, broke into her life again. Receiving no answer from her lover after two letters, and suffering from poverty and illness of the family, Tess, although not willing, agreed to marry Alec. Before long, the repentant Angel returned from abroad. Tess was led into a mess. Tess, putting all the blames of her unhappiness on Alec, killed him and fled with Angel. However, she didn’t break away from the punishment of the laws, and at last was caught by the police and hanged.As a matter of fact, the book Tess of the D’urbervilles presents a tale that how the society forced a clean, honest, simple, upright, hardworking, clever and beautiful girl to a hopeless situation even to kill people at last. This is a tragedy. As the protagonist, Tess is unfortunate in the novel.Ⅱ. An analysis of the social cause in the novelThe early years of the Victorian England was a time of rapid economic development as well as serious social problem. Towards the mid-century, England had reached its highest point of development as a world power. And yet beneath the great prosperity and richness, there existed widespread poverty and wretchedness among the working class. But the last three decades of the century witnessed the decline of the country and the decay of the Victorian values. At the social background, the working class was becoming poorer. The middle-class industrialists’ greed drove to exploiting workers to the utmost and brought greater suffering and poverty to the working mass.Thomas Hardy experienced fundamental social changes. Tess as a tragedy heroine, abounded in this period. Under Hardy’s pen, the heroine Tess was created as an attractive and warm-hearted pure woman, who had the quality of endurance and self-sacrifice. Tess had long been regarded as the most exceptional woman character in literary history. The life of this pure woman was tragic. She was firstly seduced, then abandoned and finally driven to murder for she was hanged. What was responsible for her tragic fate? What was the reason for a pure woman to become a murderer? We couldn’t help thinking over these questions again and again. From the tragic story of Tess’ short life, we could see in a deeper sense that it was the capitalist society of the time that had ruined her. Living in a society overwhelmed by capitalist Law, religion, morality and state apparatus, Tess, a poor peasant, inevitably led a tragic life and finally went to her collapse.2.1 Unfair laws and systems of bourgeois societyFirstly, in capitalist society, the direct purpose of setting laws and systems was to protect the interests of bourgeois, not for the interests of common people. Alec was a hypocritical rogue, but he went far and near with a false kindness. As a pure girl, Tess， brought up with the traditional ideas of womanly virtues, wasabused and destroyed by Alec, agents of the destructive force of the society. Because Tess was a very beautiful and attractive country girl, Alec, a frivolous young man, only wanted to get her for her beauty. In fact, he didn’t fall in love with Tess really at all. We could see all evils on Alec’s misbehavior. However, he could escape laws, was protected and lived freely. After outraging Tess, he only felt a little regret, not to take the responsibility for Tess. What about Tess? At last she was caught by police and hanged. Although Tess’ crime was more serious than Alec’s, the result was too different. Why did this result come? From the social rank, Alec represented the ruling class and was a symbol of the evil element of the society. He could do everything that violated the laws, regardless of other people's feelings and social responsibility. However, Tess belonged to lower class, so when she did the wrong thing, she must take the responsibility upon herself.From the whole novel, the author-Thomas Hardy arranged this contrast with the purpose of attacking the unfair social laws and system. Tess was a victim of bourgeois society. From all of the above, we can see at that time laws and systems didn’t maintain society safety, but to serve the bourgeois.2.2 Hypocritical religionSecondly, Tess’ destiny had close relations with hypocritical religion. For a hypocritical and immoral man, Alec became a bourgeoisie and new-rich by doing business. Then when Tess was forced to visit D’Urbervilles family, she met Alec for the first time. When she worked in D’Urbervilles, he tried to seduce and impregnate Tess by fair means or foul and made her no more maiden, but quoting the Bible, he thought that all the responsibility was attributed to Tess, and he didn’t have any crime. Then Tess met Alec again by chance, and she found that Alec, who once did harm to her, became a wandering preacher and had been converted to Christianity by Angel's father, the converted Clare. Both Alec and Tess were shocked by their encounter, and Alec appallingly begged Tess never to tempt him again. Soon after, however, he was again begging Tess to marry him, having turned his back on his religious ways.Alec-a rapist could be forgiven by God and allowed to do everything once more, but Tess- an innocent girl wasn’t forgiven. It showed the real essence of hypocritical religion. To every reader’s surprise, when Alec turned up once again, he became a parson. Alec- a flunky could put on religionary clothes and went to do missionary work. He had become a converted man then, who was sorry for his past behavior. And in order to make up for his fault, he decided to marry Tess. Suffering from the poverty of the family and illness, Tess, although not willing, agreed to marry Alec. At the beginning of the novel, Alec turned up as a hypocritical rogue, at last became a parson. There was a great contrast between goodness and evil. The real essence of religionwas more and more clear. These absurd matters directly revealed hypocritical character of religion.From these facts, people can see that Holy religion was not holy, only a tool for cheating the common people. Because of poverty, Tess had no opportunity for studying and lacked of scientific knowledge. Although Tess, a peasant girl, felt suspicious about Alec’s missionary work, they had to accept these fatuous ideas and consented to live with Alec. In the final analysis, poverty decided Tess’ fate. People’ poverty was created by society, so Tess’ fate had close relation with society at the times.2.3 Traditional social moralityOn their wedding, Angel and Tess both confessed error, Angel told Tess about an affair he had with an older woman in London, and Tess told Angel about her history with Alec. Tess forgave Angel, but Angel couldn’t forgive Tess; he gave her some money and boarded a ship bound for Brazil. Tess didn’t want to be seduced by man and she had no power to defend herself so that she lost her innocence and that’s all! Angel also did the wrong thing and it was even more serious than Tess’s crime but he was not blamed for it. Why is it always the woman who pays?In the past, there was a culture, which didn’t think of women as human beings. If you asked one if he was the oldest in his family, he would probably answer “the oldest one” even if he had some elder sisters. If you asked why then he would say, “Ha, they are not included!” People gave birth to many girls in order to have only one boy to keep the family name going. They thought girls had no use for the family. They would be married and go to live with their husbands’ home and be their wives some day sooner or later. So they were extremely hard on girls. Traditionally, people think: Girls should be hard working, faithful, loyal, intelligent, and virtuous and the most important thing was she must be a maiden! If her husband was the first man who touched her then she was a good girl, a good wife no matter how she thought. If she wasn’t, then she would gain a very bad reputation and nobody would dare to go near her. What about men? People did not care whether he was an experienced man or not, nor did they care about his character. They thought man was equal to power and power was equal to rights. So Angel was deeply influenced by traditional conventions. So the intellectual and free-thinking Angel was the 'slave to custom and conventionality' and the relatively ignorant Tess was the true humanist.Angel had mixed two things in his dull brain, theology and morals, which in the primitive days of mankind had been quite distinct. In the end, his intentions were good, yet it was too late. Traditional morality deeply hurt Tess and also damaged their happiness. Hypocritical moral standard of bourgeois society could be regardedas one cause of Tess’s destruction.Two lovers unwillingly left each other because of conventional prejudice deep-rooted in capitalism society. In today's society, which is more free and liberal, we should do away with those decaying values and ideas, and do our best to respect ourselves and others, and cherish our lives.Ⅲ. An analysis of the family cause in the novelThe Victorian England was a time of rapid economic development as well as serious social problem. The middle-class life of the time was characterized by prosperity, respectability and material progress. And yet beneath the great prosperity and richness, there existed widespread poverty and wretchedness among the working class. Because of capitalist’ invasion, in the towns and cities where new factories and mines bloomed, population grew at a high rate. Workers and their families crowed in the dirty and insanitary slums. The working conditions of workers were unimaginably brutal, especially in textile factories and coal mines where women and children were widely employed. The worsening living and working conditions made the mass unemployed. Tess was born in a peasant family and could not break away from this disaster.3.1 Family backgroundOn the one hand, all family background decided that Tess’ tragedy would happen. Tess was born in a poor family. Her family belonged to unwelcome and between the beetle and the block family. As the eldest child of the family (6 younger brothers and sisters, from 3 to 11 years old), the burden of poverty rested on Tess at any moment. At the same time Tess deeply loved her brothers and sisters at all times. He couldn't put up with their poor life and wanted to make her family happy and lively. She had to help the parents to support the whole family. She was responsible and did her best for the family. In order to make money, Tess had to drive for the haggling business instead of her father. Unluckily, on the road the horse “Prince” died in a traffic accident. An innocent and kind girl-Tess convinced she had murdered Prince, felt responsible for her family's subsequent lack of livelihood and therefore complied with Joan's wish that she went in search of their rich relations. She would sacrifice herself for the sake of the whole family. Although she had taken all the responsibility upon herself, but all family background decided that the tragedy would happen sooner or later, just the form was different.On the other hand it was her pregnancy by Alec. Tess's family is very poor, so she lost many chances to study and knew little. She didn’t know how to protect herself, because she had no chance to study in school and the people around herself didn't help her . From the fact we can know the finally cause is poverty. Poverty decided her fate. However the poverty of her family was created by society and reflectedcapitalism outlook. So capitalist society should be responsible for the tragic life of Tess.This novel has for its setting the agricultural region of the southern countries of England. The writer truthfully depicts the impoverishment and decay of small farmers who became hired field hands and roamed the country in search of seasonal job. These laborers are mercilessly exploited by the rich landowners. In this novel, we can see clearly that one of the real reasons that led to her extermination is her impoverishment.3.2 Parents’ influence on TessTess Durbeyfield suffered a great deal of tribulation in her tragic life. Although her life was filled with misfortune, she should not take all responsibilities for her tragic events. Her parents also had many responsibilities. Tess’ parents - Mr. and Mrs. Durbyfield’ ideas clung to their obsolete idea of the family in total ignorance of the reality had a great effect on Tess’ in mind. At Tess’ age, Tess was completely independent in life and worked hard in order to make better life for all her family. Under her parents’ influence, Tess had to do something that she didn’t like.One of the first tragedies in Tess' life that seemed to lead to all the others, was when she was taking a load of bees to the market she fell asleep and accidentally killed the horse. This was not Tess' fault. In the first place, it wasn't her responsibility to take the bees to the market. It was the responsibility of her drunken father. If anyone was to blame for being irresponsible, it was Tess' parents. Tess was always doing work her parents should be doing because her parents were too lazy and Tess felt responsible for supporting the family. The night before Tess left, her parents went off to a bar while Tess was left at home to take care of the family and the chores.Another tragedy in the life of Tess Durbeyfield was her pregnancy by Alec. At first, one may think it is all her fault for getting pregnant, but if one takes a closer look at the situation Tess was really in, it was quite obvious that she was, once again, a victim of misfortune. Tess was a victim of her parents' social aspirations to ascend the social scale. The desire to leap from low, poor farmers to aristocrats was almost humorous. They made the great mistake of believing that a name indicated aristocracy and the irony was that Alec D'Uberville who actually had the ancient aristocratic name was anything but a gentleman. Her mother even consulted a fortune-teller book for guidance. But Tess did not know Alec was the false descendent of an ancient noble family, the d'Urbervilles and when the lascivious Alec D'Urberville, Mrs. D'Uberville's son, procured her a job tending fowls on theD'Urberville estate, Tess had no choice but to accept. When Tess worked there, shewas seduced and impregnated by Alec. Tess' mother never educated her about some ofthe essential facts of life and Tess did not know what most men liked. In addition,Tess' selfish mother wanted her to marry Alec so that Durbeyfield family could be financially well off. She did not think about the best interests of Tess.Ⅳ. The cause of Tess herself in the novelAs a successful female figure Hardy contributed to the literary world, the character of Tess was multi-dimensional. Although the tragedy of Tess was largely caused by the social surroundings in the Victorian Age, it was still improper to concentrate on one thing but neglect everything else. The character of Tess is also another reason. “The tragedy of Tess is also a tragedy of her character in other words. The character of Tess is one factor to cause her tragic ending.”From the novel we can see that Tess showed an inflexible courage to the roughlife and firm pursuit of true love. Though she was always under the control of fate,she didn’t give up hope. On this point it is worthy of being appreciating, but her personality is not perfect. One’s character decides his fate. The mental and emotionalmake-up of Tess also accounts for her own final tragedy. Hardy was a fatalist. Inthe viewpoint of Hardy, it was fate that caused the destruction of Tess. Hardy believed that everyone was a toy in the hands of fate, and that fate was particularly harsh to women. In the subtitle, Hardy addressed his main character as a “Pure Woman”. Tess indeed embodied many good virtues: honesty, loyalty, responsibility, and beauty. However, Tess had her faults such as her innocence, kindness and weakness.4.1 Her innocence and kindnessTess lived at the end of 19th century. The unreasonable, marble hearted, insatiably landlords had super economic exploitation to the oppressed people, so the peasants were becoming poorer and poorer and in a state of starvation. Tess was bornin a peasant family and led a simple and beautiful though primitive rural life whichwas gradually declining and disappearing as England marched into an industrial country. Tess, a pure woman, was brought up with the traditional idea of womanly virtues.When Tess fell in love with Angel, Tess’ mother advised her daughter not to reveal her past to Angel. Yet, Tess thought that she could deserve the love of Angelonly when she told him about her past. Tess was too innocent and kind from what she thought and what she said to Angel on wedding night. Angel had been influenced by social conventions, so he could not accept Tess because of her past sin. Tess adheredto no doctrine or tradition and believed Angel would forgive her past.In her opinion, Tess thought that the world had the appearance of innocence.Everything was clean, beautiful and untouched, just like she was in the beginning of the novel. Her attempt to remove this sexual component of herself by making herself less attractive therefore represented a measure of self-defense. Tess mutilated herself in order to ward off the attention that had damaged her. If her innocent and kindness was a merit, it was just this merit that brought her a series of bad luck.4.2 Her weaknessStill, even if there are numerous shinning points in the character of Tess, the weakness is also an essential part of her character. Firstly, the spirit of revolt was a major characteristic of Tess. Her sharp struggle with feudalism and capitalist morality, laws and social environment represented the spirit of revolt on Tess. Although Tess needed to suffer all agonies, she kept pursuing true love. Nevertheless, it was really brave for Tess to struggle with her social surroundings from the beginning to the end but she could not get rid of public moral judgment that she suffered from when she faced her true love, Angel in the novel. It is a pity that she also used public moral judgment to treat herself when she suffered from the public moral judgment after Alec seduced her.Also, because of the weakness in Tess, it is logical for readers to accept her tragic ending. While she was being tortured by social judgments and old moral, she was judging herself by the very standards she fought against. Tess was a young woman who tended to find herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, previously, it was accepted as a view that Tess is a victim of violence. She is innocent. But, with further research on Tess and her tragedy, another view has become popular, that is, she was a victim, but she was also, at times, irresponsibleIn details, Tess didn’t want to be seduced by man and she had no power to defend herself so that she lost her innocence and that’s all! Angel also did the wrong thing and it was even more serious than Tess’s crime but he was not blamed for it. Why is it always the woman who pays? Why are they always hurt? Why was Tess’s girlish purity lost? Why does the wrong man take the wrong woman? Why do the bad often ruin the good? Why is beauty damaged by ugliness? Women are too weak! Thousands of years of history have shown us that women have always been treated unfairly!Tess felt guilty about her error with Alec. Hardy looked very closely at this feeling of guilt and suggested that it was unnecessary for a number of reasons. Firstly, although she had broken an accepted social law, the villagers of Martlott did not morally censure her. She had an illegitimate child, but they still accepted her as an individual, a member of the community, and did not look upon her as an outcast. However, Tess imagined her guilt to be a natural consequence of her actions, not only in the eyes of the community but also in the eyes of nature. She looked upon herselfas a figure of Guilt intruding into the haunts of innocence. But all the while she was making a distinction where there was no difference. She had been made to break an accepted social law, but no law known to the environment in which she fancied herself such an anomaly. Her mind was tormented by 'a crowd of moral hobgoblins' which had been put there by her exposure to Christianity and which perverted her natural inclinations.Apart from fierce Alec and hypocritical Clare, it is the weakness of her character that leads to her sad fate. Tess was able to fight against the unfairness of the society. She could face various difficulties in life bravely, yet she couldn’t extricate herself from traditional moral principles. She was aware that she was the victim of social violence and moral principles. On the other hand, though she dared to beat back the unjustness, she couldn’t break with traditional morality completely.Ⅴ. ConclusionA lot of reflection was left by Hardy through his creation of Tess’s tragedy. Tess was a strong woman throughout the novel. She stood up for herself and refused to crumble under pressure. It is true Tess should deserve respect because of enduring a great deal of pain. Yet, for her tragedy, it is not proper to blame solely on the unequal society that Tess lived in.The pessimistic atmosphere enveloped the novel and always made people depressed. Thomas Hardy dared to offend the optimism of the capitalistic world, therefore, he was attacked by critics, though in this novel we can find some colors of fatalism. There is also bitter and sharp criticism and even open challenge of the irrational, hypocritical and unfair Victorian institutions, conventions and morals which strangle the individual will and destroy natural human emotions and relationships. The conflicts between the traditional and the modern, between the old rural value of respectability and honesty and the new utilitarian commercialism, between the old, false social moral and the natural human passion, etc. were all closely set in a realistic background true to the very time and the very place.On the one hand, his heroine, Tess in her desperate struggle for personal family’s happiness, was all vividly and realistically depicted. On the other hand, Hardy presented a vivid realistic picture of the English society by exposing the cruelty, hypocrisy and other evils of the upper classes, and by showing the misery and suffering of the poor.Tess was just a victim of economic oppression and social injustice. In a word, the capitalist society was responsible for the misery and sufferings of the poor people. In capitalist society, women were eager to break away from the bondageinflicted on them by the society, yet they found that the society made it difficult for them to realize their desire. Tess was a victim of the environment. She was ruined by the bourgeois society. (sexual discrimination; wide gap between the rich and the poor) To be more exact, the disintegration (break up into small pieces) of English peasantry and the hypocritical moral standard of bourgeois society may be regarded as one cause of Tess’s destruction. Furthermore, through the analysis of the tragedy, the hypocrisy of law, religion, morality, ethics and marrying system are unfolded to the reader. By studying Tess’tragedy, we can better understand Tess comprehensively and objectively, which embodies the progressive significance of Hardy’s novel.Tess’ beautiful life has destroyed, and her tragedy is involved in the author’s pessimism fatalism with her personality, but these reasons all have direct contacts with capitalist society at that time. It is all sorts of reflection of the capitalist society. Her ruin is inevitable, and can’t be escaped in the capitalist society .Bibliography：（1）Thomas Hardy. Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Shanghai world Editions. 2003年（2）孙法理译.《苔丝》.译林出版社.1993年3月（3）刘文荣.《19世纪英国小说史》. 中国社会科学出版社. 2002.年（4）张中载.《托马斯·哈代-思想与创作》. 外语教学与研究出版社. 1987年（5）张伯香.《英美文学选读》. 外语教学与研究出版社. 1999年（6）[苏]卢那察尔斯基.《论文学》.人民文学出版社.1983年（7）郑克鲁主编.《外国文学史》.高等教育出版社.1999年（8）张世君. 《＜德伯家的苔丝＞鉴赏＝.重庆出版社.1986年。

The Spirit of Revolt of Tess--Study in Tess of the D'UrbervillesThesis statement:Everyone knows that Tesss life is a great tragedy, but she is still a courageous woman who dares to fight by all means. In order to defeat the unfortunate fate she always resists the decadent society, the traditional concept, and the hypocrisy religion.OutlineⅠ.Brief Introduction to Tess of the d'UrbervillesA. Womens role in industrial movements during 19th century in EnglandB. A brief commentary of the novel1. the writer --Thomas hardy2. general introduction of the novelⅡ.Tesss spirit of revolt all through her lifeA. Tesss fight to the moribund society1. the moribund society2. Tesss fight to the moribund societyB. Tesss resistance to the traditional moral concept1. the traditional moral concept2. Tesss resistance to the traditional moral conceptC. Tesss resistance to the hypocritical religion1.the hypocritical religion in that time2. Tesss resistance to the hypocritical religionD. Tesss resistance to the unfortunate marriage1.Tesss unfortunate marriage2. Tesss resistance to the unfortunate marriageⅢ.Conclusion: In a word, Tess has shown a powerful woman's image to common people with her unyielding spirit of revolt. She, to the moribund society, traditional old morals, hypocritical religion, capitalist marriage system, has carried on the strongest revealing and criticism. Her kindhearted enlightenment, noble emotion, strong personality, and her resistance in imbuing all rooted in the hearts of the people forever, worth savoring.AbstractThis paper mainly focuses on the spirit of revolt of Tess. First of all,this paper begins with a brief introduction to the novel. Then, this paper makes a brief commentary of the novel. Moreover, it concentrates on :(1) Tesss fight to the moribund society. (2) Tesss resistance to the traditional moral concept. (3) Tesss resistance to the hypocritical religion. (4) Tesss resistance to the unfortunate marriage. And at last the paper reveals that Tess is actually a character with the spirit of revolt all through her life.key words:tragedy,Spirit of revolt,industrial movement,unfortunate fate内容提要本文研究的是小说主人公苔丝的反抗精神。

Chapter Three: The cause of Tess’s tragedy genera ted.Ⅰ. Social reason1.1 PovertyT he past century, Tess’s tragedy had move thousands of hund reds of people all over the world. T ess was beguiled and viola ted by a young landlord, Alec, then pregnancy, so that she w as deprived of receiving the authentic love so as to be discar ded by her husband, Angel, during the wedding night. Extrem ely having no alternative, she regained the Alec’s, but titular h usband was coming back from Brazil unawares and looking fo r her. For her authentic love, Tess killed Alec who devastated her life. After Tess just spending her last three-day-and-night’s happy time in her poor life with Angel, the gods had tinished their sport with Tess. The social background of this story was changing society at the turning point of feudalism to capitalis m when thousands of decayed peasants suffering. And the hu man factors here mainly concern two men—Alec and Angel. T hough the first two causes played an important role in Tess’s tragedy, Take root reason was the sex discrimination. The solution was to achieve the real equality of male and female, no matter in social status or financial situations. Surely this requir es the advancing of the society and human civilization.First, Tess’s tragedy was from society. The poor family backgr ound foreshadows tragedy. She was a victim under the interior circumstances. Necessarily, Desting of Tess was miserable in the collision between human and environment. Tess lived at t he era of victory the village was invaded and drugged by Eng lish capitalism. As a humble worker, Tess got all kinds of oppr essions and insults. Along with invasion of the capitalism, thos e farmers who were self-reliant for food and occupied few lan d, all had to ruin. The haggling business, which had mainly d epended on the horse, became disorganized forth with. Distres s, if not penury, loomed in the distance. In face of back again st wall, Tess had to cast herself on Alec for sustain her paren ts and kid-sister.1.2 Partial rolesNext, the partial role was an important reason of Tess’s trage dy. In the society of capitalism, the precondition of laws was t hat took care of the convenience of bloodsuckers and admitte d the power of bloodsuckers oppressed people, it served for the governor. As the plutocratic duck, Alec was preserved by t he law, but Tess was killed. It just explained the counteraction of the rules of capitalism, the under classes such as Tess ca n’t obtain just treatments.1.3Hypocritical religionAgain, the element that causes Tess’s tragedy was the hypocr itical religions, especially the hypocritical character was Alec. He was a capitalist and mushroom applied the business, and he was “a person of flesh”, he trapped Tess and used the Bi ble to bring the duty to push the body of Tess, but finally, he was a pastor that expostulated to show merge. About Alec, it struggled that very elevation was a misapplication, that to rase seemed to falsity.It was visible that the religions were only a instrument was used to anesthetize, deceive and fool workers by reactionary such as Marx said “Christianity brings illusine brand”, religions offered the theoretical gist for bourgeoisie ins ulted and disgraced women.1.4Deceptive moralityThe last one, Tess was a victim of the deceptive morality, Angel Clare, symbolizing spirit, though intelligent, are sensitive, “E arly association with country solitudes had bred in Clare an u nconquerable, and almost unreasonable, aversion to modern lif e, and shut him out from such success as he might have asp ired to by following a mundane calling in the impracticability of the spiritual one. But something had to be done, he had was ted many years, and having an acquaintance was starting on a thriving life as a colonial farmer, it occurred to Angel that th is might be a lead in the right direction. Farming either in the Colonies, America or at home---farming, at any rate, after be coming well qualified for the business by a careful apprentices hip---that was a vacation which would probably afford an indep endence without the sacrifice of what he valued even more th an a competency---intellectual liberty”. It was such as Marlene Springer Hardy’s used the author Thomas Hardy, he was not in an intellectual of Allusion sense, but in so far as instincts and emotions ruled. Although he was a enlightened intelligents ia, when he know the past of Tess, with all his attempted ind ependence of judge this advanced and well meaning young m an, a sample product of the last five-and -twenty years, was g et the slave to custom and conventionality when surprised bac k into his early teachings. There was one kind of deep-set ethics in his soul, he thought the positions are different, and the mores was different. He regarded whether she was pity in ligh t of conventional idea of virtue, he had no pity for Tess, it bro ught more distress and let Tess to return to Alec. The decepti ve morality with Angle pushed Tess to gulf.Ⅱ.Tess’s temperament2.1 Traditional ethics and hypocritical religion Second, according to the analysis, Tess’s weak pointed and e ven her noble qualities bring. Her disaster, she had dual temp erament. Firstly, she dared to against traditional ethics and hy pocritical religions, and the secondly, she couldn’t get rid of th e fetter of ethics for herself.Tess’s innocence and care for her family lead to the strange, her inexperience was one reason that she was seduced by Al ec and her spirit made her became Alec’s victim again, and T ess’s devotion to Angel deepened her tragedy, she felt too hu miliated to match Angel and she was too obsessed by Angel to see his defects.2.2 The ethicsTess was born in a boorish family, there was weakness when she against traditional ethics, because she had some old ethic s and the views of fate. She suffered persecutions from social public opinions, and she scaled herself in light of this ethic. This encompassment of her own characterization, based on sh reds of convention, peopled by phantoms and voices antipathe tic to her, was a sorry and mistaken creation of Tess’s fancy---a cloud of moral hobgoblins by which she was terrified witho ut reason. It was they that were out of harmony with the actu al world, not she. Walking among the sleeping birds in the he dges watching the skipping rabbits on a moonlit warren or sta nding under a pheasant---laden bough, she looked upon herse lf as a figure of Guilt intruding into the haunts of innocence. But all the while she was making a distinction where there wa s no difference. Feeling herself in antagonism she was quite i n accord. She had been made to break an accepted social la w, but no law known to the environment in which she shed h erself such an anomaly. She always used this moral toil to re strain herself, she didn’t forget her disgrace, she though she was a incarnation villainously, her opinion had historic basic, it was incorporation of the whole society. As character a term o f history，The main and action of Tess must be limited by era.。