Similarities between Du Shiniang’s And Tess’ Tragic Fates.doc

similarities between du shiniangs and tess tragic fates1. introduction poetics is one of the most important works created by aristotle. from chapter 6 to chapter 22, it concentrates mainly on tragedy. until now, aristotles tragic theory in poetics still plays a significant role in artistic creation. du shiniang and tess are two tragic characters that we know very well. although they were written by authors coming from different countries, different social systems, and different times, they share many similarities, such as social status, sufferings, characters and causes for their tragic fates. combined with aristotles tragic theory, this paper is just to compare these similarities shared between du shiniang and tess so that the readers can have a better understanding of the two characters and their tragic fates. 1.1 the definition of tragedyin poetics, aristotle lays down a definition for tragedy. he points out that tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions. (张中载, 2002:40)1.2 the main idea of du shiniang and tessaccording to aristotles definition, tragedy is an imitation of an action that is complete.the story of du shiniang is complete. at the beginning of the story, shiniang meets with li jia and they are in love with each other, living together in jiaofangsi, a brothel. in the middle, li jia buys back the freedom of shiniang and leaves the brothel. on the way, li jia wants to sell shiniang to sun fu. at the end of the story, shiniang commits suicide by jumping into a river with all her treasures.compared with du shiniang, tess also has a complete story. in the beginning, tess is seduced by alec durbervilles. in the middle, tess meets with angel clare and they fall in love with each other. they get married, but tess is abandoned by angel after he knows the relationship between tess and alec. at the end of the story, angel comes back from brazil to look for tess. tess kills alec with anger. thus, tess is condemned to death by hanging.obviously, both stories are complete. the whole life of du shiniang and tess is portrayed in details, so readers can have a clear storyline in their mind after they read the two stories.2. the hero or heroine of tragedy2.1 aristotles regulation on the hero or heroine aristotle was born in old greek in the slave-system. in artistic creation, of course, he cant get rid of some limitations of his time. one of the limitations can be reflected by his class conception. “he (the hero) must be one who is highly renowned and prosperousa personage like oedipus, thyestes, or other illustrious men of such families.”(张中载, 2002:47) that is the regulation that aristotle makes on the hero or heroine of the tragedy.2.2 similar social status of du shiniang and tessalthough du shiniang and tess were born in different social systems, they have very similar social status. both of them live at the bottom of society. du shiniang has been a prostitute since she was thirteen years old. she has to earn her living by selling her freedom. her freedom doesnt exist any more. li jia buys back her freedom, but then he wants to sell her. what a poor woman who is bought and sold arbitrarily just like goods and slaves! in fact, shiniang is not poor. instead, she is rich because she collects many treasures secretly. however, her treasures cant change her social status at all. after all, she is a prostitute who is trodden upon at will. upper society has zero tolerance for such a woman. tess is not “highly renowned and prosperous”, too. like du shiniang, she also lives at the bottom of society. tess was born in a poor country family. to help her parents keep living, she has to work in the family of alec durbervilles. unfortunately, she is seduced by alec and suffers peoples discrimination. after she is abandoned by angel clare, tess falls into a poor condition again. she has no choice but to become alecs mistress, and suffers disgrace again. in a word, money is very important in capitalist society. “no money, no status.” tess is poor, and she cant enter upper society. to sum up, du shiniang and tess suffer lots of disgrace and humiliation. both of them belong to the oppressed class. 3. plots3.1 aristotles tragic theory on plots according to aristotle, every tragedy has six parts, namely, plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, song.(张中载, 2002:40) among these six elements, the plot is the most important, because the plot is the imitation of the action and is the arrangement of the incidents. plots are the blood and flesh of a work. only if the work arranges plots well, it can achieve good effects. plots are either simple or complex. “a complex action is one in which the change is accompanied by such reversal, or by recognition, or by both reversal of the situation is a change by which the action veers round to its opposite, subject always to our rule of probability or necessityrecognition, as the name indicates, is a change from ignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined by the poet for good or bad fortune.”(张中载, 2002:46) aristotle points out that excellent tragic plots must go through reversal and recognition, and finally comes to the result of suffering. “the scene of suffering is a destructive or painful action, such as death on the stage, bodily agony, wounds, and the like.”(张中载, 2002:47) in simple words, the “reversal” of the plots is the reversal of tragic characters fate, turning from good luck to bad luck. the tragic characters know nothing about such reversal. with the development of the plots, the hero or heroine of the tragedy gradually “recognizes” his or her unfavorable situation and the disastrous results produced by his mistakes and ignorance. at last, the hero or heroine of the tragedy may “suffer” great pains, even death. in the process “reversalrecognitionsuffering”, the plots of tragedies develop step by step.3.2 similar sufferings shared by du shiniang and tess through aristotles theory on plots to compare du shiniang and tess, their similar sufferings can be found without difficulty. 3.2.1 experience of being abandoned after li jia and du shiniang leave the brothel, shiniang treats li jia as her husband whole-heartedly, but in the deep mind of li jia, shiniang is still a prostitute. between shiniang and his family interest, li jia finally chooses the latter. to shiniangs surprise, the man whom she wants to depend on changes his mind and betrayed her. it is no doubt that this gives a fatal blow to shiniang. thus, “reversal” comes near to her, and then her fate changes. original happiness disappears. great anger and pain well up in her heart. when plots develop to this moment, shiniang “recognizes” li jias selfishness and despicable behavior, but its too late. she is destined to suffer great disasters. being similar to du shiniang, tess is also abandoned by a man she loves. after tess gets married with angel, she should have forgotten the painful experience in the past and should have begun a new life, but things run counter to her wishes. “reversal” also makes a visit to her. tess doesnt live a happy life. instead, a bigger disaster falls down upon her. ruthlessly, angel abandons her and leaves her. tess is drawn into a hopeless situation. such “reversal” carries a foreshadowing for her later sufferings.3.2.2 ending with death after “reversal” and “recognition” follows “suffering”. indeed, du shiniang suffers a lot after she realizes li jias selfishness and basement. she suffers great anger and pain. in the last scene, she jumps into the river without hesitation and ends her young life. “suffering” is a destructive or painful action, says aristotle. du shiniangs destructive action shocks me greatly. i cant help admiring her courage. confronted with death, she shows no signs of fear at all. thomas hardy also ends his story with the death of tess. when angel comes back, tess suffers great agony. she holds the view that it is alec who destroys her whole life. in despair, tess kills alec and at the same time, she also cant avoid the fate of death. at the end of the story, “justice was done, and the president of the immortals had ended his sport with tess.”(t. hardy, 2006:608) lu xun once said, “tragedy is to destroy the valuable things and then show them to people.” for a tragedy, death may be the best result, because it can arouse peoples sympathy and spark more thoughts over life. just as what aristotle says in the definition of tragedy, “through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions.4. character4.1 aristotles tragic theory on character character is one of the six basic elements of tragedy. it occupies the second important place. in respect of character, aristotle deems that we should pay attention to four things. first, and most important, it must be good. the second thing to aim at is propriety. that is to say, character must be compatible with ones status. thirdly, character must be true to life. it means that character must be similar to common peoples character. the fourth point is consistency: for though the subject of the imitation, who suggested the type, be inconsistent, still he must be consistently inconsistent.(张中载, 2002:50) here be consistently inconsistent means be basically consistent. for example, a melancholy person sometimes may suddenly become angry or excited, but he will immediately become melancholy again.4.2 similar characters shared by du shiniang and tess on the grounds of aristotles theory, character must be good. du shiniang and tess are in conformity with this principle. both of them are good and kind-hearted. character must be appropriate. in this respect, aristotle doesnt avoid the limitation of his age. he looks down upon women. in chapter 15 of poetics, he says, there is a type of manly valor; but valor in a woman, or unscrupulous cleverness, is inappropriate.(张中载, 2002:50) from this angle, du shiniang and tess seem to be against proprieties, for they, in fact, have certain rebellious character in their deep heart. character must be similar to the character of common people. it is no doubt that du shiniang and tess are common people at the bottom of society. therefore, their character is true to life. character must be consistent. from the beginning to the very end, the nature of du shiniang and tess doesnt change. although they suffer various misfortunes of life, they always try hard to maintain their dignity and pursue pure love consistently.4.2.1 kind-heartedness du shiniang is a beautiful and kind woman. to buy back her freedom, li jia needs to pay 300 taels of silver. however, li jia hasnt so much money and no one is willing to lend money to him. to help him, shiniang gives li jia her own 150 taels of silver. on the trip, shiniang often provides money for li jia and comforts him by saying that her money is enough for their trip. when shiniang knows the deal negotiated by li jia and sun fu, shiniang doesnt scold li jia at once. instead, to our surprise, she accepts the deal, quietly bearing the insult and grief. more unexpectedly, on the next morning, she still thinks about the interests of li jia. she asks sun fu to send money to li jia first. from this, we have to gasp with admiration at shiniangs kind-heartedness. tess kind-heartedness is obvious, too. she is selfless, laborious, and has the spirit of self-sacrifice. since she is seventeen years old, she has been overloaded with the living burden of her family. to help her parents go through the hardships of life, tess does various hard work. when she is down-and-out and has no place to turn, she chooses to live as a mistress. thus, to make her family survive, she has to sacrifice herself and endure humiliation. since husband cant bear that she has lost her virginity, tess even thinks of killing herself in order to extricate angel and herself from pain.(冯平、刘东岳等，2006:80, translation of the author) isnt it out of her kindness that she produces this silly idea?4.2.2 high self-esteem after knowing li jias intention, shiniang preens herself on purpose to make her more attractive. although she has decided to commit suicide, she still wants to keep her beauty. this is her intention to maintain her dignity as a human being.(萧欣桥, 1987:335, translation of the author) we can imagine that at this moment du shiniang has realized li jias selfishness and basement completely. however, she doesnt stoop to compromise like jin yunu, but makes resolution to maintain her pure and noble love ideal with her death.(萧欣桥, 1987:335, translation of the author) just because shiniang holds high self-esteem, she doesnt submit to li jia and sun fu, but she would rather die in pride than live in disgrace. from all these, we should say shiniang is actually a woman of high self-esteem. how about tess? like du shiniang, she also holds high self-esteem in her own style. no matter how the living condition is, she always keeps a kind of noble dignity, though this kind of dignity is much too pale before the ruthless reality.(富华、夏中义, 2004:115, translation of the author) after the horse dies, tess mother asks her to go to their rich relative for help, but from the bottom of her heart, tess doesnt want to go. after she is seduced by alec, tess would rather bear the pain of losing virginity and face peoples contempt than live with alec as his mistress. after angel clare abandons tess, to maintain her dignity as mrs. clare， tess leaves home again and walks on the road of sufferings. when she is penniless, she never turns to angels parents for help.(富华、夏中义, 2004:116, translation of the author) 4.2.3 pureness du shiniang is a prostitute, but she still has a pure soul. she is tired of her career as a prostitute. she has intended to get out of the career for a long time. therefore, shiniang collects many treasures in secret in order to buy back her freedom. obviously, shiniang is eager to live a happy and pure life. besides, she also looks forward to gaining a real and pure love. at first, shiniang doesnt tell li jia that she has a box filled with all kinds of treasures, because she doesnt want to buy li jias love with money. finally, she kills herself, for she doesnt get the pure love that she longs for. being similar to du shiniang, tess also thirsts for pure love. losing virginity makes her uneasy. for this, she avoids angels pursuit, and she even tries to create more opportunities for other girls. she deems modestly that she shouldnt be entitled to accept angels love, for she is raped and her body is not pure. how pure and selfless the love is! in the end, just to safeguard her pure love, tess kills alec. now we can make a conclusion for tess. just as the sub-title the author gives, either from the angle of moral values or from the angle of self-qualities, tess is a pure woman though she loses virginity and kills a man. she does an impure deed just because her soul is too pure.(富华、夏中义, 2004:127, translation of the author) to sum up, du shiniang and tess have impure bodies, but both of them have a pure soul.4.2.4 rebellious spirit some people may be confused. du shiniang is only a prostitute. where can we see her rebellious spirit? first, she throws all her treasures into the river. and then she scolds sun fu for ruining her pure love through luring speech. she also bitterly denounces li jia for betraying her and wasting her true love. these are shiniangs deliberate intentions to castigate li jias ugly soul and demonstrate against sun fu, the son of the sordid merchant.(萧欣桥, 1987:335, translation of the author) in the second place, shiniang kills herself by jumping into the river. this shocking plot indicates that shiniang protests strongly and rebels firmly against li jia, sun fu, feudal forces and philistinism. the two respects mentioned above are enough to explain why i say shiniang is a woman of rebellion. in terms of tess, she is also a woman model who has certain rebellious spirit. tess takes a skeptical attitude towards religion. regardless of the rules of religion, she baptizes for her illegitimate child instead of the clergyman. in the late 19th century, the church of england and the law stipulate in explicit terms that men mustnt marry the sisters of dead wives. however, tess hopes that after she dies, angel clare will marry her sister liza-lu. she even deems that such a practice has nothing to do with the religion and the law.(富华、夏中义, 2004:118, translation of the author) tess loves angel deeply, but she protests against angel, for he abandons her and its unfair to her. tess writes in a letter to angel: o why have you treated me so monstrously, angel! i do not deserve it. i have thought it all over carefully, and i can never, never forgive you! you know that i did not intend to wrong you-why have you so wronged me? you are cruel, cruel indeed! i will try to forget you. it is all injustice i have received at your hands!(t. hardy, 2006:542) tess strong protest against angel is obviously embodied in the letter. its no doubt that tess is also a woman of rebellious spirit, indeed. 5. causes for tragedy5.1 aristotles tragic theory on causes for tragedy aristotle points out that misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty.(张中载,2002,47) on one hand, error originates from ignorance. on the other hand, losin