An Analysis of the Tragedy in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.doc

毕业论文(设计)An Analysis of the Tragedy in Tess of the DUrbervilles1. Introduction12. Authors control of the work32. 1 The Social Circumstances of Thomas Hardy32. 1. 1 The social morality of the Victorian Age32. 1. 2 Life of the author42. 2 Thomas Hardys fatalism52. 2. 1 The definition of fatalism52. 2. 2 Hardys fatalism and its presentation in the work53. Locating the causes in the work83.1 social status83.1 .1 Social status of different families83. 1. 1. 1 Tesss family83. 1. 1. 2 Angels family103. 1. 1. 3 Alecs family103. 1. 2 Unequal statuses of men and women113. 2 Individual characteristics of the characters123. 2. 1 Tess123. 2. 2 Alec133. 2. 2 Angel143. 2. 4 Tesss parents164. Conclusion17References191. IntroductionIn the Victorian Age, Hardys Tess of the DUrbervilles 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 DUrbervilles. In these reviews, what most people paid close attention to is the causes of Tesss 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 Tesss tragedy represented the disintegration of the English peasantry, and proposed that it was Tesss 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 achievements were authentic, however, we should pay more attention to the thought of the author, for it was him that created the heroines 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 peoples life was miserable, the fate of the poor was also a tragedy, and the heroines fate was an epitome of human destiny. Hardys 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 Tesss tragic fate from the aspects of both the author himself and the work.2. Authors control of the work2. 1 The Social Circumstances of Thomas Hardy2. 1. 1 The social morality of the Victorian Age There 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 reason why he made this tragedy has something to do with the social environment in that age. Hardys 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, peoples 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 peoples values. Instead of being positive, they turned to be negative and doubtful of the society. Malthusian Theory of Population, Benthans 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 Schopenhauers Will Theory of Life. Hardy read a large number of their works and influenced by their theories and life 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 author Thomas 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 DUrbervilles 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 Hardys fatalism 2. 2. 1 The definition of fatalismThe definition of fatalism in the Advanced Learners 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 Hardys fatalism and its presentation in the work In Hardys 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 Hardys work was “Gods will” of “fate” (Net. 5). The abiding “Stonehenge” (Hardy, 1996: 502), which was mentioned in Tess of the DUrbervilles, was just the symbolization of it. In front of this power, personal will was feeble. Therefore, Hardys work revealed strong fatalism. He thought that “fatalism was not only regarded as an effective external force, but also appeared as an effective power obtained by heart” (张中载, 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. Hardys novels were full of fatalism, which was represented particularly in the book of Tess of the DUrbervills. This composition reflected the authors spiritual 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 peoples 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 knightly family of the DUrberville, 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 Trantridge. Beginning with an accidental occurrence, Tess went forward her miserable journey. The novel revealed the ominous atmosphere at the beginning of the story. The sentence “But Joan Durbeyfield must mind that she dont 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 DUrbervilles. 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 DUrbervilles showing that the tragic fate of Tess was arranged beforehand and was inevitable. The following omens just embodied such fatalism of Hardys. The death of the old horse seemed to be coincidental, 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 Angels home asking for help, her shoes were taken by Angels brother. Because she could not find a suitable job, could not get 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 DUrbervilles 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 work Tesss 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 Tesss 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 Tesss 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, Tesss 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. Durbervilles) 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 Angels family Angel 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 couldnt 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 Alecs family Alecs father was a rich businessman coming from the north of England. Thinking that “DUrbervilles” 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 “DUrbervilles” 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 women In 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 “immoral thing” was done, women always received 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 peoples souls in a village of Evershead. Besides, Angel also did the wrong thing and it was possibly even more serious than Tesss 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 eventually went to the extreme. 3. 2 Individual characteristics of the characters3. 2. 1 TessIn the novels of Hardy, the