大学英语英国文学Thomas_Hardy

1、Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) If asked to state his profession, without hesitation Hardy would have declared himself a poet rather than a novelist. He began to write poetry in the late 1850s, in his early teens, and continued until his death at the age of eighty-seven. Who is him? “我觉得读他一册书比受大学教育四 年都要好”

2、徐志摩 the last Victorian Fatalism and pessimism best known for his extraordinary skill in mastering the narrative form, the portrayal of characters and the psychological analysis had great influence to the later writers. a transitional figure between the Victorian Age and the 20th century; Life experi

3、ence Born in June 2, 1840 in Higher Bockhampton in this cottage. His father Thomas : a stonemason and local builder. His mother Jemima : well-read and educated Thomas until he went to school. He was a sickly child was not able to attend school at a young age. 22 years old, Hardy moved to London Hard

4、y takes common working-class people as heroes and heroines in his novels. His heroes are usually tragic ones who acquire self-consciousness and question the fundamentals of the society. And with these traditional characters he is always sympathetic. 2.nostalgia for the pastoral and patriarchal mode

5、of life; In his Wessex novels, there is an apparent nostalgic touch in his description of the simple and beautiful though primitive rural life, which was gradually declining and disappearing as England marched into an industrial country. 3. A naturalistic tendency in his works. In his works, the str

6、ong elements of naturalism are combined with a tendency towards symbolism. Mans life controlled by hostile, cruel, mysterious fate; a pessimistic vein runs throughout his novels. architectural structure by accumulating each circumstance, each detail to strengthen the final effectFate; Features of hi

7、s novels Features of his novels 5. nature in his novels personified and symbolic, like a character in the development of the plot 6. The underlying theme of his novel is the struggle between man and his environment, between aspiring human spirit and the external inanimate nature. This Fatalism is st

8、rongly reflected in his writings. Features of his novels 7. In style, Hardy is a traditionalist, although there are obvious traits of modernism in thematic matters. Almost all his works are perfectly structured and well plotted. The rustic dialect heightens its local or regional color. They are also

9、 noted for the detailed and poetic description of the characters inner life their desires, passions, and sufferings, etc. and its reflection in the environment. 8. a good knowledge of folkways(superstition.) and peasants feelings; Tess of the dUrbervilles(1891) Image of Tess in the films Main charac

10、ters Tess The oldest daughter from a poor family with a noble origin Alec Angel A young man who hates the old family and likes farming Video A rich man from a wealthy family who bought the family name dUrbervilles from Tesss family (2) a link between the late-Victorian literature of the end of the n

11、ineteenth century and that of the modern era. Tess finds work as a dairymaid on a farm and falls in love with Angel Clare, a clergymans son. They marry but when Tess tells Angel about her past, he hypocritically deserts her. Tess becomes Alecs mistress. Angel returns from Brazil, repenting his harsh

12、ness, but finds her living with Alec. Tess kills Alec in desperation, she is arrested and hanged. introduction Main Plot Analysis of main characters Tess of the DUrbervilles was subtitled A Pure Woman and published in 1891. It is one of Hardys saddest tales of rural troubles. introduction a milkmaid

13、 seduced by one man married and rejected by another eventually murdered the first one considered unfit for publications which young people might read Early critics attacked Hardy for the novels subtitle, “A Pure Woman”, arguing that Tess could not possibly be considered pure. They also denounced his

14、 frank for the time depiction of sex criticism of organized religion dark pessimism the main characters Tess Durbeyfield Tess Durbeyfield Angel Clare Angel Clare Alec Stokes dUrbervilleAlec Stokes dUrberville Tess Durbeyfield the protagonist, eldest daughter in a poor rural working family a fresh, p

15、retty country girl with a good heart and a sensitive soul 哈代笔下的苔丝 Pure “You could sometimes see her twelfth year in her cheeks, or her ninth sparkling from her eyes; and even her fifth would flit over the curves of her mouth now and then.” Innocent, diligent spirited heroine the eldest daughter of a

16、 poor, rural Victorian family. She is sensitive, loyal and kind and tries to do the best for her loved ones. Her weakness: her innocence unschooled “in the ways of the world” unable to protect herself She is a brave girl, hard-working and sweet-natured and innocent she is not free from the influence

17、 of social conventions and moral standards of the day. In a word, she is a victim of economic oppression and social injustice. strikingly attractive, intelligent, hard-working, honest and faithful, innocent, unsophisticated, deep moral sensitive social symbolism: the changing role of the agricultura

18、l workers in England in the late 19th century. religious symbolism: fallen humanity in a religious sense. represents Angel Clare the son of a clergyman Tesss husband and true love He considers himself a freethinker. But his notions of morality turn out to be fairly conventional. Analyze the characte

19、rs Angel Clare Angel is an intelligent and kind clergymans son. Tess first sees him at a Mayday dance but he ignores her. Choosing to follow a life in farming rather than one in the Church, he wants to work for the honour and glory of man. Tess meets him again at a farm where shes working as a milkm

20、aid and they fall deeply in love. freethinking, intelligent, reserved, subtle, persistent Angel Clare was a typical image of bourgeois intellectuals and seemed to be a humanist and free thinker. Represents a rebellious striving toward a personal vision of goodness His love for Tess, a mere milkmaid,

21、 and in that time, is one expression of his disdain（蔑视）for tradition. Angel Clare Alec Stokes dUrberville the son of Mrs. DUrberville. He rapes (or possibly seduces) Tess when she is no more than 17 years old later pursues her relentlessly Forced her to agree to become his mistress again. In the end

22、, Tess kills him with a knife to the heart. Analyze the character Alec DUrberville Alec is the handsome, but self-centred and manipulative eldest son of Tesss supposed illustrious relatives - the DUrbervilles. After going to work at The Slopes - Alecs family home - Tess falls into his clutches. She

23、is easily seduced by his apparent charm and generosity. handsome, immoral, manipulative, guileful, lascivious, sinister the base forces of life that drive a person away from moral perfection and greatness Alec Durberville represents Questions for Discussion 1) The subtitle of the novel is A Pure Wom

24、an Faithfully Portrayed. All things considered, was Tess a pure woman? Why or Why not? Tess was a pure woman: a. pure here not refers to the physical meaning but the spiritual one. Throughout the novel, Tess was loyal to her true feelings. She remained her loyalty to Angel. Alec only claimed her bod

25、y. She was spiritually with Angel all the time. b. She is responsible and does her best for the family. c. She is honest. d. She could face her tragedy with great dignity. Hardy never condemns Tess; his view of her is the one expressed in the subtitle to the novel. Hardy exposes in Tesss story how w

26、omen are wronged by the standards of his day. 2) Why do we say Tesss tragedy is a personal as well as a social one? Tesss fate is personal: She happens to be so beautiful, so pure, so innocent, and so poor, and she happens to get involved with 2 men who, though apparent rivals, actually joint their

27、forces in bringing about her destruction. Both Alec and Angel violated and made fun of Tess. Tess was physically injured by Alec dUrberville, and mentally was affected by Angel Clare. Alec and Angel by different way made Tess tragedy from bad to worse. Her fate is a social one: It can be the fate of

28、 any country girl like her. It can be the fate of all the peasants who are driven out of their land and home and forced to seek somewhere else for sustenance. What does “Thus the thing began” mean? Hardy notes, Thus the thing began. It should be noted that Hardy gives subtle hints that a play has co

29、mmenced. This technique dates back to the ancient Greek period when plays (or dramas) were written about the sport that the Greek gods took with mortal men. Sometimes it was said that the Greek gods enjoyed using mankind as toys or for sport. Hardy knows this and uses this device as a springboard fo

30、r his own work, making Tess an unwitting and unwilling participant. 4) How do you understand the last sentence “Jutice is done, and the president of Immortalshad ended his sport with Tess.”? As an insecure and inferior being, Tess can never love in a genuine and generous way. Tesss fate is to be tra

31、gic as soon as she appears in the novel. She is not the master of her own life, and she can only be the object to be preyed upon, then humiliated and abandoned. When she rebels, she acts against the law of a society whose power is in the hands of rich men. These last words highlight Hardys critical

32、attitudes towards the unjust treatment of women and his denunciation of the hypocrisy of the social structures and moral codes of Victorian England. Themes In this work, the authors pessimistic and naturalistic view of life is fully expressed: Mankind is subjected to the rule of some hostile and mys

33、terious fate, which brings misfortune to human life. The novel gives a fierce attack on the hypocritical morality of the bourgeois society and the capitalist invasion into the country and destruction of the English peasantry towards the end of the century. The tragic fate of Tess and her family was

34、not that of an individual family, but it was symbolic of the disintegration of the English peasantry: a process which had reached its final and tragic stage at the end of 19th century. The writing skills The description of nature irony Symbolism Foreshadowing The description of nature The descriptio

35、n of Nature in Hardys Wessex novels(威塞克斯小 说)is characteristic of Hardys style. Hardy is a great painter of nature. In his hand, the Wessex prairie comes to life, with its own color, temper, mystery, omen, and force of destruction. It is as much a living character as men and women in the novels. The

36、description of Nature not only serves as a setting, but also becomes a vital part of Hardys novels. He focuses on the interrelations between human, Nature and society. Nature in his novels is personated and melted with the characters together. Hardy believed firmly that man was part of Nature, a gua

37、rdian of Nature and should always remain true to their closeness with Nature. In all Hardys Wessex novels, the characters, who can live in harmony with Nature all deserve a good ending, while those who cannot are by all means go ruining. The conflict between mans aspirations and his environment is t

38、he central unifying force of Hardys tragic novels. It stresses that human should live in harmony with Nature. irony the author explores three forms of irony, situational irony, dramatic irony and cosmic irony. symbolism Setting is the essential part of a novel. In Tess of the DUrbervilles, settings

39、are not only the background but also have the symbolic meanings which imply the main character, Tess nature, mind and situation. The changing of setting suggests the changing of Tess fate. This article will analyze the symbolic meanings of the settings. symbolism the symbolic meanings of the setting

40、s from the following aspects: the color, the bird imagery, the places, the seasons and the natural sceneries. Celtic ritual, in this case a May-Day dance in the Wessex village of Marlott. The Book of Genesis the dUrberville family vault; Foreshadowing Prince; Tesss killing of the pheasants(野鸡） fores

41、hadows her own death by hanging; Alecs assertion that he will “master” Tess again foreshadows his reemergence in her life Brazil The symbolic use of the forklore More Questions: 6) If you were Tess, what would you do at this critical moment? That is to say, Angel came back and you met him unexpected

42、ly, what would you do? 7) If you were Angel, what would you do? (on the wedding night, at this unexpected meeting) 8) If you were Alec, what would you do? 918 poems in his life In 1898 first volume of poetry published, Wessex Poems a collection of poems written over 30 years. Living in the transitional times has colored Hardys writing His poetry presents both Victorian and modern characteristics Disillusioned Love “Neutral Tones” In Hardys earlier works, a favored theme: was never reciprocated or happy, but tedious and marked with infidelity. The poems of 1912-1913 writt