Comment on Tess of D'Urbervilles
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Introduction of Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy , one of the greatest English novelists , was born in a small thatched cottage near Dorchester, Dorset, on June2 ,1840. At an early age, he became engrossed in the reading of a wide range of literature. He had expected to go to university, but family finances did not stretch that far. Instead he was apprenticed to a local architect at the age of 16. This forced him to stay in Dorset, a place that provided him with the inspiration for his greatest books.
At the age of 22, he finished his apprenticeship as an architect and set off for London. And during this time, he started writing poems. In order to earn his living, he started to write novels. Desperate Remedise, Under the Greenwood Tree are his early books. His other books include Tess of D'Urbervilles,The Return of the Native, Far from the Madding Crowd and so on, which are quite successful.
In 1910, Hardy was awarded the British Order of Merit. And in 1912,he won the Gold Medal from the Royal Society of Literature. Honours came one after another, including honorary degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge, making up for his lost university education he succeeded Alfred Tennyson and George Meredith as president of the society of Authors.
He died on January 11, 1928 and was buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.(Liu 266-27）
1.2 Brief introduction to Tess of D'Urbervilles
In the fiction , the writer describes the miserable life of the heroine Tess, a pretty, exceptionally gifted peasant girl of the decayed aristocratic stock, is entouraged by her parents to seek out the old noble family to which her father discovers that she belongs. Unfortunately , she is seduced by Alec D'Uberville whom they believe to be he cousin ,and has an illegitimate child with him. From now on, she has to suffer from the satire and contempt of others, but she still lives bravely. After the death of the baby, she decides to leave for a new place to build a new life for herself. She goes to a dairy farm to the south , where she meets Angel Clare and falls in love with him quickly. At the night of their wedding , Tess tells Angle her story since she thinks that Angel will forgive her just as he is forgiven , which leads to she is deserted by Angle, for he think that she is manipulative, and he even think that she is not the woman he loved.Heart-broken and disappointed, she comes back to her hometown. At this time, her family is in great trouble-her father dies, and her mother is terrible ill.In order to support her family, she chooses to compromise to Alec because she need to use his money to help her family get through the trouble. Before long ,however, Angle suddenly returns to her, which makes Tess do not know what to do. Struggled for a long time, she chooses to kill Alec and escape with Angle. Finally, she is sentenced to death by the police after one week's running away with Angle.
Definitely, Tess is unfortunate. There must be many reasons with the generation of tragic figure. So what causes the tragedy of Tess? Tess's tragedy does not bring by a single reasons .The contributing factors of Tess's tragedy lies in the combination of the persecution of capitalist state apparatus and religion, the devastation of traditional moral principles and the weakness in Tess's characteristics, and so on.(Jia 45)
The thesis consist of three part. Part one is the brief introduction about the writer and Tess of D'Urbervilles.part two is a detailed analysis of Tess of D'Urbervilles and the reason for the tragedy of Tess. Part three is a conclusion of the thesis.
Chapter Two Causes of the tragedy of Tess
2.1 External factor
2.1.1 Family background of Tess
Tess was born in a peasant family with many children. Her father is a poor country hawker who is lazy , bad-tempered and has a bad habit of excessive drinking. Her mother is a ignorant dairymaid, who has a sloppy superstition. Hr parents bad turns play a important role Tess's tragedy. Because of poor, Tess is encouraged by her parents to seek out the old noble family to which her father discovers that she belongs: the Stoke-d'Ubervilles. However, she is seduced by Alec d'Urberville whom they believe to be her cousin, and has an illegitimate child by him.When her mother falls ill which causes a great burden for the family, later she recovers but her father dies. She has no choice but to give up to Alec and uses his money to support her family. Support her family is rich , she would not meet Alec, and she need not tot turn to Alec for help when her family is in trouble. That is to say , if her family is rich enough, many of the troubles could be awarded. From the analysis, we can draw a conclusion that her family influence is the most direct reason that causes the tragedy of her.
2.1.2 The social factor
Tess of D'Urberville is written is Victoria England . After the industrial revolution in UK, the large-scale capitalist model of operation quickly immersed into the rural area. With the extensive application of the modern agricultural machinery, individual farmers gradually became impoverished ,and the rich exploited farm labours extremely. For example, the Crick's milk factory depicted in the novel is the portrayal of this kind of mode of production during this period, while Tess and her companions are the representatives of the oppressed people. In order to make a living, they have to travel from farm to farm, and once the autumn harvest ends, they will be dismissed. They have to suffer from the exploitation and oppression. Tess is often engaged in heavy labor, and do the works as a male. She has to pass the sheaves to the machine by herself, and compete with the machine. Sometimes her skin is scratched, and even collapsed because of tired.But no one would be sympathetic to her even if she is hurt , because this bitterness doesn't only belong to her and her family , it can be fund everywhere and every poor family at the age. It is the social injustice that makes her suffer from poverty, humiliation , despair , discrimination , therefore ,she becomes a crime , and eventually be deprived of life.
Another phenomenon is that female's social states are very low. The highest virtue of Victoria woman is sexual purity,and adultery is the worst of all the possible sins. Her dress conceals her whole body except her hands and her face, and to show an ankles or shoulders will be considered "improper". Public notions on sexual morals are that remains virgin before marriage, but men could have their flings. The sexual morals are presumably rooted in people's minds: when either men or women engaged in sexual lapses, the former would be forgiven and the latter would be condemned. In this kind of circumstance, however, Tess has been seduced by Alec and give a baby illegitimate,so it is no doubt that she will be ridiculed and laughed and even be forsaken. The so-called moral standard undoubtedly result tragedy.
“All men were created equal and God has given them certain unalienable rights which no state or ruler could take away from them." Though now American society advocated it strongly, but for those people who live in the Vitorian England , equality is the extravagant hope. Woman is the slave and private property of husband. Men dominate women like their being. They expect to be loves, at the same time, they want to be obeyed. Man makes all the decisions, and his wife is supposed to be his faithful companion.Male domination of women may be more more unsettling
2.1.3 Other peoples influence
Alec D'Urbervilles' influence
An insouciant twenty-four-year old man , heir to a fortune and bearer of a name that his father purchased , Alec is the nemesis and downfall of Tess's life. His first name, Alexander, suggests the conqueror -as in Alexander the Great -who sizes what he wants regardless of moral propriety. Yet he is more slippery than a grand conqueror. His full last name,Stoke D'Urbervilles, 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. Indeed the divided and duplicitous character of Alec is evident at the very end of the novel, when he quickly abandons his newfound Christian faith upon remitting Tess. It is hard to believe that Alec hold his religion, or anything else, sincerely. His supposed conversion may only be a new role he is playing. This duplicity of character is so intense in Alec and its consequence for Tess so severe, that he becomes diabolical. The first part of his surname conjures associations with fiery energies, as in the stocking a furnace or the flames of hell. His devilish associations are evident when he wields a pitchfork while addressing Tess early in the novel, and when he seduces her as the serpent seduces Eve. Besides, he never conceals his evil.
He is not afraid to let others know that he is a bad man.When Tess's family is in trouble, he even threatens her to be his mistress. He repeated to tell Tess that Angel will never come back, which totally breaks Tess's heart. So in the end Tess gives up to him. It can be said that Alec's violence and indifference totally destroys Tess.
2.1.4 Angel Clare
Angel's attitude also is a very important reason for Tess's tragedy. Angel Clare was born in a wealthy pastoralist households, but he is unwilling to obey his father and brother. He despises class prejudice and hierarchy, and is tired of the bustling city life. So he gives up the opportunity to study at university, an comes to the rural farmland, where he falls in love with Tess. This suggests that Clare is progressive , to some degree. But at their wedding eve, Tess confesses her past to him, however, he is unable to accept the fact. He thinks that Tess is hypocrisy because she does not tell him her history before their marriage. Tess, in desperation to please him, offers to die for him if he so desires or be his slave, but nothing consoles him because he is in love with his image of her not herself. So he deserts Tess and goes to Brazil alone.
A man can have many girls having an affair, but before becoming a bride, a woman must remain a virgin. Angel also thinks so. Once again, he himself is dissolute, which gains Tess's forgiveness. However, he can not forgive Tess in return. Indeed, he attempts to struggle against traditional concept, class prejudice, but not completely. In the deep of his heart, he still can not get rid of the character of the class he belongs to. Tess trusts him and wants to be faithful to him absolutely, so she tells him her past.when Claire learns that Tess is not a virgin, and had an illegitimate child, the perfect image of Tess leaving on him suddenly be destroyed by the sad fact. Obviously, he says he is deeply attached to Tess, in fact, he lacks courage to face the truth. Angel Clare more or less is a liberal bourgeois. In love aspect, he is not as despicable as Alec, but his love is quite superficial. More than once, he says to Tess:" the woman I have been loving is not you."(p270 liu). This kind of love not only stifles the true feelings of his heart, but also ruins the happiness of Tess' life.
2.2 internal factor
Tess ' tragedy is not only caused by her family and the society but also by herself. Tess is beautiful ,honest, charming, filial ,brave and rebellious , of which we think highly. However , it is theses characters that cause her tragedy.
Heraclitus ever said:" A man's character is his fate." Tess's fate is largely influenced by her character. Tess is kind , honest, brave and rebellious . However, because she is kind and filial, she is easy to compromise to many thing. What's worse, she is rebellious. At that time, women are the slaves of men,they have no right to say no. So rebellion is not a good thing for Tess. Tess is very kind and filial. She never disobeys her parents.As the oldest children of a poor family, she has to work day and light to help her parents to support her family. And when her father dies and her mother is ill, she even choose to marry Alec -- the man who destroys her life and happiness in order to help her family to get through the hardship. Perhaps, in many readers' view, Tess is born to be sacrificed.
Tess is honest, however, too honest is not a good thing for her. Before she and Angel get marry, she confesses her history to Angel. She innocently believes that Angel will forgive her just as her does. But , to her disappointed, her confession dramatically changes the way that Angel think about her. Although she implores again and again," Forgive me as you are forgiven! I forgive you, Angel."(p269,liu）“ no, I shan't do anything, unless you order me to, and if you go away from me I shall not follow 'ee; and if you never speak to me any more I shall not ask why, unless you tell me I may."(p270,liu) . " I repeat the woman I have been loving is not you.", this is the answer she gets. Angel even thinks that Tess is not the woman he loved. He thinks Tess is manipulative because she did not tell him her story before their marriage. Tess , in desperation to please him, offers to die for him if he desires or be his slave, but nothing consoles him because he is in love with his image of her not herself. From the comparison, we can see the honesty of Tess. But her honesty destroy her good impression on Angel , what's worse, let herself to be deserted by Angel.
Another important character of Tess is that she is quite rebellious. Although the bad thing happens to her one by ine , she never gives up. When she is seduced , she does not choose to die , perhaps many of the women at the age will do. On the contrary, she survives bravely and gives a baby illegally; she is not pure as the society requires her to be, she still desires to be loved, and falls in love with Angel crazily; in the end of the story, on order to be with Angel, she even kills Alec. It needs great courage to do that, especially for a woman like her. All she does fully improves that she is not willing to give up to fate. And it is the rebellion that makes her to be crime in the end.
On one hand , she struggles bravely with her destiny and social conventional morality: she pursues happiness,wants to be loved; on the other hand, she compromises to the reality: when her family is in trouble , she chooses to marry Alex though she doesn't like him even detested him. The contradiction between her rebellion and compromise decides that she is doomed to be miserable.
Chapter Three Conclusion
Tess of D'Urbervilles is the masterpiece of Hardy. It deals with such themes as injustice of human existence, social classes and social status of women in Victorian England. She is staunch throughout the novel. she doesn't have all the virtues that the society requires she should have, but she is kindhearted, brave , hardworking and honest. No matter what happened, she always confront them with courage and determination. So it is certainly that she should be respected by all of us.
Tess's tragedy does not be caused by one simply reasons. The unequal and indifferent England society in which the story happened is the fundamental reason, her family condition is also a very significant one, but more importantly,her own characters --the Irreconcilable contradiction between her rebellion and compromise is the foremost reason causing her tragedy.
Literature comes from life, and higher than life. Every character in literature is a miniature of the society. Therefore, from Tess , we can see the living conditions of the poor people at the age. Tess is a representative of the deprived people, and her tragic fate is not only of herself , but also the society she lives in.
09英语三班谷湘琼
