《德伯家的苔丝》中苔丝悲剧成因分析

淮北师范大学信息学院2014 届学士学位论文《德伯家的苔丝》中苔丝悲剧成因分析系别:外语系专业:英语学号: 20101843021姓名:指导教师: 张立友指导教师职称: 讲师2014年 5 月 15 日Information College, Huaibei Normal UniversityA Study on the Causes of Tess’ Tragedy inTess of the D’UrbervillesbyUnderthe Supervision ofLecturer Zhang LiyouSubmitted to the Foreign Language Department in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor ofArtsinEnglish Language and LiteratureHuaibei, P. R. ChinaMay, 2014淮北师范大学信息学院本科生毕业论文（设计）诚信承诺书本人郑重承诺所呈交的毕业论文（设计）《德伯家的苔丝》中苔丝悲剧成因分析，是在指导教师张立友的指导下严格按照学校和学院有关规定完成的。

本人在毕业论文（设计）中引用他人的观点和参考资料均加以注释和说明。

本人承诺在毕业论文（设计）选题和研究内容过程中没有抄袭他人的研究成果和伪造相关数据等行为，若有抄袭行为，由本人承担一切责任。

承诺人：2010 年级英语专业签名：2014 年6 月 6 日AbstractTess of the D’Urbervilles is regarded as a masterpiece of Thomas Hardy, one of the greatest English novelists and poetrys.In this novel, Hardy exposes the hypocritical social morals and capitalism’s destruction to country civilization, after the capitalism invading the British villages in Victorian age.The thesis intends to analysis the causes of Tess’ tragedy from three perspectives: firstly, it analyses that Tess’ tragedy is a reflection of Hardy’s fatalism. He arranged a series of coincidences to reflect his fatalism, and this implies that Tess’tragedy is inevitable; secondly, it analyses the social factors’influence on Tess’tragic fate. The capitalism’ invasion leads to the plight of the poor peasants and the hypocritical traditional morals lead to her tragedy; and thirdly, it analyses her lackness of Tess’character, her comprise, too high sense of responsibility for her family and innocence,sincerity,all these cause her tragedy, and her conservative moral values is also one cause of the tragedy.Through analyzing Tess’ tragedy from the three perspectives of fatalism, social factors and her character, the thesis reveals woman’s real emotion and tragic fate after the British countryside has been invaded by the capitalism in Victorian age.Key Words: Thomas Hardy, Tragedy, Causes, Tess摘要《德伯家的苔丝》是19世纪英国伟大的小说家、诗人托马斯·哈代的代表作。

在这篇小说中，哈代通过描写农村姑娘苔丝的悲惨命运，揭示了维多利亚时代虚伪的社会道德观和资本主义对于乡村文明的破坏。

这篇论文从三个方面分析苔丝悲剧的成因，首先分析了苔丝的悲惨命运是哈代宿命论的体现，哈代安排了一系列的巧合事件来体现他的宿命论，揭示了苔丝的悲剧的不可避免性;其次分析了苔丝悲剧的社会因素，资本主义入侵英国农村，导致农民们生活贫困，以及传统的社会道德观导致了苔丝的悲惨命运；论文最后分析了苔丝的性格缺陷，苔丝的妥协，以及她对家庭过高的责任心，天真、幼稚的性格导致了苔丝的悲惨命运。

论文通过哈代的宿命论，社会因素，苔丝性格三个方面分析苔丝悲惨命运的成因，揭示了维多利亚时期的资本主义入侵后，农村女性的真实情感和悲剧命运。

关键词：托马斯·哈代；悲剧；成因；苔丝ContentsAbstract (I)Chapter One Introduction (1)Chapter Two Hardy’s Fatalism in Tess’ Tragedy (3)I. The Formation of Hardy’s Fatalism (3)II.Hardy’s Fatalism Reflected in Tess’ Tragedy (4)Chapter Three The Social Factors to Tess’ Tragedy (6)I. The Invasion of Capitalism (6)II.The Social Morality and Its Influences on Tess (7)A. The Hypocritical Social Morality (7)B. The Influences of Moralism on Tess (8)Chapter Four Tess’ Character Leading to Her Tragedy (10)I.Tess’ Compromise (10)II.Tess’ Conservative Moral Values (11)III.Tess’ High Sense of Responsibility for Her Family (12)IV.Tess’ Innocence and Sincerity (12)Chapter Five Conclusion (14)Works Cited (15)Chapter One IntroductionThomas Hardy (1840-1928), “is last one of the greatest of Victorian novelists. He was born in the center of the Wessex which later figured in his works.”（吴伟仁312）.He started writing long novels at the beginning of 1870 when the British capitalism had invaded the villages. He is a cold, serious realistic writer, as to the responsibility, he devoted to the thought of religion,ethics,life,society,love,marriage and many other problems in his novels. Hardy’s novels have been divided into three categories and one kind is novel of character and environment, this kind of novel mainly reflects the relationship between characters and society . It is great and represents the highest achievement of Hardy’s realism novels.” His novels set against the bleak and forbidding Dorset landscape, whose physical harshness echoes that of an indifferent, if not malolent,universe.”(赵文薇柏云彩125）.His literature career began with poetry, but did not have chances to publish and started creating novels. His first long novel was published in 1871, the celebrated work his fourth novel Far From Madding Crowd in 1874, and from then on, he devoted himself to the novel creation. There were 20 long novels in Hardy’s early life, the most famous novels are Tess of the D’Urbervilles(1891),Jude the Obscure(1895),The Mayor of Cascetbridge (1901). His works exposed the change of the social economy, political, morality and tradition.When the hypocritical invaded the countries in England, especially reflected women’s miserable life and hypocritical morals in Victorian age.In the novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the author focuses on the tragic experience of its heroine Tess, a beautiful, brave and innocent peasant girl who lives in a poor family, however, she leads a happy life. One day, her father learns that he is a descendant of a prosperous family; Tess’tragedy begins, because her parents persuade her to visit the family and bring wealth to her family. As her parents expects, she meets Alec-the son of the family, who is attracted by her beautiful appearance, so he tries his best to persuade her to stay here. After a short time, she is raped by Alec, and is not a virgin any more. She is sorrow, goes home, and hopes that her motherwould comfort her, but her mother does not only worry her. What is worse, she is pregnant, from then on, her life totally changes, people look down upon her, so Tess goes to a dairy farm work as a dairy maid. Here she meets Angel, who is a son of a clergyman, and they fall in love with each other quickly, but she rejects his love. Finally, Tess is encouraged by his courage and accepts his love. Tess is always tortured by her past so she decides to tell him about her past, he can not accept. In fact, he abandons her and she has to work in the field again. At this time, Alec appears again , she has no choice to be his mistress again.Unexpectedly.at this time ,Angel returns from Brazil and shows he still love her , but when he knows that she is living with Alec again, he turns away. His leaving deepen her hate to Alec,so she kills Alec.After his death, she lives together with him, but she is arrested by the authorities, their happy life ended ,her tragedy ended too.In my mind, Hardy shows us a real condition in Victorian age. This thesis intends to analyze the causes of Tess’tragedy from three aspects：Hardy’s fatalism, social factors and Tess’ character lackness. At that time, people can not decide their fates, but God can. Through this thesis, we can see the real emotion life of woman in Victorian age, and also we can realize that the poor peasants’ lives after capitalism invading the British countryside. This reflects the capitalism invades the countryside bring great destroys to the peasants, and, Tess is a typical represent of the peasants, so this explains the inevitability of her tragedy.Chapter Two Hardy’s Fatalism in the Tragedy of TessI. The Formation of Hardy’s FatalismAt the beginning of the 1870’s, Hardy started writing full-length novel, at that time; capitalism invaded the British and changed the condition of the religion and society.“In condition, Hardy can not accept the destroys of the countryside but in ration, he knew that it is necessary for the developing of society, the frication between emotion and ration make him sad and despair. He focuses on the poor’s fate and animadverts the world, reaveld the evil of society, because the limitation of the age, Hardy tries his best to solve the society, problems but failed .His thoughts also experienced a complicated course.”(韩丽英19)Hardy lived in the Victorian Age, during which tremendous changes occurred in the history of western civilization. It was well-known that a great social reformation happened in Britain. His idea of fatalism was influenced by the environment he lived in. During that period, the poor families can not change their miserable lives no matter what they had done. He witnessed the farmers’ difficulties, and felt regretted for their sufferings.At first, he believes in God as other people, but all the tragic and terrible realities tell him that God can not do anything to save the peasants’suffering, he even contempts God, just he wrote in the novel, so he began to believe Darwin’s Evolutionism, then was influenced by Schopenhauer Arthur’s tragic sense. Finally, he formed his theory that is called fatalism.This series of changes of his thoughts, he did not find suitable way to solve the social problems, but the course caused him to be a pessimist and his novel is full of pessimistic thought and fatalism. As a humanism novelist, Hardy considered that human’s life is terrible, the destiny of the heroin in the novel id just the epitome of the great laboring people’s life.II. Hardy’s Fatalism Reflected in Tess’ TragedyFatalism is that view of life which says all actions is decided by the nature of thing or by fate which is a great impersonal, primitive force existing through all eternity completely independent of human will and superior to any good created by man. Fatalists think that everything in the life is doomed, human’s tragedy is arranged by the God, therefore, however people try their best to avoid the tragedies, but they can not change the inevitable results. In the novel, the heroine-Tess is always going to live a happy life, but accidental misfortune happens just at that time, this is coincidence, and used to show the inevitability of her tragedy. All the things seem happen accidentally, however, it is them caused her tragedy. And this is the reflect of Hardy’s fatalism.At first, Tess is living in a poor family, and this decides her tragic fate. As the oldest daughter of the family, she must help her father to do business, but the destiny teases her, the horse which can bring income for her family dies. The death of the horse seems to be a coincidence, but this implies a inevitable result that Tess has to do something that she is reluctant to do. This is just the one cause which leads to her tragedy, and at the same time, this also reflects that Hardy can not find a bright future for the people who live in a poor countryside, and has to blame this misfortunes to these coincidences.Tess wants to live a quiet life when she goes to dairy as a maid, but she meets Angel and falls in love with him. She makes her mind to restrain her love towards him, rejects his pay court to her, but finally she accepts his love because of destiny and emotion. Tess does not want to deceive him, so she writes a letter to him to tell about her past before the wedding night. Unfortunately, the letter is displaced, the destiny makes fun of her again, he does not see it. It seems that she is going to own her happiness, but in fact, this deepens her tragic life. What is worse, this directly leads to Angel abandoning her in the wedding night. Although Hardy has mercy on hertragedy, due to the limitation of era, he can also not accept her these suffering in his mind, therefore, he arranges these coincidences, also he can show his thoughts through this events. Tess is innocent, but her tragedy is inevitable.When Tess’ father dies, she has no choice to seek help from Angel’s family, but she does not meet his parents. What is worse, she can not find suitable job to earn enough money to support family. However, she meets Alec on the way home. It is he that causes her tragedy .Facing the poverty of her family; she is deceived by his sweet words again, and drops in his trap again. Hardy’s description and this series of coincidences imply that Tess’ tragic life has been doomed already by the fate.Angel realizes that he is not correct and goes back to England, soon he understands Tess’ current situation. It seems that her tragic life is going to change, and she will lead a happy life, but when Tess realizes that Angel is back, so she wants to get rid of Alec, kill him. Then she gets together with him, but Tess can not escape from the punishment of law and destiny. Finally, she is arrested; her tragic life completely ends.Chapter Three The Social Factors to Tess’ TragedyFrom a series of coincidences, on the surface, as if her tragedy escapes from the arrangement of the fate, but from a deeper perspective, is Hardy’s fatalism philosophy due to the environment.Throughout the story, Tess’ life would be rather terrible and miserable, which makes reader deeply feel sympathy for her. From the truthful description of the living conditions in the novel, we can get a full understand of every social stage in the Victorian Age.Tess, a pretty, intelligent and pure girl, is the victim of society. In this paper, it is thought that the bourgeois society should take responsibility for Tess’ miserable sufferings.I. The Invasion of CapitalismAt the end of nineteenth century, it is the most developed time of Britain bourgeoisie .With the booming of industrial economy, the most areas of countryside developed industry, individual economy broke up. The farms and pastures were owned by the minority of the capitalists in that age. It is the reason that deepens the gap between the rich and the poor in Britain countryside, and also the lives of peasants are miserable. They can support only by helping them do the labor as a laborer. Tess is a representative of the poor peasants. The indignities, pains and exploitations Tess has suffered is the tragic epitome of the employee under British capitalism system. Although they are diligent, simple and kind, the pressure from life and economic burden always go with them. As regard of social status, they are at he bottom of the society, they can not protect themselves and even if they can be bullied by anyone, and Tess is a typical victim of Britain capital reform.Tess’ father is a businessman who is doing small scale business; he supports his wife and 7 children who depend on the money he makes from his business. Under theimpact of the bourgeoisie, Alec’s family enjoys the benefits that bourgeois economic monopoly brings, lives a prosperous life. At the time of bourgeois monopoly economy develops, small business of the peasants dismantles, and this brings fatal blow to them. Due to the lack of money, they do not have the ability to buy farms and pasture, so they have to be a farm laborer to help the bourgeoisie to do the farm work and so that they can make some money to support their family. Tess wants to support her family, and then she goes to Alec’s family to earn money. Tess, a girl who has never experienced bad things, so when she meets him, does not guess his bad thoughts; finally she is seduced by him, because Tess is a girl who lives in the bottom of the society, so she does not have ability to resist against Alec who is the symbol of crafty bourgeois. Therefore, she does not want to be manipulated by Alec, goes away. And this implies farmer class’weakness fully. But because of the bourgeois industrial economy instead of the small-scale peasant economy of the countryside and it compels Tess to work hard to support her family. At the same time, it lays a foundation for her tragedy. Tess changes several jobs, faces different kinds of employees; she has no choice to bear their torments.The social status in that time decides Tess’ destiny that Tess must suffer suppress and exploitation. Facing the great development of bourgeois industrial economy, the people like Tess works an a farm worker is doomed to be exploited, so the capitalism invades the countryside is one main cause of Tess’ tragedy.II .The Social Morality and Its Influences on TessA.The Hypocritical Social MoralityThe key virtue of women is sexual purity in that time, while adultery is the worst of all sins. At that time, even exposing an ankle or a shoulder is considered “improper”(Kramer 136）.In everybody’s eyes, women must be a virgin beforemarriage. In addition, a woman should be loyal to her husband all her life. The sexual morality is deeply rooted in their minds, but it is not equal for females. If men were engaged in sexual lapses, they would be forgiven, but women would be abused, even if a woman is the victim in fact in the story of Tess and Alec, people do not condemn him whereas Tess, who is pregnant because of a wicked man’s rape. It is true of the affair between Tess and Angel, Angel is forgiven, while Tess is abused even if he is the real victim. At the beginning, he loves Tess though she is born in a poor family. In his eyes, Tess is a pretty, intelligent and pure girl, Tess is “what a fresh and pure daughter of nature that dairy-maid is”(Hardy 291).It seems that his love to her is true.However,he is a representative of the traditional moral concepts. When they are getting married, he also cares about her social status. In his heart, he has never abandoned the Christian moral concepts; he can not forgive her because of her past experiences. He judges her from the aspects of traditional social morality. And he dies not consider whether it is fair to her or not to judge her like this, and at last leaves her alone. The whole society is deeply rooted in traditional social morality, and this gives rise to her tragic fate.B.The Influences of Morality on TessIt is very natural to judge a woman’s purity in line with the tradition conception. Tess is controlled by the social morality, but he has tried to resist against it ,when her mother wanted her to marry Alec,she refuses it with “perhaps any woman will, but I am the exception”(Hardy 156).Tess is a victim of the society where is full of hypocritical social morality .She has a strong desire to begin a new life but she could not get rid of her past.After she is raped by Alec, she feels guilty of losing her chastity, when Tess meets Angel and falls in love with him, but she can not still shake off the sense of guilty. At first, she is afraid of telling Angel her past experiences, but it is the fear that let her have the courage to accept his love.” Her love for him acts to blot the memories of the past in her, but she is always aware that her forgetfulness is onlytemporary, that the doubts ,fears, and shame were only waiting like wolves sitting indoors, she suddenly exclaims that she is not worthy of him.”(Hardy 234).However, this makes her life much worse than before, because Angel deserts her and goes to other countries. This deepens her hate to Alec,because of the past, she does not have the qualification to own his love. And it is her responsibility to leads to Angel to leave her. It can be obviously that Tess’ tragedy is made by the social morality.Chapter Four Tess’ Character Leading to Her TragedyTess’ tragedy not only results from the social factors and environment he lived in, but also the character of herself. Her tragedy is the tragedy of personality. Firstly, She is influenced by the social conventions and moral standards of that time, and this makes her believes that she is deserted for what she has experienced, she has a strong desire to fight against the arrangement of the fate ,but she does not have enough power to do it, so she has to give up her rebellion;secondly,her conservative moral values, she thinks that she is sinful because she is raped, so she can not own Angel’s love, and his too high sense of responsibility for her family, innocence and sincerity all cause her tragedy.I. Tess’ compromiseFrom the whole society, we can get the information that Tess has compromised with her parents, Alec, Angel and fate. At the beginning of the novel, she is forced to claim kinship to the D’Urbervilles. This is her first compromise. The horse in her home dies and this cuts off their income and can not support her whole family. In order to live a better life, she goes to the D’Urbervilles, and hopes that she can get a good job, through her own efforts to get the family condition become better than ever.However, she is seduced by Alec, in her parents’ eyes, she should have married Alec to live a rich life and then get them some money and reputation. She does not marry him. What is worse, her father dies the conditions of her family become worse than ever in this time, Alec appears again. The only way to change their situations for her is to turn to him for help. Facing the bad conditions, she compromises, and becomes his mistress again.Tess’compromising with him is her tragedy’s real beginning. And then her compromising with Angel, they get married; she tells Angel everything about her past honestly. Angel’s conservative and traditional socialmorality overcame his love of Tess, he leaves for Brazil. Tess is hurt again. In my opinion, if Tess loved Angel, she should try her best to persuade him to accept her past and show her love to him. She should spare every effort to get his heart, and let him come back. After Angel’s leaving, she does nothing except to write letter to him. At the same time, in order to support her family, she begins to work again. At last, he comes back, and shows his regrets about leaving her alone, but just she is living with Alec, she wants to get together with Angel, she kills Alec and lives a happy life for a short time, and then is arrested by the police. And this is the end of the novel. Tess’tragedy life ends, she compromised to the fate.II .Tess’ Conservative Morals ValuesTess is brave enough to resist against the unfair social morality with the purpose of pursuing happiness. She is struggling for happy life and also she is fighting against traditional social morality. On the other hand, there are some weak points in Tess’character: her attitudes toward old moral values are conservative. The social conventional morality was deeply rooted in her heart, so she becomes the victim of the society.She understands that she is the real victim of the society, and does nothing wrong, but meanwhile she still thinks that she herself is sinful and she deserves the ill words of the public. What is worse, she considers, that she has destroyed the purity of the nature and the pure society. Tess is tortured and suppressed by the idea that losing virginity is an evil for a long time. She is Alec’s life physically in her mind, she can not accept Angel’s love and she is not worthy of his love because she is not a virgin any more, she is not equal to Angel. Although she loves Angel, she can not own his love selfishly. This causes her mental suffering, as is evident in her conversation with Angel.`“But, if you love me you would to be your husband?”“Yes, yes ,yes!But,I sometimes wish I have never been born!”Tess should hate Angel about his crucial treatment to her ,however, she just respects decision and loves him even if he leaves her alone. In order to get his forgive, and goes on living with him, she is unreluctant to be his slave, as is referred to in the following conversation;“And if i order you to do anything？”“I will obey as your wretched slave, even if it is to lie down and die.”( Hardy 384)After his leaving, she lives a unhappy life, but she does not hate him, however, she is always hoping Angel can forgive her and return. She insists on writing to him with the hope in the mind. These have fully reflected her moral conservative character. To some extent, she is also one of the causes of her own tragedy because of her weak personality.III.Tess’ High Sense of Responsibility for Her FamilyIt is no denying that Tess is a filial girl. She is always following her parents’order, never violates. After her father’s death, she takes the responsibility to support her family; this behavior shows her responsibility for her family. She is always take the responsibility to feed her family members initiatively when her family in a difficult situation. The first time is that she claims to be the kinship with the D’Urbervilles family, and then after her father’s death, she was forced to seek help from the Angel’s family, but she does not meet them. Once Alec reappears again, she chooses to be his mistress. Through these events, we realize that Tess is forced by the misery of life. She was reluctant to do this. Responsibility is a good virtue for a people, but for Tess, Therefore,” it is the homeless despair of a family which has lost its rights and independence in the village community that gives Tess finally into the invader’s power.”(Albert 327).This is one important cause of her tragedy.IV.Tess’ Innocence and SincerityInnocence and sincerity are good virtues that people should have, but this good virtue change the guider of tragedy on a pure woman, because of her innocence, she chooses to believe Alec.He first meeting with Alec is good example to prove this. When Alec appears as a preacher, she believes him and gets together with him. This also proves her innocence and purity. And second is her sincerity, because of it, during the wedding night, she wants to tell Angel about her past. At then, she forgets her mother’s advice, she feels that her love towards him is sincere, feels that he can forgive her, so she tells him about her tragic past sincerely, but he does not accept her confession and abandons her. It is just her sincerity and innocence causes her tragedy.Chapter Five ConclusionThomas Hardy, one of the representatives of English critical realism at the turn of the nineteenth century. He is famous novel of character and environment. Realism is the main theme of that age. In his works, Hardy bravely and loyally described the cruelty of capitalism and the hypocrisy of traditional morals. And this thesis focuses on the causes of Tess’ tragedy.The causes of Tess’Tragedy are complex .In Victorian age, Tess’tragedy is inevitable. Her tragedy is a reflection of Hardy’s fatalism. Although Hardy wants to resist against the reality, he does not change the people’s lives, so he arranged a series of coincidences to show his fatalism; the formation of the fatalism is influenced by the turbulent environment;also,the capitalism invaded the British countryside, the peasants lives changes, their business breaks up, they have to work on the farmland for the capitalists, and she is a represent of them; the traditional moral values, at that time, purity is a very important factor to judge a woman.Tess,is seduced, she thinks that she is guilt, so she does not qualification to own Angel’s love; And thirdly, her tragedy is the tragedy of character, her compromise, and her responsibility. When her family is in a poor condition, she always try her best to support them, and her innocence makes her believe Alec and her parents, finally she is seduced, her sincerity makes her believe him and understand and forgive her. All these factors cause her tragedy.Through this thesis, we can realize the social reality of the Victorian age, and Hardy wants to fight against the invasion of the capitalism, but it does nothing good to the peasants so he tries to show this motion through his works. Through the novel of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Hardy shows us a girl who is living in the Victorian age experiences terrible life and love story; she fails during fighting against fate, environment and society. This kind of tragedy in not accidental, and it in not only happens to Tess, from the tragedy itself, we should have a deeper think of that age .Works CitedAlbert, Levelly. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969.Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D’Urbervilles. New York: Dover Publications Inc,1992. Kramer, Dale. Critical Approaches to the Fiction of Thomas Hardy. 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