Thomas Hardy is a critical realist writer in the late of 19th century. He is famous for “Wessex” in many of his novels. These novels express the theme that people go into destruction after the failure to oppose the environment. As is known to all, Tess of the D’Urbervilles is one of the most wonderful tragic novel of him. Many people are attracted by the short and tragic life of Tess. It is very complex to cause the tragic life of Tess. But in my opinion, it can be concluded into three aspects,——Tess’ fate, society and her own character.
First of all, the tragedy of Tess results from her unfortunate fate. Because of the limit of times, Hardy couldn’t understand the rule of social development. So he thought human beings were small and weak in front of the powerful might of universe. Human beings couldn’t against with environment at all. The fateful world outlook makes the people who are described by Hardy be controlled by universe. The mischance often happens in the critical moment of lives. The whole life of Tess is caused by a series of accidental calamity. Her father learnt that they were descended from an aristocratic family, then the only horse in their family died. So Tess had to work in the Alec’s family. But before long the rich and guileful Alec managed to seduce the girl and make her pregnant. When the whole family faced subsistence crisis, Tess’ father who went to look for help for Clare but didn’t have anything results encountered Alec. Tess was forced to bend to Alec in order to save her family. Clare changed his mind when Tess felt despaired. Tess felt so
angry that she killed Alec and she was also hanged to end her short and miserable life. Although Tess didn’t reconcile to be defeated by fate and she was never to bow to inevitability, she couldn’t avoid the ruined fate in the end. It seemed that there was an invisible hand to push her into the miserable situation in every critical moment of her life.
Secondly, the tragedy of Tess is also caused by complex scocial reasons. Social tragedy results from the collision between human beings and environment. Tess lived in the England Victorian Period of the 19th century. With the capitalism invading the England country and the disintegration of small-scale peasant economy at that time, it made individual farmers bankrupt and Tess’ peasant family also went into the situation of bankruptcy. It destines Tess’ tragic life in the condition of her family and her impotent parents which are indirect causes for the tragedy of Tess. The two men who are Alec and Clare are immediate cause for the tragedy of Tess. Alec and Clare represents two kinds of men of different social forces, but they make the same effect in the aspect of causing the tragedy of Tess. If Alec is the murderer to cause the tragic life of Tess, Clare is the accomplice of Alec. Alec was the representation of newly emergent bourgeoisie in England Victorian Period. He was born in a wealthy family, and he was a well-known beaux. The apperance of Tess made him emerge the uncontrollable desire. In order to gain his end, Alec deceived her to raise poultry in the name of his mother, used quickly driving to scare Tess, set a trap deliberately, and seduced Tess at a night to ruin the happiness
of the whole life of Tess. From then on, Tess suffered from the discrimination of people and the pressure of society and went into a tragic road leading to ruin. So the tradegy of Tess is the tradegy of society. The immediate cause for Tess’ tradedy is Alec who represents the strong social power. Clare who was the husband of Tess caused the spiritual damage to her. We can say that Alec destroyed the body of Tess, Clare killed the spirit of Tess. As the representation of free bourgeois, Clare had advanced thoughts and he could use intellectual view to treat the society and life. He was fed up with the flashy life in the city and he was eager for the unconstraint of spiritual freedom. In his opinion, the purity and modesty of Tess was the symbol of all beautiful things. But when Tess told him her fault made at one time, he couldn’t accept the cruel reality. He felt the god in his mind broken down and his whole world was overthrown drastically. Tess considered that she forgave the demerit of her husband, so Clare also should accept her. But Clare thought the different stratums had different moral concepts. Thereout, it seems that Clare is clear-sighted, but he still doesn’t get rid of the platitudinous conventions and the traditional moral prejudice. His merciless abandonment made a deathblow to Tess. Then she was involved in poverty and could not but come back to Alec. She lost the last chance to obtain happiness. In a word, we can say that Alec and Clare who represent the different social power push Tess into the tragic abyss.
Moreover, the tragedy of Tess is also the tragedy of her individual
character. Tess has a strong sense of responsibility and she makes self-sacrifice for her family. In order to get rid of the poverty of her family, she was seduced by Alec. Because of her virgin nature, she couldn’t bear to keep a relation with Alec without love. After she confessed to Clare, she was abandoned by him, but she was not willing to conquer him by using her female charm. In order to get the naive love, she didn’t use any tricks and means to redeem their love. Even if she was abandoned, she never regreted for it. So it is doomed to her tragic ending from the other aspect.
In the end, we can conclude that the tragedy of Tess is caused by the fate, character and society. The pure nature of Tess can’t avoid the tragic ending under the persecution of evil power of the society and the influence of moral. The tragedy of Tess reflects the pessimistic thought of Hardy, that is, small individuals are unable to control their own destinies in the face of the strong environment.
因篇幅问题不能全部显示，请点此查看更多更全内容