htecausesofthetragedytessofd’urberville-本科畢業(yè)設計

1、The Causes of the TragedyTess of D rbUervillebyJI LuUnder the Supervision ofYU QunSubmitted in Partial Fulfillment of theRequirements for the Degree of Bachelorof ArtsEnglish Program,Nanjing University Jinling CollegeJune 2010AcknowledgementsThis paper is finished under the guide of my mentor Ms.YU,

2、 she has given me some useful advisements and told me some ways of getting the information of the background knowledge. This is a great opportunity to express my respect to Ms YU. Moreover, thanks to my family, they support me a lot when I was feeling confusing. In addition, I am so grateful and I w

3、ould like to thank my dear classmates for inspiring me to join into their sharing of experience of writing paper. Lastly, I have to declare that my elder fellow classmates also have given me some useful suggestion of how to write a good and valuable piece of paper. Thank you very much. JI LuABSTRACT

4、My argument :Among those famous works of Hardy, Tessof the dUrberville is the most and last excellent full-length novel. It describes the raped country girl who is called Tess experienced a short period of tragic life. Though my study of the causes, I should get the reason why Hardy wants to create

5、this poor woman and this kind of fatalistic story. Though my study, I want to get the knowledge of Hardy?s point of view of that period of time and what is his own weltanschauung.Methods and procedures:Method1: literature studyMost of the literature material comes from the library of our university

6、and some on-line magazine. They all help me to get the knowledge of the novel from every respect of related information. And then I can have a comprehensive analysis of the heroine by means of understanding others?comment and this really can help me fix my question for discussion. This way of study

7、also can give me a well and overall perspective of this novelMethod2: qualitative analysisI should apply the methods of inducement, deduction, analysis, synthesis, abstract and epitome to process the all the material that I have collected. Then I can understand the essence and innate character of th

8、e novel by discarding the dross and selecting the essential, discarding the false and retaining the true, proceeding from one point to another, proceeding from the exterior to the interior.Method3: illustrationI will give several examples selected from the original text to make comparison and analys

9、is.Procedures:I . Make wide-ranging reading to fix the range of my study.n . Collect and gather the material.川.Fix the theme I want to make study.IV. Fix the title and the outline.V . Finish the abstract.W. PaperMain Text:The Causes of the TragedyTessof D rUbervilleSection I Introduction： i) backgro

10、und information：Thomas Hardy,the cross-century great man, stops his heartbeat in Jan.t1h.1He is a great poet and famous novel-writer born in Victorian period of times. As one of the renowned English representative of critical realism, he is also reputated the novelist and poet placing between histor

11、y and future. Owning a modest and quiet character, the mighty litterateur lives in Dorsetshire, a far-away country, enjoying his writing career. He is not only loved and esteemed by the English, but also well-known in our country. Almost a century ago, we have read the translation of his works, and

12、the film of Tess, TV series of Mayor of the Casterbridge won the fame, too. He is a cross-century writer with his 60 years in 19c and 28 years in 20c. While as an English writer, his years have passed. However, a new wave of Hardy fad existed in the western countries in the middle of the 20th centur

13、y: His works come off the press once and once again; the new edition of Biography of Thomas Hardy (1976) come out after. The new films and TV series which are made in according to his novels lead the audience to see the picture of the past Wessex country.Among those famous works of Hardy, Tessof the

14、 dUrberville is the most and last excellent full-length novel. It describes the raped country girl who is called Tess experienced a short period of tragic life. Tess is the eldest daughter of the countryside. In order to help the family to cross the difficult barriers, she has to go in quest of help

15、 from the pseudo relative Alec d?Urberville, and then trampled by the dandy. She bore a child at home. Misfortunately, the child came to an untimely end. With the doleful mood, she went to get a job in a cattle farm and fell in love at first sight with Angel Clare. On the night of their wedding, she

16、 told Angel all about her past. Unexpectedly, the confession leads contempt from Angel. In spite of his disrepute earlier days, he still evaded to Brazil running out on Tess like he was in bold and straightforward terms. Being isolated and helpless, the tragic girl sought a job here and there. When

17、she got the news that her father have gone off already, she became Ale?cs mistress in virtue of the poverty-stricken of whole family. At this time, having realized his merciless, Angel went back to ask for forgiveness from Tess. When Tess woke up to the fact that it was Alec on earth who destroy her

18、 life, all the old and recent grudges pushed her to senseless, killing the devil with her own hands thus in change of short happiness with her life. “ Tes, sa pure woman”Actually, she deserved the words. She had a kind heart which glittered like gold. And she was an honest girl who wanted to make he

19、r life by her own hands and always ran after the basic-level happiness. Sadly, the pure girl was gradually ruined by those men who once declared that they loved her instead her enemies. Why were such a smart, beautiful, hardworking and kind girleventually pushed to the gallows and what in earth lead

20、s to her tragedy?To my own knowledge, I wish to classify the reasons into four points: The environmental factors, Alec and Angel the two cruel heroes who influence thetragedy, the vices in her own characteristics and some mysterious and accidental reasons.Firstly, it is some environmental and social

21、 factors. It is well known that when you are a member of the society, you will be influenced by the society and the environment beyond all doubt. We could see it from the background of the Victorian times which is filled with capitalism everywhere, that the described cattle farm and the farm of the

22、rich peasant show that not only the urban places get well development, but also the countries do, where capitalism ways of management come out. On account of the replacement of handwork with machines, the writer describes that so many peasants became impoverished, insolvent and then they went to the

23、 urban places. It is rightly the mirror of the rush change in the English countries in the end of ththe 19th century and that would inevitably cause the changes on people?s mind and spirit. Tess happened to live in this period of time. Under the exploiting of the middle class, peasantslike the Durbe

24、yfield become poorer and poorer. And as the eldest daughter, Tess had to fill her life with innumerable and crushing fieldwork. However, during the time of disintegrating of small-scale economy and economic crisis, it is not enough to be hardworking and industrious if one wants to feed the whole fam

25、ily. Moreover, during the times of Victorian, being lack of any guide of scientific knowledge, people, especially women were deeply rooted traditional conception. In the same reason, we could summarize that the tragedy is led by the traditional conception which is imposed to Tess by the cruel societ

26、y: the apparently unfairness between men and women and the unfairness between upper class and lower class. According to the unwritten law and morality of the capitalism, it is not a guilt if a man did something wrong sexually. On the contrary, if a woman lost her chastity and virginity, she would be

27、 disgraced forever. That is why Tess is regarded as a bad woman from the beginning to the end, and why Angel could not accept her past. Another example is that although Tess loves Angel so much, she can not accept his proposal once and once again because she takesherself as a dirty woman. Another ki

28、nd of unfairness lies in the hierarchy system.Alec comes from upper class so that he could do whatever he likes. But Tess is only a daughter of peasant, thus even when she has so much wrongful treatment, she can only grins and bears it. The last environmental factor I want to add in is particular fa

29、mily situation: Her father is indolent and incapable “Durbeyfield was what was locally called a slack-twisted fellow; he had good strength to work at times, but the times could not be relied on the coincide with the hours of requirement; and, having seen unaccustomed to the regular toil of the day l

30、aborer, he was not particular persistent when they did not coincide. ” Her mother is superficial, vulgar and ignorant of worldly affairs. “No doubt a mampus of volk of our own rank will be down here in their carriages as soon as ,tis known.” S“he is rich, and she?d be sure to take notice o?the maid,

31、 and,twill be a very good thing I don?t see why two branches o?one family should not be on visiting terms.”“Well, Tess ought to go to this other member of our family. She?d be sure to win the lady Tess would; and likely enough It would lead to some noble gentleman marring her. In short, I know it.”F

32、rom words above, we can see that it is actually Mrs. Durbeyfield who pushes her daughter to the pit of hell. “In the Durbeyfield countenances there was nothing of the red wrath that would have burnt upon the girl from parents more ambitious for her welfare”. It is her selfish parents that never regr

33、et to exchangeTess with fortune. “Why didn?t ye think of doing some good for your family instead o?thinking only of yourself? See how I?ve got to teave and slave, and your poor weak father with his heart clogged like a dripping-pan. I did hope for something to come out o?this! To see what a pretty p

34、air you and he made that day when you drove away together four months ago! See what he has given us all, as we thought, because we were his kin. But if he?s not, it must have been done because his love for?ee. And yet you?ve not got him to marry!”Secondly, Alec and Angel have very close relation wit

35、h Tess ?s fate. Alec filled his love to Tess with lust and desire while Angel make his love impure, mixing too much unreality. Alec, the typical good-for-nothing young man from a wealthy family, is the direct killer of Tess. Once, he named himself Satan and actually he is an undisguised young ruffia

36、n pressing Tess by every means. He is a representative of dominating social might and “generally acknowledged truth”. For example, he sets a trap and seducesTess. And then blames Tess using the allusion from the Bible .In addition, he forced Tess to be his mistress when Tess has no ability to feed h

37、er whole family by herself. And actually it is all for him that the pure Tess loses her virginity and commit a crime and loses her own life. The more important leading character in the novel to push Tess to death is Clare. It is so satirical that the hypocrite is named Angel. Ostensibly, he acts as

38、an honest, upright, genial, cultured and elegant gentleman, and he never regrets to show his ardor to Tess. He seems to be an open-minded intellectual. Unexpectedly, it is so “perfect”a young man who makes Tess heart-broken thoroughly. “ Don,?tTess; don?t argue. Different societies, different manner

39、s. You almost make me say you are an unapprehending peasant woman, who has never been initiated into the proportions of social things. You don?t know what you say.”“, My position is this? he said abruptly. ,I thought any man would have thought that by giving up all ambition to win a wife by social s

40、tanding, with fortune, with knowledge of the world, I should secure rustic innocence as surely as I should secure pink cheeks; but However, I am no man to reproach you, and I will not.?”Angel, the man whose mind is deeply ingrained in the traditionally moral conception, makes a judgment that a woman

41、 is pure or not with traditional conception of chastity and pushes Tess to desperation with not any sympathy. From the upper words we could find that he is not only a scholar rigidly adhering to principles, but also a poor snob whose love to Tess is founded on the tower of purity. Once the pedestal

42、is taken out, his building of love will totally collapse. He functions just as Alec does to push Tess to death.Thirdly, some vice in Tess?s charactersindirectly to guide her to the entrance of hell. One is called shadow of fatalism causedby the traditional conception. This is one of the contributing

43、 factors leading to the tragedy. We can see that after her visiting her pseudo relatives, she was stab by the rose and she thought it was an omen of bad luck. Hardy describes one scene that after Tess was raped by Alec, on her way back to home, she met a artisan of some sort, seeing his painting on

44、the wall: “THY, DAMNATION, SLUMBERRETH, NOT.2 PET.ii. 3,” The words entered Tess with accusatory horror. It was as if this man has known her recent history; yet he was totally a stranger. And he wrote another sentence which suddenly flushed Tess: “THOU, SHALT, NOT, COMMIT ” Those words means everyon

45、e should not rape or seduce others which is included in Ten commandments of Bibles. Then, when she was having a try-on of the wedding dress,“Alone, she stood for a moment before the glass looking at the effect of her silk attire; and then there came into her head her mother?s ballad of the mystic ro

46、be,That never would become that wife That once done amiss?,which Mrs. Durbeyfield had used to sing to her as a child, so blithely and so archly, her foot on the cradle, which she rocked to the tun”e.And when she saw the picture of ancestors, there was a feeling of ill omen well up in her heart with

47、the words of priest Laurence which hints that her wedding would have with an unhappy ending. All the upper connection in the mind misleads Tess to a feeling of unluckiness-approachingand weakens her courage to contend with fate. Another is her dual personality which contains one side of brevity and

48、the other of feebleness. When we were reading those words that she was so frank to her love to Angel and her hatred to Alec, we admired how brave she was to resist traditional morality and run after her happiness. After the running into Angel, Tess became hopeful to see him again, singing: O ye Sun

49、and Moon O ye Stars ye Green Things upon the Earth ye Fowls of the Air Beasts and Cattle Childre n oh men bless ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him for ever!”While in Victorian Times, women of good manner should be docile and timid, behave a fit and proper way and regard professing a religion as

50、 a virtue. Even on aspect of marriage, women of good manner take principles that they should follow the standards of Christianity. However, she is brave enough to think: If Providence would not ratify such an act of approximation she, for one, did not value the kind of heaven lost by the irregularit

51、yeither for herself or for her child when her illegitimate child was dead. Then, after the priest refused to give the child a Christian burial, she behaved plaintive and was boiling with rage: “Then, I don?t like you! And I will never come to your church! ” Even, she showed her extraordinary nerve w

52、hile she killed Alec having realized that it was Alec actually totally ruined her life. After the punishment of devil Alec, she unhurriedly went to the execution ground. That is why to some degree; Tess is a kind of heroine dare to challenge the old feudal code of ethics. Against her brevity, her fe

53、ebleness in her characters seems more obviousU. nder the words, the writer tells us that when she was oppressed cruelly by the public opinions and traditional moralities, she self measured herself with these moral standards, regarding herself of guilty.“ She looked upon herself as a figure of Guilt

54、intruding into the haunts if Innocence. ”“She might have seen that what had bowed her head so profoundly the thought of the world?s concern at her situation was founded on an illusion”. Another example is that under the pressure of disability of feeding her whole family, she came to being a mistress

55、 of Alec in spite of a little hope that Angel would come back to her. It is all because there is still some kind of traditional conception. In conclusion, although she shows contempt for both religion and feudal code of ethics and tries her best to contend fate, she still can not escape from the com

56、mon end of women at that period of time.Lastly, there are some mysterious occasions which speed up her pace to death. They functioned like each time she was approaching to the gate of paradise, unluckiness would befall to her. At the beginning of the novel, when the whole family was having their not

57、 rich but tranquil life, the death of the old horse made the whole family fall into misery. It is the direct cause of Tess ?s losing chastity. Then, when she wanted to give Angel a letter of her past, the letter was stuffed under the carpet by chance which made Angel is blind to her history of being

58、 seduced. Moreover, after Tess had experienced a hard time in Linkwire, she heard Angel?s brother?s talking about her unlucky marriage which deeply hurt her and she decided to go back to Linkwire. Another occasion is that after the incident of being abandoned by Angel, Tess found her fathe?rs death.

59、 It was all her duty to feed the family. Therefore, she had to come back to Alec. Following that incident was the return of Angel. No one knows that it is not long before Tess?s dearth and if Angel keeps staying in Brazil, Tess will never be stimulated to kill Alec.The pitiful ending of the novel leaves us an impression of regretting. When we feel sorry about the experience and lot of the heroine, we also can not help to seek the root of her traged