Undergraduate Thesis of School of Foreign Studies of Yangtze University

persuaded that Angel will never return，she yields to Alec and becomes his mistress. Before long, Angel came back from Brazil, so Tess stabs Alec to death and goes to Angel. After a short happy life with Angel, Tess is arrested and finally hanged.

This novel has been commented by lots of scholars and readers. People are sympathetic to her tragic fate, and search for the causes of her tragedy at the same time. In general, foreign critics have been inclined to think \f fate‖, while most domestic critics tend to regard the tragedy of Tess as the tragedy of society. In recent years, there has been some development about the investigation of the causes of Tess ‘s tragedy in China, and people begin to think her tragedy \ not only a tragedy of society but also a tragedy of character and fate.\like to analyze Tess' s tragedy from different angles and give some personal views about it.

Altogether, the whole thesis is divided into five parts. To begin with，the author states the thesis of the paper and the origin of the research，then briefly reviews the results of criticism accumulated from the research on Tess by the literary critics both at home and abroad．Furthermore , the author will discuss this from society , family and character three aspects to expose the real reasons that lead to Tess' s tragic ending.

The author also wants to discuss the practical significance of Tess ‘tragedy. Through this paper , people will understand the fate of the heroine better . What‘s more important , Chinese people , especially women can get a lot of inspiration from Tess which will definitely benefit their life a lot in the future.

2

Undergraduate Thesis of School of Foreign Studies of Yangtze University

2 Literature Review

Tess of the D’Urbervilles is considered as Thomas Hardy's most remarkable novel. This novel offers an unique English style, a set of characters, and most importantly, an unique American central dilemma. Thus, many foreign and domestic scholars pay a lot of attention to analyzing it.

The opinions about the novel of scholars vary from person to person, especially on the discussion of the theme of the novel. The novel has been studied, analyzed, and discussed from different aspects. Therefore, the novel needs more in-depth investigation and research and the study will be endless. And what‘s more, the previous studies have provided plenty of valuable views for reference, which serve as a starting point and thus have made enormous contribution to offer multiple academic foundation for a further study of the novel.

2.1 Domestic study situation

With the publication Tess of the D’Urbervilles in 1891, Thomas hardy had become famous as the greatest writer living then in England, and he was also becoming more and more popular with Chinese readers.

The causes of Tess‘ tragedy are the most popular topic about Tess. Some studies led by Yao Peizhi and Dong Junfeng (2003) claimed that as a common person, Tess fights against the society helplessly. In the end, she turns out to be the sacrificial victim of society like all other things which disobey the morality and ethic.

Li Jian (2005) was one of the scholars who realized that Tess' s tragic life is caused by the society. Tess' s own weakness in character, i.e, her dual characters—resistance and compromise, is one of the causes. Just as some literary critics said, the real reason that Tess is ruined is the nature of reality—the poverty and independence of heroine and the terrible social customs.

Bing Xuan (2007) attributed the tragic reason to Hardy‘s fatalism. He suggested that Hardy could not understand what changed the social economy and people‘s life standards, and could not explain properly why those happened. As a result, he blamed these phenomena to the fate .

Feng Lijun (2004) argued that in the men-centered society, women were inferior to men both in family and in society. More sadly, due to the long-time imperceptible influence, women had agreed and yielded to this concept . Besides, Feng analyzed

3

Undergraduate Thesis of School of Foreign Studies of Yangtze University

Tess‘ s tragedy from a view of feminism.

Similarly, Ma Qiang (2000) maintained that there are two reasons: one is the social factor under the male dominated society; the other is that Tess could not identify herself under the great social pressure of conflict and pain.

Guo Yuxin (2008) stated that Tess‘ s tragedy has many causes: the social morality of the feudal bounds, lack of self-consciousness, the over-reliance on love and men and extreme inequality of the double moral standards for men and women.

2.2 Overseas study situation

There are also many foreign experts paying their attention to the study of the novel. On its publication, Tess of the D’Urbervilles attracted many foreign experts to study it.There are a lot of articles about Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

In the nature novel from hardy to Lawrence (1977),John Alcorn concluded the theme as the criticism of social background Victorian time. So the root of Tess' s tragedy can be concluded as Tess' s unfaithfulness in a transitional social period. In john Alcorn‘s work, he explained his opinion about Tess' s tragedy in great details. ―Tess of the D’Urbervilles could be regarded as the summit of hardy‘ realism novel in a transitional period. Hardy wants to emphasize his oppositional view with that special social situation; meanwhile the theme lies in the criticism of social conditions under the control of capitalism.‖(John Alcorn, 1977:57)

Meanwhile, Merryn Williams in his book –A preface to hardy .Beijing: Peking university press (2005) pointed the novel‘s theme as ―it is absolutely unfair for a poor women victim like Tess in the ?double standards‘ of Victorian society.‖(Merryn Williams, 2005: 98) In his opinion, it‘s the ?double standards‘ social system in Victorian times should be blamed. Merryn Williams said that Alec can get away his sin easily, while Tess is forever condemned as the fallen women who have to pay for the other‘s sin. (Merryn Williams, 2005: 102).

Another critic, Cheryll Glotfelty in his work –The Ecocriticism Reader: landmarks in Literary Ecology (1996) concluded the novel‘s theme as the emphasize of money‘s importance in transitional society because it‘s the economic situation of Tess' s family that leads to her tragedy and the whole novel centers with the criticism of money worship. According to his opinion, ―had her family been better off, she

4

Undergraduate Thesis of School of Foreign Studies of Yangtze University

would not have encountered such a disgrace and such a disastrous end.‖(Cheryll Glotfelty, 1996:220)

All in all, there are many different opinions about the novel‘s theme. They are all based upon the above-mentioned causes of Tess' s tragedy. One can concluded that a woman like Tess is doomed to be a victim in such a society. As a new woman born in a poor family and a conventional society, it is hard for her to protest impractical ideals.

5