AnalysisoftheSocialCausesofTess’sTragicDestiny

张秋菊

【摘要】英国19世纪批判现实主义作家托马斯·哈代在他的小说《德伯家的苔丝》中给我们描述了关于苔丝，一个美丽而又善良的女孩的悲惨人生。苔丝的悲剧有自身，安琪，亚雷，道德，宗教等方面的原因。本文将从社会方面分析苔丝的悲剧成因，这对于正确认识资本主义社会有一定的启示意义。

【关键词】苔丝 悲剧命运 因素

【Abstract】Thomas Hardy， one of the representatives of English critical realism in the 19th century， described us a tragic life about Tess， a beautiful and kind girl，in his novel Tess of the dUrbervilles. Tesss tragic life lies in the causes of herself， Angel， Alec， ethics， the religion and so on.This article will mainly analysize the social causes of Tesss tragic life， whichwill help us to know about capitalistic society correctly.

【Key words】Tess tragic destiny causes

ⅠIntroduction

Tess of the dUrbervilles， one of Thomas Hardys most famous novels， describes us the tragic destiny about Tess， a beautiful and kind girl. The whole story is filled with a feeling of dismal forboding and doom. Fateful circumstances and tragic coincidences abound in the book； However， these do not eclipse the chief message of the truthful portrayal of the tragic lot of a poor country girl ruined by the bourgeois society， which is responsible for the miseries and sufferings of nobody whom Hardy described in his books.

ⅡAnalysis of the Social Causes of Tesss Tragic life

a. The affection of social revolutions

Tess was born in 1880s when the farmer class had broken up and developed into the final tragic stage. With the expansion of capitalistic farming， the old free farmer class gradually withdrew from the history stage. In the end， those social revolutions brought bankrupt and poverty to farmers. Though Tess was hardworking， clever， kind， and beautiful， she just was a farmer who was in the lowest status in the society. It was natural to encounter all kinds of oppression and torment from the capitalistic society； therefore， Tesss destiny doomed to be tragic.

b. The osmosis of the feudal pedigree views

The osmosis of the feudal pedigree views also caused Tesss tragedy. Despite industrial revolution permeated capitalistic value opinion to all the corners of the society， the old feudal pedigree views still existed. when Tesss father was told he was the representative of the ancient family of the dUrberville who derived their descent from sir Pegan dUrberville， he was very excited. He drank so much to congratulate for it that he couldnt drive the carriage normally. Tess had to drive it instead of her father and finally lost their horse which her family mainly depended upon. They became poorer. Her parents told her that they had a rich relation Mrs dUrberville living on the outskirts of The Chase and persuaded her to go there to ask for some help. Finally， Tess had to work in the dUrbervilles to live and suffered from all kinds of pain there. In the period of conversion of new and old mind， Tesss destiny doomed to be tragic.

c. The tease of the reserved moral values

Tess was the victim of the reserved moral values. According to the reserved moral， once a woman lost her virtue， she was considered to be impure and unloyal， that is to say， if a woman lost her virtue， she had to marry the man. In the English capitalistic society with traditional custom， man could do everything to woman； however， if woman lost her virtue， she would be condemned by the whole society. It was the very traditional custom that made Tess suffer from all the kinds of pain after she was raped by Alec.

d. The persecutions of the capitalistic laws and religion

The persecutions of the capitalistic laws and religion also were very important causes that led to Tesss tragedy. Laws should have been used to maintain justice， but in the capitalistic society， laws often were used to maintain capitalists interests， squeeze working people and serve for the rich. Therefore， when Alec hurt Tess， Alec did not get any punishment under the protection of capitalistic laws.The hypocritical capitalistic laws forced Tess to go to despair step by step； at last she turned to be victim in capitalistic social altar.

The osmosis of religious mind brought a lot of spiritual pressure to Tess and hadTess trapped in tragedy in spirit step by step. When she saw someone writing quotation of Bible， she often felt fearful and sinful of her impurity. Hypocritical religious mind often made her self-torment and lack self-confidence.

ⅢConclusion

Thomas Hardy left people a lot to think about Tesss tragedy. The causes that led to Tesss tragedy were multiple and Tesss ruin was evitable and unavoidable in the capitalistic society. Tess's tragedy awoke indefinite sympathy of readers. Tess， a pure woman， will live in the peoples heart for ever.

【参考文献】

[1]解正德，2006，《浅析苔丝悲剧因素》[J].《名作欣赏》第8期。

[2]托马斯·哈代，《德伯家的苔丝》[M]. 杜熹译，2001，内蒙古文化出版社。