温州师范学院外语系98英本(1) 周建珍
It is saying that if you want to learn about the history of nineteen century of Briton ,please read the novels of Thomas Hardy. May be it is aggravated, but from it we can learn that in Hardy's novels the society is truly reflected in some aspects. And among Hardy' novels-----Tess of the d'Urbervilles described a wronged woman by the poverty and the ideas of a seduced woman of the society in that time.
It is no doubt that Tess is one of the purest , kindest and loveliest women we can find in the novels. She is a good daughter who is always caring her family more than herself; she is also a good wife who loves her husband more than herself. But it is always make me think a lot why the kindest woman receives so much suffering? What are the causes ? Is it just because the backwardness and the cruelty of the society? Can Tess have other better choices in her terrible situation?
In my mind there are two main causes in Tess' tragedy .The first and the primary cause is the social circumstance .
Besides the poverty ,there was another important cause in the tragedy. It was the prejudice of the social martyr and Christian principles towards the secured woman.
In the terms of the society in which she lives, Tess was to some extent guilty of bringing about her own fate, then, and was her own hangman. However, it was this same society which had so unjustly marked her out as unclean, which has so forcefully put the noose around her neck. This society blindly ignores Christian principles, judging her on deeds and not on intentions, and unwilling to forgive her past. This impure society, argues Hardy, punishes the honest and the conscientious. There was another factor too in Tess's downfall, namely a Fate that had sought in every step of Tess's life to trip her up, a "President of the Immortals" that played with Tess in the way a cat plays with a helpless mouse. Tess was alone fighting against these huge forces, the social and the natural, heroically defending virtue in the face of rampant vice. It was little wonder she finally cracks. Moreover, it was precisely because she finally cracks, because she was human, that the reader admires her and sympathizes with her to such an extent.
Bibliography
《哈代创作论集》 中国社会出版社
托马斯-哈代------思想和创作》 外语教学与研究出版社
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
http://www.datasync.com/~pwilz/hardy.htm
