1 The Tragical Love Between Tess and Angel

Introduction

Tess of the d’Urbervilles, the greatest novel of British famous writer Thomas Hardy, describes the misfortune of a poor peasant girl Tess. In this novel, we can see Tess resist s her unjust fate again and again, suffers setbacks again and again, till to be destroyed. We can not help but feel the intense emotions of pity and fear. At the same time we deeply feel that her tragedy is inevitable. The cause of her tragedy has always been the concern of people, such a beautiful, noble and pure woman as Tess should suffer inevitable ruin. What leads to her tragic destiny? What killed her? In this paper, a detailed analysis on the novel will show the various causes of heroine‟s tragedy.

From the later nineteenth century until now, Thomas Hardy and his works have been the important topics of the criticism for a long time. After the Second World War, with the development of modern literary criticism, different critics interpret Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Thomas Hardy‟s other novels from various perspectives. For instance, Professor Webster begins with a discussion of Hardy‟s intentions in writing Tess. According to his views, Tess of the d‟Urbervilles is a contribution to Hardy‟s war against man‟s inhumanity. Arnold Kettle takes a different point of view. For him the subject of Tess of the d’Urbervilles is not the tragedy of a “pure woman”, but rather the destruction of the English peasantry. Mr. Kettle sees it as a complete social novel. In China, Prof. Zhang Zhongzai has published his own book on Hardy‟s novel.

On analysis of the cause of Tess‟s tragedy, the social environment made Tess‟s tragedy inevitable. At the end of 19 th century, capitalism prevailed in the whole England that made broad masses of peasant went bankrupt and then they had to live in poverty and grave situation. The destruction of English peasant was caused by capitalism. It was the decisive force that had driven Tess to tragedy doom. In the novel, there are many descriptions of Tess working in the field. Though, she was exhausted with manual labor, she could hardly support her family. The self-supporting peasants were displaced and impoverished. Both Alec and Angel violated and made fun of Tess. Tess‟s physically was injured by Alec d‟Urbervilles, and mentally was affected by Angel Clare. Alec and Angel by different way made Tess‟s tragedy from bad to worse. Alec was a lecher, also was a man to do wrong to others to benefit for him. From this point, it both reflected the landlord class‟s nature characteristics in countryside, and emerging capitalist‟s feature. But Angel‟s circumstance was more complex and volatile. On one hand, he was capitalist with a freedom of mind. He looked down upon the material distinction of rank and wealth, and scorned the class‟s prejudice and with other concepts. He disliked the life of busy section of the city, and went to the countryside to study the agricultural skills. In the nature life, he got acquainted with Tess who was pure as the nature. It is affirmatively that Angel loved Tess at first, because he gave up his parents‟ arrangement to marry Mercy Chat even that was a marriage between the families that were of equal social rank. On other hand, Angel had an idea of egoism, even though, he was not a pure man, and he could not accept Tess who was not a really pure bride. He considered her as a “fallen woman”. He still judged “purity” with the conventional value and moral standard that were implanted in him when he was a boy. He was the slave to the custom and conventionality. Obviously, what he loved was not Tess, but another in her shape. He abandoned his wife for Brazil, which was a deathblow to innocent woman Tess. Tess‟s tragedy

was not only caused by external reason, but also the internal reason. Tess herself was pure in heart and had a kind heart, and without experience. It was just unlucky that Tess met Alec, who was a man of easy virtue, so she could not escape from entice into unlawful sexual intercourse of Alec. After the dishonorable thing, Tess left Alec. During the following times, Tess met Angel Clare at the dairy farm. He loved Tess and treated Tess “equally”, which made Tess trust him and fell in love with him. Tess loved Angel deeply, with the result that she acted on impulse. And besides, she was affected deeply by the society and belonged to conservative, so she was thinking about it all the time that she was not a virgin girl. So that she didn‟t want to marry Angel and refused many times of the offer of marriage by Angel. But she was unable to bear the enticement of emotion and agreed to marry him at last. Because of his “noble virtue”, Tess opened her mind to him and told him all her past story with Alec on their wedding night, thinking that Angel would forgive her as she did for him. From then on a series of graver tragedy took place in her future life.

Tess‟s tragedy was the tragedy of character. On the one side, she struggled bravely against her destiny and the conventional morality. She desired for happiness and true love. On the other side, she could not completely get rid of social conventions and moral standards of the day, which made her believe that she had to pay for what she had sinned. Hardy created Tess as an attractive and warm-hearted pure woman who has the quality of endurance and self-sacrifice. Thus result Tess has become the victim of her family and the society in which she exists. It is obvious that the poverty, Alec‟s wickedness, Angel‟s conventional ideas, Tess‟s character as well as Hardy‟s fatalism are the direct causes of Tess‟s tragedy. But the key cause is the weakness of the central characters‟ personalities.

5 . The Background of the Novel A. The Author of the Novel Thomas Hardy was the last and the great novelist in Victorian Period. He began and ended his career as a poet, but is best remembered for his novels. His writing reveals a profoundly pessimistic sense of human subjection to fate and circumstances. In his early works, Under the Greenwood Tree based his fame as a novelist in English literature. In 1874, the publication of Far from the Madding Crowd finally enabled him to give up architecture for writing. And then, from The Return of the Native on, the tragic sense became the keynote of his novels. Many of Hardy‟s novels are set in Wessex, the fictional primitive and crude region which is really the home place he both loves and hates. In his Wessex novels, there is an obvious nostalgic touch in his description of the simple, beautiful and primitive rural life, which was gradually declining and disappearing as English marched into an industrial country. His best local-colored works are his later ones, such as The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the d’Urbervilles and，and Jude of Obscure Tess of the d’Urbervilles is one of the Thomas Hardy‟s most famous novels. Under Hardy‟s pen, the heroine Tess is created as an attractive and warm-hearted pure woman, who has the quality of endurance and self-sacrifice. Tess has been regarded as the most exceptional woman character in English literary history. Fatalism is “that view of life which says all actions is controlled by the nature of thing or by fate which is a great impersonal, primitive force existing through all eternit y absolutely independent of human will and superior to any good created by man ” (Force 24). Since Hardy spends a great part of his life in the countryside, he sees the decline of the patriarchal mode of life in rural English after the invasion of the industrial capitalism, but he does

not understand 6 the root causes of this decline and rules of social development. He attributes the peasants‟ tragedy to blind chance or mysterious fate. This kind of fatalism is revealed in Hardy‟s many works especially in Tess of the d’Urbervilles. “Hardy gave to the interpretation of the story in accordance with his pessimist and determinist view of the world” (Hardy 13).

At a sense, Tess is the victim of Hardy‟s fatalism, and her tragedy is the tragedy of the time when Hardy lives. B. The Background of the Society Since 1830s, capitalism had been built up completely in England. It affected many parts of the country, where the commodity economy boomed, even in the southern area, where ancient traditions had been kept for many years. Till the late 19th century, industrialization invaded the tranquil countryside. Small-peasant economy had been destroyed. Many peasants lost their work and became peasantry workers. Traditional economy was replaced by capitalist economy. Moreover, Victorian Times was an age that emphasized etiquette and morality. Women, to a great extent, were fettered by feminine tradition. As a simple, innocent and faithful countrywoman living in a male-dominated society, Tess in Tess of the d’Urbervilles was such a woman of above-mentioned type and was easily targeted by young ruffian from the capitalist class. According to traditional marriage system, a woman‟s chastity was her husband‟s privilege. Hence, once the chastity had been lost before marriage, the woman was regarded “impure” and would be cast aside by the people. In spite of the influence from industrialization and social morality, religious belief was the third essential part of life at that time. Before the publication of Darwin’s on the Origin of Species, religion had controlled people‟s spiritual life for thousands of years. Living in a society overwhelmed by capitalist Law, religion and state apparatus, Tess, a poor peasant woman, inevitably led a tragic life and finally went to her collapse. Tess lives in the late 19th century, in which the cruel capitalist exploitation has ruined the English countryside severely; Wessx is not immured from the destruction. Capitalism brings a 7 great harm to this old, rural and agricultural life of the place. The self-supporting peasants are displaced and impoverished. They are extremely poor and live a very miserable life. The family of Tess is no exception. Their life is so hard that Tess has to work under capitalist exploitation and oppression for many times. It is under the capitalist exploitation that Tess is seduced and ruined badly in her body. The death of the horse destroys the family‟s livelihood and finishes the family‟s hauling business. Tess thinks that she has dragged her parents into this quagmire. So she agrees to see their cousin and works there as an employee of Alec. Later, she is seduced by him. Furthermore, after sending twenty pounds to her family to repair the roof, she finds herself facing the long winter with only a small sum in her pocket. She has to search out for work. But there is almost nothing to be found. She has to go on to Flintcom-Ash which is a “starv-arce place” and the work of “awed-hacking” is so hard that few cares to do. Alec comes to her again when she is absolutely exhausted physically and mentally. To make matters worse, after her father‟ death, the family are evicted and have no place to live in. To support the family, Tess has no other means to choose, only to accept Alec‟s “help” for the second time. It is at the cost of Tess‟s happiness that her family can have house to live in and food to eat. The poor life pushes Tess into the trap of the wicked man, and the capitalist exploitation brings about their poor life.

C. The Plot of the Novel

The whole story of Tess of the d’Urbervilles started with the poor peddler John Durbeyfield

being informed that he was the descendent of an ancient noble family, the d‟Urbervilles. Meanwhile, Tess, his eldest daughter, joined the other village girls in the May Day dance, where Tess briefly exchanged glances with Angel whom Tess married later. Mr. Durbeyfield and his wife decided to send Tess to the d‟Urbervilles mansion, where they hoped Mrs. d‟Urbervilles would make Tess‟s fortune. In reality, Mrs. d‟Urbervilles was no relation to Tess at all. The lascivious Alec d‟Urbervilles, Mrs. d‟Urbervilles son, offered Tess a job tending fowls on the d‟Urbervilles estate. Tess had no choice but to accept, since she had blamed herself 8 for she unintended to kill the family horse in an accident, the only means of income. Tess spent several months on this job, resisting Alec‟s attempts to seduce her. Finally, Alec took advantage of her in the woods one night after a fair. Tess knew she did not love Alec. She returned home and gave birth to Alec‟s child, who died soon after he was born. After a miserable year at home, Tess finally accepted a job as a milkmaid at the Talbothays Dairy. There, Tess met a man named Angel Clare, who turned out to be the same man joining the May Day dance at the beginning of the story. Tess and Angel slowly fell in love. They grew closer throughout Tess‟s time at Talbothays, and she eventually accepted his proposal of marriage. On their wedding night, Tess told Angel about her history with Alec. Angel could not forgive Tess. He gave her some money and boarded a ship bound for Brazil. Tess struggled. She had a difficult time finding work and was forced to take a job on an unpleasant and unprosperous farm. She tried to visit Angel‟s family but overheard his brothers‟ comments on Angel‟s poor marriage, so she left. She heard a wandering preacher speak and was stunned to recognize he was Alec. Alec and Tess were both shaken by their encounter and soon after, he begged Tess to marry him. Tess‟s father unexpectedly died. When the family was evicted from their home, Alec offered help. Although she knew he only wanted to obligate her to him again, nothing could Tess do but to accept Alec‟s help because she couldn‟t seek any help from her own husband Angel. At last, when Angel realized he was wrong to desert Tess, he came back from Brazil to look for his wife Tess. Finally he found Tess in an expensive boardinghouse living together with Alec. When Angel stood before Tess asking her to forgive him, she said it was too late. In order to prove her unchanged love to her husband, Tess went upstairs and stabbed her cohabit to death. Later, Tess was arrested at Stonehenge and was executed for the murder. 9 . Tragically Love Between Tess and Angel A. The First Meeting Marlott is a village in the vale of Blackmoor. It is an ancient custom for women in village to dance every holiday. For the May Day dance, they all wear white dresses. On this May Day, Tess and Angel had their first meeting. Tess was dancing together with the other women in her village, while Angel was just passing with his brother. Angel stopped his journey and danced with the girls. Tess saw Angel, Angel saw Tess. But it was a pity that Angel missed the chance to invite Tess to have a dance. Even though they did not have the body touch, actually, something in their hearts began to sprout. After Angel left, Tess had a special feeling in her