Tess of the D 'Urbervilles: The Struggle of Innocence and Nature

/kloc-In the late 20th century, after the rapid development of the industrial revolution, Britain has become the largest industrial country in the world. The development of industry has eroded the patriarchal order of traditional British agricultural society and disrupted the lifestyle and habits formed by farmers in the rural pastoral environment for a long time. Many simple and honest farmers suffered at this time, and they had to turn from a self-sufficient economic state to agricultural workers who were hired and exploited by others. Thomas Hardy, a Victorian novelist at the end of 19, was a witness to various changes in this period. His heart is full of contradictions. On the one hand, he is deeply attached to the old rural lifestyle and rural scenery, so he hates the extension of railways to the countryside and the replacement of manual labor by machines. Tess of the D 'Urbervilles is a work produced under this background.

Tess of the D 'Urbervilles is a novel by Thomas Hardy, a British writer, and one of the novels in the Wessex series.

The novel tells that the heroine Tess was born in a poor peddler's family. Her parents asked her to visit relatives at the home of a rich old woman. As a result, she was seduced by her young master Alec. Later, she fell in love with the priest's son Claire and got engaged. On her wedding night, she confessed her past misfortune to her husband, but she was not forgiven. The two separated and her husband went to Brazil. A few years later, Tess met Alec again, and Alec pestered her. At this time, because of her poor family, she had to live with her enemy. Claire came back from abroad soon and regretted her wife's past ruthlessness. In this case, Tess felt painfully that Alec d 'Urberville made her lose Angel for the second time and killed him angrily. At last she was arrested and hanged.

Hardy called the heroine "a pure woman" in the subtitle of the novel, which openly challenged the hypocritical social morality of Victorian era.

In his book, Hardy describes the impact of emerging industrialization and urban civilization on the old and rural Wessex region, and exposes the hypocritical morality that imprisons people's thoughts, emphasizes chastity and suppresses women's social status. Tess's tragic fate reflected the background of that time: first, economic poverty; Second, an unjust legal system; Third, hypocritical religion; Fourth, the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie. Tess's tragedy is the product of the society at that time, so Tess's tragedy is also a social tragedy. [8]

The tragedy of Tess, who is beautiful and pure in heart, is caused by the ugly social reality. As a poor woman with low social status, Tess is inevitably oppressed and humiliated materially (including economy, power and body) and spiritually (including religion, morality and traditional ideas). As a victim of society, Tess is not only hardworking and brave, but also pure and kind. Although she was born in poverty, she was full of beautiful ideals. In order to realize this ideal, she went out three times; But she was isolated and helpless, and she was hit every time, and it was heavier every time. Tess's tragedy not only has its profound economic and class roots, but also has ethical and religious factors. Tess's economic status and class status determine that she must be in a passive position in the face of morality, religion and law serving the bourgeoisie.

Tess's tragedy is a tragedy in which a pure and kind woman is destroyed by bourgeois decadent ethics, hypocritical religion and unjust legal system. Tess's own bourgeois morality and religious morality consciousness also caused her own tragedy to some extent, because she could not get rid of the shackles of those traditional morality, which was the weak side of her character. In addition, the emerging bourgeoisie represented by Alec is the direct cause of Tess's misfortune, while the traditional ethics represented by Angel is an invisible and more terrible spiritual persecution. The beauty of Tess is that she dares to challenge the forces that oppress her. However, in the face of powerful social forces, her resistance inevitably brought tragedy. Her tragic fate seems to belong to one person, but in fact it symbolizes the whole fate of British farmers at the end of 19.

Hardy used Tess's miserable life to forcefully attack the Victorian patriarchal society at that time. Women living in this patriarchal society are doomed to be oppressed and controlled, and cannot escape their tragic fate. In the eyes of the guardians of the mainstream discourse in the patriarchal society, women are always in a position of attachment and subordination. Tess, the innocent victim, is regarded as an eccentric prostitute and witch who is not tolerated by society and stands on the opposite side of the mainstream thought and ideology in the patriarchal society. Although Tess began to fight back indefatigably and even shouted out the essence of oppression of women in the patriarchal society, she still could not and could not get rid of the powerful and invisible control network of the patriarchal society and go to destruction.