四川电大毕业论文
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英语专业
四川电大毕业论文
从现代女性视角看苔丝
学 生:xx
专 业:英语
班 级:2009级
指导教师:xx
四 川 电 大
二0一一年六月
英语专业
2 An Analysis of Tess from Modern Female Perspective Supervisor: Rao Xin Author:Wei Gang School of Foreign Languages Sichuan Dian Da Zigong,Sichuan,China June,2011
英语专业
Acknowledgements
My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to my supervisor, Wang Kelu, for his constant encouragement and guidance. He has walked me through all the stages of the writing of this paper. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation for his time and efforts in reviewing and revising this thesis, for his constructive suggestions and critical judgments on this paper. His earnest attitude to research will influence me greatly in my future study.
Second, I am also greatly indebted to all the professors and teachers at the Department of English, who have instructed and helped me a lot in the past three years.
At last, my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. I also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and time and helping me work out the problems of my thesis.
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ABSTRACT
Tess of the D'Urbervilles, published in 1891, was one of the most famous works of Thomas Hardy. It has received much criticism from the day it was published and the heroine Tess was generally regarded as a passive victim of fate and circumstances. As far as I m concerned, fate and circumstances were not all the reasons for Tess s tragedy. In the late Victorian Times, Tess was really new female image for she was brave to revolt feudalism and traditional morality and laws. However, analyzed from modern female perspectives, Tess s characters had demerits which also were the cause of her tragedy. This paper tries to analyze the image of Tess from modern female perspective first, and then summarize Hardy s feminist thinking.
Besides introduction and conclusion, this paper is made up of three parts. Introduction part puts forward the argument of this research. Part one gives a brief introduction to Tess of the D’Urbervilles, including the historical background, the writer and the plot of this novel. Part two analyzes the image of Tess from modern female perspective. Part three summarizes Thomas Hardy s feminist thinking based on the analysis of Tess. Conclusion part makes conclusion of the whole thesis and gives some personal suggestion to modern women.
KEY WORDS: Tess; Thomas Hardy; feminist thinking; modern female perspective
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摘 要
《德伯家的苔丝》出版于1891年,是托马斯·哈代最有名的小说之一。自出版以来,这本书便受到了广泛地评论。主人公苔丝被视为命运和环境的受害者。在我看来,命运和环境并不全是苔丝悲剧的全部原因。在维多利亚时代,苔丝勇于反抗封建主义,敢于同法律和传统的道德作斗争,可以称得上是一个全新的女性形象。然而,从现代女性的视角分析,苔丝性格上的缺点同样是她悲剧成因的一部分。这篇文章将先从现代女性视角去分析主人公苔丝的形象,然后以此来总结哈代的女性观。
这篇文章除了引言和结语,正文由三个部分组成。
引言部分提出本文的论点。
第一部分简要介绍《德伯家的苔丝》创作的历史背景,作者简介以及小说的主要情节内容。
第二部分从现代女性的视角出发,详细地分析了苔丝的人物形象和性格。
第三部分以第二部分所作的分析为基础,总结托马斯·哈代的女性观。
结语部分对整篇文章做出总结,并对现代女性给出了相应的个人建议。
关键词:苔丝; 托马斯·哈代; 女性观;现代女性视角
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Contents
I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….................7
II. An Introduction to Tess of the D’Urbervilles......................…………………………….....8
2.1 Historical Background…………………………………………………………….....8
2.2 Thomas Hardy…………………………………………………………………….8
2.3 The Plot of Tess……………………………………………………………………9 III. The Understanding of Tess from Modern Female Perspective……………………………10
3.1 Tess--- the Idealized Image of Men……………………………………………….11
3.2 Tess--- Regarding Love as the Most Important Thing in Her Life………12
3.3 Tess--- Having Dual Character………………………………………………13
3.3.1 Being Brave to Revolt Traditional Morality and Hypocritical Religion...... 13
3.3.2 Failing to Extricate Herself from Traditional Morality Thoroughly………14
IV Hardy s Feminist Thinking in Tess of the D’Urbervilles……………………...……… 15
4.1 Hardy s Supreme Sympathy towards Women……………………………………16
4.2 Hardy s Prejudice against the Female…………………………………………… 17 V Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………18 VI Bibliography………………………………………………………………………… 19
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An Analysis of Tess from Modern Female Perspective
I Introduction
Thomas Hardy (1840~1928), born in 1840 near Dorchester, was a one of the greatest English writers in the 19th century, and was honored with “Shakespeare of British novels”. He carried forward and developed the literary traditions of the Victorian age. He vividly described the tragic fate of the heroine Tess in his great novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which revealed his standpoints of women and society he lived in.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles, as a masterpiece of Hardy, has been studied by scholars from different aspects since its publication. Tess are thought to be pretty, noble-minded, pure, brave in the traditional view, however, if analyzed from modern female perspective, the image of Tess, I think, is not perfect. Thus, this thesis aims to analyze the image of Tess from modern female perspective, and further to explore Thomas Hardy s feminist thinking based on the analysis of Tess.
Tess was brave to revolt traditional morality and hypocritical religion, nevertheless, she judged herself by using traditional standards as other people did. She was deeply influenced by patriarchal society which made her not extricate herself from traditional society thoroughly. It s not difficult to find that besides Tess s purity and bravery, she still had some shortcomings which were part of the causes of her tragedy. From mainly analyzing Tess, we can find out Hardy s feminist thinking. On the one hand, he had great sympathy towards women as he exposed the hypocrisy of the traditional morality that stressed the purity and chastity of women. And on the other hand he had prejudice against women for he arranged women to be, more or less, the inferiors to men.
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II. An Introduction to Tess of the D'Urbervilles
2.1 Historical Background
The story Tess of the D'Urbervilles happened in the late Victorian Times. Since the
1830 s, capitalism had been built up completely in England, and many parts of the country were affected by it. And even in the southern area, where ancient traditions had been kept for many years, was affected too. In the late 19th century, capitalist industry and agriculture
invaded remote countryside and destroyed small-scale peasant economy. Many peasants had to face the ruthless exploitation of landowners and were threatened by survival crisis.
Capitalist economy replaced traditional economy.
Besides, in Victorian Times, morality was highly emphasized. Women were fettered by feminine tradition seriously. A woman s chastity was her husband s privilege. The important standard to judge whether a woman is pure was that whether she was a virgin. Hence, once the chastity had been lost before marriage, the woman would be regarded “impure” and “bad woman”. As a sequence, the woman would be excluded by her husband and other people.
In addition to the influence from industrialization and traditional morality, religious
belief was another essential part of the life in the Victorian Times. People s spiritual life had been controlled by religion for thousands of years. And Tess s tragedy was staged in such a complicated background.
2.2 Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, born on June 2, 1840, in the village of Upper Bock Hampton, England, was an English novelist, poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest English writers in the 19th century. His father was a stone mason and building contractor. His mother enjoyed reading and relating all the folk songs and legends of the region. He often made journey to the countryside to play for dances. And this experience of rural life made up a large part of his works.
His first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, was written in 1867, but the book didn t bring him success. His first popular novel was Under the Greenwood Tree, published in 1872. 8
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And then his other popular novels are as follows: Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), the Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), the Woodlanders (1887), Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). In addition to these large works, Hardy published three collections of short stories and five smaller novels.
All his works revealed that he was a kind and gentle man who was aware of the pain human beings suffered in their struggle for life. In his works, especially in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Hardy showed his deep sympathy for English lower classes, particularly for rural women like Tess. As Thomas Hardy s last and most significant work, Tess of the D’Urbervilles is a novel in which the characters were confronted by endless moral choices.
2.3 The Plot of Tess
Tess of the D’Urbervilles is about the tragedy of a 16-year-old simple country girl, Tess Durbeyfield, who was born in a poor peasant family. In a chance, Tess s farther John Durbeyfield who was lazy and vain discovered that he was the descendent of an ancient and knightly family of the D Urbervilles. It was just at that time, their horse, the family s only means to make a living, died. Thus, John and his wife Joan persuaded Tess to visit the D Urbervilles clan at Tranreidge. The purpose of Tess s parents was to get help and benefits from their so-called “relative”. After Tess arrived there, Alec was attracted by Tess s beauty and arranged Tess to take care of his blind mother s poultry. And at one night, Tess was deduced and raped by Alec. Tess felt sorrowful and left Alec unhesitatingly. Then she gave birth to a child. But unluckily, her child died very soon.
In order to forget the miserable past and begin a new life, Tess moved to a fairy farm and became a milkmaid. There, she met Angel Clare, who was a pastor s son. Quickly, they fell in love with each other. But Tess refused Angel s love in the beginning because she thought she was not pure and had no right to marry anyone else. After hesitating for a long time, Tess accepted Angel s proposal of marriage. At their wedding night, Angel made a confession to Tess about his wrong doing in the past. Tess felt happy and forgave him and told him her past too, thinking that he would forgive her as she did. However, Angel was amazed when he heard Tess s story of being seduced by Alec, and didn t forgive Tess for having a child with anther man. As the former pure image of Tess disappeared from his mind, Angel left Tess for
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Brazil.
Tess went back to her parents home at first, but later, in order to avoid people s rumors and slanders, she left home again and went to another town, Flintcomb, where the working conditions were very harsh. Without better choice, Tess decided to get some help from Angel s parents. But they were not at home. When she happened to hear Angel s brothers criticizing her, she knew it was impossible to return to the Clare family. On her way back to Flintcomb, Tess came across Alec who had become a practicing evangelical minister and was preaching to the folks in the countryside. In order to marry Tess, Alec took the advantage of the poverty of Tess s family and made up the fact that Angel had abandoned her and would never return. Suffering from the financial pressure and believing Alec s words, Tess accepted to be Alec s mistress at last. Angel returned from Brazil because his dream was shattered. He became aware of his cruelty to Tess and inquired about Tess s whereabouts. He met Tess again only to find that she had been an upper-class lady living with Alec D Urbervilles. When Tess saw Angel, her love for Angel was aroused and got to know that she was cheated by Alec. When Alec knew Angel s return, he cursed Angel. Hearing this, Tess became very angry and finally killed Alec. At the end of this story, Tess and Angel spent several happy days together and then Tess was sentenced to die.
III The Understanding of Tess from Modern Female Perspective
3.1 Tess--- the Idealized Image of Men
In Tess of the D’Urbervills, the image of Tess is idealized by Hardy. In Hardy s ideal world, Tess is the symbol of beauty and the embodiment of love. From the view of men, she represents all the excellent aspects of Wessexs: beautiful, pure, honest and self-sacrificing.
Tess was beautiful “in personal appearance, exceptionally beautiful.” (Hardy, 2006:154). “She was a fine and handsome girl, with large innocent eyes.”(Hardy, 2006:6) Just because of her beauty Alec D Urberville seduced her. As far as Alec was concerned, “there was never before such a beautiful thing in Nature or Art as you look.” (Hardy, 2006:56) Similarly, Angel was attracted by her beauty. In the eyes of Angel, Tess had innocent lips and “seemed like a 10
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queen to him, she was no longer a milkmaid, but a vision on a woman, the whole of womanhood in one form.” (Hardy, 2006:108) Angel loved her face because “It was full of real life, real warmth. Her eyes were deep, and seemed to speak to you. In her cheek he found a lovely glow. But it was her mouth that always held him. It made him mad just to think about it.” (Hardy, 2006:124) So Angel named Tess “the pure child of nature”. (Hardy, 2006:124)
Tess was pure. “Tess is, without any question, one of the purist women that can be found in literature. The pureness can be easily traced from her attitudes towards love. Her faithfulness, persistence and sincerity represent the noble virtue of peasantry women. Overcoming all up-and-downs, Tess keeps her pureness from beginning to end.” (Mao, 2005:04) Because of this pureness, Tess couldn t stand living with Alec with the memory of the night that Alec seduced her. And still for her pureness, she told Angel all about her past in their newly-married night regardless of her mother s suggestion.
Tess was honest. After she was seduced by Alec, she chose to leave him unhesitatingly. She would rather bear the name of a woman who had lost virginity, than bow her neck to Alec. In the morning when Tess left Thantridge, the place where Alec lived, she still told Alec her thought that deep in her heart she didn t love him. “ I have said so, often. It is true. I have never really and truly loved you, and I think I never can. She added sadly, Perhaps, of all things, a lie on this thing would do the most good to me now, but I have honor enough left, little as it is, not to tell that lie. If I did love you I may have the beat of causes for letting you know it. But I don t. ” (Hardy, 2006:76) She clearly knew that a lie would do most good to her, but she was honest and wouldn t like to cheat her self or anyone else.
Tess was self-sacrificing. As Tess was the eldest child, she had begun managing household affairs at home since the age of a little girl. When she was only 17 years old, she took the responsibility of feeding her family, “Never worrying about the gains and loss of her, Tess devotes herself to the family.” (Ma, 2006:02) “Tess bears hardships and does hard work without complaining.” (Mao, 2005:03)
To analyze Tess from modern female perspective, the image of Tess is too perfect and idealized. She has too many merits, all of which are the standards that men would use to judge women.
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3.2 Tess--- Regarding Love as the Most Important Thing in Her Life
In Tess of the D’Urbervilles, love almost penetrated the entire novel. As the leading character, Tess valued love highly, even the most important thing in her life. “She loved Angel so passionately, and he was so like a god in her eyes.” (Hardy, 2006:150) “There was hardly a touch of earth in her love for Angel. She trusted that he was all that goodness could be. She thought his soul was the soul of a saint, his intellect that of a seer.” (Hardy, 2006:164) Tess could do anything for Angel, anything, even putting an end to herself. As Izz said: “I do, yes, I do love you, but not more than Tess--she would have laid down her life for you. I could do no more.” (Hardy, 2006:246) After Angel knew Tess s past and didn t treat her as before, she wanted to die which could give Angel freedom.
‘But, Angel,’ she pleaded, enlarging her eyes, ‘ it was thought of entirely on your account—to set
you free without the scandal of the divorce that I thought you would have to get. I should never have dreamt of doing it on mine. However, to do it with my own hand is too good for me, after all. It is you, my ruined husband, who ought to strike the blow. I think I should love you more, if that were possible, if you could bring yourself to do it, since there’s no other way of escape for you.’(Hardy, 2006:218) In order to prove her true love for Angel, Tess would like to sacrifice herself.
To pursue a true love and spotless love, Tess insisted on telling Angel the truth. When Angel, her husband, deserted her, she did not stop loving him, wishing to be his servant. And at the same time, she refused Alec when he proposed marriage to her. To Tess, love was more than anything else.
Another example is Tess s killing Alec at the end of this novel. Dramatically, Angel realized his cruelty towards Tess and decided to return to Tess not long before Tess became Alec s mistress. At the first sight of Angel when they met again in Alec s house, Tess became pretty excited and all her love for Angel was erupted again. She couldn t stand living with Alec any more and finally committed crime. “ I have done it—I don t know how, she continued, Still, I have done it for you, and now he can never do it any more. I never loved him at all, Angel, as I loved you…I could not bear the loss of you any longer—you don t know how entirely I was unable to bear your not loving me! Say you do now, dear, dear husband; say you do! ” (Hardy, 2006:338) The strength of Tess s feeling made her forget the 12
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difference between right and wrong. It seemed that she did not realize what she had done. Even after realizing the serious result her killing would lead to, Tess didn t fear at all. On the contrary, she felt very happy, “ I d like very much to be here, she murmured, it is so solemn and lonely—after my great happiness—with nothing but the sky above my face. It seems as if there were no people in the world but we two. ”(Hardy, 2006:348)
Why love on earth can give Tess so much courage to kill a person? Why love on earth can give Tess bravery after committing a crime? Why love on earth can make Tess smile to the final judgment—to be hanged? There is only one answer that is Tess regarded love as the most important thing in her life.
3.3 Tess--- Having Dual Characters
The characters of Tess were multi-dimensional. Firstly, the spirit of revolt was a major characteristic of Tess. Her sharp struggle with feudalism and traditional morality and laws represented the spirit of revolt of Tess. Although Tess needed to suffer all agonies, she kept pursuing true love. Nevertheless, it was really brave for Tess to struggle with her social surroundings from the beginning to the end, but she could not get rid of the public moral judgment that she suffered from when she faced her true love. It is a pity that she also used public moral judgment to treat herself when she suffered from the public moral judgment after Alec seduced her.
3.3.1 Being Brave to Revolt Traditional Morality and Hypocritical Religion
Firstly, Tess was brave to revolt traditional morality. In Victorian Times, a woman s chastity was her husband s privilege. Hence, once the chastity had been lost before marriage, the woman would be regarded “impure”. Although Tess was seduced by Alec, she didn t ask Alec to marry her but left him without hesitation. She chose to live by herself and do some outdoor work in her native village bravely so as to feed herself and her family. Even when she had a baby, she wasn t willing to go back to Alec who could make her life much more comfortable; instead, she decided to bring up her child on her own. All these behaviors show Tess s revolt against traditional morality.
Secondly, Tess was brave to revolt hypocritical religion. On her way back to her parents home, Tess met a man who was painting some texts about adultery (sentences from Bible) in
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red. Then Tess murmured to herself, “Pooh—I don t believe God said such thing!”(Hardy, 2006: 72) Obviously, she was not a pious Christian and doubted about its creed. When her child was seriously sick, she gave a baptism to it in place of a priest. According to Christian creed, if a child wasn t baptized, it would go to hell after death and an illegitimate child shouldn t be baptized. Tess s baptism to the baby revealed her courageous defiance against Christian doctrines.
Thirdly, Tess was brave to revolt laws. In the late 1800s, British church and law provided that it was immoral and illegal for men to marry sisters of wives who had passed away. Tess took this law as nothing and dinned her husband to marry her younger sister as wife.
From all the above examples, we can see Tess s bravery to revolt traditional morality, hypocritical religion and laws. As a woman in a patriarchal society, Tess was a real new female image.
3.3.2 Failing to Extricate Herself from Traditional Morality Thoroughly
As this story happened in the late Victorian Times, Tess was influenced by traditional morality. And religion made Tess conservative. Tess judged herself as improper because of her loss of chastity. With the sense of guilt and inferiority, she was not able to revolt religion or old moral thoroughly. Instead, “…She has become their advocator unconsciously. Religion and feudalism make a dent in her courage.” (Gao, 2006:04)
Tess also judged herself according to such social standard. She thought she was not a pure woman and she was not fit to be married. So when Angel proposed marriage to her, she said “I don t want to marry! I have not thought of doing it. I cannot! I only want to love you.”(Hardy, 2006:140) Although she didn t ask Alec to marry her, she still judged her as an improper and decided not to marry anyone else. She used traditional morality standards to judge her and held the view that an “impure” woman had no right to marry. “At first Tess seemed to regard Angel Clare as intelligence rather than as a man. As such she compared him with herself; and at every discovery of the abundance of his illuminations, of the distance between her own modest mental standpoint and the immeasurable, Andean altitude of this, she became quirt dejected, disheartened from all further effort on her own part whatever.” 14
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(Hardy, 2006:126) To Tess, Angel was so perfect that she didn t deserve his love because only the purist creature on the earth could match his love. She was contradicting all the time. She loved Angel so passionately, but at the same time she thought she had no right to marry him. When other three girls in the farm felt depressed after they knew Angel loved Tess, Tess couldn t sleep. She thought “She could keep his affection for her. But should she? Perhaps the others should have a chance of attracting his attention, and even of marrying him….Tess had promise herself she would never marry and should never be tempted to do so. She ought to leave the field open for the other girls.” (Hardy, 2006:114)
According to the Victorian social moral, the loss of virginity was shameful. Tess was rather traditional. Even if she wondered “Was once lost always lost really true of chastity?” (Hardy, 2006:100) She never thought of asking Angel this to his nose. ”Old concept of virginity is deeply rooted in Tess s blood and soul. Tess believed she is not fit to be Angel s wife.” (Gao, 2006:06) Tess loved Angel too much to blame him and she also believed that she was an improper woman who did not deserve the love of Angel.” So she held the view that “Wives are unhappy sometimes; from no fault of their husbands—from their own. (Hardy, 2006:252) “She was willing to obey Angel like his slave, even if it is to lie down and die.” (Hardy, 2006:204) Tess accepted his treatment of her as being what she deserved. To her Angel was still perfection while she had the biggest stain.
There are some other evidences which can prove Tess s limitation in her revolt. As is mentioned before, Tess is brave to give birth to her baby and doubted the Christian religion. However, she still worried that without baptism her child would go to hell after death. If she didn t believe religion, she would not care about what religion said. She baptized her child after all in the end. To some extend, she still believed it and couldn t extricate herself from Christian thoroughly.
When Tess first refused Alec after they met each other again, unfortunately, hardship became harder to her family. Considering filial duty and forced by hard life, she chose to go back to Alec and became his mistress in the end. Similarly, at first she chose to revolt traditional morality, but in the end she couldn t stick to it and gave in.
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At the end of this novel, Tess required Angel to marry her sister for her sister had all her merits and had no her demerits. Here “demerit” referred to her loss of chastity. She thought that her loss of chastity caused the lack of her love towards Angel. It s her fault that she couldn t protect her body for Angel. So she hoped that her sister would make up her demerit after their marriage.
Above all, it s obvious that Tess didn t extricate herself from traditional morality thoroughly. She used traditional morality to evaluate herself all the time. She tried to get rid of it; however, she didn t make it. She was pacing up and down at the edge of the traditional morality.
IV Hardy’s Feminist Thinking in Tess of the D’Urbervilles
4.1 Hardy’s Supreme Sympathy towards Women
Hardy was the rare one who showed great sympathy to women in his works in late Victorian Times. Especially in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Hardy attacked the hypocritical morality in stressing women s chastity and purity by creating the image of Tess. He believed that the capitalist morality was people s spiritual shackles. So in the subtitle of Tess of the D’Urbervilles he called Tess “a pure woman”. This is the very evidence of Hardy s sympathy towards women. In addition to this, there are many other evidences. For example, when Tess was seduced by Alec, Hardy wrote, “but, might someone say, where was Tess s guardian angel? Where was the providence of her simple faith? Perhaps, like that other god of whom the ironical Tishbtte spoke, he was talking, or sleeping and not to be awaked. Why do the bad so often ruin the good? Why is beauty damaged by ugliness? As the people of her village say, It was to be . There lay the pity of it.”(Hardy, 2006: 65) These words are full of sympathy. Hardy used interrogative sentences which can leave people to think. Here is a pair of antonyms: “beauty” and “ugliness”. Analyzed from the surface, “beauty” referred to Tess and “ugliness” referred to Alec. Actually, “beauty” is the symbol of simple people while “ugliness” referred to feudalism, religion and traditional morality. Another example is that when Tess left her birthplace to begin a new life, Hardy wrote, “Was once lost always lost 16
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really true of chastity? She would ask herself. She might prove it false if she could veil bygones.” (Hardy, 2006:90) Hardy used the third person to clarify his views towards traditional morality. And at the end of the novel, he remarked ironically, “ Justice was done, and the president of Immortals, in Aescgylean phrase, has ended his sport with Tess.”(Hardy, 2006:354) Here Hardy put justice in quotation marks; this can be easily understood that the judgment to Tess was not fair.
4.2 Hardy’s Prejudice against the Female
According to the former examples, we can easily see Hardy s sympathy towards women. However, as a male writer in a deep-rooted patriarchal society, Hardy s feminist thinking is still limited. In such a society, more or less, he was influenced by social traditional standards. When Angel went back home and told his parents his thought of marrying Tess, his mother said, “the perfect woman, you see, the Bible tell us, was a working woman; not an idler; not a fine lady; but one who used her hands and her head and her heart foe the good of others.” (Hardy, 2006:242) When Angel knew Tess s past and abandoned her, Hardy used one letter to deal with the plot. In this letter, Tess wrote “…But I cling to you in a way you cannot think... The punishment you have measured out to me is deserved—I do know that—well deserved— and you are right and just to be angry with me. … If you would come, I could die in you arms! I would be well content to do that if you had forgiven me!”…I would be content to live with you as your servant, if I may not as your wife.” (Hardy, 2006:288) From the content of the letter, we can infer women s status in a patriarchal society. Women were dependents of men in both economy and sexual relations. There was hardly any reason for women to live for themselves. Women were in the charge of men. There is still another example in the end of this novel, namely, the tragic ending of Tess. As we know, Thomas Hardy always gave his heroines a tragic ending. Was this a coincidence? No, that is because Hardy had prejudice against women. In Tess of the D’Urbervilles, he arranged Tess to be hanged because of her crime of murder. But “More interestingly, many including some famous lawyers and judges wrote to him when Tess was published, saying that no court would sentence Tess to death” (qtd. in Ma, 2007:03).
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According to the above examples mentioned, it is not difficult to find that Hardy s feminist thinking was limited. He still had prejudice against women.
V Conclusion
Thomas Hardy created many female characters in his works. Tess is the brand new female character in the late Victorian Times. She had strong personality and never succumbed to fate. She fought for love all the time. Nevertheless, analyzed from modern female perspective, Tess has some limitations: Firstly, Tess is the idealized image of men. She was created to be beautiful, pure, self-sacrificing and honest. Secondly, Tess viewed love the most important. For her, love was much more important than anything else in the world. She could sacrifice anything for her true love. But in the world, there is not only love, but also other important things, such as family, friends, self-value and so on. Thirdly, Tess had dual characters. She was brave to revolt traditional morality, hypocritical religion and laws; however she failed to extricate herself from traditional morality thoroughly for she judged herself by the very standards she fought against.
From the image of Tess which was created by Thomas Hardy, it s easy to summarize Hardy s feminist thinking. As a male writer, he showed great sympathy to women. He exposed the hypocrisy of social morality in stressing women s chastity, loyalty and purity. However, as a man in a patriarchal society, his feminist thinking is limited. He still had prejudice against women.
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VI Bibliography
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