英语毕业论文之苔丝的反叛精神.doc

苔丝的反叛精神

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The Rebellion of Tess

Contents
Abstract………………………………………..………………...…………………Ⅰ
Key Words…………………………………………………………………….…....Ⅰ
摘要…………………………………………………………………………….........Ⅱ
关键词…………………………………………………………………………….….Ⅱ
Introduction…………………………………………………………..…..……........1
I. Different Reasons for the Rebellion of Tess………………….…………...…...….3
A. Reasons for Subsistence……………………………...…..………….…………3
1. A Hard Life for Peasants………………………………………..…….....….3
2. Unequal Morality for Female……………….……………………...........….3
3. Male Domination of Women…..………………………...………..…..…….4
4. Class Oppression…….…………………………………..…………….……5
B. Reasons for Her Nature……….……………………………………..…...….…6
1. Her Sense of Responsibility………………….………………..……….6
2. Self-respect…………………………………………...……………….……6
3. Her Aggressive Character……………………..……………………..……..6
II. Two Characters of the Rebellion ………………………………..………………..8
A. Her Character of Resolution…………………………...……….……….……8
1. Never Yield to Pressure from the Society ….…………………….………8
2. Keeping Apartness to Alec and Killing Him Finally ………….........……...9
B. Her Character of Cowardliness……………………...……………….………..10
1. Her Love for Clare ………………….………………………………...….10
2. Her Second Stay with Alec ………………………………….…….……....12
3. Her Original Opinions and Fantasy………………………….…….……....13
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………......15
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………..….....16
Notes…………………...…………………………………………………..………..17
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………...18

Abstract

Tess of the D’Urbervilles is regarded as the most successful tragic masterpiece of Thomas Hardy. In this thesis, the author tries to analyze the revolt of Tess in two main aspects: reasons for the rebellion and characters of the rebellion. The former one is caused by human’s instinct and nature. The human instinct leads Tess to opposing her fate. Tess’s healthy desire simply to be happy is perhaps the source of her great courage and moral strength. The latter takes on the resolution and cowardliness of the rebellion, and the surface of the cowardliness of the rebellion is the awakening of consciousness and noble personality, which foils the novel’s theme and its value and further illustrates the injustice for female in Victorian England. So such a rebellion is impossible to be avoided.

Key Words

Rebellion; self-respect; resolution; women awakening; women consciousness

摘　要

《德伯家的苔丝》是托马斯.哈代最杰出的悲剧作品。论文叙述了小说中女主人公反叛的原因和特征。一方面，人类的本性促使苔丝对她的命运进行抗争。苔丝强烈地希望得到幸福也许就是她强大勇气和道德力量的来源。同时文章分析了女主人公反叛的坚决性和软弱性，而表面的软弱性是为反叛意识的觉醒和高贵人格的体现作铺垫，从而反衬作品的主题思想和价值意义，进一步验证了维多利亚时代的英格兰对女性的不公平对待。因此，这样一个反叛是不可避免的。

关键词

反叛；自尊；坚决性；女性觉醒；女性意识

Introduction

Thomas Hardy, who was born on June 2, 1840, is one of the greatest writers in the history of English literature, and Tess of the D’Urbervilles is one of his most successful novels. Hardy cannot solely be labeled a Victorian novelist, nor can he be categorized simply as a Modernist. As a traditional writer, he was determined to explode the conventions of nineteenth-century literature and built a new kind of novel in its place. In many respects, Hardy was trapped in the middle ground between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, between Victorian sensibilities and more modern ones, and between tradition and innovation. Tess of the d’ Urbervilles was published in 1891. It is generally regarded as Hardy’s tragic masterpiece, and certainly it is his most ambitious tragic novel. Though is it, there are also many heartening passages hiding in the article. In this novel, Hardy demonstrates his deep sense of moral sympathy for England’s lower classes, particularly for rural women. He became famous for his compassionate, often controversial portrayal of young women victimized by the self-righteous rigidity of English social morality.
A pure and loyal young woman, also intelligent, strikingly attractive, and distinguished by her deep moral sensitivity, and passionate intensity, Tess is the central character of the novel. But her inexperience and lack of wise parenting leave her extremely vulnerable. In Tess’s time, England is making its slow and painful transition from an old-fashioned, agricultural nation to a modern, industrial one. The society is full of tremendous changes in almost every respect. More and more peasants become impoverished and live a miserable life. Workers produce beyond subsistence. Therefore, her life is complicated when her father discovers a link to the noble link of the d’Urbervilles, and, as a result, Tess is sent to work at the d’Urberville mansion. Unfortunately, her ideals cannot prevent her from sliding further and further into misfortune after she becomes pregnant by Alec. Then, because of strong love and purity, she does not want to cheat Clare. With the hope of

mercy, she tells all her past. But, so tragedy for her, just the man who says to love her deeply abandons his troth, and refuses her explanations absolutely in the bridal evening. From now on, Clare does not contact with Tess in a long time, no matter how she is difficult. As a simple country girl, with a lot of misfortune, Tess finally decides to rebel against common customs bravely after she tries hardest to be good, her bad luck which is caused by other’s mistakes conspires to get her into trouble, as condemnation by the society and discard by her husband. All of these is too injustice to endure, so the rebellion cannot be avoided, no more than a time matter.

I. Different Reasons for the Rebellion of Tess

A. Reasons for Subsistence

1. A Hard Life for Peasants
In Tess’s time, the society is full of tremendous changes in almost every respect. The industrial revolution continues to develop in spite of the social evils that accompanied. The emergence of locomotives throws Britain into a frenzy of railway building. Agriculture is further mechanized. Trade and commerce grow apace, driving more peasants, hand spinners and weavers to the crowded factories of the smoky cities. The great transformation makes England from an agricultural base to an industrial base, under the process of industrialism and the disintegration of peasantry. More and more peasants become impoverished and live a miserable life. Rural workers produce beyond subsistence. As a daughter of a poor villager, and a wage-laborer later, it is very difficult for Tess to live a better life with her family.

2. Unequal Morality for Female
The highest virtue of the Victorian woman is sexual purity, and adultery is the worst of all possible sins. Her dress concealed her whole body except her hands and face, and to show an ankle or a shoulder is considered ‘improper’. Public notions on sexual morals are that woman must remain virgin before marriage, but men could have their fling. The sexual morals are presumably rooted in people’s rational minds: when either men or women engaged in sexual lapses, the former would be forgiven and the later would be condemned. As Engel’s in the "family, private ownership and national origin," the book states: "All women are considered serious offenders and the legal and social consequences of everything. For men are considered an honor, at best, but can appreciate the moral acceptance of small stain." It seems so innocent from the dialogue, “How could I be expected to know? I was a child when I left this house four months ago, why didn’t you tell me there was danger in men-folk? Why didn’t you warn me? Ladies know that…” [1]. But Tess wins no comfort and consolation, instead, “she is surrounded by ‘a cloud of moral hobgoblins’ which terrify her ‘without reasons” [1]. Then, the same sexual experience, Angle is pardoned but she is abused. Is it equal that any kind of sexual encounter would earn a young woman moral rebuke and social condemnation, regardless of how the man involved conducted himself? Moreover, the whole society turns against Tess, which aggravates her miserable life.
Why is Tess’s girlish purity lost? Why do the bad so often ruin the good? Why is beauty damaged by ugliness? Thousands of years of philosophy cannot give us the answers to these questions. These things happen, and have always happened. After suffering so much, Tess was not afraid of the dark or the shadows; it is people she is anxious to avoid. Although she has broken an accepted social rule, it is not her mistake.

3. Male Domination of Women
Half of this world is female and the other part is male. The critically speaking, man and woman should be equal. But that time, woman is the slave and private property of husband, without say-no. Men dominate women like the being. He expects to be loved, but also to be obeyed. He makes all the decisions. His wife is supposed to be his faithful companion. Male domination of women is perhaps even more unsettling. Angle’s love for Tess, as pure and gentle as it seems, dominates her in an unhealthy way. Angle substitutes an idealized picture of Tess’s country purity for the real life woman that he continually refuses to get to know. When Angle calls Tess names like “Daughter of Nature” and “Artemis” [2], we feel that he may be denying her true self in favor of a mental image that he prefers. Thus, her identity and experiences are suppressed, albeit unknowingly.
Tess is more close to nature and the land of life consciousness, on moral and legal norms of the existing system is skeptical. It is for this reason, she asks, she will be able to use "a similar philosophy and vision" to examine difficult to erase those days, and does not lose because of corruption, even virgin virginity asks: “A woman's virginity is a lost forever lost? …All organisms have the ability to restitution, Why only on virginity no?” [3]

4. Class Oppression
On the other hand, Tess is more polished than many people, but not quite up to the level of the upper and middle classes both socially and culturally. She still represents many bad things to Mrs. Clare. Angel’s mother sees in Tess the beginning of the fall of the great Victorian era of opulence and high society. She does not accept Tess as a suitable daughter-in –law because she believes that Tess will bring down the status of the family. The Clares hope that Angle will find a suitable bride, meaning a highborn, well-bred woman of society. For them, marriage is not about love, but rather social, financial, and religious prosperity.
Though old family lines retain their earlier glamour, the old economic realities make sheer wealth more important than inner nobility. Engels once made a penetrating analysis: “The English proletariat is becoming more and more bourgeois, so that this most bourgeois of all nations is apparently aiming at the possession of bourgeois aristocracy and a bourgeois proletariat as well as a bourgeoisie. For a nation which exploits the whole world this is, of course, to a certain extent, justifiable”. [4] In general, the upper and middle classes remains firmly in power, dignified, self-satisfied kindly disposes towards the rough-mannered workers and simple farmer tenants, but very conscious of their own superiority, and, as they suppose, their higher sense of values. So, the newly rich people like Simon Stoke family can spend money to buy respectable social status for itself and later generation and the newly acquired name. Alec uses not only his wealth and social status but also takes the advantage of Tess’s innocence and poverty violates her. Also, at the end, he controls Tess in a second time by means of his wealth and the poorness of Tess’s family.

B. Reasons for Her Nature

1. Her Sense of Responsibility
The other main reason which causes Tess’s rebellion is added to her nature. Tess is a fresh country girl who is full of the sense of responsibility for her family because of father’s laziness and mother’s simple mindedness. The horse’s death let her think she is responsible for this accident and she must earn money to support her poor family. This guilt leads her to visit the D’Urbervilles and puts her into an uncertain and potentially dangerous situation. The death of her father adds her family’s eviction because her reputation makes it incumbent on her to act for her young brother and sisters. With no option, she bears sadness to live with Alec again. If not for Tess, the family may be very badly off indeed, but Tess’s self-sacrifice gains nothing except a series of blame.

2. Self-respect
Fate impinges upon Tess’s life at every turn. Often, when faced with a difficult decision the choice she selects makes her situation much worse. But Tess is a strong woman with great self-respect throughout the novel. She wants to become knowledgeable and self-sufficient and refuses to crumble under pressure. She refuses Alec’s help and says to him: “I will not take anything from you!” “It’s true. I could lead a comfortable life. But I have enough honour not to tell that lie. If I loved you, I might have a very good reason to tell you so. But I don’t” [1]. Tess chastises herself for her weakness which let herself become a victim. When Angle leaves her, she is too proud to ask his family for help that her life begins to unravel completely.
Tess always has the feeling so that she can bear all the torture and disaster, indifference to face the cruel fate of the game in cuts among hoping to wait Angel's forgiveness. Until finally her self-esteem at the expense of their walk on the altar of love.

3. Her Aggressive Character
In fact, Tess is also an aggressive person. She has a unique view of life, but never parroted. When the priest does not promise her baby to take a baptism, she says to him: “If God does not recognize such moves to not a formal test, it is not paradise for the children, such as whether their paradise, as children, you did not special.” [5] When Alec comes to her struggle, she dares to face and say ：”I don’t like’ee at all! I hate and detest you! I’ll go back to mother, I will!” [1]. While meeting Angle, the sinful feeling makes her showing unselfishness when she faces the occasion that three girls are also in love with him. She thinks that they are more suitable for him, and tries her best to provide favorable conditions for them to get Angle’s love, although she loves him deeply. When mother asks her not to tell Angle about her past, Tess knows deep down that she cannot follow the advice. Her conscience is too strong to live with the secret, and she must free herself of the burden. So that she can live comfortably and morally. She is so unselfish and kindhearted, but with an abandoned consequence.
Tess doesn’t believe religion. She aims to church "just to listen to music." Her understanding of religion from the majority is in the environment imperceptible influence. Therefore, religion does not dominate