Abstract
Thomas Hardy is a famous and productive British novelist and poet of the naturalist movement, whose works have a great reputation in the world. In Hardy’s works, it is shown that mankind is subjected to the rule of some hostile and mysterious fate, which is powerful but half-blind, impulsive and uncaring to the individual’s will, hope, passion or suffering. Man proves impotent before fate, however he tries, and he seldom escapes his ordained destiny. Through his novel, Hardy conveys such philosophical attitude to life - pessimism and fatalism. Tess of the D’Urbervilles, as one of the representative works, not only has an important status in the UK since its came out, but also produce extensive and far-reaching influence in all countries in the world. This paper discusses Hardy’s fatalism and then provides the causes of Tess’s tragedy from different respects. Tess, the heroine of the novel, is a victim of the merciless fate. From an innocent girl to a murderer, Tess suffers endless pain and torture. Her life is dominated by fate all along. According to Hardy’s fatalism, the tragedy of Tess is also the tragedy of time and the tragedy of society, also, the tragedy of her weak character. The height of Hardy’s achievement as a novelist was reached in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
Keywords Tess, tragedy, pessimism, fatalism, causes
Contents
Abstract I
Contents I
Introduction 1
1. Causes of Tess’s Tragedy 2
1.1 Thomas Hardy’s pessimism and fatalism 2
1.2 The external causes in Tess's tragedy 2
1.2.1 The capitalist society environment. 2
1.2.2 Tess’s special family situation. 2
1.2.3 The “Satan” Alec and the “Angel” Clare. 2
1.3 Tess’s own character contributes to the tragedy 2
2. Conclusion 3
References. 4
