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【Abstract】This paper aims to reveal Thomas Hardy’s deep comprehension and profound sympathy with female under the limitation of male-power tradition. According to the environment-personality-destiny main line， my paper proceeds with theoretic discussion， systematical analysis and thorough dissection on five selected heroines in Hardy's novels.

【Key words】female characters;environment;personality;tragic fate;Matters of gender

【中圖號】I06【文獻標示碼】A【文章編號】1005-1074(2009)02-0068-01

Independence and strength separate Hardy's heroines from the previous idea of the Victorian heroine. The combination of sexuality and masculine qualities in Hardy's passionate heroines exemplifies a new characterization of women.

1Living Environment

The female characters in Hardy's novels are always accompanied with inharmonious circumferential environment. Their existing conditions are difficultand make people worried. Bathsheba Everdene， a weak young lady， operatesand managesa farm. It seemsadmiring for her to possess a big farm， but it is not easy. The natural disaster and man-made calamity may take place at any time. In case of losing the farm， she will drop into the lowest social class， so the pressure that she facescould imagine. Eustacia isput in the Egdon Heath， a place of gloom and solitude， which is also unalterable. Living in such an environment， Eustacia always feel constrained， depressed， boringand lonely. So sheeagersto flee away from this barren landas soon as possible. Tess'family is as poor as a church. And under the pressure of poverty， she has to seek help from the rich Mrs. D'Urbervilles， whom they believe to be a relative. Seducedby Alec D'Urbervillesmake her lose chastity. She becomes people's laughingstock.

2Personalities

Different environment can not only mold different characteristics， but also influence differently on the same person. Hardy ranks the three novels to \"characteristic and environment novel\"with the purpose of reveling the infiltration and influence of environment on deep characteristic. Bathsheba is a country girl who is looking forward to pursuing independence， and she also is a supercilious woman who usually seems to be very self-confident and resolute， daring to say and daring to do. Hardy molds her as a person with complexitiesand various characteristics， who expresses different facial expressions in different situations. In The Return of The Native，Eustacia is a female hedonist who has the over-sensitive tendency put forth studiously by Hardy. She has a courageous treacherous personality， pride and self-willed， warmly free， disregarding the custom morals and not followedthe prevalence. Eustacia Vye combines the strength of a man with the beauty of a woman. The Victorian ideal displayed in Eustacia's feminine desires conflicts with this masculinity.Tess is an ideal female image in Hardy's mind， and he gives herall thefine qualities that workwomen have:beautiful， pure， kind， unpretentious， tolerant and fortitudinous and resilient. Hardy even uses \"a pure woman\" as a subhead in the novel. To pursue the love without any impurity， she would rather choose losing impure love， and this is the noble choice of Tess. Portrayed as a strong woman， Tess is capable of proving her purity and innocence despite the criticism of a cruel Victorian environment.

3Tragic fate

Hardy attributes the reason for his tragedy to the fault of environment and fate.The clash of character and environmentresults in the character'stragedy. Fate createscharacter's tragedywithout rhyme or reason. The characters' fatesare always suffered by the control of environment and their resistance will fail no matter how they persist. It is a pity that the clash between character and environment cannotbesolved.But also the heroines in Hardy'snovels have a common characteristic——lack of self-awareness which is another reason for their tragedies.

Women in19 century of the Victoria ages are defined to obey for loyalty， no desire at all. So a lot of writers describe them as innocence， living according to social custom and moral standard.However， Hardy molds his new unconventional female images that alter the female model of the Victoria ages. For Hardy's part， all the females have the right to pursue the freedom of happy love and marriage. He disproves the traditional moral notion， and disregard affective right comprehensively. This concept restrains and snuffs out female individualities， so it is difficult for women to rely on that moral estimation system with colour of blazing prejudice to acknowledge and ensure their own affective rights. From this point of view， Hardy is a sympathizer of females.

But we cannot ignore that women in Hardy's hands， women can only exist attaching themselves to men， and they always lack sense of truth， and even make fatal mistakes， that brought themselves a lot of calamities. Obviously， this incarnates specific female value in male-power society: female is a materialized appendage without self-awareness， self-determination， self-worth and self-realization. From this point， Hardy still stickles in traditionalmatters of gender， and cannot escape from the prejudice on female， getting into the trap of male-power culture.

4References

[1]Bayley， John.An Essay on Hardy， Cambridge: Cambridge University Press， 1981

[2]Wang， Guiqin.王桂琴.哈代的女性觀透析[J].襄樊學院學報，2003，24(1):66-70