The Heroine’s tragedy On Tess’s Fate in Tess of the D’Urbervilles

1 Introduction

Tess of the D’Urbervilles is a marvelous example of modern tragedy. Many readers come close to tears at the end when Tess is taken away to her death. Tess is a victim of fate. Unyielding and fundamentally pure， she suffers a lot， struggling against a fate that is too strong for her. Tess is a victim of times， the male-dominated society and the morality of bourgeoisie， who fights strongly against the society， yet is destroyed by her self-destructive sense of guilt， and the cruelty of two men. Therefore Tess is doomed to tragedy.

2.The outside cause of the tragedy

2.1 The tragedy caused by the times

\"The great works of art always involve profound philosophical concepts. It is not only the product of national character， the spirit of the times and the social ideological trend and so on， but also in turn actively participates in the formation of them， which is the representative of their own nation， age and society\". （He Jiefang， 2012） Here， Tess was in a time when the wide use of agricultural machine gradually broke the original peasant economy system. The peasants living by a small amount of land must find a new way of living. Tess was born in a poor peasant family decayed from a noble one in the special period of the transition from the old system to the new. Her father was an alcoholic， greedy and lazy haggler. Tess drove the cart to make delivery for her drunken father. The cart crashed with a mail cab accidentally， killing the old horse which was the only source of living for her family， thus Tess suffered from a heavy mental burden. Then， the vain father and secular mother put the family burden on Tess. This 16-year-old girl had to bear part of the responsibility to maintain the livelihood of her families. At the instigation of her parents， she went to curry favor with the rich， noble D’Urbervilles and claimed relatives with them in order to get a job. Tess took the job against her will. This transaction ruined Tess's beautiful life. She was lured by dandy Alec D'Urberville in every possible way and at last lost her virginity. The pregnant Tess coming back home received no concern or sympathy from parents but complaints because their hope to become rich was ruined. In the eyes of the secular people， Tess had become a typical case in offending public decency. Tess， \"a pure woman\"， had fallen victim to the capitalist hypocritical morality. The bourgeois were egoistic， selfish， ruthless and cunning which destroyed the natural social order and led to the tragedy of Tess.

2.2 The tragedy caused by patriarchal society

Tess was the typical victim of male supremacy. She lived in the time when women had low status and farmers had no stable income. She was forced to see Alec by her own father as a valuable woman to exchange for his desirable value. Alec， the representative of bourgeois， was dissolute by nature and a philander master. Tess’s beauty in his opinion was the bait inducing the sensual desire of man. From the perspective of male supremacy， he seemed to indicate that his raping Tess was due to her beauty attraction. The innocent Tess was pushed into a doomed eternally abyss， becoming a witch causing men to commit crimes. Tess left Alec， but this did not mean that she was free from fetters under male’s perspective， instead， she was pushed to a much harder time. When she fell in love with Angel， Tess was the victim and the pure moral devotee. Angel maintained his male power and insist on the moral hypocrisy， choosing not to forgive Tess. He was the one who took control of love completely. This showed that male accounted for the main status in Victorian times and women were just subordinate to men’s will， Tess became the slave both physically and mentally in patriarchal society.

3 The inside causes on the tragedy

Besides those objective factors， the tragedy of Tess in some extent is the result of her subjective causes. Tess’s appearance is one of the causes to her death. Tess with her sensuousness is an embodiment of the principle in nature of irresistible sexual attraction. In order to feed the whole family， Tess accepts the work， without knowing the beauty of her will cause the lust of Alec who is a dandy. She gets near to danger. If she is a common girl in a common face， will such thing happen to her？ Besides， her fatalism also forces her to death. Tess lives in a closed village full of superstitions. Farmers are trapped in fatalism and they don’t want to make any effort to change their fates. Though Tess has been educated， she inevitably gets some influences from it. She is a brave woman. Though she isn’t pure in her body， but her spirit can support her to go on living. Yet， her husband destroys her spirit. She feels that she can change nothing but surrender to Alec for the sake of her family. Another indication is that Tess considers some omens as a supernatural power behind the scenes： the text-painter， the allusion to Satan in the characterization of Alec and so on， revealing the fatalistic thoughts of Tess. From the subjective point， the sexual attraction and fatalism of Tess are the main causes of her tragedy.

4. Conclusion

Tess is the typical character embodying Hardy’s criticism of old morality. The uncontrollable age， patriarchal culture， bourgeois morality lead to her degeneration from purity and kindness to murder. Although she has not gained happiness， she strives for women's social status and challenges the patriarchal ideology and the morality of bourgeoisie. This is a big step on the road to the fight for the liberation of women.

Works Cited：

[1]He Jiefang. The Analysis of the Tragedy of Antipov in Doctor Zhivago and its Significance [J]. The Appreciation of Masterpiece. 2012.6