Abstract

Tess of the D’Urbervilles, is a novel written by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. This essay tries to analyze the archetypal images existing in this work. Once the archetypal is recognized, the readers tend to resonate with the writer. Archetypal criticism has been widely adopted. Archetypal literary criticism is a type of critical theory that interprets a text by focusing on recurring myths and archetypes in the narrative, symbols, images and character types in a literary work. Archetypal criticism argues that archetypes determine the form and function of literary works. Recent years, with the introduction of archetypal criticism approach, there is a research boom in which the revaluation of literary classics has become a big issue. Among those classics, Thomas Hardy’s masterpiece Tess of the D’Urbervilles is one of the great appeal. In characterization, as the protagonist, Tess behaves as the daughter of nature. Her fate complies with the alternation of seasons as the plot progresses. In the novel, Hardy uses metaphors, symbols and images to hint Tess’s tragedy. For example, the red color, the season and the sun. Those images create mysterious atmosphere, and promote the plot development by providing people hope, meanwhile, they also indicate death and disaster that will arrive sooner or later.

Key Words:Archetypal Criticism  images  Tess  archetype
 
摘 要

《德伯家的苔丝》是托马斯哈代的作品，发表于1891年。国内外对这部小说的研究还是比较多的。本文主要从原型批评角度研究作品中的原型意象。分析这部小说中的原型意象，使读者与作家之间产生共鸣。原型批评理论被广泛运用，原型批评分析文章，侧重于故事，象征，意象和人物中神话和原型的重现。 原型批评理论认为，原型决定了文学作品的结构与功能。近几年，随着原型批评手法的发展，在对文学著作的评价中掀起研究热潮。在这些名著中，哈代的杰作苔丝是其中之一。在作品描述中，作为主要人物，苔丝是大自然的女儿。她的命运由季节的变更决定。在小说中，哈代用了许多的暗喻，象征，意象来暗示苔丝的悲剧。比如红色，季节，太阳。这些原型意象旨在推动故事情节的发展， 它给予人们希望的同时，预示了死亡，灾难，和痛苦，创造神秘气氛。

关键词:原型批评  苔丝 意象 原型

1. Introduction
Tess of the D’Urbervilles was a famous work written by Thomas Hardy. It reflects the social realities of Dorest in the 19th century. It has been studied from different perspectives. Some critics have made advantage of literary approaches to seek its deeper meaning. Some of them associate the fatalism with traditional Greek tragedy. Some focus on the destined tragedy of Tess, the background and explanatory methods of Hardy’s work. Although Tess of the D’Urbervilles has been studied from various aspects, few are from the perspective of archetypal images, the further exploration on this classic work is still potential. Thus, it is necessary and important to analyze Tess of the D’Urbervilles from the view of archetypal images.