摘要

托马斯•哈代是英国著名的小说家和诗人，在英国文学史上占有重要位置。他生于1840年英格兰西南部多塞特郡的一个小村镇，这里的自然环境日后成了哈代作品的主要背景。《德伯家的苔丝》就是他代表作之一，几个世纪过去了，但是女主人公苔丝的形象仍然深入读者之心。这部作品属于性格与环境的小说，描述主人公一生的奋斗和追求，反映人对美好生活和理想的追求，以及在此过程中人与环境的剧烈冲突，因而富有广泛深刻的社会意义和哲理。
本论文则是探讨小说中环境细节的描写，分析这种描写对小说结构的安排、象征意象的作用、人物性格塑造以及小说主题的影响。小说的结构是随着作者笔下景物的变迁而发展，并且也反映了女主人公性格的变化发展，如小说中环境和自然天气的细腻描写暗示了苔丝的性格变化。作品通过环境的描写更细致的揭露了资本主义社会虚伪的道德和19世纪末期资本主义入侵农村造成英国农民阶层的消亡。本论文通过全面的分析环境描写的作用，使读者从环境细节描写的角度能够更深入的了解哈代和这部作品。

关键词：环境描写，象征，结构，人物性格，主题

Abstract

Thomas Hardy is the well known novelist and poet in English, and his novels have a great influence on literature. He was born in 1840 in a small town in Dorest in southwestern England, which provides the setting for most of his novels and stories because of the natural environments. Tess of the d’Urbervilles is one of the representatives of his novels. Over a century passed by, and the heroine Tess has already rooted in the mind of the readers. A novel of Character and Environment, Tess of the d’Urbervilles expresses the lifetime struggle of the protagonists and reveals their pursuit for ideals and wonderful life, as well as the conflicts between them and their environment during the process. This novel possesses profound social meaning and philosophy.
This thesis investigates the influences of the environmental descriptions and details descriptions on the structure arrangement, symbols, character changes and the theme of the novel. The structure of the novel develops along with the changes of sceneries, and the changes of environmental description also reveal the personality changes of Tess. For instance, the changes of environment and weather imply the changes of Tess. The novel is to expose the hypocritical morality of the capitalist class, and to denounce the capitalist invasion into the country and destruction of the English peasantry at the end of the 19th century. From the environmental description analysis we can understand Hardy and the novel more profoundly.

Key words: environmental descriptions, symbols, structure, characters, theme