Abstract:

This paper tries to probe into the causes of the tragedy of Tess. Tess is the central figure in Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Tess was born in a poor peasant family and she was a beautiful and honest girl, with a strong sense of responsibility and courage to sacrifice. But such a good girl's life is full of hardships, and eventually she became a murderer and was sentenced to death! Many critics believe that the root cause of Tess's tragedy is due to her unfortunate fate. But this paper believes that tragedy can’t be caused by only one aspect. There are other factors directly or indirectly at work which causes the tragedy of Tess, such as family poverty, the oppression by the parents, the capitalist social system and law, religion and hypocrisy of bourgeois morality. This paper first presents a brief introduction of the author of the novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles, including the background of its creation and plot of the book. And then it tries to give in-depth discussion of the reason of the great tragedy of the heroine Tess. The analysis of the causes of the tragedy contains the following three aspects: social causes, individual fate, and personal character.


Keywords: Tess；Tragedy；Society；Fate；Family；Character

摘  要：

本文将探讨苔丝悲剧的原因，苔丝是哈代小说《德伯家的苔丝》里的中心人物。苔丝一个出生在穷苦农民家庭的女孩，天生美丽、 淳真朴实、 富有责任心并且敢于自我牺牲，但就是这样一个美丽、天真、单纯的女孩拥有了充满磨难的痛苦一生，并最终沦为杀人犯，被判死刑，走上毁灭的刑场。许多评论家认为命运是导致苔丝悲剧的最根本的原因。但本文认为，悲剧不可能只由一方面导致，家庭贫困,父母的逼迫，资本主义社会制度和不公的法律,宗教和虚伪的资产阶级道德观念等，都在无形中成为酿成悲剧的种种原因。相信除此之外，还有其他因素直接亦或间接导致了这场悲剧的发生。因此，本文将会介绍作者的作品，写作特色，作品产生的背景并从社会原因、个人命运、个人性格三方面来进一步分析苔丝悲剧的原因。

关键词：苔丝；悲剧；社会；命运；家庭；性格

ⅠIntroduction
Tess was a beautiful and pure girl in Hardy' novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles. But such a perfect girl was seduced by Alec when she had seen little of the world and gave birth to a baby. Since then she had been cast aside by people. Unfortunately the kid was dead soon. She tried her best to forget the past. On her wedding evening when she told her husband about her experience she was ruthlessly abandoned. After that she suffered badly both in the flesh and spirit, and Alec once again took possession of her. Finally, Tess killed Alec for the sake of love and paid the price with her life. As we all know, a tragedy does not happen by accident. So what prompts this human tragedy, then?