Abstract
Tess of the D’Urbervilles is regarded as the most successful tragic masterpiece of Thomas Hardy. In this thesis, the author tries to analyze the revolt of Tess in two main aspects: reasons for the rebellion and characters of the rebellion. The former one is caused by human’s instinct and nature. The human instinct leads Tess to opposing her fate. Tess’s healthy desire simply to be happy is perhaps the source of her great courage and moral strength. The latter takes on the resolution and cowardliness of the rebellion, and the surface of the cowardliness of the rebellion is the awakening of consciousness and noble personality, which foils the novel’s theme and its value and further illustrates the injustice for female in Victorian England. So such a rebellion is impossible to be avoided.
Key Words
Rebellion; self-respect; resolution; women awakening; women consciousness
摘 要
《德伯家的苔丝》是托马斯.哈代最杰出的悲剧作品。论文叙述了小说中女主人公反叛的原因和特征。一方面，人类的本性促使苔丝对她的命运进行抗争。苔丝强烈地希望得到幸福也许就是她强大勇气和道德力量的来源。同时文章分析了女主人公反叛的坚决性和软弱性，而表面的软弱性是为反叛意识的觉醒和高贵人格的体现作铺垫，从而反衬作品的主题思想和价值意义，进一步验证了维多利亚时代的英格兰对女性的不公平对待。因此，这样一个反叛是不可避免的。
关键词
反叛；自尊；坚决性；女性觉醒；女性意识
Introduction
Thomas Hardy, who was born on June 2, 1840, is one of the greatest writers in the history of English literature, and Tess of the D’Urbervilles is one of his most successful novels. Hardy cannot solely be labeled a Victorian novelist, nor can he be categorized simply as a Modernist. As a traditional writer, he was determined to explode the conventions of nineteenth-century literature and built a new kind of novel in its place. In many respects, Hardy was trapped in the middle ground between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, between Victorian sensibilities and more modern ones, and between tradition and innovation. Tess of the d’ Urbervilles was published in 1891. It is generally regarded as Hardy’s tragic masterpiece, and certainly it is his most ambitious tragic novel. Though is it, there are also many heartening passages hiding in the article. In this novel, Hardy demonstrates his deep sense of moral sympathy for England’s lower classes, particularly for rural women. He became famous for his compassionate, often controversial portrayal of young women victimized by the self-righteous rigidity of English social morality.
A pure and loyal young woman, also intelligent, strikingly attractive, and distinguished by her deep moral sensitivity, and passionate intensity, Tess is the central character of the novel. But her inexperience and lack of wise parenting leave her extremely vulnerable. In Tess’s time, England is making its slow and painful transition from an old-fashioned, agricultural nation to a modern, industrial one. The society is full of tremendous changes in almost every respect. More and more peasants become impoverished and live a miserable life. Workers produce beyond subsistence. Therefore, her life is complicated when her father discovers a link to the noble link of the d’Urbervilles, and, as a result, Tess is sent to work at the d’Urberville mansion. Unfortunately, her ideals cannot prevent her from sliding further and further into misfortune after she becomes pregnant by Alec. Then, because of strong love and purity, she does not want to cheat Clare. With the hope of
mercy, she tells all her past. But, so tragedy for her, just the man who says to love her deeply abandons his troth, and refuses her explanations absolutely in the bridal evening. From now on, Clare does not contact with Tess in a long time, no matter how she is difficult. As a simple country girl, with a lot of misfortune, Tess finally decides to rebel against common customs bravely after she tries hardest to be good, her bad luck which is caused by other’s mistakes conspires to get her into trouble, as condemnation by the society and discard by her husband. All of these is too injustice to endure, so the rebellion cannot be avoided, no more than a time matter.
I. Different Reasons for the Rebellion of Tess
A. Reasons for Subsistence
1. A Hard Life for Peasants
In Tess’s time, the society is full of tremendous changes in almost every respect. The industrial revolution continues to develop in spite of the social evils that accompanied. The emergence of locomotives throws Britain into a frenzy of railway building. Agriculture is further mechanized. Trade and commerce grow apace, driving more peasants, hand spinners and weavers to the crowded factories of the smoky cities. The great transformation makes England from an agricultural base to an industrial base, under the process of industrialism and the disintegration of peasantry. More and more peasants become impoverished and live a miserable life. Rural workers produce beyond subsistence. As a daughter of a poor villager, and a wage-laborer later, it is very difficult for Tess to live a better life with her family.
2. Unequal Morality for Female
The highest virtue of the Victorian woman is sexual purity, and adultery is the worst of all possible sins. Her dress concealed her whole body except her hands and face, and to show an ankle or a shoulder is considered ‘improper’. Public notions on sexual morals are that woman must remain virgin before marriage, but men could have their fling. The sexual morals are presumably rooted in people’s rational minds: when either men or women engaged in sexual lapses, the former would be forgiven and the later would be condemned. As Engel’s in the "family, private ownership and national origin," the book states: "All women are considered serious offenders and the legal and social consequences of everything. For men are considered an honor, at best, but can appreciate the moral acceptance of small stain." It seems so innocent from the dialogue, “How could I be expected to know? I was a child when I left this house four months ago, why didn’t you tell me there was danger in men-folk? Why didn’t you warn me? Ladies know that…” [1]. But Tess wins no comfort and consolation, instead, “she is surrounded by ‘a cloud of moral hobgoblins’ which terrify her ‘without reasons” [1]. Then, the same sexual experience, Angle is pardoned but she is abused. Is it equal that any kind of sexual encounter would earn a young woman moral rebuke and social condemnation, regardless of how the man involved conducted himself? Moreover, the whole society turns against Tess, which aggravates her miserable life.
Why is Tess’s girlish purity lost? Why do the bad so often ruin the good? Why is beauty damaged by ugliness? Thousands of years of philosophy cannot give us the answers to these questions. These things happen, and have always happened. After suffering so much, Tess was not afraid of the dark or the shadows; it is people she is anxious to avoid. Although she has broken an accepted social rule, it is not her mistake.
3. Male Domination of Women
Half of this world is female and the other part is male. The critically speaking, man and woman should be equal. But that time, woman is the slave and private property of husband, without say-no. Men dominate women like the being. He expects to be loved, but also to be obeyed. He makes all the decisions. His wife is supposed to be his faithful companion. Male domination of women is perhaps even more unsettling. Angle’s love for Tess, as pure and gentle as it seems, dominates her in an unhealthy way. Angle substitutes an idealized picture of Tess’s country purity for the real life woman that he continually refuses to get to know. When Angle calls Tess names like “Daughter of Nature” and “Artemis” [2], we feel that he may be denying her true self in favor of a mental image that he prefers. Thus, her identity and experiences are suppressed, albeit unknowingly.
Tess is more close to nature and the land of life consciousness, on moral and legal norms of the existing system is skeptical. It is for this reason, she asks, she will be able to use "a similar philosophy and vision" to examine difficult to erase those days, and does not lose because of corruption, even virgin virginity asks: “A woman's virginity is a lost forever lost? …All organisms have the ability to restitution, Why only on virginity no?” [3]
4. Class Oppression
On the other hand, Tess is more polished than many people, but not quite up to the level of the upper and middle classes both socially and culturally. She still represents many bad things to Mrs. Clare. Angel’s mother sees in Tess the beginning of the fall of the great Victorian era of opulence and high society. She does not accept Tess as a suitable daughter-in –law because she believes that Tess will bring down the status of the family. The Clares hope that Angle will find a suitable bride, meaning a highborn, well-bred woman of society. For them, marriage is not about love, but rather social, financial, and religious prosperity.
Though old family lines retain their earlier glamour, the old economic realities make sheer wealth more important than inner nobility. Engels once made a penetrating analysis: “The English proletariat is becoming more and more bourgeois, so that this most bourgeois of all nations is apparently aiming at the possession of bourgeois aristocracy and a bourgeois proletariat as well as a bourgeoisie. For a nation which exploits the whole world this is, of course, to a certain extent, justifiable”. [4] In general, the upper and middle classes remains firmly in power, dignified, self-satisfied kindly disposes towards the rough-mannered workers and simple farmer tenants, but very conscious of their own superiority, and, as they suppose, their higher sense of values. So, the newly rich people like Simon Stoke family can spend money to buy respectable social status for itself and later generation and the newly acquired name. Alec uses not only his wealth and social status but also takes the advantage of Tess’s innocence and poverty violates her. Also, at the end, he controls Tess in a second time by means of his wealth and the poorness of Tess’s family.
B. Reasons for Her Nature
1. Her Sense of Responsibility
The other main reason which causes Tess’s rebellion is added to her nature. Tess is a fresh country girl who is full of the sense of responsibility for her family because of father’s laziness and mother’s simple mindedness. The horse’s death let her think she is responsible for this accident and she must earn money to support her poor family. This guilt leads her to visit the D’Urbervilles and puts her into an uncertain and potentially dangerous situation. The death of her father adds her family’s eviction because her reputation makes it incumbent on her to act for her young brother and sisters. With no option, she bears sadness to live with Alec again. If not for Tess, the family may be very badly off indeed, but Tess’s self-sacrifice gains nothing except a series of blame.
2. Self-respect
Fate impinges upon Tess’s life at every turn. Often, when faced with a difficult decision the choice she selects makes her situation much worse. But Tess is a strong woman with great self-respect throughout the novel. She wants to become knowledgeable and self-sufficient and refuses to crumble under pressure. She refuses Alec’s help and says to him: “I will not take anything from you!” “It’s true. I could lead a comfortable life. But I have enough honour not to tell that lie. If I loved you, I might have a very good reason to tell you so. But I don’t” [1]. Tess chastises herself for her weakness which let herself become a victim. When Angle leaves her, she is too proud to ask his family for help that her life begins to unravel completely.
Tess always has the feeling so that she can bear all the torture and disaster, indifference to face the cruel fate of the game in cuts among hoping to wait Angel's forgiveness. Until finally her self-esteem at the expense of their walk on the altar of love.
3. Her Aggressive Character
In fact, Tess is also an aggressive person. She has a unique view of life, but never parroted. When the priest does not promise her baby to take a baptism, she says to him: “If God does not recognize such moves to not a formal test, it is not paradise for the children, such as whether their paradise, as children, you did not special.” [5] When Alec comes to her struggle, she dares to face and say ：”I don’t like’ee at all! I hate and detest you! I’ll go back to mother, I will!” [1]. While meeting Angle, the sinful feeling makes her showing unselfishness when she faces the occasion that three girls are also in love with him. She thinks that they are more suitable for him, and tries her best to provide favorable conditions for them to get Angle’s love, although she loves him deeply. When mother asks her not to tell Angle about her past, Tess knows deep down that she cannot follow the advice. Her conscience is too strong to live with the secret, and she must free herself of the burden. So that she can live comfortably and morally. She is so unselfish and kindhearted, but with an abandoned consequence.
Tess doesn’t believe religion. She aims to church "just to listen to music." Her understanding of religion from the majority is in the environment imperceptible influence. Therefore, religion does not dominate her fate. The British law clearly stipulates that no man can marry his wife's sister. But Tess hopes Angel can marry her sister after her death.
As the victim of the ill-judged execution, Tess is noble and dignified. It is the Victorian cult of aristocratic lineage that drives Tess to seek the patronage of Mrs. D’Urbervilles and meet her seducer Alec. It is the unfair class system that allows a rich nobleman to impregnate and abandon a low-class girl without consequence. It is also the Victorian myth of the pure virginal bride that unfairly keeps Angle from accepting Tess as his wife, despite his own besmirched sexual history. These social injustices bring undeserved suffering to Tess.
II. Two Characters of the Rebellion
A. Her Character of Resolution
1. Never Yield to Pressure from the Society
The contest between corruption and innocence to take place not in a field, but within the human heart itself. In Tess’s life, there are two men- Alec D’Urbervilles and Angle Clare, who both change Tess’s fate and make her fall into the abyss of misery together. Tess is a pure woman tangled up to the tragedy web which is delineated by the imposed fate. That is too unfair to accept by anybody. But in view of distinct attitudes to the two men, one as god, the other as devil. As the result, Tess’s rebellion is both presented resolution and cowardliness.
Alec is manipulative, sinister young man who does everything he can to seduce the inexperience Tess when she comes to work for his family. His devilish associations are evident when he seduces her as the serpent in Genesis seduced Eve. Additionally, like the famous depiction of Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost, Alec does not try to hide his bad qualities. In fact, like Satan, he revels in them. He promises to provide for the family that brings Tess to “sell” herself to him at the beginning of the book. Owing to his wealth, Alec thinks that he was power with which he bullies Tess. It is Alec who not only ruins Tess’s virginity, but also destroys her happy life.
He is not only sensual, but also arrogant and egotistic, physically strong. Alec believes that winning a woman required force, not affection, or gentleness. He puts on an air of arrogance regarding women always as inferior to men. Disregarding Tess’s revolution, Alec considers women as carnal objects rather than as equal human’s worthy of affection. Then, he believes he is different from the ancestors, since he has power over her while they do not but in fact he is just like them, using his power like a God although his is quite hollow. He promises empty advantages to her, like the wealth she eventually receives from him, that can never be more important than love.
2. Keeping Apartness to Alec and Killing Him Finally
When Tess comes across with Alec near four years later in the village of Ever Head, though Alec D’Urbervilles seems first to have undergone a remarkable transformation from a rake into a pious and religious man, he discards this posture so effortlessly and quickly that it seems to have been a superfluous charade—Alec’s attempts to contain his desire for Tess seem weak at best. Alec is a symbol of evil, he can escape legal sanctions, unaffected. He represents a larger moral principle rather than a real inspanidual man. Like Satan, Alec symbolizes the base forces of life that drive a person away from moral perfection and greatness. Tess continues to suffer as a social outcast because of a disgrace that is much more Alec’s fault than hers, yet the hypocritical Alec has the luxury to repent and even win acceptance as a preacher. Tess’s plight as a woman thus appears incredibly unjust, stressing “The Woman Pays”. So, Tess is observant and distrusting of Alec, and she views his conversion as a plot to win her back. She has learnt her lesson about risking herself and her happiness for the sake of money. She is much stronger woman now and is more knowledgeable about conniving men, especially Alec. This strength deters Alec and makes him feel weaker and more vulnerable because his plot is not working.
When Tess refuses to marry Alec despite the social advantage the match would give her, and refuses his offers of help because she does not sincerely love him, we see her as more than an unwitting victim: her integrity and courage make her heroic. Thus, in the latter part, as Angle returns with renewed loyalty and love for Tess, it becomes apparent that Alec’s trick has considerably broken down Tess’s loyalty to Angle. Torn apart, her shame and grief cause her violent side to explode; Tess now kills her lover in a murderous rage out of love for her husband. Whether intentional or not, Tess has fulfilled Angle’s proclamation that they cannot be together as long as Alec is alive. Her newfound activity may not save her; indeed, her punishment for the murder, presumably death by hanging, will snap her neck just like she snaps the necks of those pheasants. Nevertheless, it may be preferable to her earlier passivity, providing her with a nobler way to face her fate.In a word, Alec of the representatives of the bourgeoisie, he has a bourgeois state apparatus, law, and ethics, as a backup. Wealth can rely on the law and not easily bullied and on the playing Tess. Tess and his contradictions, it can also be said that the workers are oppressed and the specific performance of the entire capitalist social contradictions. Tess beginning of his attitude is very clear, she publicly declares his obnoxious. Later, at a farm, she puts up a struggle to him. Finally, she curses him to ruin her life. She ignores the bourgeois legality and morality, on the feelings of great anger to kill him. Her reaction is a heavy attack to the dark society.
B. Her Character of Cowardliness
1. Her Love for Clare
In great contrast to Alec, Angle wins Tess by sweet words and kindness, and appears an angle and a savior to the troubled but coping Tess. In fact, he is a more complicated person. It can be said that the Victorian bourgeois morality physically destroys her, but she eventually tenaciously climbs up. And now Angel deals the fatal blow to her spirit. A freethinking son is born into the family of a provincial parson and determined to set himself up as farmer instead of going to Cambridge like his conformist brother. Angle represents a rebellious striving towards a personal vision of goodness. He is a secularist who yearns to work for the “honor and glory of man”, rather than for the honor and glory of God in a more distant world. As a typical nineteenth century progressive representative, Angel rejects the values handed to him, and sets off in search of his own. His disdain for tradition which is an independent spirit contributes to his aura of charisma and general attractiveness.
He thinks of this at the time of the British bourgeoisie humanitarian and historical conditions, bourgeois rule in a very brutal, very tragic life of the peasant class, a certain progress is meaningless. However, it must be pointed out is that he has not really jump out of his area against the old moral values, He has not really despised from the class prejudices. He decides to stand for the bourgeois ideology and his inevitable departure from the selfish interests. Although he goes to the farmers to learn farming techniques, but his real purpose is to the future. Although he claims to be independent judgment opinion, once the thing is a very crucial stage, he is still upholding the decadent bourgeois social customs and moral hypocrisy.
Angel loves Tess because he believes that she is sweet but first of all, she is pure. Tess’s denial of him shows that she is concerned about what her past may mean to her future. To Angle, her denial seems to signify that Tess is even more virtuous than he thinks of. As he persistently seeks Tess’s acceptance of marriage, she feels nervous and contradictive again and again. Tess understands that a woman’s virginity is regarded as supremely important by most of her society, and that Angle does not see her as anything but completely pure. Telling Angel of her family’s D’Urbervilles lineage is difficult for her. He takes the news well, but she does not gain confidence that her other, more shameful revelation will be met with the same excitement.
No one can refuse happiness. The former rejections go to waste after Tess gladly marries Angel with a feeling of guilty and worries. She is so afraid of losing her husband that makes her life restless all the time. Later on, when she knows a similar error in Angel’s past “eight-and forty hours” dissipation with a stranger in London, she securely makes her confession and hopes to get Angle’s forgiveness. Tess has thought although Angel didn’t find the letter under the carpet he can forgive her and then they will live a happy life together. But Angel, who proves himself more judgmental and inflexible than his parent, is blind by his failure to accept Tess for who she really is. He takes Tess’s transgression as a personal attack on him, which makes him unable to see her clearly. The idealized, pure vision of Tess is destroyed. In his eyes, Tess is already lost-though she is still alive, she has partially vanished into the gloom of her fate.
Although Angel remains the die-hard progressive, the pressure of conforming to English propriety coupled with his troubled view of his marriage stifles his growth. Even though he has decided to remove all the obstacles and choose a country milkmaid-Tess, as his wife, he still lacks courage to eliminate the old moral value thoroughly and get rid of the old influences. He treasures the family reputation and his dignity more than the love to Tess. There is yet a great distance between his enlightened thought and his actual deeds. However, it is because of strong love, Tess regards Angel as intelligence rather than a man. She becomes depressed as she realizes the distance between him and herself. What’s worse is that she does not accept anything which is said as Angel’s disadvantages.
Angel has the same past as Tess’s, but he cannot forgive Tess as Tess forgives him. He no longer sees the woman he once has seen and has married only hours ago. For him, the lover who’s beloved has been transformed in his mind from the embodiment of purity into the tarnished reality of a fallen woman. He says to Tess, “the woman I have loving is not you,” but “another woman in your shape” [1]. Although Tess is sincere, Angel still “looked upon her as a species of impostor; a guilty woman, in the guise of an innocent” [1]. The most terrible is his blameness “Don’t, Tess, don’t argue. Those are just country people’s ways… perhaps you were weak and could not refuse this man because your ancient noble blood has run thin, because….” [1]. In this sense, Angel is colder than Alec. What he displays is extreme self-love and cold-blood. Although Tess does not give into Alec’s violence, she is wrecked by Angel’s prejudice that leaves her in total darkness in her life. Tess is treated so unequal, but she never complains about Angel’s feelings, and she only criticizes and blames herself. She loses her strength and wishes to submit her husband: “I will obey you like your wretched slave, even if it is to lie down and die.” Indeed, Tess is little more than a walking corpse.
2. Her Second Stay with Alec
While enduring the abandoned life, as Tess struggles with Alec’s temptation, her need for Angel, becomes more and more desperate. If Angel were to return to her and do his duty as her husband, her problems would greatly diminish. She writes to Angel and pleads that he not judges her on her irretrievable past. Tess’s situation thus makes her very vulnerable to Alec’s persuasions. She is obviously heartbroken and needs to be loved more than ever. She is also distraught by her family’s ever-worsening financial situation. Alec’s reasoning seems more valid to Tess than it has in the past. In a way, Tess and Alec are similar in that they have both fallen and ask for forgiveness for their indiscretions. After a long wait for Angel’s reply, but nothing, Tess begins to realize that Alec may be her only hope. She gives up all hopes and becomes Alec’s mistress for the sake of her family.
Tess’ love is not given the spirit of transcendence and physical beauty, but with the loss of self-emaciated blind and miserable, unrealistic to imagine that there is no hope with the chessboard, and all are attributable to the self - destiny of the fate and helplessness. Her life is not worthwhile to an attachment that her man and this is a profound tragedy. When she feels the opinions of all the sacrifices so insignificant, as all acts of levity, finally decides to angrily rebel. Of course, Tess once expressed her plainness angrily by the last letter to Angel under a completely disappointed condition.
“O why have you treated me so monstrously, Angel!
I do not deserve it. I have thought it all over carefully,
And I can never, never forgive you! You know that
I did not intend to wrong you-why you so wronged me?
You are cruel, cruel indeed! I will try to forget you.
It is all injustice I have received at your hands.” [1]
Even when Angel comes back with love and loyalty to ask for her forgiveness, she says to him: “Too late, too late!” “Don’t come close to me, Angel! No- you must not, keep away” [1]. All of these are still not Tess’s real intentions from her posterior acts. When she stays with Angel while escaping to be arrested, she says: “I want you to go on loving me. I’m afraid you might reject me one day for what I’ve done. Then I would rather be dead I must have been mad to kill him! But I don’t want to be alive when you reject me for it” [1].
3. Her Original Opinions and Fantasy
Doesn’t Tess want to be a good woman? Certainly she hopes so! There is no doubt that Tess’s original opinions must be a pure girl and a loyal wife. She attempts to find always to get mercy from the society and understanding of Angel at first, but without success in the end. If Angel gives her a renewed chance, she must not rebel from beginning till end. So, it is fated the cowardliness of Tess’s rebellion.
Conclusion
Many people based on the purity of the pure innocence, no selfishness, no taint of the original meaning view Tess, only recognize the "purity" in the rational meaning. In any case it is difficult to recognize Tess. In fact, the moral purity is the purity and integrity, which is beyond a specific image of the eternal purity. Because of inspanidual values and attitudes, if we blindly stick to the original meaning of the expense of other values, it is unjustifiable. Tess is a pure source of the tragedy,as well as her commitment to the fundamental rebel cause. Tess’ tragic fate in the numerous protests, the more she resisted, it must tease her fate. In fact, through Tess of protest, we found the hardships of life: poverty is not being overwhelmed Tess. The traditional Christian civilization, the public and secular concept of the spirit of persecution she is fatal. This in itself is a tragedy, as Tess can not escape the tragic fate of the majority of poor farmers unable to escape from the same community. Therefore, there can only resistance from the ugly and welcoming a new life of hope, this is addressed to suffer the same misfortune as Tess of the people and encourage them to do so as Tess brave resistance.
Hardy believes that the distortions in the customs and laws of human nature, and sometimes even derange, cause mental depression. When a person's physical or mental needs to be restrained, they will use other means to vent. Sometimes, expressed as a symbolic protest, sometimes manifested as deviant drastic action. This is a fight for survival deviant also the embodiment of the rebel Tess is the best example. Meanwhile, the era of Hardy also expresses strong dissatisfaction with the system and no hope of a customs and prejudices intervention. No criticism of the media, religious guidance from the completely build on top of the love, flexibility in the system to replace loose, which may have begun to see the early budding feminist. Hardy in the women's liberation not only is in the forefront of this issue, but also beyond the era.
Notes
[2] （英）哈代（Hardy,T.）著, 雷芳译. 苔丝 [M].天津：天津科技翻译出版公司，2003. p36.
[3] 富华. 活在名著中的女性 [M].银川：宁夏人民出版社，2004. p118.
[4] 李超，邓兴义. 新编英美概况 [M].汕头：汕头大学出版社，2004. p52.
[5] 刁纯志. 外国文学名著导读 [M].成都：四川人出版社，2001. p186.
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