An Inevitable Tragedy— The Analysis of Tess’s Fate in Tess of the D’Urbervills

1. Introduction

Tess of the D'Ubervilles is an important works ofThomas Hardy， an eminent English novelist and poet in the 19th century. It is a marvelous instance of modern tragedy. The heroine 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 twisted fate is closely associated with and influenced by many factors.Although this tragic story in Tess seems to focus upon the heroine’s love and marriage， yet it attacks not only the system of marriage in the hypocritical bourgeois society but also all the legal， moral， and religious phenomena of the world of capitalist relations. In the novel， Tess is helpless and desperate in the hands of fate and trapped in the web of fate. Her tragedy is fated and inevitable.

2. Social Background on Tess’s tragedy Fate

The story took place in the late half of the 19th century， when capitalism had invaded the distant rural areas of England and crisis and depression began to appear. Tess fate is closely associated with and influenced by the social environment. Her tragic fate has its obvious social nature. Customary morality ， patriarchal society， religions and hypocritical bourgeois constitute the most important factor that determined Tess’s inevitable tragedy.

3. The Coincidence and Accidental Events on Tess’s Fate

In the novel， Hardy employs many coincidence and accidents to make Tess’s tragedy unavoidable. Tess’s tragedy embodies Hardy’s strong fatalism view.

The first major coincidence—the death of horse happens at the beginning of the book. The whole family’s life depended on an old horse. When that old horse is killed， she suffered from the heavy mental burden. she regarded herself as a murderer. In order to resolve the financial problem， she went to the D’Urbervilles to raise the chicken. This transaction ruined Tess's beautiful life and changed the fate of Tess.

From the event， there is a significant point that it stresses the fate of the irresistible force， which expresses despair and the pessimistic sentiment to life. If people are under the control of the invisible power， they can't do anything about it. Tess is a representative of pessimism.

Seen this accident from a social point of view， Tess lived in the time when women had low status. She couldn’t evade the prejudice against women by the “hegemony” patriarchy and the harsh social etiquette. Alec， the representative of bourgeois upstarts who was dissolute by nature and a philander master. This transaction pushed Tess’s fate into a doomed eternally abyss. From the perspective， Tess was the typical victim of male supremacy and patriarchal society.

The second major coincidence of the novel is the unnoticed letter under the carpet. In order to evade the pressure from the secular and conventional prejudices， Tess works in a milk plant as a dairymaid following the death of her child， where she comes into relationship with Angel Clare. As their marriage approaches， Tess grows increasingly troubled about her past. She writes a letter describing her dealings with D'Urberville but she destroys it later. Actually， this is the foreshadow of the inevitability tragedy of wedding night. The innocent Tess was pushed into a doomed eternally abyss due to her husband’s abandon later.

Seen this accident from a social point of view， the capitalistic hypocritical morality can be noticed as a sword of stabbing into Tess， which was showed lively and specially in Angel Clare who controlled Tess’s fate. From this perspective， Tess is the victim of the hypocritical morality.

The third major coincidence is the dismal and hard condition of Tess’s family.

Apparently， Hardy makes use of many accidents and coincidence to illustrate the fate and inevitable tragedy of Tess. To some extent， Hardy indicates that human destiny is determined by a kind of circumstantial force similar yet superior to any god created by man and that human beings will have no control over his own destiny. The tragedy portrayed in the novel is really a social tragedy which has fully revealed a profoundly pessimistic sense of human subjection to fate and circumstance — Hardy’s fatalism.

From the perspective of fatalism， Hardy blames \"a twist of fate\" of Tess's tragedy， however， he also points out social factors which lead to her tragedy indirectly. In fact， Hardy is “an extraordinary unique realist\"[1]In Hardy’s point of view， Tess’s tragedy is not only attributed to tease of fate， but he vaguely pointed out the social factors of the tragedy of Tess. Actually， her tragic fate is caused mainly by the bourgeois society. Tess is avictim of social moral standards.The uncontrollable age， patriarchal culture， hypocritical bourgeois religion and morality lead to her tragedy.

4. Conclusion

Tess’s tragic fate is inevitable which is formed under the complicated social conditions. Apparently， Tess is the typical character embodying Hardy’s fierce criticism of old morality. The uncontrollable age， patriarchal culture， hypocritical bourgeois morality and religious ethics as well as the weakness of Tess’s personality lead to her degeneration from purity and kindness to murder. Hardy makes use of many accidents and coincidence to illustrate the fate and inevitable tragedy of Tess. But as Hardy says at the end of the novel： “Justice was done， and the President of the Immortals had ended his sport with Tess ”.

Conclusively， facing the chaotic and absurd life， Tess’s tragic fate is inevitable. The society， the customary morality， the religious ethics， capitalist law and weakness in characters’ personality all lead to Tess’s tragedy fate which is doomed from the start.

REFERNCES

[1]盧那察爾斯基.論文學(xué)[M].蔣路，譯.人民文學(xué)出版社，1978：468.

[2]Kramer， Dale （ed）. Critical Approaches to the Fiction of Thomas Hardy London： Macmillan， 1979. P135

[3]杜軼茜.苔絲形象的分析與悲劇命運的解讀[D]. 華中師范大學(xué)，2003.