Chapter2 A brief account of Tess of The D'urbervilles
It seems that the fictional works do not concern with the real world. But we know that
before the writers begin to create their works, it can be said that their social experience
may be their primary material for creation. Some writers created the roles and environments
in order to revolt against the worldly prejudice of their ages. These kinds of words are
expected to tell people the truth of a society. In many cases, the social background of the
novel is the writer’s background. Before analyzing the roots of Clare's tragedy, this paper
will discuss two aspects of this novel, namely "the writing background" and "the writer and
his works" from which we can see the background of this novel.
2.1 The writing background
Thomas Hardy was the last important novelist of the Victoria ages. The Victorian age was an
age of realism rather than of romanticism-a realism which strives to tell the whole truth
showing moral and physical diseases as they are. Victorian literature, in general, truthfully
represented the reality and spirit of this age which was the great age of the English
novel-realistic, thickly plotted, crowded with characters, and long. Hardy, who also shown
the truth of this age had a high place in Western literature which came from the agitation
of life and fatalism of human being. His tragedies in the history of Western literature were
no an accident for the tragedy consciousness. Hardy's tragic novels has sprung from and
developed this tragic idea in form and connotation. The tragedy consciousness in Hardy's
novels originated from Western traditional tragic spirit which was full of rationalism and
profound reflection on the contradictions of human society. And it also revealed an ineluctable
and inevitable conditionality of fate. That is to say, the heroes or heroines would slip
into the tragic path of life in the end in Western literature no matter whether they liked
or not, or where they hided. Tragedy was their final arrangement.
Thomas Hardy studied Greek tragedies and Shakespearean tragedies all his life. And he was
deeply influenced by Schopenhauer's tragedy consciousness. Schopenhauer was a famous
philosopher who believed that life was a tragedy-life was filled with desire. If a person had a
desire but could not gain his desires, he would feel painful; however, when he could gain his
desires, he would become insipid. This was another torment. Schopenhauer grouped tragedy into
three types: the tragedy caused by those who committed heinous crimes, the tragedy led by the
irony of fate and the tragedy caused by misunderstanding and distrust between persons in everyday
life. In his opinion, the last tragedy was the most terrible one which we can see in Hardy's works.
Hardy began to creating the novels in the early 1870s. In the late 1890s, he turned
to write poetry. The Britain in this period was undergoing a transition period from
laisser-faire capitalism to imperialism. The capitalism thought that the social system of this
period could not be changed. But Hardy's works exactly clashed with it, which reflected the
tremendous changes of society due to the invasion of industrial capital to the village.
With one remark he had ripped away the mask of British society.
2.2 The writer Thomas Hardy and his work
Literature is reflection of life. Almost all writers created their novels according to his social
background. We can see many literary works written on the basis of their ages. They wanted to
bring out the social facts by their works. It should be such a free way that they could rebuke
the dark society. People can feel the society of the writers from their works and then identified
with the writers. The writers hoped that they could let the people know the dark aspects of the
government and then fine an echo from them by their works. To some extent, a novel should be a
history. From the introduction of Thomas Hardy and the main content of Tess of The D'urbervilles
must be helpful to show us the background of Clare's tragedy.
2.1.1 About the writer –Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy (1840~1928）, born in 1840 near Dorchester, was a famous British poet and novelist.
He carried forward and developed the literary traditions of the Victorian age. He vividly
and truthfully described the tragic plots in his works. The critics of literature called him
"Shakespeare of British novels". Hardy was born into an architect's family and was expected to
become an architect. He trained as an architect and worked in London and Dorset for ten years.
Hardy began his writing career as a novelist, publishing Desperate Remedies in 1871, and was soon
successful enough to leave the field of architecture for writing.
Hardy was pessimistic in his view of life. The dominant theme of his novels is the futility of
man’s effort to struggle against cruel and unintelligible fate, chance, and circumstances, which
are all predestined by the Immanent Will. He bravely challenged many of the sexual and religious
conventions of the Victorian age. And he exposed the hypocritical morals, laws and religions of
capital. Hardy's works reflected the tremendous changes and people's miserable lives especially
the women's lives in social economic, politics, morals, custom, etc after the invasion of
industrial capital to the British villages. Moreover, where we see Hardy's real mastery is the
difference in the language of people from the social classes (e.g. the Clare's in contrast with the
farm workers'). He was good at viewing life with a tragic light. "Tess of The D'urbervilles"
was his masterpiece which was noted by lots of critics of different periods.
2.1.2 The main content of Tess of The D'urbervilles
Tess of The D'urbervilles came into conflict with Victorian morality. In this novel, Hardy reaches
the height of his achievement as a novelist. Like most other Hardy novels, rural life is a
prominent issue in the story. And the issue of fate versus freedom of action is another important
aspect of this novel. It tells of that a village girl called Tess who was a beautiful, pure, plain,
honest, assiduous and clever went through a miserable life. She was born in a poor family and lived
in a peculiar society. The son of the D'urbervilles Alec raped her and she was pregnant. She fell
in love with Angel Clare before long. Clare loved her very much and longed to marry her but she
delayed to answer this offer of marriage just because she did not know how to tell the truth of
being raped. Despite this, at last this kindhearted and sincere girl decided to tell him this bad
thing. However, when Tess told him the truth that she was raped by a knave Alec, he could not
forgive her for having another man's child even though she forgave him everything.
Angel Clare became very angry and abandons Tess. One day she found Alec became a minister.
After her father's death unexpectedly, Tess had the burden of the family welfare on her shoulders,
and they were shortly thereafter evicted from their cottage. She believes deep down that
Angel had abandoned her, and Alec said it as well, and Tess knew her family would do well by
Alec’s wealth and property. But to her surprised, Angel returns from Brazil, repenting his
harshness, but found her living with Alec. Tess kills Alec in desperation, she was arrested
and hanged. She makes him promise to marry her sister, Liza Lu, after her death, which
he agrees to do. In Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy has directly satirized nature.
This novel revealed the tragedy of common people's destiny and flayed hypocritical
gentlemen and morals. In this novel, Hardy demonstrated his deep sense of moral sympathy for
England's lower classes, particularly for women. He succeeded in portraying an artistic
image-a village girl with kindness, tenderness and amorousness. The novel, which indicated the
tendency of anti-religious sentiments, against feudal morality and the laws of capitalists, was
warmly received by the reading public though British upper class was bitter against it.