Character Determines Destiny: ---Analysis of Characters in Tess of D¡¯Urberville

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¢ñ.Introduction

Thomas Hardy is one of the the most important authors in British literature . Hardys own life wasnt similar to his stories. He was born on the Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester. His father was a master mason and building contractor, his mother, whose tastes included Latin poets and French romances, provided for his education. After schooling in Dorchester Hardy was apprenticed to an architect. At the age of Hardy moved to London and started to write poems, which idealized the rural life. In 1867 Hardy left London for the family home in Dorset, and resumed work briefly with Hicks in Dorchester. He entered into a temporary engagement with Tryphena Sparks, a sixteen-year-old relative. Hardy continued his architectural work, but encouraged by Emma Lavinia Gifford, he started to consider literature as his true vocation. Unable to find public for his poetry, the novelist George Meredith advised Hardy to write a novel.

Tess of The D¡¯Urberville(181) came into conflict with Victorian morality. It explored the dark side of his family connections in Berkshire. In the story the poor villager girl Tess Durbeyfield is seduced by the wealthy Alec DUberville. She becomes pregnant but the child dies in infancy. Tess finds work as a dairymaid on a farm and falls in love with Angel Clare, a clergymans son. They marry but when Tess tells Angel about her past, he hypocritically desert her. Tess becomes Alecs mistress. Angel returns from Brazil, repenting his harshness, but finds her living with Alec. Tess kills Alec in desperation, she is arrested and hanged.

In this paper I will analyze their characters through their sayings, activities and so on. Tess is the tragic story of a beautiful country girl. It is the truthful portrayal of the tragic lot of a poor girl, a pure woman, ruined by the bourgeois society. Alec and Angel are the direct makers of Tess¡¯ tragic destiny. In other words, their destinies are interwoven tightly. And their characters is the determinative factor in their destinies.




¢ò. Analysis of the Main Characters

.1. Tess Durbeyfield

¡°She (Tess) can flirt, she can listen, she can sympathize, she can work with her hands. Except when it is mocked or thwarted, she is superbly at ease with her sexuality¡±. (Howe 105) In no way an intellectual, she has a clear sense of how to reject whatever fanatic or pious nonsense comes her way.... Her womanly softness does not keep her from clear judgments, even toward her beloved Angel she can sometimes be blunt.... ¡°At least twice in the book Tess seems to Hardy and the surrounding characters larger than life, but in all such instances it is not to make her a goddess or a metaphor, it is to understand her embattled womanliness¡±. (Howe 10)

.11. loyal

In Trantridge, facing the beau Alec¡¯s blandishments, Tess is apathetic, and tried her best to keep away from Alec. This shows that Tess preserves her moral integrity. Unfortunately, in a dark night, she is seduced by Alec. But her mind is still pure. So in the farm, when Angel pays court to her, though she loves him very much, she still refuses him again and again. Because her pure heart doesn¡¯t permit her to do so, ¡° it is a wrong to him, and may kill him when he knows!¡± (Hardy 84) she thinks. At last, her love overcomes her contadictory mind. She consents to Angel¡¯s proposal. Because of her loyalty to Angel , she writes a letter to tell Angel about her terrible past. But Angel doesn¡¯t receive it. So in the wedding night, Tess herself tells him about her past. After Angel leaves her relentlessly, she still is loyal to him, even for him, she uglifies herself to avoid aggressive admiration, ¡°¡­took a handkerchief from her bundle and tied it round her face under her bonnet, covering her chin and half her cheeks and temples, ¡­ she mercilessly nipped her eyebrows off,¡­¡±(Hardy 588) Later, the one of the reaons that she struggles with Alec even kills him, is also because she loves Angel and feels she should be loyal to him, and show her purity. So the author gives this novel a subhead ¡°A Pure Woman¡±. If she doesn¡¯t tell Angel her past ,perhaps the tragedy will not take place .So her character loyal affects her destiny in a sense .

.1 responsible

Tess has sense of duty of the extremely strong one, if she is selfish, the wilful one, then this enormous tragedy would not take place , she is still unlikely to move towards destroying in other words. Tess¡¯ self-respect copy unwilling to go and find relatives, but because livelihood compels, people are difficult to keep in the family of people, then she bears the responsibility for saving familys suffering . As a result, she has known the Alec Durberville. But she is from disliking him in the heart of hearts . However when Alec jokes Tess in car at not taking liberties with Tess, She has already detested him, calls to in a stern voice I do not like you at all! I dislike you, I hate you, hate you! (Hardy 577) As people, as one young dignity of Miss she receives the great injury especially. She really wants to get off and go home, does not go to D¡¯Urbervilles house to work , but can not bear to let the whole family endure the torments of hunger. After old horse dies, because of the responsibility Tess is full of guilty, thinks to regenerate matter of fundamental importance of property by oneself and remove difficulties and alleviate sufferings for parents, she just strides forward the threshold of the home of D¡¯Urberville in this kind of environment of having no alternative. The play-boy Alec uses all sorts of snares and tricks so as that she loses her chaste. She bear disgrace get back to home, in her before second time inveigled by Alec after the month, because the family circumstances are difficult, father dies of illness, the house is regained , whole family perch in the street, in addition Alec presses forward steadily, her surrender again, meant and sold oneself to Alec too that had brought the taking and living of whole family.

.1 resisting

Tess another main characteristic of personality is firm, she has the spirit of the resisting. This outstanding behaviour is on the relation between she and Alec. Alec relies on wealth tendency, pretend a good man that is not non-. Tess dislikes him from the beginning, has vigilance to him. After Alec has stained her, she does not listen to the other sides sweet words, leaves away angrily. Later, while seeing him again, she finds him as the pastor, thinking this is satirizing greatly to the religion, with the acrimonious ugliness of revealing him with merciless language. For preventing him from pestering again, she hits him with the glove yet. Finally, she realizes that after Alec destroyed her for the second time, she lights the raging fire revenging at last, picks up the knife in all desperation , has killed him. As woman that resists, Tess despises and denies the religion, criticize the dishonesty of the religion. She leaves religion monastic rule for Buddhists alone, gives illegitimate child of her to do baptism for pastor by oneself, It is obvious she contempts in religion and how s fierceness is resistance! On later stage of the 1th century, British church and law all expressed regulations Forbid men to marry younger sister of wife dying. (Chen 155)And Tess hopes her husband marry younger sister of her after dying, not compromise to the religion till death. As woman that resists , Tess makes struggle unyielding with the environment that oppresses her . Tess loses virginity and receives the criticism of the force of habit naturally, but she is unreconciled to and defeated by life, About public opinion, regards for oneself and conducts oneself with dignity , covers up ones own pass by, leaves hometown resolutely , opposes the traditional chaste and undefiled view. If she doesn¡¯t leave she will not get the true love of Angel and she will not marry him.

.14 weak fatalistic

Undoubtedly, Tess¡¯ gracious qualities and rebel spirit should be appreciated, but as a descendant of downfallen nobility, Tess was born in a present family and affected by some old conceptions of morality and fatalism. We can see it in the whole novel, especially in the relation between Tess and Angel. As everyone knows, Tess is seduced by Alec, it is not her own will, she is a victim, so essentially she is pure, but she feels herself guilty. Therefore, she obeys Angel like a slaver, and is willing to recept any punishment Alec has measured to her, even the repudiation. On the contrary, she thinks that Alec is right whatever he does. For the sake of getting Angel¡¯s forgiveness, she could lose her life. Sometimes, she doesn¡¯t know the root of her sufferings at all. She thinks it¡¯s her fata, and she has no power to change it, and it¡¯s unuseful to revolt. Because the world is ¡°blighted¡±.(Hardy 55) One time, she ¡° bent down upon the entrance to the vaults, and said ¡®Why am I on the wrong side of this door!¡±(Hardy 588) Consequently, at the end of the novel, Tess ¡° flung herself upon an oblong slab that lay close at hand,¡±(Hardy 600) waits for the arrest , for her eventual death quietly.

.. Angel Clare

.1 hypocritical self-centered

Angel is a bourgeois intellectual, the temporal bias and bourgeois traditional conception still exists in his mind. Whatever he does just for his own benefit. On surface. He is a gentleman, but in essence he is hypocritical, self-centered and relentless man. At first, he studies the knowledge of farming just he wants to be a master of a great farm. He proposes to Tess again and again, because she is beautiful and industrious, she will be a competent and good housewife, she will brings him ¡°convenience¡± and ¡°welfare¡±. He pays court to Tess with his sweet words, promises that he will love her forever in any way. He ever attempts to change Tess so that she will fit for him better. When he learns that Tess is a descendant of an ancient aristocrat, he is happy because it can heighten Tess¡¯ social position. When Tess confesses her past to him, he immediately changes his attitude to Tess. He regards her as wanton and deceitful woman, he hurts her with his words, such as ¡°You were one person; now you are another.¡± ¡°Different societies, different manners. You almost make me say you are an unapprehending peasant woman, who have never been initiated into the proportions of social things.¡±(Zhang ) He just thinks that he is cheated, but in fact Tess is a victim, she need his comfort. Regardless of Tess¡¯ suffering, he repudiates her relentlessly. In Para.40, Angel ever ask Izz with him to go to Brazil, because she will be a good free worker. However finally he doesn¡¯t do so. At last, after he gets a great suffering in Brazil, he returns and looks for Tess, because she is always kind to him, and she can give him happiness. The personality of Angel cause leaving her resolutely after knowing the past of Tess . When he is suffering all kinds of sufferings in the other places, he comes back and find Tess. Everything is to regard oneself as the centre, he has never thought of the impression of Tess. These bring Tess enormous suffering.

. scheming

Angels outstanding behaviours of the personality are adept at scheming to the elaborate plan that repents. He arranges ones own confession at the newly-married night specially. He thinks that it was that Tess was got rid of his last chance on the first day before getting married. After wedding festivities Tess is unable to escape again . This is because the thought of people of view of marriage of times of Victoria fetter. Repent to bride ones own fault to can not lose own loved people in newly-married an night. Angel at this moment can be regarded as free from all inhibitions.how s unfairness to Tess! Any place ones own happiness on this kind selfish and grim, deceitful hypocrite hope of body to destine and want and evaporate. The tragedy of the tongue silk is just because of this too.

. progressive

He was born in a clergy family, but ¡°Early association with country solitudes had bred in him an unconquerable, and almost unreasonable, aversion to modern life, and shut him out from such success as he might have aspired to by following a mundane calling in the impracticability of the spiritual one.¡±(Zhang 65) he would rather give up the chance of going to Cambridge than decide to take on farming, and hopes ¡°becoming well qualified for the business by a careful apprenticeship¡±(Chen 144) He takes a real delight in farm-folks¡¯ companionship. Tess has the common ground with him , that makes them to get together each other and loves each other.

.. Alec Durberville

.1 wicked, guileful.

Alec is wicked and guileful. In order to get Tess, he writes a letter under the name of his mother to deceive Tess to work for him. He uses the blandishments to be close to Tess, looking for any chance to possess Tess. He is good at catching Tess¡¯ weakness. On one side he makes use of Tess¡¯ responsibility for her family, on the other side he deceives Tess that Angel will never return. Finally, Tess is compelled to be his mistress again. Of course, I don¡¯t think he loves Tess really. He just likes her beauty as he likes a beautiful toy. In order to possess Tess forever, he even proposes to Tess. When Tess tells him that she loves a man and has married to him. Alec ¡°stopped dead and gazed at her. ¡­ a flash of his old irony marked his face.¡±(Hardy 544)) Because he doesn¡¯t permit his ¡°puppet¡± to become another man¡¯s. So When he finds that Tess and Angel meet again, he is angry and speaks sarcastically to Tess.

Although he ruins Tess twice. But in my opinion, to some extent he is more lovely than Angel. He never hides his ambition of possessing Tess. He lilkes Tess, not because she can be a good housewife, just for she is Tess. In addition, he satisfies Tess and her family material need at least. But Angel doesn¡¯t.

. undisguised

Hes straightforward with regard to what he wants and how he attains it. Even in his kindest moments its clear that hes concerned only with himself. Alec is narcissistic (self- loving) and takes advantage of other peoples weaknesses. Near the end of the novel he convinces Tess to be his mistress by promising to care for her destitute family. He is also capricious; look, for instance, at his sudden conversion to Evangelism and how quickly he abandons it once hes in love again with Tess. Even though he has done much harm to Tess, he does offer to marry her. When he learns shes already wed, he still wants to help her and her family. Alec admires Tess for not kowtowing to him; at the same time he wants to dominate her again. Because of the character ,he seduces Tess .

¢ó.Conclusion

The novel is about Tess- her personality, trials, growth, and development. While many novels concern the interaction of characters, Tess of the DUrbervilles concentrates almost single-mindedly on the life of its heroine. The other characters are important only insofar as they affect Tess fate. Some readers see Tess as a detailed story of the psychology of an unchaste woman- how she deals with her own morality.

Tess can also be viewed as the symbol of valiant challenge against both the rigid morality and religious dogma of the old order, and the skepticism of the modern world. Tess story is that of a woman who tries to respond to the changing world around her with honesty and integrity. She can be viewed as an independent, active heroine who chooses martyrdom. She can also be seen as a victim either of society or of her own nature, who has no choice but to let herself be destroyed.

¡°The female in her was indomitable, unchangeable, she was utterly constant to herself. But she was, by long breeding, intact from mankind. Though Alec dUrberville was of no kin to her, yet, in the book, he has always a quality of kinship.¡±(Lawrence 55) It was as if only a kinsman, an aristocrat, could approach her. And this to her undoing. Angel Clare would never have reached her... It needed a physical aristocrat.... Alec dUrberville forced her to realize him, and to realize herself.

Hardy sets the culminating family tragedy against the ominous background of the Lady Day migration of so many village folk. The erasure of long local life by these contemporary migrations, Hardy perceived, was a grave social and spiritual loss. It is no accident of art that the story of Tess should end amid scenes of uprooting.... Only a place in the family vault, a home there, remains to the derelict inheritors [the Durbeyfields]. It is this homeless despair of a family which has lost its rights and independence in the village community, that gives Tess finally into the invaders power.

Angel and Alec appear as figures of Victorian society hovering around Tess, but misunderstanding her, unworthy of her, unable to match her natural strength and spontaneity.... ¡°Both are statements about the principal character types of the Victorian middle class- the cruel bourgeois and the disinherited intellectual both are without roots, both show a split between thought and feeling, both lack an adequate image of selfhood.¡± LaValley (LaValley 4)

In short, the author succeeds in portraying these three main characters. Now we see why this novel is so attractive. Through the analysis about them, also it can helps us to understand the theme profoundly that the author wants to express. Their destinies are interwoven tightly. And their characters is the determinative factor in their destinies.

Work Cited

Chen , Shouyu . Hardy Analects. China Social Science Press, 1.

Hardy, Thomas. Tess of The D¡¯Urberville. Yanshan Beijing Press , 000.

Howe, Irving. Thomas Hardy. New York Macmillan, 167

LaValley, Albert J., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Tess of the dUrbervilles. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice-Hall, 16.

Lawrence, D. H. A Study of Thomas Hardy in Phoenix. London William Heinemann, 16.

Zhang, guyu. The Appreciation of Tess of The D¡¯Urberville. Xianxi Press , 18.

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