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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.
Chapter3 The origins of Angel Clare’s tragedy Tragedy can also be a vision of life, which is shared by most Western cultures and having its roots. The essence of tragedy is almost the same thought different writers create the stories from different points of view and with different techniques. A number of critics had many kinds of interpretations for Angel Clare’s tragedy in Tess of The D’urbervilles. They analyzed his complicated character from different perspectives. This paper will explain his tragedy as the following aspects: 3. 1 Social roots
Here social roots refer mainly to the social conventions and moral standards which led to Clare’s tragedy. Clare lived in such conditions which the masculine authority played an important role in traditional society. Angel Clare was one of the victims of this society. At that age, women were regarded as being subordinate in the household. The chastity for them is the most important thing. The traditional view on chastity considered a woman’s chastity as the prerogative of her husband. If the women lost her virtue, she must be immoral.
On the one hand the male made the moral standards for the female, demanding of the female to be pure and virginal; on the other hand, the male indulged himself in sexual matters. They demanded that the most magnanimous act the female had should be chastity; nevertheless, those who broke the women’s chastity were the males themselves. That is to say, only the males in that society were right. The female could say nothing for his wrong. So Tess asking Clare “Forgive me as you a re forgiven! I forgive you. Angel” (Hardy, 1993) would become the impossibility.
Under such circumstances, after Tess lost her virginity, she should be Alec’s concubine or make their relationship legalized according to the social bad habits of the time. But Tess, who pursued her innocent love, had rather be “a lady of easy virtue”. In the literature, there was a set form for the images of women, namely, women should be beautiful and virtuous, gentle and biddable, and should cleave to his husband and families. All these sets are related to the real society. Traditionally, a woman must obey her husband like his wretched slave.
The description about this age given by Hardy was just the society whose “social morals” had manifested mainly in “chastity” that centered on men. Even if a man of that age was bold in challenging the old system, it was impossible for him to abandon the social morals. In addition, a large part of people around him were still controlled by feudal ideas, so the social roots should be the direct cause of Clare’s tragedy. 3. 2 Psychological roots A person’s way of seeing things plays an important role all his life. Hardy naming his hero “Angel” might have his own intent.
We know that Angel should be pure; however, from the development of the plot, we can not see “pure” from Angel Clare. Angel Clare was born in a rich pastoral family, but he was unwilling to obey his father and brothers. He did not abide by the old custom and etiquette, and gave a damn for the superior of material things such as wealth and position. He was born and bred the religion. But he thought that he could not honestly be ordained a minister as his brothers were. He took up a disdainful position on the social customs and found the value of working people.
He abandoned the chance of studying in university and went to the countryside and to study the agricultural skills. This is sufficient to show that he was bold in struggling with the traditional view and tried to show off the shackles of the class. At the newly-married night, Tess decided to tell him her “guilt” in detail. An gel fell out with Tess and then went to Brazil alone though he had lived a loose life with a woman who was not acquainted with him. He could not forgive Tess her “guilt”. The so-called “pure” in his mind was so ingrained that he could not accept Tess’s past.
He considers her as a “fallen women”. Clare was also such a man with a ridiculous point that a man could have affair with many girls but a girl must keep to be a virgin before she become a bride. It showed his cowardice in his character. Tess trusted him and made a decision to confide her secret to him. But on the night of their wedding, when Clare learned that Tess was not a virgin and had had a bastard, the original perfect image was suddenly broken by the sad facts. Apparently he said he was deeply attached to Tess, but actually he could not face the truth with courage.
He just loved Tess’s pleasing appearance rather than any other things of her. Angel Clare was more or less an open-minded bourgeois intellectual. In love, although he was not as despicable as Alec, he was devoid of selfless and sincere feeling as Tess did. Clare loved Tess just because of her beauty. And she could become his right hand in the future. He told Tess: “I repeat, the woman I have been loving is not you. Another woman in your shape. “(Hardy, 1993) He could not belie ve this bad truthe and said “Tess! Say it is not true! No, it is not true! ” It is clear that he took a deadly knock psychologically.
Clare’s character determined his tragedy ???he could not accept her past. It is clear that the seeds of tragedy are sown when all the rigid rule of his forebear and the unfair social systems firmly laid hold of Angel Clare, who had preached the liberation of mankind no longer exists. When Clare finally realized the immensity of Tess’s love and the piteous plight it had brought upon her, everything was too late. He could not completely get rid of social conventions and moral standards. Tess would go away forever. It was Clare’s tragedy ???the social system and morality and his character decided that it could be inevitable.
Chapter4 Conclusion Literature has come very close to daily life, reflecting its practical problems and interests and is used as a powerful instrument of human progress. Literature originates from life and then reforms life. They can make you subconsciously and deeply believe that all the things they described really happened. After you finish reading, the characters that it depicted will appear vividly in front of you. They are true to life?????? you can see their faces and feel their sound, pace and thoughts. With the excellent literary works, we can feel the history vividly.
As an important part of literature, tragedy has showed its artistic attraction. The reason why a great number of readers tend to be affected by the plots of tragedies is that some of them had the same or similar experience with the characters in the novels. The western tragedies put emphasis on the soul-stirring spirit from the fear. The strong tragedies can touch the heart of the readers. The modern western tragedies represented the life style of modern westerners. They have some characteristics of modern lives and consciousness. Studying on the masterpieces of an age can help a lot for studying its history.
Thomas Hardy was born in Victorian age. The novel in this age became the most widely read, the most vital and challenging expression of progressive thought. Although writing from different points of view and with different techniques, the writers of this age shared one thing in common, that is, they were all concerned about the fate of the common people. In Hardy’s works, man is also shown inevitably bound by his own inherent nature and hereditary characteristics which prompt him to go and search for some specific happiness or success and set him in conflict with the environment. He vividly portrayed different characters of tragedy.
Tess of the D’urbervi lles was one of his masterpieces. The conflicts between the traditional and the modern, between the old rural value of respectability and honesty can be clearly seen in this novel and it is not difficult to see the roots of this tragedy either from Tess or Clare. This paper analyzed Clare’s tragedy and described the roots of tragedy in this process. A wonderful description is just a part of a novel, but only those things which can strike deep into the minds of the people will be remembered by them. From the tragedy of Angel Clare, we can see the dark of a society again. Bibliography: 1] Abcarian, Richard. Marvin Klotz: Literature???The Human Experience[M]. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000 [2] Force, Lorrain. M. Cliffs Notes on Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles[M]. Washington University, 1996. [3] Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D’Urbervilles[M]. Foreign Language Press ,1993. [4] Robert Ackerman. Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles[M]. Beijing: Simon&Schuster Press and Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1996 [5] ????? ,2002,????? [M],?? :??????? [6] ??? ,???????????? [J],???????? ,2001(3) [7] ????? ,1990,?????? [M],?? :??????? [8] ??? ,1997,???????? [M],?? :???????