The Analysis of Angel Clare’s Tragedy in Tess of The D’urbervilles

1、the analysis of angel clares tragedy in tess of the durbervilles中文摘要：文学作品是现实生活的一面镜子，反映了生活的方方面面。越来越多的学者开始从文学的角度研究一个国家的经济，政治和文化根源。悲剧是小说创作的手法之一。西方早在古希腊时期就有了悲剧创作。悲剧不是简单的艺术形式或艺术技巧，而是对现实社会的特征的再现，它可以通过尖锐、激烈的事件展示令人怜悯、悲痛、同情、哭泣等的情节。英国著名作家托马斯-哈代是维多利亚时期著名的小说家之一。他塑造了许多悲剧人物，展现出各种人物魅力。小说除了给人以命运悲剧庄严凝重以外，还蕴涵了作者深厚的理性

2、主义，蕴涵了对人类历史逻辑矛盾深邃反思的社会悲剧。哈代的悲剧小说德伯家的苔丝真实地反映了其当时的社会现实。小说成功地塑造了女主人苔丝的形象，无情地揭露了资产阶级社会虚伪的伦理道德。本文试从男主人公安琪儿-克莱尔的社会背景和人物心理两个方面，探讨导致其悲剧的成因。关键词：托马斯-哈代 悲剧 安琪尔-克莱尔abstract: literature is a mirror of real life which can reflect all aspects of peoples lives. more and more scholars have begun to study a country f

3、rom the roots of economy, politics and culture. as early as ancient greece, there were some creations of tragedy. tragedy is a kind of literary creation, which is not a simple artistic form or technique but the repeat of real society. it can depict the piteous, sad, distressing and sentimental plots

4、 by describing some tortuous or complicated events. the british famous writer thomas hardy was one of the excellent novelists of the victorian age. he delineated a lot of characters of tragedies, showing various persons enchantment. besides providing the dignity of life tragedy to the readers, the n

5、ovels contains the profound rationalism of the writer and thomas hardys tess of the durbervilles reflected his real society. hardy succeeded in portraying the image of heroine tess and revealing the hypocritical ethics and morals of bourgeois society. this paper will discuss the causes of clares tra

6、gedy from the hero angel clares social background and psychology. key words: thomas hardy, tragedy, angel clarechapter 1 introduction literature is not only an art but also a mirror of real life. when studying a literary work, scholars actually study history. nowadays an increasing number of scholar

7、s have begun to study the history of a countrys economic, political and cultural forms from the perspective of literature because through different kinds of literary works, we can see all sorts of feelings such as joy, anger, sorrow and various truths. the manifestation of literature is manifold, on

8、e of which is tragedy. the writers often want to show the piteous, sad, distressing and sentimental plots by describing some tortuous or complicated events. in the tragedy, it is inevitable that the heroes or heroines should suffer a setback or disadvantage, cover themselves in dishonor, experience

9、tribulation or even fail or die though they have reasonable motivation, wishes, ideal, or passion which may indicate a victory or success. but finally they will either die or get mad. with a bad ending, tragedy often contains a certain philosophy of life. there are lots of tragedies in western liter

10、ature such as oedipus, prometheus bound, romeo and juliet, macbeth, hamlet, faust, etc. and the famous tragedians are also legion like aeschylus, sophocles, shakespeare, etc thomas hardy for one. he was a prolific and excellent writer, publishing fourteen novels and four volumes of short stories. hi

11、s works were noted for the intense tragic spirit and sense of fortune, from which we can feel the atmosphere of tragedy brought by fortune deeply. “tess of the durbervilles” is one of the hardys tragedies, a masterpiece which brought him into a number of literary critics notice. it reflected the wri

12、ters real society and its social system and morals; therefore studying this novel can help us to know about the history of his age. but many papers showed that most of critics used to research the writing background from the tragedy of tess. many scholars have always put emphasis on the tragedy of t

13、ess for a long time. only a few scholars made researches for the tragedy of its hero angel clare. he was a contradictory unity he was bold in struggling with the traditional view but in the meantime he could not break the shackles of feudal ideas. this paper will see the society from this perspectiv

14、e angel clare, the heros tragedy and discuss the causes of clares tragedy from his social background and psychology. chapter 2 a brief account of tess of the durbervillesit seems that the fictional works do not concern with the real world. but we know that before the writers begin to create their wo

15、rks, 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 soc

16、ial background of the novel is the writers background. before analyzing the roots of clares 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

17、 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 sp

18、irit of this age which was the great age of the english novelrealistic, 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 histo

19、ry of western literature were no an accident for the tragedy consciousness. hardys tragic novels has sprung from and developed this tragic idea in form and connotation. the tragedy consciousness in hardys novels originated from western traditional tragic spirit which was full of rationalism and prof

20、ound reflection on the contradictions of human society. and it also revealed an ineluctable and inevitable cond itionality 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

21、. tragedy was their final arrangement. thomas hardy studied greek tragedies and shakespearean tragedies all his life. and he was deeply influenced by schopenhauers tragedy consciousness. schopenhauer was a famous philosopher who believed that life was a tragedy life was filled with desire. if a pers

22、on 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

23、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 hardys works. hardy began to creating the novels in the early 1870s. in the late 1890s, he turned to write poetry. the britain

24、 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 hardys works exactly clashed with it, which reflected the tremendous changes of society due to the invasion of indus

25、trial 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

26、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

27、 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 durbervilles must be helpful to show us the background of clares tragedy. 2.1.1 about the writer thomas ha

28、rdy thomas hardy (18401928）, 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 br

29、itish novels”. hardy was born into an architects 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

30、field of architecture for writing. hardy was pessimistic in his view of life. the dominant theme of his novels is the futility of mans effort to struggle against cruel and unintelligible fate, chance, and circumstances, which are all predestined by the immanent will. he bravely challenged many of th

31、e sexual and religious conventions of the victorian age. and he exposed the hypocritical morals, laws and religions of capital. hardys works reflected the tremendous changes and peoples miserable lives especially the womens lives in social economic, politics, morals, custom, etc after the invasion o

32、f industrial capital to the british villages. moreover, where we see hardys real mastery is the difference in the language of people from the social classes (e.g. the clares in contrast with the farm workers). he was good at viewing life with a tragic light. “tess of the durbervilles” was his master

33、piece which was noted by lots of critics of different periods. 2.1.2 the main content of tess of the durbervilles tess of the durbervilles 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

34、 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

35、 in a peculiar society. the son of the durbervilles 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 rape

36、d. 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 mans child even tho ugh she forgave him everything. angel clare became very angry and a

37、bandons tess. one day she found alec became a minister. after her fathers 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 te

38、ss knew her family would do well by alecs 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, w

39、hich he agrees to do. in tess of the durbervilles, thomas hardy has directly satirized nature. this novel revealed the tragedy of common peoples destiny and flayed hypocritical gentlemen and morals. in this novel, hardy demonstrated his deep sense of moral sympathy for englands lower classes, partic

40、ularly 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

41、 upper class was bitter against it. chapter3 the origins of angel clares 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 a

42、nd with different techniques. a number of critics had many kinds of interpretations for angel clares tragedy in tess of the durbervilles. they analyzed his complicated character from different perspectives. this paper will explain his tragedy as the following aspects: 3.1 social roots here social ro

43、ots refer mainly to the social conventions and moral standards which led to clares 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 subo

44、rdinate in the household. the chastity for them is the most important thing. the traditional view on chastity considered a womans 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

45、 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 womens chastity were the males themselves. that is to say, only the males in that s

46、ociety were right. the female could say nothing for his wrong. so tess asking clare “forgive me as you are forgiven! i forgive you. angel” (hardy, 1993) would become the impossibility. under such circumstances, after tess lost her virginity, she should be alecs concubine or make their relationship l

47、egalized 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 husb

48、and 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

49、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 clares tragedy. 3.2 psychological roots a persons way of se

50、eing 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 obe

51、y 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 disdain

52、ful 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

53、shackles of the class. at the newly-married night, tess decided to tell him her “guilt” in detail. angel 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

54、mind was so ingrained that he could not accept tesss 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

55、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 co

56、uld not face the truth with courage. he just loved tesss 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 l

57、oved 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 believe this bad truthe and said “tess! say it is not true! no, it is not true!” it is cle

58、ar that he took a deadly knock psychologically. clares 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

59、of mankind no longer exists. when clare finally realized the immensity of tesss 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 clares tragedy the social system and morality and his character decided that it could be inevitable. chapter 4 conclusion li