《还乡》中游苔莎的悲剧命运分析
摘 要
19世纪英国著名的现实主义小说家托马斯·哈代创作的《还乡》是一部“性格与环境”的代表性悲剧小说。被哈代称之为“夜之女王”的女主人公游苔莎，一直以来也被文学界所关注。本文先从游苔莎在爱敦荒原的生活，与克林的婚姻，以及不可避免的死亡来展现其悲剧，再从三个方面对游苔莎的悲剧命运展开剖析：首先从她个人的性格因素着手，然后分析其当时生存的自然环境和社会环境，最后是推动情节发展的巧合因素。外部环境起到的只是推波助澜的作用，内在的性格弱点才是其悲剧命运的根源。因此本文着重从三个方面对游苔莎的内在性格因素进行分析：酷似“女巫”的个性；游戏爱情与婚姻的态度；爱抱幻想的思维。本文通过分析游苔莎的悲剧命运，尤其是她的性格弱点，旨在加深读者对这部作品的理解。
关键词：游苔莎；爱敦荒原；悲剧
1．Introduction
The Return of the Native is the reprentative tragic novel of Thomas Hardy, who is conside
red as the last great novelist of the Victorian period. In Hardy’ novels, he ems to be continuously complaining about an overwhelming, persuasive blind force, which he considers as Fate and Chance. D. H. Lawrence praid Hardy with ambivalence, and associated him with Tolstoy as a tragic writer in Study of Thomas Hardy he wrote. 大雪节气Hardy is outstanding for his tremendous power of producing tragedies comparable to classic tragedies.
什么是彩礼The Return of the Native is a tragic novel which analyzes the p有奖问答sychological paradox of the characters and the conflict between man and nature. When the novel删除文件找回 was published in 1878, a great number of commentators praid Hardy for his vivid descriptions of the geographical landscapes—Edgon Heath, especially tho in the first chapter. While, on the contrary, others thought乌饭团 that his portrayal of the local characters was shallow and unconvincing. A review in Athenaeum deemed it “distinctly inferior to anything of his novels we have yet read.”Jean R. Brooks commented that this fiction “strikes a harsher note than Far from the Madding Crowd” [1]269. Eustacia, the heroine of The Return of the Native, has 散放attracted extensive attention from academic readers. For example, Albert J.
Guerard holds the opinion that Eustacia is the first of Hardy’s irresponsible and mildly neurotic hedonists[2]127. Havelock Ellis believes that “superficially she was timid; it was beneath that timidity that her stronger and more rebellious spirit dwelt.” David Eggenschwiler es Eustacia as the conquence of a dialectical struggle in Hardy with regard to his own Romanticism; while in Perry Meil’s opinion, Eustacia and her story reprent Hardy’s own return of the represd. In a word, Eustacia received both appreciation and criticism, so did the caus of her tragic fate. In this paper, the author plans to analyze the tragic fate through three aspects: surroundings, inner characters and coincidental factors. On the basis of natural and social influence, the author is going to try to explore more inner characteristic elements that give ri to the tragedy.
2. The author and the novel
In The Return of the Native, Hardy makes a deep contemplation of woman. On the one hand, he shows a great concern for the suffering of Eustacia. On the other hand, it is impossible for him to arrange a good fate for his heroine: the strong woman in his novel d
ies in the end. Obrving Eustacia’s little power to fight against her fate, Hardy, the creator, can do nothing but stand silently.
2.1 Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) , born and brought up in Dort shire, where later became the famous “Wesx” in many of his novels, is considered as an English poet and regional novelist, and also a short story writer, essayist, playwright, and architect. He was keen on architecture, music, country folk-tables and literature, which appeared in his novels and his own life. When he was young, he always experienced the life of common people. He showed great sympathy to tho poor traders, women and farmers, who led the mirable life under the influences of capitalistic development. His experiences of a simple rural life later became the plentiful materials of his novels.
Hardy began to write poetry and novels from 1867, and he devoted the first part of his career to the novel. There were statistics that Hardy produced主要现实表现 more than 20 long novels in his whole life. His novel writing can be classified into three stages. In the first stage, he
has a strong interest in romanticism. The major works are: Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), and Far from the Madding Crowd (1874). Then he goes to another one, in which he mainly depicts the social tragedies in Wesx. The Return of the Native (1878) and The Mayor of Caster bridge (1886) are two typical novels in this stage. In the last stage, Hardy tries his effort to describe the tragic fate and the bankrupt peasants of Wesx, which we can learn through Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). He also handed down many collections of poems, such as Wesx Poems, Poems Past and Prent, The Laughing Stock of Time as well as Early and Late Lyrics. Hardy’ works not only handed down the great tradition of England realism, but also led a bright way for British literature of 20th century. Until his death at 87, he remained there writing novels and later poetry, living simply and quietly in spite of his worldwide fame.
2.2 The brief introduction to The Return of the Native
The story begins with two women, Thomasin Yeobright and Eustaeia Vye, simultaneously falling in love with Damon Wildeve, who marriage to Thomasin Yeobright is delayed by
some errors in the marriage certificate. As a matter of fact, Wildeve, to some extent, uses Thomasin as a device to make Eustacia jealous, becau he is infatuated with Eustacia Vye. Diggory Venn loves Thomasin. When Venn learns that Eustacia and Wildeve have an unusual relationship, his own love for Thomasin induces him to intervene with them, which he will go on doing throughout the novel. However, Venn's efforts to persuade Eustacia to connt Wildeve to marry Thomasin, just like his own marriage proposal to Thomasin, are failed.
Eustacia finally marries Thomasin’s cousin Clym Yeobright, a native man who returns from Paris, despite the strong objections of Mrs. Yeobright. Eustacia es urbane Clym as a chance to escape from the hated heath. But it is not long before she is thoroughly disillusioned with her husband. Eustacia's dreams of moving to Paris are rejected by Clym, who comes back to stay in the village becau he is tired of city life. He has，on his return，the intention of running a school. When Wildeve hears of Eustacia's marriage with Clym, he begins to desire her again, although he is already married to Thomasin. He met Eustacia in a country dance, en by the omniprent obrver Diggory Venn, and la
ter when Wildeve visits Eustacia at her home while Clym is coincidentally 16岁男生sleeping. During this visit, Mrs. Yeobright knocks at the door. She has come hoping for reconciliation with the couple. Eustacia, however, in her confusion and fear at being discovered with Wildeve, does not allow Mrs. Yeobright to enter the hou: heart-broken and feeling rejected by her son, she succumbs to heat and snakebite on her way home, and finally dies.
