H eroism of T ess in H ardy’s
TESS OF THE D’URBERVI LL ES
YAN G Y ong-he1,ZHAN G Xiao-yan2Ξ
(1.Dept.of Foreign Language and International Trade,Hunan Institute of Engineering,Xiangtan411101,China;
2.Hunan Polytechnic Vocational College,Changsha410001,China)
Abstract:Introduced in this rearch paper is a vital aspect———Heroism of Tess in Hardy’s novel TESS OF THE D’URB ERV ILL ES.The author studies this topic through its definition and standard,together with criticism of K ing.Besides,by analyzing different examples of Tess’s heroic actions,the author discuss the relationship between Tess’s heroism and tragedy.
K ey w ords:heroism;Tess;tragedy
Heroism,according to Webster’s Third New In2 ternational Dictionary,is“heroic conduct”and“the quality(as courage,bravery,lf-sacrifice,unlfish2 ness)of a hero”.As to the main character T ess in T
homas Hardy’s TESS OF THE D’UR BERVI LLES,there is ab2 solutely something more.Apart from her endurance,“Tess’s acute n of responsibility,which may lead to the assumption of tasks,to be done or to the n of guilt for things done or left undone,is a strong uni2 fying element”(Heilman,P.XX).Let alone her wom2 anliness and beauty.
Jeannette K ing,in her Tragedy in the Victorian Novel,says“Hardy treats this(the duction)as the moment from which Tess’s heroism begins(P. 113)”.I don’t think this is accurate.She neglects one thing:though quite young,Tess is not as vulnerable as the girls in her age.Facing Alec’s bad-treatment and cursing,the country girl“cried with spirit:Y ou ought to be ashamed of yourlf…I hate you and de2 test you!”(Hardy,P.98).Can’t it be a good evidence of her heroic behavior?
In effect,Tess’s heroism runs through the whole novel,from the very beginning to the end.Hardy goes out his way to establish Tess’s beauty and womanli2 ness.Tess is of cour attractive physically———Alec can’t help occupying her(hence the duction);
what’s more,he makes his last pursuit.Angel,the ro2 mantic hero,“He had never before en a woman’s lips and teeth which forced upon his mind with such persistent iteration the old Elizabethan simile of ros filled with snow”(Hardy,P.209).He confess that he is devoted to her in all sincerity a
nd asks for love and marriage.Even Tess’s workmates feel jealous of her———Izz,one of the dairymaids having failed to get Angel’s kiss,murmurs“I shall go hwome!”(Hardy, P.204)More than that,Tess,“a woman with a strong conscience which is active in the story from the very beginning”(Heilman P.XI),then turns to be differ2 ent from ordinary woman.She unexpecedly goes to Trantrige,derts the evil ducer an begins her hero2 ic struggle.Although she loves Angel,Tess does not express first and tries to refu the marriage and tell Angel her misfortune(It is Angel who stops it).On the wedding night,Tess,who first forgives Angel’s wrong doing,confess everything.Facing Angel’s “disillusionment”,Tess just says that he can get rid of her by divorcing her instead of bursting out quar2 relling or begging.
Tess’s stoical endurance and courage are no match for others.“She is ill-treated by Alec and An2 gel,by Farmer Groby,by the timing of events,by weather and job situation,by accidents and death…”
第12卷第4期2002年12月 湖南工程学院学报
Journal of Hunan Institute of Engineering
Vo1.12.No.4
Dec.2002
Ξ收稿日期:2002-10-15
作者简介：杨永和(1966-)，男，硕士研究生，副教授，研究方向：语用翻译和英语教学。
(Heilman,P.XI).However,Tess es“Past is past, whatever it had been it was no more at hand;whatev2 er its conquences,time would clo over them”(Hardy,P.141)—She cares about the past no more. Tess baptizes the dying child,tries her best to per2 suade the vicar to admit her action and buries the ba2 by in the churchyard with a“ceremony”.Under such great suffering,she remains calm and goes to work at Talbothays.In the threshing machine scene,Tess prefers to remain working hard with it rather than meet Alec who is waiting for her.She clearly pays no attention to his molestations.Tess us her gloves to hit Alec’s mouth when he sneers at Angel…She re2 gards the peration as her own fault.Tess lives en2 tirely for Angel and never says a word of sting or bit2 terness.She can even be satisfied at a glimp of him. Indeed,“Angel is too much to e how he is hurting Tess”(Heilman,P.X).
During her two main heroic struggles—“first for freedom,and then for mere survival”(K ing,P.117), Tess strongly impress the readers by her lf-sacri2 fice,unlfishness and independence.When the baby is dying,Tess asks pity for her child,not herlf—“O,merciful G od,have pity on my poor bab
y!Heap as much anger as you want to upon me,and welcome; but pity the child”(Hardy,P.144).Faced with the cruel lover’s casting her off,Tess does not worry about his dertion.On the contrary,she does her best to calm him,she still cherishes the hope and keeps waiting for his return.She is“never embattled or shrill lf-pitying or vengeful”(Alvarez,P.21).
It is Tess’s independence that contributes great2 ly to her heroism.First of all,Tess breaks away from Alec who masters her body and faces the reality bravely.In addition,Tess builds a stoicism out of de2 spair—she returns home and again works at Flint2 comb Ash.Besides,although she has suffered much privation,Tess never applies to Angel’s father for any money during Angel’s abnce.
Tess’s acute n of responsibility is also a strongly unifying element.Becau of this,Tess un2 willingly visits the D’Urbervilles in the hope of im2 proving the family fortunes.Becau of her responsi2 bility for love,She derts Alec and accepts Angel’s request.She hesitatingly agrees the marriage and tries hard to confess the duction.Becau of her great re2 sponsibility for her husband,Tess makes a long and desperate appeal to Angel despite Alec’s molesta2 tions.And again,just becau of her responsibility for the family,poor Tess is forced to be Alec’s mistress.
Bravery is another aspect of Tess’s heroism which should not be neglected.When her father is drunk,
Tess drives the wagon on an all-night trip; Tess kills Alec and starts wandering to Stonehenge with Angel.Even when she wakes up only to find the arrest,Tess calmly says:“I am almost glad-yes glad!…It was too much—I have had enough.”And final2 ly,she also says“I am ready”(Hardy,P.487),quietly making her dying speech.
Whatever happens,Tess is none other and a heroic victim.Then,how can a tragedy be connected with such a heroic girl?Is it true that heroism is al2 ways the very cau of a tragedy?
First of all,we cannot deny that Tess is flawed. Her passivity and powerlessness result in her great suffering:“Tess in Clare’s arms as he sleepwalks; Tess in the clutch of the threshing machine;Tess be2 fore Alec D’Urbevilles”(Brown,P.163)and her deal2 ing with the fal romantic hero and the convert,Tess makes no effort to alter the cour of the events. Thus we can e that she is inevitably carried to buri2 al.Moreover,it is just Tess’s heroism that revenges her.“Tess’s physical and emotional womanliness are the qualities for which she is loved,but also the quali2 ties for which she suffers”.Therefore,“her rearch (after the duction)for a better future leads her only to the awareness that her future is inparable from the past she is trying to escape”(K ing,P.113).Being so responsible,“twice the yields to Alec,so twice she los Angel”(Heilman,P.XX).Also being so coura2 geous,Tess“knows what she must do”,unfortunate2 ly,“fails to act in time”(Morrell,P.32)—She con2 fe
ss the duction on the wedding night and suffers the great pain of being cast off.Although her en2 durance and lf-sacrifice finally lead to the return of Angel,Tess“has idealized Angel,thus she had at least intensified her own suffering”(Heilman P.XXIV). What’s more,the murder of Alec becomes inevitable
17
第4期 YAN G Y ong-he:Heroism of Tess in Hardy’s TESS OF THE D’URB ERV ILL ES
and conquently ruins herlf—Tess also los An2 gel.
There is no doubt that the most esntial and fundamental cau for the heroic girl’s tragedy lies in the society—the Victorian convention.Tess is born to be associated with the old customs and the rural soci2 ety at that time.So she is sure to be more or less in2 fluenced(such as her powerlessness,passivity and the so-called weakness).The cruel Nature’s Law—“once victim,always victim”is rooted in people’s mind;Man belongs to the active,changing social or2 der,woman is in contrast.Therefore“woman is always the final victim”(K ing,P.120).The same is quite true of Tess.She can not but suffer the man-made law.She can only ask herlf“Was once lost always lost really true of chastity?”(Hardy,P.150).Angel is frustrated by the Victorian convention and then be2 comes its ag
ent.He“desires the untouched physical being that Tess was before she met Alec”(K ing,P. 114).However,Angel forgets his own experience with woman.Now“The man of fresh is replaced by the man of spirit”(K ing,P.11).Thus comes his disil2 lusionment over Tess—“The devoted lover turns to be a withered destroyer”(K ozicki,P.58).
TESS OF THE D’URB ERU ILL ES is,there2 fore,a tragedy of Tess’s heroism.It is a tragedy of her womanhood and endurance;of“rebellion and aspi2 ration”(K ing,P.120);of desire to keep integrity;of lf-sacrifice and unlfishness.However,more im2portant that tho,it is a tragedy of the Victorian con2 vention.
All in all,we can draw a conclusion that heroism runs all through Thomas Hardy’s TESS OF THE D’URB ERV ILL ES.It is this characteristic,together with some others,that helps us to know the society at that time.It is the heroic Tess that has faithfully pre2 nted Thomas Hardy!Therefore,Tess,a rebel a2 gainst Alec,a rebel against convention and a rebel a2 gainst the evil society,is absolutely a heroic and glori2 ous female figure in the English literature or even in the world literature.
References
[1] A.Alvarez.Introduction to Tess.Penguim Book.1954.
[2] Douglas Brown.A Novel of Character and Environment.
London:Faber,1954.
[3] Jeannette K ing.Tragedy in the Victorian Novel.London
and New Y ork:Macmillan,1973.
[4] Henry K ozicki.Papers on Language and Literature.
Broghton:Havester Press,1974.
[5] Robert Heilman,’Gulliver and Hardy’s Tess:Houyhnhn2
ms,Y ahoos,Ambiguities’.S outhern Review,1970.
[6] Thomas Hardy.Tess of the d’Urbervilles.London:Ox2
ford University Press,1994.
[7] Roy Morrel.The Will and The Way.Studies in English
Literature,1965.
[8] Chen Jia.A History of English Literature(Volume3).
Beijing:The Commercial Press,1986.
[9] Y i Shuqian et al.500Questions for Foreign Literature.
Shenyang;Liaoning People’s Press,1987.
《德伯家的苔丝》中苔丝的英雄主义形象浅析
杨永和1，张小燕2
(1.湖南工程学院外语外贸系，湖南湘潭411101; 2.湖南工业职业技术学院，湖南长沙410001)
摘 要：从英雄主义的定义和标准着手，结合对金的批评，探讨了哈代的小说《德伯家的苔丝》中苔丝人物形象分析的一个重要方面，即苔丝的英雄主义形象。通过对苔丝不同阶段的英雄主义行为的实证分析，探讨了苔丝的英雄主义行为和其悲剧的关系。
关键词：英雄主义；苔丝；悲剧
中图分类号:I106.4 文献标识码:A 文章编号:1671-1181(2002)04-0070-03
27 湖南工程学院学报 2002年
