The novel tells the story that the pure and beautiful heroine Tess was born in a poor vendor family. Her father accidentally learned that she was a descendant of the local extremely old and noble D 'Urbervilles family, so he asked Tess to visit relatives in the noble family. Only to find out that this is a pseudo-aristocrat who changed his surname to D 'Urberville for vanity, and the real D 'Urberville family has long since declined. Unfortunately, Tess was seduced by her young master Alec. She was heartbroken and went to a warm and energetic dairy farm to start a new life. Here, she fell in love with Angel, the upright and handsome priest's son, and got engaged. On her wedding night, she confessed her past misfortune to her husband, but she was not forgiven. They separated and her husband went to Brazil. Tess struggled by doing farm work everywhere. Tess kept writing to beg her husband to change his mind, but she never got a reply. A few years later, Tess met Alec again, who pestered her. Desperate Tess had to live with her enemies because of family embarrassment. Soon Angel came back from abroad and regretted his past ruthlessness. In this case, Tess felt painfully that Alec made her lose Angel for the second time and killed him angrily. At last she was arrested and hanged, and the story ended in tragedy.
Keywords: self-esteem; Secular prejudice; Parents dereliction of duty; Poor; poor
1. The tragedy of "accident": Alec D 'Urberville
Alec, the fake cousin who seduced Tess, is a real playboy. Although he is very kind to Tess and will send gifts and household items to his family, he never thought about marrying Tess. After the misfortune happened, Tess refused to be his mistress and resolutely left. Later, she gave birth to a child, and the child died soon. In Tess's mother's words, this kind of tragedy often happens, and the past is the past. She told Tess never to mention it to anyone again and start over somewhere else. At this point, this story seems familiar. Even today, I have heard it from time to time, but this is only the beginning of the tragedy.
2. Poor family and limited experience.
Tess said the following, when her mother scolded her, since she was not going to marry him, she should be careful not to let those rumors spread, and even this happened.
"Why didn't you remind me that men don't have a good thing? Why didn't you tell me earlier? Ladies all know what to watch out for and how to watch out, because they have all read novels, which will talk about the tricks of these men. But I haven't had a chance to read books to increase my knowledge, and you can't help me! "
Another side effect of poverty is inferiority complex. In fact, with her appearance and quick learning ability, Tess is a lady among the poor peasants. She also likes exploring the spiritual world. There is such a description in the book:
"The easiest way to get rid of OBE," Tess continued, "is to lie on the grass at night and stare at a big, bright star in the sky; You concentrate on that star, and soon you will find that you are thousands of miles away from your body, and you don't seem to want to leave that far at all. "
However, she is afraid to find an easier job:
She always doesn't look for an indoor job, because she doesn't know that people with intelligence, physical strength and willingness to do it are very scarce no matter where in the world. All she knows is that they are afraid of towns and big families, rich families with serious accidents and families with different behaviors from rural people.
3. Pride and prejudice Angel Clare
On their wedding night, after listening to her husband's confession of his absurd past, Tess breathed a sigh of relief and said happily, It's all right now. I forgive you, and I believe you can forgive me, too! Later, when forgiveness didn't come, young people in this new era still thought that Tess was unclean when they treated their new wife's chastity:
This young man, with advanced thoughts and good intentions, is a typical figure of this era in the last twenty-five years. However, although he tried his best to judge things with independent opinions, once things went wrong, he unconsciously believed the lessons he learned as a child and remained a slave to stereotypes and customs.
In view of this, Angel decided to leave her hometown to start a business, and promised Tess that if she was in trouble, she could always ask her father for help. Of course, the proud Tess didn't go out of this step. Even though she was poor, she had to be the devil's mistress in the end.
When they broke up, the author described the inner feelings of both men and women very delicately, and I couldn't express my admiration at the moment. I have to mention that it is amazing to see the following sentence:
Once two people are separated, not in the same room, not in the same environment, then new things will grow unconsciously and the empty space will be filled. Accidents will hinder old plans, and old plans will be forgotten.
What is true purity?
Tess experienced many hardships at this stage, but because Angel taught her a lot of knowledge, she gained more experience from life. She began to think about the unfair treatment she had received:
She asked herself, once lost, will chastity be lost forever? If she can cover up the past, maybe she can prove this sentence wrong. Organic nature has the ability of self-recovery, why not just virginity?
The beauty and ugliness of a person's character lies not only in his achievements, but also in his purpose and motivation; His real history lies not in what he did, but in what he devoted himself to.
Defective people are better than perfect people.
Tess's tragedy is also the tragedy of the times. Tess of the D 'Urbervilles was written in 189 1 year, just after the British industrial revolution. /kloc-By the middle of the 0/9th century, Britain was already the "factory of the world", ranking first in the world in industrial production and becoming the most developed capitalist country at that time. This is the background of Hardy's writing.
In a capitalist society, something as "fixed" and "sacred" as bloodline may be completely "disappeared" or even "desecrated" because of the changes and turmoil in production and social relations. The novel writes: "Norman descent is nothing without the assistance of Victorian wealth?" It just shows that bloodline is useless without the backing of wealth. As we can see in the article, from Tess's chastity to the failure of marriage to murder, in the eyes of Tess, Angel and the author, bloodline is playing a role, but it is counterproductive. And Tess became a victim of the tide of the times. "Justice has been done." This is all in her life.
According to Tess's story, how do ordinary people settle down in the changing social background?
Take control of your own destiny.
Throughout the text, Tess hardly made her own choice, and her parents sent her home. Her mother knows how to make her listen and go to rich relatives. After she separated from Angel, she waited for her husband to change his mind and had no plans at all. Finally, when her husband didn't come back, her mother pushed her back to Alec. After the murder, she had no plan at all, and lived day by day. If she can choose the right one at the important fork in her life, it won't end like this.
What I can think of here is Gone with the Wind, another famous American book. Although the hostess is selfish and jealous of green tea from the present perspective, I still admire her for making a fortune for herself under the background of that era, just like the famous saying: "Tomorrow is another day." At the end of the article, she also separated from her husband, but she believed that she had the ability to change her husband's mind. In that novel, she also showed absolute viability, which made people believe that she could do it. The movie version is called gone with the wind, which I think is quite appropriate.
Don't care too much about other people's eyes, keep pace with the times.
If the new young angel can disregard the secular view and take Tess to Brazil to start a business; Tess, the descendant of the declining aristocracy, met a new angel of youth. If Tess didn't go to the rich relatives of the old forces, but learned the survival skills of the new era and made her own efforts, then what we saw might be another story.
Tess of the D 'Urbervilles is a pearl in English literature in the19th century, which established Hardy's position in English and even world literature. What people see in the beautiful Tess from beginning to end is the struggle between her pure nature and the evil forces that persecute her. "(Nobel Prize in Literature laureate claude simon comments)
It has been more than one hundred years since the writing of Tess of the D 'Urbervilles, and the heroine Tess's position in the world literature gallery has long been established. This is not only because people have surpassed traditional virtues, but also because the heroine's humanity and great courage in her soul make her one of the most touching female images. "(elias canetti, British writer)