An Biblical Archetypal Reading Of The Three Main Characters In Tess Of The D'Urbervilles

Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles is the moving tragic story of a poor country girl who is seduced by an evil man, deserted by her husband and executed by Victorian society. By attaching a subtitle that calls Tess "A Pure Woman", Hardy openly challenges the accepted Christian morality. However, in the portrayal of the heroine Tess and the other two main characters Angel and Alec, he uses many allusions, especially allusions to some archetypal figures in the Bible, which contains the Christian doctrines and myths. One may wonder why Hardy alludes frequently to these biblical archetypes. An archetypal study of the novel will clarify the matter. By applying Northrop Frye's theory of archetype and his concept of displacement, this thesis is intended to identify the biblical archetypes that are related to the three main characters, and analyze the displacements in the relevant biblical myths. By doing so, the author of the thesis makes an attempt to reveal Hardy's intention of using allusions to the biblical archetypes and to provide an insight to the archetypal structure of the characterization and the significance of the novel.Part 1 is the introduction in which I will give a critical overview of Hardy's use of allusions and present my research questions and methodology of this thesis. Part 2 is a survey of Northrop Frye's theory of archetype and his concept of displacement, which will be employed in the analysis of the three main characters. Part 3 is devoted to analysis of the biblical archetypes connected with the three main characters, and Part 4 discusses Hardy's displacements of the biblical archetypes and evaluates his attitudes towards Christian morality. The last part isthe conclusion, which summarizes the findings in the archetypal analysis of the biblical allusions related to the three main characters and reveals Hardy's intention of using these biblical allusions.