The Feminist Analysis Of Tess Of The D’Urbervilles

Tess of the D’Urbervilles is the Victorian critical realist writer Thomas Hardy’s representative works. The novel describes a tragedy of a kind-hearted and simple rural girl Tess. She goes to the fake d’Urberville family for supporting her poor family. She is seduced by the younger master, Alec Urberville. Later, Tess is abandoned by her husband for losing of virginity to Alec. Finally, she kills Alec and is sentenced to death for this. This paper attempts to analyze the causes and the inevitability of Tess’s tragic fate from a feminist perspective.The paper is divided into six chapters:the first chapter is introduction; chapter two summaries the study on Thomas Hardy and Tess of the D’Urbervilles both abroad and at home; in the third chapter, it talks about Hardy’s life experiences and the main story of the Tess of the D’Urbervilles; chapter four gives an introduction to the theory feminism and its development. The fifth chapter is the feminist interpretation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles. It analyzes the novel from four aspects:the continuation of the patriarchal ideology, the misunderstanding of women into no desire on sex, women’s low economic status and their few chances to receive education; and the last chapter is conclusion, which shows Tess’s tragedy is inescapable. She is killed by the patriarchal ideology, the women’s low economic status, the little chances for them to receive education and the unfair justice according to the law. To some extent, women’s tragedies are the consequences of the moral and religious standards of the society, their economic conditions, educational system and the rules of the law.