A Foucauldian Approach To The Analysis On Discipline And Punishment In Tess Of The D'Urbervilles

With the employment of Micheal Foucault's Theory on Discipline and Punishment,the discipline on individuals,the punishment on undocile bodies and the deconstruction of discipline and punishment by Tess with strong self-consciousnessness within the power mechanism in Tess of the D'Urbervilles can be deeply interpreted.The text is analyzed with a Foucauldian approach from three aspects:the discipline on Tess,the punishment on Tess and Tess's deconstruction on discipline and punishment.(1)First,within the panoptical structure,the disparity of light and dark and the seclusion result in Alec d'Urberville's surveillance on her body,reflecting her vulnerability to the power and knowledge.Second,Angel Clare observes and shapes Tess based on his internal norms,making Tess comply to him both physically and psychologically through verbal encouragement and psychological affliction.Third,Tess internalizes the socially-enacted torture within the disciplinary mechanism.(2)Tess's capital punishment ceremony is secretive and secluded,functioning as a sign to deter and alarm the public.Furthermore,her death sentence is closely linked with knowledge and power structure,and the power to punish and the power to discipline are correlated.(3)Tess has the strong subjectivity of following her internal world,breaking social norms and defining herself,and she deconstructs to preserve her own consciousnessness.The interpretation on Tess of the D'Urbervilles from the perspective of Foucault 's Discipline and Punishment enables readers to be keenly and fully alive to Thomas Hardy's reflection on the inescapable prison of gaze and punitive state in modern society and his recognition and treasure of human instinct and self-consciousness,thus having a more well-rounded understanding on the profundity and progressiveness of Hardy's works.