An Unconventional Style: Ambiguity And Incongruity

Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles is regarded as the landmark of English literary history. It was written in an age that witnessed the transition from tradition tomodernism. Literary modernism is marked by its radical subversion of the traditional conceptions of literature, of which the aesthetics of literature constitutes a significant part. In Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Hardy's aesthetic ideas underlies the whole process of the creative writing and to some extent sets the essential patterns of Hardy's way of representing the world. Therefore, the study of the radical aesthetic ideas of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which is the undertaking of the thesis, may enable us not only to achieve a deep understanding of the modernist masterpiece itself, but also to gain a clear vision of literary modernism.This thesis begins with a brief introduction to Hardy's life and his masterpiece-Tess of the D'Urbervilles. The chief concern is to show the incongruous and ambiguous aspect of the book, w hich, ash ave s hown, w as n oted b y m any critics w ho t ried t o account for i t from various perspectives, but as far as this thesis is concerned, it is intimately connected with the author's aesthetic ideas.Chapter one deals with the philosophical thinking of the book. Although Hardy was greatly influenced by the contemporary philosophers, the philosophical thinking in the book is by no means presented in a coherent and systematic way, and does not fall into any of the philosophical schools. Hardy's thoughts are rather fragmented and even self-contradictory. A study was made into the philosophical backgrounds and particularly the two men who are believed t o h ave t he greatest i nfluence o n H ardy: D arwin a nd S hopenhauer. C uriously, i n Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Hardy stresses both determinism and chances, and his philosophical attitude towards life is a combination of pessimism and meliorism. Finally, a corresponding attitude is found in Hardy's aesthetic ideas that explain the contradiction in his philosophical thinking.Chapter two analyzes the narrative elements of the book. The issue of nature stands as one of the central concerns of the book, but as d emonstrated, in none of the roles that it assumes in the book does it stand absolutely as an advanced ideology or a higher moralstandard, t hat i s, i t d oes n ot function a s a n argument tor einforce t he s uperior p art o f t he binary opposition of the central concerns of the book. Hardy's treatment of nature is ambiguous and ambivalent. Besides, the arrangement of the plots and the textual comments of the narrator also add to the ambiguity of the text. The ambiguity of the narrative elements is based on the aesthetic concern of the author to write from multiple perspectives and produce complex impressions.hi Chapter three, The focus is on the characterization of the book. The evidences given in this chapter undermine the concept that Tess is a pure woman in the absolute sense, but rather show that her purity is presented in a complex way. The characterization of Angel and Alec is more than a traditional opposition of good versus evil or spiritual and corporal. The force of Hardy's characters rests exactly on their unpredictability and instability.Chapter four consists of a specific study into the genres of the book, and particularly the tragic style of Hardy. Viewed from different perspectives, the book is variously a tragedy, a pastoral romance, a love story, and an allegory. Hardy's tragic style is characterized by the instability of its elements, which shows both Hardy's ambition to emulate the classical tragedies and his sense of bewilderment as a modern writer. Hardy made the subtlest achievement in tragedy and Tess of the D'Urbervilles is one of the superb tragic fictions in English literature.The last chapter is a conclusion on Hardy's aesthetic ideas. In Hardy's handling of all the elements discussed in these chapters, we see a radical departure from the traditional way of fiction writing, hi order to facilitate the conveyance of his feeli...