Tess-a Woman Against Morality

Thomas Hardy was an English poet and novelist between19thcentury and20thcentury.In his life, Thomas Hardy published8collections of poems and more than20novels. Tess ofthe d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure are the most famous ones, after being published, theyaroused conflict with Victorian morality. Hardy was so depressed by the controversy arousedby his works that he finally gave up novel-writing and spent the rest of his life writing poetryand has had a significant influence on modern English poetry.Tess of the d’Urbervilles, published in1891, gives an account of Tess’s tragedy life. Withthe theory of "ethical literary criticism" raised by Professor Nie Zhenzhao, this thesis tends toanalyze the roots of Tess’s tragedy from a critical perspective: Although she is beautiful,hardworking and responsible for her family, all her tragedies lie in herself by being againstmoralities of her time. Accordingly, this thesis will be divided into five parts: Introductionpresents a brief introduction of the author’s life career and background, a brief interpretationof the novel and its literary position, a literature review of the novel and some briefintroduction of ethical literary criticism. Chapter One analyzes Tess from the perspective ofsocial morality and reveals that Tess takes the consequences by being against social morality.Chapter Two studies Tess from the perspective of religious morality and illuminates that Tessherself causes her tragedy by being against religious morality of her time. Chapter Threediscusses the roots of Tess’s tragedy from the perspective of female morality and indicatesthat Tess harms herself as well as others by being against female morality. Conclusionsummarizes the above contents.With the theory of ethical literary criticism, this thesis analyzes the heroine Tess andreveals the roots of Tess’s tragedy from the perspective of moralities. From the discussion onthe novel and Tess, This thesis finally concludes that it is Tess herself who causes her tragedyby being against moralities of her time.