A Spatial Reading Of Alienation In Tess Of The D’ Urbervilles

Thomas Hardy is the most distinguished regional writer in British literature history. He creates a series of Wessex novels with poetic imagination. Tess of the D’Ubervilles is one of his most important novels. In this novel Hardy describes agricultural depression and the social disruption about economic and social changes with the intrusion of industrialization and capitalism in rural areas. Hardy’s working-class Victorians try to fulfill their desires of stable community and satisfying personal relationships but finally defeated. Most of the critics have perceived the tragic life of the protagonists, but they mainly focused on the tragic theme of this novel from the perspective of eco-criticism and feminism, etc. Few of them have interpreted Tess of the D’Ubervilles from the perspective of spatial criticism. So this thesis tries to analyze the concept of alienation with the help of Lefebvre’s dynamic conceptualization of space and Raymond Williams’ s conceptualization of Marxist spatial theory. Furthermore, this thesis tries to find out the main cause of alienation from the perspective of spatial criticism.This thesis mainly consists of three chapters. The first chapter gives an analysis of industrial capitalist space and its characteristics according to Henri Lefebvre’s spatial classification. Alec’s country house, railway and machinery, and the modern urban space will be discussed in detail. The second chapter concentrates on the alienation of rural social space of Tess of the D’Ubervilles under industrialization and urbanization. The alienated natural space, the alienated work space and the alienated family space will be explored in detail. The third chapter focuses on the three main characters’ psychological change to analyze their psychological space throughout the text. Through spatial analysis of industrial capitalist space, the alienation of rural social space and alienation of individual psychological space, finally the main cause of alienation in this novel will be given. Capitalists seek the maximization of profit through the production of space and the expansion of space under the process of urbanization and industrialization. This thesis also tries to provide a salutary warning for the rapid urbanization in China.