A Comparative Study Of The Crescent Moon By Lao She And Tess Of The D' Urbervilles By Thomas Hardy

The Crescent Moon,a novella,was published in 1935 by Mr.Lao She,a famous Chinese writer,in 1935.Being refreshing a nd natural in writing style,the novella is an elegy of the hu man world,and describes the dark social reality at that time.About four decades before the birth of The Crescent Moon and on the other side of the world,Thomas Hardy,a British famous writer,also wrote on females,succeeding in creating the nov el,Tess of the d' Urbervilles,and publishing it in 1891.The novel describes the tragic life of a rural girl becaus e of irony of the destiny,which indirectly shows cruelty of r eality and helplessness of the rural girl about her destiny.T hough being created by different writers and against different social backgrounds,the two works share striking similarity i n describing tragic sufferings of the female protagonist.The beautiful and kind female protagonist born in a poor family ha s to leave the hometown to make a living outside.During the p eriod,the ill-intended playboys seduce the female protagonist.Despite of cruelty of the human world,the female protagonist still retains her faith in life,and fights against social su ppression.However,finally,her efforts are in vain,and the female protagonist is imprisoned or sentenced to the gallows.Two years of life in Britain exposed Lao She to British 1i terature and Western ideas.This paper attempts to compare how the tragedy is developed in The Crescent Moon by Lao She and Tess of the d' Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy,respectively.In o ther words,considering the era background and the male-domina ted social system of the two novels,factors of the female pro tagonist' s tragedy are compared at an attempt to examine the in-depth connotation and causes.Since these two novels differ in writers,creation background and country,a comparative an alysis of them can contribute to a better understanding of the connotation behind the novels and different characteristics o f the Western and Chinese tragedies.This paper consists of five chapters.Parallel comparison for literary comparison is adopted.Chapter 1 expounds on research purpose and significance,r esearch status,and research methodology.Chapter 2 discusses methods adopted by Lao She and Thomas Hardy to tragic novels.It is found out that Lao She shared ma ny similarities with Thomas Hardy in terms of plot structures,tragedy concepts and narration techniques.The similarities m ight result from Lao She' s reference to the Western tragic 1i terary and his unique experiences and thinking of society and life.The focus is on characteristics of Lao She's tragic nov el creations.Chapter 3,the tragedy of the female protagonist,"I",i n The Crescent Moon by Lao She and the female protagonist,Tes s,in Tess of the d' Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy is analyzed c onsidering family,social and economic factors.Chapter 4 consists of two parts.Part 1 clearly points out similarities and differences between factors of the tragic li fe of the female protagonist in the two novels.Part 2 examine s in-depth connotation of the tragedy of the female protagonis t and causes behind the tragedy.Chapter 5 is a summary of the whole paper.Through further summary,comparability between the two novels and their resea rch significance are further illustrated.