Tess的人物分析.doc

“Tess” from the Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Tess is one of the most sympathetic protagonists from all the piteous souls of the world’s literature. Not only sympathy but also remorse I felt after I finished reading this book. Though god bestowed her with beautiful appearance, intelligent mind and innocent heart, these cannot bring her a happy life. On the contrary, these gifts from the god doom her to a sad ending. I think her tragic life can be arranged into three aspects: from her family members, from Alec d’Urberville and from Angel Clare, and these three aspects of pressure lead her to the character of tough-minded, proud and independent. The destiny tortured her soul and forced her into yielding to her own destiny.

From her family members:
Tess’s family represents the ordinary farmers in England in the late nineteenth century. They were insulted by the rich, suffered from poverty , and dreaming one day they will become aristocracy and live a life without considering the shelter, food and clothing.
From the first chapter of this book we can see that: his father was insane when he heard about he was the descendent of declined nobility. Then he squandered his money which was quite not much already, and he kept telling everybody in the village the “good news”.
They are dreaming about that the title of the nobility will help them get rid of the poverty. Actually, the truth is: Tess’s clan was once glorious and powerful but now it has sadly diminished. For them, the nobility cannot give them any material benefit but only the vanity. Even so, they gladly accepted it and, in other words, cherish it. In another way, the title lead them live a more difficult life than they used to be. When they were too poor to meet the basic need of life, Tess’s parent made a decision, which marked the start of Tess’s tragic life: to come to the d'Urbervilles family for help.
Tess is the eldest child in her family; there is no wonder that she should take more responsibilities of her family. She needs to raise her family, take care of her siblings and follow the instructions from her parent. Her parent were always dreaming about one day, her beautiful appearance and the title of nobility would bring them good luck－－married with the real nobility.
They little care about her; they never protect her and they just count her as the main economic source of the family. From this aspect we can see that throughout the whole childhood, Tess lost the love from her family members and took more pressure than her parents. She can talk to nobody; she cannot share her worries with others. All if these lead to her oppressed emotion.

From Alec d’Urberville:
Alec is definitely the evil and nightmare of Tess’s life. From the beginning, he was totally a fake. He hired a big fortune, and held a name that his father purchased.
The plot to The Slopes, which is at the beginning of the novel and her subsequent return to Alec near the novel's end, are all predicated on her willingness to undergo great pains to make her family's life better.
Alec raped Tess and ruined her whole life. He made Tess delivered a child and felt no responsibility for her. The child’s death hurt her heart for the second time.
At that time society regarded a girl who had lost her virginity a meant to be unclean. He did all the bad things and it had Tess who undertook all the consequences.
When Angel heard that Tess was apart from her new husband, he came to find her again. Pretending to be a devout believer, he used money to tempt her.
He is an adversity haunting around her. Tess is weak, and she dare not to revolt.

From Angel Clare:
Just like his name--angel. He is truly the angel of Tess’s life. However, this angel did not bring much happiness to her. In reverse, he made her endure more pain. Angel and Tess are meant to be together; both of them are so innocent that they cherish a pure attitude towards life. But he submitted himself to the secular thought－－she is uncleanness. He discarded his wife and went to the South America on his own. He punished Tess by letting her live alone without mercy. He even said:”You are not the pure Tess which I have thought. You have changed.”
After he came back from South America he found that he was wrong; he shouldn’t let her alone. But it was too late, the evil defeated the angel for the second time.

Poor Tess, she was so wretched that she was hurt by the man she hated most and the man she loved most. She was helpless because the whole society regarded her as an “unclean woman”. She is so self-esteemed that she refused to ask Angel's parents for any additional money during Angel's sojourn to Brazil. She is determined to be self-sufficient and willing to sacrifice her well being for the good of others. These make her selfless and on a morally higher status than other characters in this novel.