《德伯家的苔丝》中的景物描写的作用(2)
4。4 Satiric Function。18
V。 Conclusion。20
Bibliography22
Functions of Scenery Description in Tess of the D'Urbervilles
I。 Introduction
After long time’s suffering from the rough living conditions at young age, Thomas Hardy was disgusted with the capitalist system at that time。 In most of his literary work, he usually focuses on exposing the dark side of society to the public。 Tess of the D'Urbervilles is one of his masterpieces that deeply reflect and criticize the ugly social reality。
As is known to all, Hardy is a critical realism novelist。 He firmly believes human being's tragedy is brought about by both external pressure and internal personality。 Living in the times when the countryside was invaded by capitalist exploitation, he felt resentful but could not do anything to help (Jiang, 2015: 74)。 Therefore, his novel was imbued with criticism, and such spirit was usually conveyed by some contrast。 For example, his masterpiece, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, has lots of detailed scenery description which can be compared with the current industrial development。 Such comparison is strong and bright。 And that is what we will analyze in later parts。论文网
His experience of living near the provincial English town of Dorchester provides him with a good knowledge of local background, which contributes a lot to his novel production。 In addition, he has a wide study range including language, history, philosophy, art, etc。
The tone in his early novels was mostly light-hearted and jolly, but gradually his theme of the later novels became sad and dark。 His writing was full of strong conflict between traditions and modern at that time。 Then, the harsh attacks coming from some critics on his pessimism and immorality in his novels like Tess of the D'Urbervilles resulted in his abjuration of novel-producing。 Since then, he had to start again his poetry career。
As a naturalistic novelist, his works are known as “novels of character and environment” which often show human being’s tragic lives。 In his novels, nature surroundings have almost the same position with heroes or heroines。 They are all described lively and vividly。 Among them, Tess of the D'Urbervilles could be viewed as the peak of his works。 Because of lots of description of nature which relates to the heroine’s image, Tess is regarded as “daughter of the nature”。
Tess of the D'Urbervilles is always considered as a glaring treasure in literature history。 The heroine Tess has achieved thousands of readers’ emotional resonance due to her kindness, prettiness, willpower and also her tragic fate。 As it is, the novel is a bold work in any case because it has challenged the sexual mores during the temporal Victorian times。
Tess is a nice but poor girl in a peasant family。 She is sent to claim kinship with the D’Urbervilles because of the worse and worse condition of her family。 However, she is seduced by Alec D’Urberville, the son of the family。 She returns home with burning shame, and gives birth to a baby who dies due to illness。 Later, she falls in love with Angel Clare。 Unfortunately, her confession about her past misfortune leads to Angel’s leave。 Some years later, Angel comes back and asks for her forgiveness, but finds that Tess again becomes Alec’s mistress。 She thinks it is Alec that brings her misfortune, so she murders him and flees with Angel but is hanged at last。
England at that time was undergoing the industrial revolution which gradually classified the people into different classes。 Poor living condition and low social status made working class and farmers suffer from depression and poverty for long time。 Tess is the typical figure in such a social background。 She looks forward to pure love and simple life, but the reality cruelly destroys her dream and pushes her to the abyss。