Undergraduate Thesis of School of Foreign Studies of Yangtze University

she makes her mind again to tell him the truth, but at the last moment her courage fails her, because she fears his blame for not telling him sooner, and her instinct of self-protection keeps her from telling the truth. So she tells him the history of her family — she is not a Durbeyfield but a D‘Urberville instead.

Later, when Tess is recognized by a man from Trantridge, the scene of her affair with Alec, she feels again the need of action. This time she decides to writes it in a letter. It turns out that the letter has lain unobserved under the edge of the carpet. Then she makes one more effort to tell him of her “faults and blunders”. But her courage so naturally melts away under Angel‘s urgency — let them not spoil the day with confession of faults, but leave them till they are settled in their house. Thus she loses the golden opportunity to ask for forgiveness from Angel.And later her hesitation at the gate of her parents-in-law blocks her chance of getting help from them and gives the opportunity to Alec.

3.3.3 Personality conflicts

Tess is lofty ,but she endures the humiliation to bent over; Tess desires happiness , but she keeps condemning herself and hesitates in front of love; Tess complains about the injustice of fate, but she silently bears a spate of misfortune; Tess is always docile and coward , but she kills Alec for revenge. It can be said that these complex contradictions of Tess' s character are the necessary causes of her tragedy.

On the one hand，she dares to fight against the traditional morality and hypocritical religion；on the other hand，because Tess was born into a peasant family, the old moral and fatalistic views still remained on peasants lead to the exposure of her weak side in her fighting against the traditional morality．She can not completely shake off the fetters of the traditional ethics on her. Tess was an innocent victim , but she subconsciously become a defender of the idea when she was subjected to the persecution of conventional morality and public opinions. She used this moral standard to evaluate herself, thinking she was guilty. She always felt people from around the world was paying attention to her , and she could not forget her shame . It was the character conflicts that partly led to her tragic ending.

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Appendix for Undergraduate Thesis of School of Foreign Studies of Yangtze University

4 The practical significance of Tess ’s tragedy

4.1 Completely financial independence

Tess is a woman destroyed by poverty. Poverty makes her lost virginity, be abandoned and eventually be hanged .That is to say, she is always living in poverty , which forces her to do a lot of things against her will , and ultimately to go on a path of destruction. From the beginning of the novel, Tess ‘s family is already in economical trouble . Especially after Tess' s father dies, her mother and siblings are kicked out of their house, so they become homeless. Because of Alec 's carrot and stick , Tess is forced to be his mistress so that her families could have a place to settle down . Therefore ,the pure and beautiful flower of nature withers .

From a series of unfortunate events of Tess, we can see that one of the main factors that force Tess to make the wrong choice is poverty. Due to Tess' s low social status , she has to go out frequently to find a job and sometimes to get in touch with people who might do harm to her . Deserted by her husband on their wedding night，Tess has to move around living a homeless and miserable life．She suffers from the hardship of life，contempt by others，as well as her father‘s death，their cottage‘s being taken over by other tenant farmers.

It is not hard to imagine that a girl with cute face and fine figure is likely to encounter sexual harassment and entanglement of rude men . The poverty and the low status of her family could not guarantee that a pure and beautiful girl lives safely in the society , so she tragic ending is doomed. The image of Tess indicates that modern women must be financially independent . Only by getting rid of poverty and having their own careers , could they truly have their own rights instead of becoming a vassal of family and society .

4.2 Sense of self-esteem

Tess' s humble family background and low social status could not block the light of her self-esteem. When she first meets Alec, she rejects his frivolous temptations and unreasonable demands. After the humiliation, she does not succumb to the pressure of social ethics and public opinions to marry Alec , but leaves him firmly. At that time, if a woman lost virginity , the best choice was to marry the biological husband to save face, but Tess bravely abandons the old-fashioned concept of

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Appendix for Undergraduate Thesis of School of Foreign Studies of Yangtze University

marriage. She believes that marriage without love was a violation of emotion and dignity. She does not seek the help of marriage to achieve the aspirations of vanity, but instead, she bases on self-esteem to pursue her real freedom．

At the wedding night, she tells Angel about her past out of love and loyalty, however, Angel changes his attitude of love suddenly and consequently abandons her . After Angel went to Brazil, Tess' s life is extremely hard . Although her husband has told her that she could go to his parents when necessary, Tess never asks them for help. Her pride and dignity determines that she would rather starve than ask others for help. Though Tess is down and out , she lives with dignity.

When Alec comes to entangle Tess in every possible way again and he even compels her：“Remember,my lady,1 was your master once!1 will be your master again．If you are any man’s wife you are mine!”However, Tess prefers to continue to stay at the farm of the hard taskmaster, Farmer Groby, enduring the cruel exploitation and press，rather than yield to Alec or accept his help.

After Angel and Tess let go of the past and enjoyed several days of happy life, Tess‘ s self-esteem was entirely revealed through her words : \I'm completely satisfied!\Faced with the misery of life, Tess challenges bravely; faced with death , Tess readily accepts .

Tess not only has a beautiful female temperament，strong will and warm feelings，but also the integrity and natural simplicity embodied by the Wessex．She does not seek the help of marriage to achieve the aspirations of vanity, but instead，she bases on self-esteem to pursue her real freedom． Modern women choose love and marriage on the basis of each other's wealth level , so they can not own real self-esteem in the family.

4.3 Spirit of resistance

Tess has bitter experiences in her own life, but she still manages to live on. We can see that Tess 's life is shaped to a very great degree by external events and by the actions of other people,which are outside her control that impinge directly upon her. But Tess also takes decisions from time to time that have vital bearing on her life.

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Appendix for Undergraduate Thesis of School of Foreign Studies of Yangtze University

Tess is the embodiment of love and the symbol of the truth，goodness and beauty,who has the courage to self-sacrifice，the courage to resist as well as the desire to have a better life．She struggles continuously against her bitter fate and we can see this through Tess 's working hard to support herself and her family with her own hands and her never stopping struggling against her seducer Alec, as well as other tragic issues surrounded her with her independent and strong mind. Taking her fate in her own hands, she pays with her body the price of her family's survival.

She is unwilling to endure oppression, ethics, law and religion of feudalism and bourgeois, so she resists and struggles fiercely from beginning to end. After the humiliation , she does not serve from principle because of poverty, and determines not to be Alec 's plaything. When finally Tess becomes Alec 's mistress, which is both a kind of frustration and a kind of silent revolt against ruthless Angel and unfair society. When Angel returns, Tess finds herself deceived again, passions and yearning for a new life arouses her vengeance, so she kills Alec, and steps to the execution ground calmly to resist the irrational society with death in the end.

Tess never stops struggling against other tragic issues surrounded her with her strong mind. Tess suffers catastrophes in her short life and she undergoes the bitter which the fate brings to her. But in some senses, Tess also struggles with the unfair reality though her own strong persona and independent mind. Here is an example after she wants to begin her new life after her seduction:Was once lost always lost really true of chastity?‖She would ask herself. Tess suspects, resents and despises religion. She violates rules of religion and does a baptize for her illegitimate child on behalf of the minister. She opposes the old-fashioned social mores, so she feeds her child in front of everyone as a way to protest against the pressure of public opinions and religious prejudices .

Although the church and law clearly prohibits man and dead wife 's sister getting married, Tess asks her husband to marry her sister after her death, not meeting religion half way . All this proves that Tess is independent and open-minded, and is unwilling to stay in a humble and passive position. Such a image of woman sets an example for modern women, that is, women should be full of spirit of resistance and fight against all inequalities of family and social factors for equal rights.

4.4 Equality of personality

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