The Function of the Landscape Description in Tess of the D’urbervilles
Chapter 1 Introduction
Tess of the D’urbervilles is an extraordinarily beautiful book, as well as an extraordinarily moving one. Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor foolish peasant, who believes that he is the descendant of an ancient aristocratic family, first is seduced by Alec, the son of the neighboring family by the name of D’urbervilles. Then Tess encounters Angel Clare, a man of liberal mind and the son of a clergyman, and they fall in love with each other. On the evening of their wedding ceremony, Tess confesses to Angel her seduction by Alec, and then Angel abandons her and leaves for Brazil by himself. Subsequently Angel comes to understand his moral and intellectual arrogance and searches for Tess, only to find that the extreme poverty of her family has driven her back to Alec. So strong is Tess’s love for Angel and so powerful her disgust at Alec when Angel comes back to look for her that she kills Alec. After hiding for a short period of time with Angel, after spending a few days of loving reconciliation with Angel, Tess is arrested, sentenced to death for murder and executed.
The gloomily tragic atmosphere embedded in the novel is doubtlessly related to the author, Thomas Hardy’s views of life and world. In addition, it fits in with Hardy’s desire to express the tragedy that the valuable is tortured and tangled by the irresistant force and at last is destroyed. Hardy is a well-known pessimist and abides by the belief of fatalism that “everything in the universe is controlled by the Immanent Will”(Luo 1996: 206), which has no passions, no consciousness and no knowledge of the differences between the good and the evil and “which is present in all parts of the universe and is impartially hostile towards human beings’ desire for joy and happiness”(ibid.). So human beings are doomed to failure when they struggle against the cruel and unintelligible fate, which is predestined by the Immanent Will. So there’s no doubt the prevailing moods in Tess of
Tess of the D’urbervilles is an extraordinarily beautiful book, as well as an extraordinarily moving one. Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor foolish peasant, who believes that he is the descendant of an ancient aristocratic family, first is seduced by Alec, the son of the neighboring family by the name of D’urbervilles. Then Tess encounters Angel Clare, a man of liberal mind and the son of a clergyman, and they fall in love with each other. On the evening of their wedding ceremony, Tess confesses to Angel her seduction by Alec, and then Angel abandons her and leaves for Brazil by himself. Subsequently Angel comes to understand his moral and intellectual arrogance and searches for Tess, only to find that the extreme poverty of her family has driven her back to Alec. So strong is Tess’s love for Angel and so powerful her disgust at Alec when Angel comes back to look for her that she kills Alec. After hiding for a short period of time with Angel, after spending a few days of loving reconciliation with Angel, Tess is arrested, sentenced to death for murder and executed.
The gloomily tragic atmosphere embedded in the novel is doubtlessly related to the author, Thomas Hardy’s views of life and world. In addition, it fits in with Hardy’s desire to express the tragedy that the valuable is tortured and tangled by the irresistant force and at last is destroyed. Hardy is a well-known pessimist and abides by the belief of fatalism that “everything in the universe is controlled by the Immanent Will”(Luo 1996: 206), which has no passions, no consciousness and no knowledge of the differences between the good and the evil and “which is present in all parts of the universe and is impartially hostile towards human beings’ desire for joy and happiness”(ibid.). So human beings are doomed to failure when they struggle against the cruel and unintelligible fate, which is predestined by the Immanent Will. So there’s no doubt the prevailing moods in Tess of