Abstract

Tess is young and handsome on appearance. On character, Tess is a kind, brave and strong-willed, who dares to love or hate. She has a great sense of responsibility and is full of love. Meanwhile, she is also the daughter of the nature, clean and unsophisticated. Such a beauty with good qualities experiences much poverty, humiliation and poignancy during her process of life. Moreover, she is sentenced to be hanged. Her tragedy comes from four aspects. The first cause is social environment including peasants’ impoverishment and unreasonable morality. In the 19th century, peasants in England are exploited atrociously. They are social inferiors. In addition, the society demands the chaste of women before marriage. If they aren’t virtuous, they will be despised by people. The second cause is her parents’ irresponsibility. When they let Tess claim kinship, they think Alec, a rich person, is their daughter’s good match. They need a wealthy son-in-law rather than take Tess’ happiness into consideration. As the head of the house, Tess’ father is a drunkard and a lazy guy. The third cause is Alec’s shameless greed and Angel’s selfishness and superficial love. Alec sullies Tess’ fame, which makes Tess abandoned by the society and her lover. After Angel,meeting a girl abroad and having sex with that flirtatious woman , confesses his terrible  

mistakes, Tess forgives him. Meanwhile, she shows great courage by admitting her suffering. Tess’ frankness and purity doesn’t pay back. Angel runs out his wife cruelly and firmly. He can’t feel Tess’ deep and genuine love, because what he needs is only a professional farmer’s wife. The fourth cause comes from Tess’ weakness. She is kind enough to love Angel more than herself. Her purity and hesitation caused by kindness also leads to her tragedy.

Key words:Tess; social environment; family background ; emotional

experience; Tess’ weakness

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1.Introduction.1

2.Literature Review2

3.Analysis of the Causes of Tess’ Tragedy6

3.1 Social background .6

3.2 Parents’ irresponsibility .8

3.3 Alec’s shameless greed.10

3.4 Angle’s superficial love12

3.5 Tess’ weakness..13

4. Conclusion.14

References16