Introduction
The novel was written by Thomas hardy (1840-1928). He is an outstanding writer in
British. And he is the representative of realist writer in 19 centuries. In his family, although his father is a stonemason, his parents paid attention to the education of hardy. As results, he performs excellent when he was in childhood.
When he grew up and left school, he was an architect. He left for London in 1862 as a architectural draftsman. At the same time, he engaged in language in London University and began his literary creation. In a time, he returned home due to the health of physical. At first, he wrote poems, but there was no chance to publish. So he change his aim, he paid all heart to novel creation. Later, he became famous for his forth novel Far away from the madding crowd in 1874. Since then, he published Tess that is his best novel. Tess was written with fatalism of tragedy and reflected the tragic fate of the women in English rural town. Heady witted the suffering of rural people when capitalism came to the British countryside. And the capitalism brought the robbing to laboring people. This made them suffering a lot. These experience makes Hardy‟s poems always deep, concise and modern minded.
Summary
The host of Tess is a girl named Tess, and Tess just a 16-year old simple girl in
countryside. One day, his father D‟Urbervilles walked along the road at night, one person told him that he is the descendent of the warrior aristocracy; he should be rich and honorable. After he got the discovery, he learned a nearby relation soon. After a while, in order to improve life condition by relative, he asked his oldest daughter Tess to find his relative although he didn‟t know them. When Tess arrived there, Tess met Alec who is son of wealthy. Alec was attracted by Tess because of her pour and simple. However, Tess was awful to Alec. There mouths later, Alec raped Tess. Tess returned her home with sorrowing. Something worse, Tess realized that she had been pregnant. Later, she found a job in milk‟ factory. She had a period of nice life. There, she met 26-year Angel Clare. Angel came from a wealthy family. Then Tess fell in love with him. When Angel„s parents suggested that he
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should marry a rich girl. He refused immediately. Eventually, Tess married to Angel with sorry and sin, because she didn‟t told Angel her past. After the wedding, Tess and Angel should tell their past to each other. Angel told the truth about his black deeds at first. And Tess forgave him with pleasure. When Tess told her past, Angel became angry for Tess had child with another man. Furthermore, Angel went to Brazil and left Tess
Later, Tess left home again and went to another town with broken heart. Perhaps, she had been used to pain. Afterwards, she went to Angel‟ home for the address of Angel‟. Something happened, she encounter with Alec. When Alec saw her, he was struck dumb. Alec followed her all the time and asked her to marry him. Tess refused him with a strong attitude. She wrote a long letter to Angel Clare, in which she ask him come back to protect her. When Tess returned home, her father had dead and her house was confiscated too. She became homeless. The burden of life had on her shoulder immediately. However, Alec told her that Angel would never return, which made her sadder.
At last, Angel Clare returns from Brazil. Meanwhile, he regretted leaving Tess. When Tess melts with Angel Clare, she was confronting Alec. In desperation, she killed Alec and run away with Angel. They spent a few days that were filled with joy and happiness in the dessert. Finally, Tess was arrested. Angel Clare obeyed the wish of Tess, and he started a new life with Tess‟s sister.
Comments
Tess grew up in the countryside. Despite the burden of family life, Tess was bright and cheerful when she was in childhood. She loves life and has the courage to face the difficulties. She is the example of the women of the country who is miserable. Although Tess was raped, she is also the symbol of beauty. She always has the characters of pour and simple. Her heart contents a strong will and warm feelings. Meanwhile, Tess‟s tragedy reflects the life of rural area in 19 centuries.
On the other hand, Alec does all kinds of evil deeds in countryside relying on his father‟s money and power. His characters exposed when he met Tess at the first time. On contrary, Angel Clare is a younger who has a lot of knowledge. He dares to pursue his love
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and go against with class and bias. He is not afraid of hardship and enjoys nature. But to my disappointed, he is also defeated by society ethics and causes great paint in Tess‟s heart. In old China there was a culture, which didn‟t think of women as human beings. If you asked one if he was the oldest in his family, he would probably answer “the oldest one” even if he had some elder sisters. If you asked why then he would say, “Ha, they are not included!”
As a matter of fact, people give birth too many girls in order to have only one boy to keep the family name going. They thought girls had no use for the family. They would be married and go to live with their husbands‟ home and be their wives someday sooner or later. So they were extremely hard. Girls should be hard working, faithful, loyal, intelligent, and virtuous and the most important thing was she must be a maiden! If her husband was the first man who touched her then she was a good girl, a good wife no matter how she thought. If she was t, then she would gain a very bad reputation and nobody would dare to go near her. What about men? People did not care whether he was an experienced man or not, nor did they care about his character. They thought man equals power and power equals rights…Nowadays women‟s situations have become much better. Some are because of the change of society and some are because of civilization. Just let those poor painful women like TESS be just a memory.
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