Abstract:Thomas Hardy was one of the distinguished British critical realism writers of nineteenth century. Tess of D’Urbervilles was commonly regarded as Hardy’s magnum opus. This novel described a pure, simple, beautiful, kind and diligent girl, who became a murderer for some reasons and finally she took her life as cost. The author tried to reveal the distress of the British low class in the 19th century when the British capitalism invaded to the rural village and the small-peasant economy was collapsing. The subtitle of the novel refers to the main character of Tess as “a pure women” so as to challenge hypocritical social virtues of the Victorian period. The tragic factors of Tess of the D’Urbervilles are profound and complicated. The thesis will analyze the tragic causes by discussing the social background, such as the nature and the social morality of the society at that time; discussing the character of the main figures in the novel, such as Tess’ sacrifice, compromise and weakness, Alec’ shame, Angel’ hypocrisy and Tess parent’s irresponsibility; and discussing the author’s view of destiny and try to reveal the inevitability.

Key Words: Tess, tragic causes, character

摘要:托马斯·哈代是19世纪英国著名的小说家。《德伯家的苔丝》是他的代表作之一。这本书描写了一位纯洁、质朴、美丽、善良而又勤劳的姑娘因为一些原因被逼的走投无路而成为杀人犯，最后付出生命的代价。作者通过这个故事，向我们展现了19世纪英国资本主义入侵农村，小农经济解体从而导致的下层人民的悲惨命运。这部小说的副标题为“一位纯洁的女人”，作者借此公开对维多利亚时期的虚伪道德发起挑战。本文将通过探讨当时的社会背景比如当时的社会性质及社会道德观；分析小说中主要人物的性格比如苔丝的牺牲精神，妥协性，及软弱性，亚力克的无耻，安吉尔的虚伪及苔丝父母的不负责任等；以及作者的悲剧宿命论来解析《德伯家的苔丝》中女主人公苔丝复杂的悲剧成因,并揭露苔丝悲剧的必然性。

关键词：苔丝，悲剧成因，性格