Abstract

Tess of the D'Urbervilles tells a story about Tess’s tragedy. The main idea of this dissertation is to analyze the cause of Tess’s tragedy from internal and external causes. About the internal causes, firstly it is her family’s background. Secondly it is her character. Thirdly it is the influence of Alec and Angle. The external causes include temporal social environment, traditional moral factors and hypocritical capitalism morals view and unequal legal system. At the reign of Victoria, women's social status is lower than men's. Also the peasants take it for granted that they should respect the nobility. The unequal legal system does not protect Tess from being hurt by the bigwigs, but forcing her to death step by step.

Key words: Tess; tragedy; external causes; internal causes

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction1

1.1 Introduction to the author Thomas Hardy.1

1.2 Introduction to the novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles.1

2. Internal causes of Tess’s Tragedy2

2.1 Family background of Tess 2

2.2 Tess’s character.3

2.3 The influence of Alec’s and Angle’s characters4

3. External causes of Tess’s Tragedy.6

3.1 Social environmental factors6

3.2 Traditional moral factors7

3.3 Hypocritical capitalism morals view and unequal legal system.8

4. Conclusion 9

5. References.11