Abstract

As one of the representatives of Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles describes the tragic life of an ordinary country girl. Tess, as the heroine, she is seduced by an evil man, deserted by her husband on her wedding night and executed by the society. With her seduction experience, Tess is called “A Pure Woman” by Hardy, which openly shows his contemptuous attitude toward the accepted Christian morality. At the same time, in the depiction of the heroine Tess, Hardy strategically adds and changes related biblical archetypes. Therefore, an archetypal reading of the novel is helpful to understand Hardy’ s creating intention and the deeper meaning of the novel. Through applying Northrop Frye’ s theory of archetype, this thesis is aimed to analyze the biblical archetypes which are connected to the three main characters. By doing so, the author is intended to reveal Hardy’ s Christian morality and his intention of attaching the biblical archetypes to the main characters and the significance of the novel.

     Chapter 1 is the background information in which I will give a brief introduction of Hardy and the novel, and the introduction of Northrop Frye’ s theory of archetype and then present my research questions and methodology of this paper. Chapter 2 intends to analyze the biblical archetypes attached to Tess, the heroine. Chapter 3 is the discussion of other two major characters in the novel. Chapter 4 is the conclusion, which summarizes the findings in the archetypal analysis of the biblical archetypes connected to the three main characters and evaluates Hardy’ s attitude toward Christian morality and reveals Hardy’ s intention of using these biblical allusions. 

Key Words: Hardy; Biblical archetype; Characters; Christian morality

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

1.1 Thomas Hardy and His Wessex Novels-1

1.2 Tess of the d’ Urbervilles and its Characterization-2

1.3 Research Questions and Methodology-3

1.4 Archetypal Criticism and Northrop Frye’ s Theory-3

Chapter 2 Thomas Hardy’ s Use of Biblical Archetypes Attached to Tess-4

2.1 Jesus-5

2.2 Eve-6

2.3 Job-8

Chapter 3 The Biblical Archetypes Attached to Angel and Alec-9

3.1 The Biblical Archetypes Related to Angel-9

3.1.1 Adam-10

3.1.2 Angel-10

3.2 The Biblical Archetypes Connected to Alec-11

Chapter 4 Conclusion-12

Bibliography-14

Acknowledgments-15