摘 要

由托马斯·哈代撰写的《德伯家的苔丝》，被视为19世纪文学的瑰宝。它作为哈代的杰出作品，奠定了哈代在英国文学乃至世界文学中的超高地位。这部小说描述了一个纯洁，善良的农村女孩苔丝天生注定的悲惨命运以及最终被她自己的人格结构冲突所毁灭的故事。

 苔丝的悲剧命运是小说的核心和线索，本文旨在从弗洛伊德人格结构理论的角度分析《德伯家的苔丝》，让女主人公生前的人格冲突和心理弱点在读者面前充分展现。论文选取作品中三个典型事件进行深入分析：一、苔丝婚前失身于亚力克。虽然她对亚力克的侵犯有所反抗，但是实质上，在这个过程中也包含着她对禁区朦胧的尝试，她本我人格中对性的渴望促使她疏忽了自我人格的监督。二、苔丝婚礼当天向安吉尔坦白。在准备与安吉尔结婚时，苔丝超我人格中的负罪感战胜了本我人格的自私，驱使她把自己失贞的事实告诉安吉尔，结果却被安吉尔无情地抛弃。三、苔丝愤恨地杀死亚力克。在安吉尔幡然醒悟后回来寻找苔丝时，她对亚力克恨之入骨，认为这一切生活的痛苦都由他而致，并将之杀害。贯穿整部作品，苔丝始终在本我，自我和超我间徘徊，而最终本我的猛烈爆发，是其自身毁灭的重要因素。

人格，来源于人类的潜意识，反映了人们本我,自我和超我之间的矛盾与冲突。潜意识在人们心中是根深蒂固的，如果不能平衡好，它的毁灭必将是痛苦和悲惨的。因此，苔丝的悲剧命运产生于她的本我，自我和超我之间的未能实现融合与统一。

关键词：《德伯家的苔丝》 人格结构 本我 自我 超我

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was a famous English critical novelist in the late 19th century and a Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot. Hardy’s works are representative of the naturalist movement, with several novels displaying romantic and neoclassical elements. He was much better known for his novels during the lifetime, such as Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, which earned him a reputation as a great novelist. By the time he wrote Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Hardy was past fifty and had well established in his storytelling craft. Hardy was highly critical of much in Victorian society and focused more on a declining rural society. The bulk of his novels explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles has been considered a major 19th century English novel and possibly Hardy’s fictional masterpiece. It tells the story of poor Tess D’Urbeyfield, who sought connections with so-said rich relatives D’Urbervilles and was seduced by the young master Alec. Afterwards, she fell in love with priest’s son Angel and engaged with him. Tragically, Tess was deserted by Angel on the wedding day night after her confession of past experience. In the end of the story, Tess indignantly killed her lover Alec and was hanged cruelly. In 1979, the adapted film for screen for the first time directed by Roman Polanski made a hit in the visual area at that time. In the following years, Tess of the D’Urbervilles won a large amount of international awards, including the 53rd Oscar Academy Awards, the 38th Golden Globe Awards, the 35th British Academy Film Awards, etc. The renowned novel challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England and Hardy thought it his finest novel and Tess the most deeply felt character he had ever created.

Since the early 20th century, the influence of psychoanalytic theory in the literary world has been far more beyond than that in the psychological world. Thomas Hardy, as the pioneer of psychological novelists, was influenced by Freud’s theory and vividly demonstrated the characteristics of modern psychoanalysis in his novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. When it refers to psychoanalysis, one should know that it belongs to the theory of psychodynamics and was established by Austrian psychiatrist Freud in the late 19th century. It is the cornerstone of modern psychology and its influence is far from being confined to the field of clinical psychology. It has deep impacts on the entire psychological science and even the various aspects of western human sciences. As an important branch, the theory of personality structure marks the beginning of western personality psychology. Since then, personality psychology begins to flourish and there appears other complete personality structure theory. Freud’s theory of personality structure has promoted the study of western personality psychology and laid the foundation for the development of human psychology research.

1.2 Need for the Study

In the past, the study of Tess of the D’Urbervilles mostly concentrates on the causes of Tess’s tragic fate, which put more emphasis on the social background, family background, female status and personal characteristics. However, there are few articles analyzing Tess’s life from the perspective of psychologies, let alone one of its branches-triple structures of personality. If there being any, these articles cover only a small part of it and research it in a broad sense way. Thus, this thesis will take the advantage to study a famous work-Tess of the D’Urbervilles with the theory of triple structure of personality in a comprehensive and deep going way. Taking Tess’s three conscious level - id, ego, superego as a starting point, the thesis will analyze a series of her behaviors caused by personality defects, and the reader will deeply understand the relationship between her psychologies and fate. By doing this, a useful reference will be provided for modern women’s love and marriage.

1.3 Layout of the Thesis

The present thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One gives an introduction of the paper, including the research background, the need for the study and the layout of the thesis. Chapter Two writes about literature review, and it contains two subtitles: Previous studies on Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Freud’s theory on personality-id, ego, superego. Chapter Three is the most important part of this thesis. The cause of Tess’s tragic fate will be fully studied under the framework of psychoanalysis and the conflicts among her id, ego and superego will be presented at the mightiest. Chapter Four will draw conclusions and present implications of the study.

Chapter Two

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Freud’s Theory on Personality—Id, Ego, Superego

Freud’s theory on personality is composed of three parts: id, ego and superego.

Id, a born structural part of the unconsciousness, is composed of a main part of nature or the impulse. It represents the original id which refers to the original oneself. It contains impulse, vitality and the basic desire to survive. It is also the source of all mental energy, not restricted by logic, rationality, social customs, etc. Id can be dominated only by the law of nature and follows the “pleasure principle”. It ignores social morality and the external code of conduct. The only requirement of id is to gain happiness and avoid suffering. The final goal of id is to obtain individual comfort, survival, multiplication, not affected by other individuals.

Ego, a structural part of the consciousness, includes executable thinking, feeling, judgment and memory which can be sensed. The function of ego is to satisfy the impulse of id, thus protecting the entire body from being harmed. Ego lies between id and superego. It always keeps in a state of awakening and follows the “reality principle”. According to the need of the outside world, ego controls and depresses id so that the latter can be helped by the former in line with morality. In all, ego intends to achieve a balance between id and superego.