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摘 要

《德伯家的苔丝》是英国最伟大的批判现实主义作家之一托马斯·哈代的一部代表性作品。他批判了维多利亚时代的许多现象，尤其是在英国农村人民地位不断下降的问题。他的许多小说都把重心放在刻画悲剧性人物上，这一批角色用尽全力在命运和社会环境中挣扎但最终都以悲剧结尾。同时，自然和女性也是哈代文学创作的两大因素。在这本书中他创造了以为纯洁又美丽的女孩苔丝，并通过她的悲剧批判了男权统治社会。除此以外，哈代认为自然和女性是相关联的，在当时自然和女性的命运有着许多相似之处。

本文旨在运用生态女性主义解读德伯家的苔丝中的悲剧的成因， 分析哈代隐藏在这本书中的的自然观和女性主义，及对二者和谐共生的期许。通过从生态女性主义角度对苔丝的悲剧进行解读，在本文结尾我得出了两个重要的结论：一， 工业革命和男权社会是导致苔丝悲剧的重要原因。二，苔丝的命运和自然命运相关联。她的悲剧体现了哈代的生态女性主义思想及他对自然和女性可以和谐共生的期许。同时还有他对男权主义对女性压迫的批判。本文从一种新的角度来解读这一传统文学名著。与此同时，提醒世人注重自然与人类发展的平衡，及女性由解放。

关键词：苔丝, 生态女性主义, 悲剧

• 1. Introduction

1.1 Need for the study

Tess of the D’Urberville isn’t the early writing of Thomas Hardy, he had already authored several well-known novels, including The Return of the Native, some poets and numerous short stories. Oppositely, it one of his last. A Pure Woman is the subtitle of the book. Many people argued that Tess could not possibly be considered pure cause she bended her knee before Alec, who took her virginity by his power and influence. At the very beginning, this book appeared in a censored and serialised version, published in book form in 1892 and by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891. Tess brought him notoriety at that time and received mixed reviews when it first appeared. Although now, it is considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy's fictional masterpiece. The reason why Tess got these defamatory partly because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England. We can see it from the tragedy of Tess obviously. However, few researchers did research from ecofeminism.

1.2 Research purpose

The author of this book once described himself in “In Tenebris II” as a poet “who holds that if way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst” and during his nearly 88 years he lived through too many upheavals, including World War I to have become optimistic with age. Nor did he seem by nature to be cheerful: much of the criticism around his work concerns its existentially bleak outlook, and, especially during Hardy’s own time, sexual themes. In his works, man and woman and nature are the important factors. He always hides the conflicts between in his works. The aim of the study is to use the theory of ecofeminism to figure out the causes of the tragedy in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, analyzing Hardy’s conception of nature and view of females hidden in the work, also his anticipation to the mutualistic sybiosis of them. Last but not least, analysis of Tess’s tragedy shows an alarm bell for all the human being and it reminds us of the importance of respecting women and protecting environment, creating a harmonious life with nature.

• 1. Literature review

2.1 An overview of ecofeminism

The generation of Ecofeminism also called ecological feminism. It had a close relationship with the international situation at that time. It is a branch of feminism that examines the connections between women and nature. At the very beginning, it was named by French feminist Francoise d’ Eaubonne in 1974. The environmental pollution and ecological crisis caused by economic globalization had caused the world’s alert. Opposition to the ruling mode of totalitarian states has become a consensus. Ecofeminism turned up in such a context. It not only collected the theoretical essences of feminism, but also absorbed the theoretical perspectives of ecologism. Based on the integration of these theories and multi-dimensional perspective of theories, Ecofeminism is committed to the critique of modern industrial civilization and tries to rebuild the cultural values of the society so as to obtain the liberation of women and nature. (Ling Chen, 2014, 110)

2.2 Research on Tess of the D’Urbervillies

Tess of the D’Urbervilles has been regarded as one of the most profitable and attractive novels written by Thomas Hardy in 1891. When it received great success, it also got harsh attack and slander from many critics, for instance, critics attacked Tess's morality as “a pure woman” and blasted Hardy’s conclusion in the novel that “God was malicious’’. ‘Justice’ was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Eschylean phrase had ended his sport with Tess." (Hardy, 1991: 364) However, the fact that this novel is very popular in different countries, which confirm that Tess of the D’Urbervilles is a masterpiece forever. The analysis of Tess of the D’Urbervilles covers various aspects and layers, for example, the critics of the comparative studies compare Tess with other women characters in literature, for example, the complication between Tess and Jane Eyre or with Emily in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily. Besides, some critics also study the novel’s theme or the symbols in Tess of the D’Urbervilles and so on. All in all, the interpretation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles covers nearly all aspects in literary appreciation. But generally, it includes the following main trends: First is directly psychology and focuses on Tess’s personal character analysis. Second is the sociological approach which treats the novel as the representative of English critical realism at the turn of late 19m century and beginning of the 20m century. At last, the third approach examines the moral and religious implications in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

2.3 Previous studies on Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervillies from the angle of ecofeminism

As Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervillies is such a famous work that many scholars have made research on it. Various essays have been written based on the interpretation of this book. Inevitably there is overlap in the coverage of some of those essays, however it should be admitted that contributors judge novels and characters on separate distinctive criteria will find desperate themes in the novels and interpret ethical slants diversely.

From the initial publication, the works of Thomas Hardy have been directly and obliquely connected with matters of gender. This is not just because that he was effected by the social environments that time and absorbed in confronting and perpetuating ideas about sexual difference like the Wessex novels, but also because Hardy’s vivid, contradictory, and often strange representations of sexual desire, like a series of cultural rockchuck tests, have continually elicited from his readers intense and revealing response. Indeed, to study the changing responses to gender in Hardy’s published works from 1871 to the present is, in effect, to trace a fairly detailed history of the ways in which sexuality has been established within the British Isles and North America since the late-Victorian period. (Dale Kramer, 2003:112) Feminists considers that sex is determined biological but ‘gender’ is a psychological concept which refers to culturally acquired “sexual identity.” (Miller,1991:22). According to feminist’s principles, women should have realized the importance of self-dependence and self-consciousness. Tess is characterized by Hardy as an idealized victim with self-consciousness in a male-dominated world. He imposes on Tess the brand of male preference while trying to purify her at the same time. (Rosemarie Morgan,1962:79)

According to the feminist’s opinion: Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the representative of British writer Thomas Hardy, breaks the English mainstream literary tradition of creating male as hero of literature. The heroine Tess from a feminist perspective is far more than just a passive victim, but an active straggler with independent character and noble spirit. The image of Tess is of profound significance. Sabah Abdul Hameed Shakury has written in his book that represents an ever-increasing growth of disdain and frustration with the Victorian society for women. As Jane Thomas asserts, “Hardy recognized women’s physical, mental and emotional susceptibility to the convention and their consequent capitulation in the face of apparently overwhelming social pressures.

3. Ecofeminism in Tess’s Tragedy

3.1 The meaning of ecofeminism and its core principles

3.1.1 The theory of ecofeminism

In the late 20th century, with the development of ecocriticism, Ecofeminism theory made its presence appeared in literary studies. At the very beginning, ecofeminism has been regarded as a component of literary criticism. Ecofeminism draws upon theoretical ideas developed by cultural feminists who use a mode of analysis based upon the identification of binary thought systems that is indebted to post structuralist methodology. These systems privilege one side of the binaries they construct; for instance, writing over speech,mind over the body, civilization over nom'e human over animal，masculine over feminine Ecofeminist literary criticism is the study of the relationship between literature and nature and woman．

3.1.2 The core principles of ecofeminism

The main principles that ecofeminists hold including the follow aspects：firstly, ecofeminism comes from the combination of feminism and ecological thoughts. It believes that the social mindset causing the suppression and domination of women is also the one that directly leads to the abuse of natural environment．Secondly, the ecofeminists think that the root cause of women’ tragedy lies in the patriarchal concepts such as development，production and growth．Development is actually destroying natural resources. Whthin the worldwide scale，is a comparison of men and women in terms of economic resources，income and employment shows that the status of women have relatively been lowered, while their workload is being increased. Women’s relative and absolute health，nutrition and educational background are all lowered. In her essay, Healing the Wounds：Feminism，Ecology, and Nature. Ynestra King argues: The ecological crisis is related to the systems of hatred of all that is natural and female by the white，male system formulations of philosophy, technology, and death inventions. I contend that the systematic denigration of working—class people and people of color, women，and animals are all connected to the basic dualism that lies at the root of western civilization. But this mind est of hierarchy originates

within human society,its material roots in the domination of human by human，particularly women by men．Although I can not speak for an Ecofeminist Rereading of Tess’s tragedy in Tess of the D’Urbervilles the liberation struggles of people of color,I believe that the goals of feminism，ecology,and movements against racism and for the survival of indigenous peoples are internally related；they must be understood and pursued together in a worldwide，genuinely pro life，movement"．

3.2 Impact of Ecofeminism on Tess’s tragedy

3.2.1 The relationship between nature and Tess’s fate

Natural environment is the general concept of the common object and natural scenes, such as weather variation, seasonal variation, frost, wind, rain, snow, hills and rivers or 1akes, woods and other swamp．The description of natural scenery playing an important role in rendering a novel for environment is the formation of personality, it can limits the specific areas of characters’ activities, influence and reflects the character’s personality. Not only that, the description of environment in which the characters refer to always have some effects on reflecting the specific background of social and natural environment, thus helps the author to deepen the theme of the novel．In Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Hardy used detail description of the natural environment to help readers to understand the local natural landscape and local customs in a certain background. And all these descriptions were related to the mood changes of the heroine of this book, Tess. She appears in a glossy and green and dance hall which is full of youth. And Alex seduces her in dew and cold of the night. In general, the connection between natural scenery and Tess’s fate can be reflected from the following two parts: firstly. Natural scenery reflects Tess’s beauty and her characteristic and then the season’s substitution is in accordance with Tess’s 1ife changes. Environment description really plays an indispensable role in contrasting atmosphere and reflecting Tess’s inner world.

3.2.2 Human invasion to nature

According to ecofeminism’s ideal man’s invasion of nature, it can be discussed into two aspects; firstly it is the machine civilization which brings tremendous irreversible damage to the natural environment. The other is the highly developed technological civilization also ruins the balance of nature by alienating people from each other.

3.2.3 The impact of the Industrial Revolution

Thomas Hardy’ s Tess is living in the late 19th century and the beginning of 20m century Victorian era，When could be regarded as the rapid development period of the capitalist economy Capitalists accumulate surplus values through the exploitation of farmer,the uneven distribution of wealth between rich and the poor quite obvious. Many peasants lost their lands and had to work for the capitalist. On one hand，there are extravagant and pleasant lives for the factory owners；on the other hand，the supply and poor farmers struggle for survival．Without doubt. Tess’s family was also broken. In her hometown, harvesters and wheat scourers stared to dominate the farm. Her family belongs to the latter, they own no land and even the daily life cannot be guaranteed．Tess’s father has to deliver money for others in order to earn some meager subsistence income. Two o’ clock next morning was the latest hour for starting with the honey, if it was to be delivered before Saturday market began, the way there lying by bad roads over a distance of between twenty and thirty miles．(Hardy,1991:3 5) D’Urbervilles’s business which mainly depended on the old horse becomes disorganized after the old horse’s death. Tess’s tragedy seems unchangeable in that specific situation. Tess，meanwhile，as the one who had dragged her parents into this problem，was silently wondering what she could do to help them out of it．As a worker who lived in the bottom of society, Tess even has no social status. She has to find a way to help the family. So she accepts her mother’s suggestion to ask for help from the rich Mrs. D’ Urberville, which is the first step to her tragedy. But what is more painful is that Tess came to Alex again because of poverty when Angel abandoned her on the bridal evening. Author Thomas Hardy describes the impacts of the industrial civilization on a village panoramically, then Tess as an individual miniature, further shows the people's struggle in the plight of the struggle in the material. (HUO Feng-chun, 2013) Tess’s tragedy is not just one person’s tragedy, it is a tragedy of one class and one generation. She is one of the typical victims.

3.2.4 Impact of Androcentric social environment—the major cause of Tess’s tragedy

Ecological feminists consider that there are similarities of the ways men choosing to use to treat the nature and female. They took them as resources which can be pillaged and occupied. Male chauvinism set the passivity as the natural instincts of female and nature. Female are dominated by men because of their natural conditions and well economic conditions. That is exactly the reason why they are always have lower social status than men.

Tess of the D’ Urbervillies is a love story between two young men and a beautiful girl. It means that the girl do should have the initiative in this relationship. However, the fact was just the opposite, she was always devastated and treaded on. All of these were attributed to that time, that era of male dominance. She is a kind and beautiful girl and yearn for equality and freedom. Unfortunately, she can’t get rid of the fate and the domination of man since she was just a worker in farm. Alec was the representative of the bourgeoisie. He had the state apparatus, money, laws, morality. He can fool around Tess as he wanted. His greed and desire destroyed the pure girl Tess. Angel is the representative of the bourgeois intellectuals, and also a humanist and liberalism. He does have some progressive ideas and valuable spirit but didn’t really get rid of the class bias and did everything for his own benefits. He is still a faithful protector of the interests of the capitalist class. He insisted Tess to keep chaste and undefiled while himself didn’t do so. He sneered and abandoned Tess of the wedding night. Although he comes to his sense at last, his forgiveness killed Tess.

4．Conclusions

Tess is one of Thomas Hardy’s most sympathetic character. As the most attractive and complex heroine in Hardy’s Wessex novels, Tess has aroused a lot of critic’s attention. After reading the novel, no one can help lamenting the tragic fate of Tess and noticing the large number of descriptions of nature during the novel, we can get two main findings in this essay.

1. The amazing natural description and the girl-Tess he made reproduced the era when female tried their best to survive in the crack between the traditional civilization and the modern industrial civilization, showing that the female and nature are closely linked. They have the same miserable fate at the patriarchal society.

2. Meanwhile, we can also find that industrial civilization oppressed both nature and female in the patriarchal society. There are two main reasons for Tess’s tragedy; First, the industrial revolution and second, androcentric social environment. Last but not the least, it also suggests that Hardy advocated the harmonious relationship between human and nature. He was warning people to build a bisexual harmony society.

This essay revealed Hardy’s advanced awareness of ecofeminism at that time. Nowadays, the problem of women’s oppression and ecological issue are still very serious all around the world. The analysis of the tragedy in Tess of the D'Urbervilles from the perspective of ecofeminism will ehhance human’s consciousness of protecting the environment and appeal their understanding and concern about women.

References

Adams, C. J. (1994). Neither man nor beast: feminism and the defense of animals. Ecofeminism.

Buell, L., amp; Ebrary, I. (2001). Writing for an endangered world : literature, culture, and environment in the U.S. and beyond. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Feng-chun, JING, amp; Jing. (2016). Characteristics determine fate --an analysis of tess' tragedy in tess of the d 'urbervilles(2), 137-141.

Ling, C. (2014). The background and theoretical origin of ecofeminism. Cross-Cultural Communication, 10(4).

Geiger, M. (2002). Spiritual aspects of ecofeminism. Socijalna Ekologija, 15-27.

SAH Shakury. (2016). The Representation of Women in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English. Literature, Vol.5 (7), .91-95

Scott M. (2013). Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. A Routledge Study Guide and Sourcebook.

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