A Critical Analysis of the Characterization of the Heroine in Tess of the DUrbevilles 分析《德伯家的苔丝》中女主人公的性格特征开题报告
2020-04-18 19:40:41
1. 研究目的与意义(文献综述包含参考文献)
1. Introduction 1.1 Research background In the 19th century, England and other Western countries experienced the Industrial Revolution. The development of the industries had a stupendous impact on the English society and the whole society system was forced to change. Thomas Hardy, the great novelist and poet of the naturalist movement of the Victorian period, and one of the representatives of English critical realism at the turn of the 19th century, was born and brought up in Dorsetshire. He had already published several outstanding novels, among which the most famous are The Return of the Native, Jude the Obscure, The Mayor of Casterbridge, together with thousands poems and enormous short stories. He showed the readers a beautiful, pure but tragic artistic image of Tess in his greatest novel, Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles. Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles (1891) wasn#8217;t the early writing of Thomas Hardy, but as the most popular one, which was generally regarded as Hardy#8217;s finest novel. It was one of the first novels to examine the theme of the effects of spiritual and moral isolation in modern society. A brilliant tale of seduction, love, betrayal, and murder, Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles yielded to narrative convention by punishing Tess#8217;s sin, but bravely exposed this standard denouement of unforgiving morality as cruelly unjust. This novel focuses on a young woman who struggles to find her place in society. Hardy weaved a complex tale which clearly had dire thoughts of his era#8217;s views of morals and religions and the hypocritical stance which said that men were unable to control their sex and therefore upper class men could have sex with as many peasant girls as they wished and have no reason to feel guilty. Hardy painted a sad picture of religion too, where minor doctrines were given more importance than forgiveness and kindness. A Pure Woman is the subtitle of the book. It is considered outrageous for a woman like Tess to be seen as pure in Hardy#8217;s eyes. Many readers and critics oppose to it with the reason that such a girl who was seduced is not matched to the quality of pureness. Besides, according to traditional moral standards, Tess is an abandoned woman who is a mistress and committed homicide. However, the author still maintains to adopt it no matter how strong the opposition is. In Hardy#8217;s writing, she is kind-hearted, sincere and simple. The question arise from the divergence between the two parties. What are the reasons for the miserable fate of Tess? The meaning of this study is to help the readers have a better understanding about Tess, about how do the social factors, the background of family and personality lead to the multiplicity of Tess#8217;s character. 1.2 Need of the study Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles is one of Hardy#8217;s tragedies, a masterpiece which brought him into a number of literature critics#8217; notice. It reflected the writer#8217;s real society and its social system and morals; therefore to study this novel can help the readers know about the history of his age. But many papers have shown that most critics used to research the writing background from the tragedy of Tess for a long time. Besides, the predecessors#8217; achievement were authentic, however, the readers should pay attention to the thought of Hardy, for it was him who created the heroine#8217;s tragedy and it was the influence of social environment on him, his conception and arrangement of the work, leading to an end of tragedy. Last but not least, an analysis of Tess shows an alarm bell for all the human beings and it reminds the readers of the importance of respecting women. Literature review Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles has been regarded as one of the most profitable and attractive novels written by Thomas Hardy in 1891. The analysis of Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles covers various aspects and layers and this study would never stop. For example, the critics of the comparative studies compare Tess with other women characters in literature. Besides, many scholars have paid attention to Tess and her tragic life. Nie Zhenzhao clearly demonstrates that Tess#8217; fate is determined by her poverty, the history and unfair legal system. Qian Yanqiu analyses the resistance of Tess. Her rebellion completes from passive to initiative, and changes from unconscious to rational, thus shaping a rich personality heroic image. Besides the above views, Xiong Fenghua holds the view that Tess#8217; tragedy is the consequence of male depression and social prejudice against women in Victorian period. It is just the ruthless force by the male violence in such a society that leads to her tragic fate. In addition, theories like feminism and naturalism have been put into use on study of this novel. Yu Kun makes a deep analysis in Hardy#8217;s views of nature and women. The author points out that the novel reveals a close relationship between Tess and nature as well as her fate with the patriarchal and capitalist oppression of industrial civilization, which helps the readers re-understand the novel from a new perspective. Pang Qingyue analyzes the symbolic implications of the environmental description in Tess and points out that the environment has played a very important role in determining Tess#8217; destiny. In short, the interpretation of Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles covers nearly all aspects in literary appreciation. But generally, it includes the following main trends: First is directly psychology and focuses on Tess#8217;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 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. At last, the third approach examines the moral and religious implications in Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles. All in all, at the depth of study on Hardy by critics, discussions on his tragic novels have been developing. Based on the former critical works, this thesis focuses on the tragic figure Tess, and tends to probe into the inevitable factors of her tragedy as a victim. Works Cited Boumelha, P. Thomas Hardy and Women: Sexual Ideology and Narrative Form. Totowa: Barnes, 1982. Buell, L., Ebrary, I. Writing for an Endangered World: Literature, Culture, and Environment in the U. S. and Beyond. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2001. Shakury, Sah. The Representation of Women in Thomas Hardy#8217;s Tess of the D'Urbervilles. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature. 2016, (7): 91-95. Thomas, Hardy. Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2006. Tumanov, V. Under the Hood of Tess: Conflicting Reproductive Strategies in Thomas Hardy#8217;s Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles. Neophilologus. 2013, (1): 245-259. Guo, Liying. [郭丽英]. 论《德伯家的苔丝》中苔丝的女性意识. 校园英语. 2016, (1): 257-259. Mao, Ying. [毛颖]. 苔丝多重性性格特征论析. 武汉理工大学学报. 2005, (1):126-129. Niu, Min. [牛敏]. 从《德伯家的苔丝》看西方男权文化中的女性身份地位. 外语学研究. 2007, (3): 129-134. Yang, Hua. [杨华]. 浅析《德伯家的苔丝》中苔丝的人物形象. 南昌教育学院学报. 2010, (6):37-38. Yao, Zhenping. [姚振平].《德伯家的苔丝》人物形象新论. 世界文学评论. 2007, (1):55-58.
2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案
Research Topic The theme of Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles is that the emerging industrialization and urban civilization have impact on the old and rural regions. Meanwhile, it exposes the hypocritical morality of imprisoning people#8217;s thoughts, emphasizing chastity and suppressing women#8217;s social status. Through analyzing the character of the heroine of Tess, the thesis explores Tess#8217;s human nature and deep-seated courage, which has made her one of the most touching female images in Hardy#8217;s work. Research Methods Firstly, I have read the original novel written by Thomas Hardy. In order to have a better understanding of the novel, I first read the Chinese version to have a general idea of the book. Then, I turned to the English version, trying to learn the emotions Hardy has put into. Intended to have a deep impression, I have searched online for adopted films and TV series because visualized works could give the audience direct and strong visual impact. I have found that the novel has been adapted into film in 1979, then later in 2008, and also has been adapted into a short TV series. I chose the TV series to watch, getting a clear mind of the main plots of the novel, as well as a primary impression of the main characters. Secondly, I had searched on the net for previous studies. Finding related papers on website like CNKI, looking into school online library and E-library, I have collected more information about the book. With the information, I started to figure out the thesis structure. As one of the most brilliant novelists in Britain, Hardy could be regarded as a representative of English novel, and his works exactly revealed the conditions of the Victorian Age. Finally, I came up with the primary outline of my paper. Since Hardy was such a great novelist and his works had an impact on the next generations, so the first chapter of my thesis would be the introduction to the author, and the book Tess of the D#8217;Urbervilles. The second chapter of my thesis will be the literature review. The analysis of Tess#8217;s character consists of the third chapter, and then follows the conclusion chapter.