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. 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