【Fatalism,in,Thomas,Hardy＇s,Tess,of,the,D＇Urbervilles】54=C in the D

　　Abstract:Tess of the D"Urbervilles is a famous tragic story, whose writer Thomas Hardy builds a miserable world successfully in this novel. The heroine Tess has long been regarded as the most extraordinary woman character in English literary history. The life of this pure woman is tragic. The author"s fatalism appear from time to time, which play a very important role to the tragic color to the story.
　　Key words:tragic atmospherefatalismcharacter
　　
　　 I、Introduction of the author
　　Thomas Hardy (1840―1929), last and one of the greatest of Victorian novelists, lived in the center of the Essex country which late figured in his works. He was familiar with the nature and the people’s life in country. This helped him in his literary career. Because the backgrounds of his novels were made in Wessex, his novels were called “Wessex novels.” Tess of the D"Urbervilles is about the tragedy of a peasant girl,who has the courage to fight against evil power and pursue her own life.
　　II、Analysis of the fatalism
　　Since Hardy spends a great part of his life in the countryside, he sees the decline of the patriarchal mode of life in rural English after the invasion of the industrial capitalism, but he does not understand the root causes of this decline and rules of social development. He attributes the peasants" tragedy to blind chance or mysterious fate. There are some symbols which are used in the book. Tess of the D’Urbervilles, “there is a world where the prick of a thorn and a cock’s untimely crow foreshadows disaster"(Cecil 16). These supernatural elements in this novel implied that Tess’s destiny was dominated by the nature.
　　At the beginning of this novel, when Tess went to the inn to find her father, someone lowered his voice said: “But Joan Durbeyfield must mind that she didn’t get green malt in floor." This foresaw that Tess would lose her virgin.
　　When they get married, something happens.
　　"Those horrid women!" she answered with a smile. "How they frightened me."He looked up, and perceived two life-size portraits on panels built into the masonry. As all visitors to the mansion are aware, these paintings represent women of middle age, of a date some two hundred years ago, whose lineaments once seen can never be forgotten. The long pointed features, narrow eye, and smirk of the one, so suggestive of merciless treachery; the bill-hook nose, large teeth, and bold eye of the other suggesting arrogance to the point of ferocity, haunt the beholder afterwards in his dreams. (235)
　　The portrait of the women indicates Tess"s marriage would be a failure.There are still other horrible indications in this work such as the family tradition of the coach and murder. On the way to church, Tess said: "I tremble at many things. It is all so serious, Angel. Among other things I seem to have seen this carriage before, to be very well acquainted with it. It is very odd--I must have seen it in a dream" (230). Then Angel said: “A certain D’Urbervilles of the sixteenth or seventeenth century committed a dreadful crime in his family coach; and since that time members of the family see or hear the old coach whenever…” This is a gloomy symbol.
　　What indicates Tess’s death clearly enough is when she was forced by Alec to put her hand on an evil rock, Hardy wrote:
　　“What it the meaning of that old stone I have passed?” she asked of him.
　　“Was it ever a Holy Cross?”
　　“Cross――no; "twer not a cross!”Tis a thing of ill-omen, Miss. It was put up in old times by the relations of a malefactor who was tortured there by nailing his hand to a post and afterwards hung. The bones lie underneath. They say he sold his soul to the devil, and that he walks at times." (265)
　　From then on, the heroine is walking to her death step by step.
　　III、 Conclusion.
　　As what I have said above, the heroine Tess struggles hard for her freedom in the gloomy world. However, the “president of the immortals” such as these unknown mysterious forces keep sporting with her, breaking her cherished hopes from time to time, which made the readers feel that we can not help but feel the intense emotions of pity and fear. In such way, Hardy made a world-class tragic novel-- Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
　　
　　Bibliography:
　　[1]David Cecil. Hardy the novelist: An Essay in Criticism. London: Constable, 1942.
　　[2]Thomas. Hardy. Tess of the d’Urbervilles. London: Macmillan, 1980.
　　[3]Mustafa Jamil. A Good Horror Has Its Place in Art. New York: L. University, 2005.
　　[4]Carpenter Richard. Tess of the D’Urbervilles. New York: T. publishers, 1964.
　　[5]Qi Shouhua. Tragic Effect of Thomas Hardy’s Major Novels.Shanghai: FLE Press, 2001.
　　[6]H.G Duffin. A Study of the Wessex Novels. New York: Longman, 1921.
　　[7]Norman Page. Thomas Hardy: The Writer and His Background. New York: St.Martins, 1980.