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Tess of the D 'Urbervilles is the masterpiece of Thomas Hardy, a famous English realist writer, and also a classic novel of tragic fate. He created a female image-Tess, who was angry and rebelled in pursuit of freedom and equality. Under the restriction of patriarchal culture and ideology, women's status can only be embarrassed to lose their subordinate status of sovereignty. Tess, who lived in Victorian era, could not get rid of the shackles of patriarchy and social etiquette. In the patriarchal consciousness, the beauty of women is not only a "disaster", but also an excuse for men to shirk their sins; Men demand women's loyalty and physical chastity, but ignore their own indulgence. Under the suppression of male chauvinism, women's thinking mode is also controlled and even solidified by this force. This paper will analyze Tess's female status from the perspective of feminism and reveal the living conditions of women under the oppression of traditional male chauvinism. Tess's tragic inevitability is also rooted in this.

[Keywords:] Tess's patriarchal status of women

The development of the whole western civilization is people-centered. In this patriarchal cultural world, men have always played the main role marked by authority, dignity and strength, while women are attached to men. Barbara Johnson, a famous contemporary American critic, said: "From St. Augustine to Freud, the concept of self and the concretization of human life are all based on men." [ 1]

Thomas Hardy lived in late Victorian England, and Tess was the heroine in his tragic work Tess of the D 'Urbervilles. Being in the Victorian era at that time, she could not avoid the patriarchal consciousness and harsh social etiquette of understanding the essence of "women" in that era. The patriarchal clan system at that time made women lose their independent status. To some extent, it can be said that Tess's life never existed, because as a woman, she never got her real woman identity. On the contrary, her position is that the patriarchal school arbitrarily formulated and imposed on her according to their distorted understanding of women, and this paternalistic style was internalized by women. At this time, Tess had to obediently accept the position imposed on her.

Although Tess has made some corresponding resistance to the oppression of male chauvinism, her condemnation of the oppression of male chauvinism still stays in the primitive instinctive stage and lacks a spirit of initiative and consciousness. The realistic living environment forced her to seek living conditions first, and finally she had to exchange sex for a physical shelter to pay homage to the happiness of her family. Tess's ending is death. Her soul, which has always pursued purity, finally died at the moment of soaring, leaving only a body swallowed up by male greed.

1. Tess's female status in men's eyes

Western Christian culture has two negative comments on women, which can be summarized as: female evil view and female vassal view. The record of Eve's eating forbidden fruit in the Bible creates an illusion that Eve caused the initial fall of mankind. This also reflects the male discourse hegemony from another aspect. The Bible also says that God created women for Adam only because he was "not good at living alone". This has created a mindset for human beings: women are born of men, and women want to live for men, so they must obey and serve him and the laws and systems that take him as a reference.

The history of human civilization has long given way to patriarchy, and women as a whole have completely withdrawn from social life. Only in the aesthetic field can women get the aesthetic photos of men as the main body, but this cannot change the subordinate position of women as "the other" and "the second sex". Nor can it erase the cruel and embarrassing reality of its position in society. Just as a cut "part", I live in aesthetic activities dominated by male culture. As a group image, women only show their aesthetic ideals under the cultural barrier of male chauvinism.

In this way, on the one hand, women become accessories of men, on the other hand, they are raised to realize men's ideals. As for this contradiction, the essence is that women are equally passive, have no choice, and are suppressed and controlled wherever they are.

As a female victim of this tragic fate, Tess has never been understood as a real woman in her short life, but as a charming woman and a supernatural goddess. After being deprived of her true female identity, her life and death represent the dream and end of men under the rule of male chauvinism. The female characters in the novel are not female representatives in real life, but reflect the norms, delineation and expectations of women in the patriarchal society. So "the French woman writer Beauvoir has a point. She believes that women are not born, but made. " [2] It means that women are created by men's cultural imagination and value tendency. The social field represented by the father's name colludes with patriarchy, making it impossible for the female subject to really exist.

In a patriarchal society, women's gender role is a means of male domination. The patriarchal culture regards women as vassals and confirms its own value and status by dominating and controlling women. In a sense, a woman seems to be materialized into a man's mirror, and this mirror is not a true reflection of the prototype, but is independently manipulated by a man, reflecting his own image into a mirror nearly twice as large as the original (this is twice the sum of the man's own image and the image of a man riding on a woman's head). Thus, men present such a virtual and irresistible "giant" image in front of women.

Beauty and women's status.

The word "femme fatale" has been used ever since. Western literature and China literature both curse "woman" because it can open the devil's cage in men. Byron said: "The terrible thing about women is that women are a disaster. We can neither live with them nor live without them. " [3] Its essence is that the patriarchal culture shirks its responsibility.

Alec is a representative of the bourgeois nouveau riche and a beast in human nature. Typical playboy, heartbreaker. He plays with women and has a dirty style. A symbol of western civilization hides a brutal and cruel lust. Through Alec's eyes, Tess's beauty is infected with desire and evil. He also thinks that Tess's beauty is not good for her, because a woman's beauty is a bait to induce a man's lust and will make her a man's mouth watering food. He called Tess a "leprechaun", which seemed to imply that his possession of Tess from now on was caused by her beauty, and to some extent, she was responsible for his despicable behavior.

Alec seduced Tess for the second time. Although she added some whitewash to atone for her sins and do good deeds, the essence of pure physical desire could not be erased from her bones. Alai, who converted to the church, appeared in the black smoke of burning hay at dusk in Bulei Valley, holding a fork for digging, claiming that "I am the old villain who came to the garden pretending to be a lower animal to seduce you". (P445) This is the legendary situation in which Satan lured Eve with a snake. Alec, who raped Tess, shamelessly described her aggression as a temptation to her and even associated her with her apostasy. "You come to seduce me, make me apostate again, and make me doomed" (P447) "If any big disciple has been seduced by such a beautiful face, he will have to give up farming for her like me" (P447). He blurted out that she was a "Babylonian witch". "Chapter 17 of Revelation records the description of the Babylonian witch: the woman rode a scarlet beast and wore scarlet clothes, and wrote' Mystery! Babylon the Great, the mother of an adulteress and all the abominations of the earth. [4] Alec also said, "Because you have driven away all my beliefs, wow, you are a beautiful person, and you are waiting for retribution" (P449), which not only hinted at the tragic ending of Tess, but also made it sadder that the position of the offender and the victim was changed here: innocent Tess was hurt and her spirit was pushed into the abyss of perdition, but she became a dangerous witch. However, Alec, the hypocritical seducer, claimed that he was the victim of this sexy stunner, and even blamed Tess for his evil heart that he was not really converted to the church but was shaken by his beauty.

His condemnation of Tess's beauty is actually to cover up his irresistible fear and weak desire for beauty. However, under Alec's sophistry and the norms of social etiquette at that time, pure Tess, like the meat on the knife, could not save herself or even protect her innocence.

Contrary to Alec's condemnation of Tess's appearance, in Angie's eyes, Tess has reached the extreme of material beauty and spiritual beauty, which is the extreme of high idealization. Their love is in Fallon Valley, where "the air is fresh, cool and ethereal" (P 142) often hides the meaning of "non-earthly", with an idealistic color of emphasizing spirit and doubting matter, implying the character of Anji clay figurine. As we see later, because Angie's love is "too frivolous" (P364), he turned "tangible materialization into intangible imagination" (P365), which set Tess in real life against his idealized Tess. He hopes to have a woman who is "naturally beautiful" and "simple and pure", but turns a blind eye to Tess's innocence. In his first love mind, Tess is not a specific person, but an empty and exquisite female essence, which is regarded as the typical appearance of women in Anji's mind. It reflects the male-dominated society's orientation and idealized vision of female identity. "Social customs divide women into chastity and depravity, virgins and prostitutes. This division puts women at two poles and deprives them of the possibility of making other choices. Tess, because she entered the Victorian sexual misunderstanding, is doomed to suffer for life. " [5] It can be seen that the status of women in the society at that time was just the cultural logic of men's subjective will.

2) Chastity and women's status

It is precisely because the patriarchal society is full of vigilance, hostility and panic about female dissidents that it labels them as "sluts" with male discourse "hegemony" and publicizes the "virtues" of "angel" women. This just reflects the prejudice, fear, oppression and injustice of men towards women in reality. At the same time, it also reflects the selfishness and domineering of men in a "male-dominated" society from another side. They just don't want to admit their true soul reflected in the "mirror image" of women, so they don't hesitate to distort, fabricate or even tamper with women's personality, making their existence a moral symbol rather than a real self-existence.

Alec's twice possession of Tess and Ann's so-called love and consideration for Tess before marriage are actually reflections of traditional male values. Since men associate their own values with their possession of women, women's chastity has become the most concerned thing for men.

A woman who has lost her virginity, even an innocent seducer, can even erase her social identity. A wife's chastity is a husband's privilege, and once it is lost, it indicates impurity. Therefore, after a woman is possessed by a man, the only way out is to marry him, regardless of feelings. Tess would never. She chose to leave Alec and go home by herself, which was a simple decision. She can't have sex with someone she doesn't love and force him to marry her; She couldn't fool around with him, so she bravely chose to leave. Her logic is that simple. It's not that she doesn't understand the consequences of this decision, but her pure heart will never tolerate such persistence. This choice is essentially a denial and resistance to the traditional concept of chastity with her simple logic and nature. However, this kind of resistance will inevitably end in failure. Although she was an independent, unconventional and rebellious woman who longed for passionate love and independence, her status as a woman could not be changed in the Victorian era. Character and society laid the tragic background for Tess.

Clay is usually gentle and affectionate, but deep down in his heart, he has a cold and firm view, just like a piece of soft soil, but there is a metal vein hidden in it. Whatever goes through there must destroy the blade. "(page 329)

The Firm Opinion even changed Clay's view of Tess. "The woman I once loved was not you" (P3 13) "It was another woman who looked like you" (P3 14) "How can we generalize with different identities and different moral concepts?" (P3 18) At this time, Clay lost his tolerance and humanity and became extremely cold and harsh. From this, it is not difficult for us to get a glimpse of his inner deformity and stale moral concepts. Although he admits that Tess is not the active party of the crime and should not be blamed on her, he still believes in his bones that she is a country woman who doesn't know what a decent "debauchery" is. At this time, he showed indifference and decided to abandon his wife and run away from home. The tender soil has been stripped away, and it is still the metal vein of the male center, the so-called decency, family style and middle class status. Pure and selfless love, truly pure and persistent Tess's soul, all rolled up in front of this vein.

In Tess's mind, Clay has always been regarded as her own god, protecting herself. Now, even this "god" who protects himself is as secular as all sentient beings, and she is as frustrated and desperate as Alec. A Le destroyed Tess's innocence and defiled her body, while Clay completely destroyed Tess's will and spirit, making Tess almost disqualified. At that time, the word wife abandoned by her husband meant abandoned by the whole society.

However, she is still looking forward to Clay's change of heart. Waiting is long, and waiting without saying a word is even more desperate. Tess was persistent, but she couldn't help looking forward to it after tears. Despair for expectation, expect for despair. Despair is the final decline of expectation, and expectation is the longest extension of despair. She always faced the unknown despair with hope until she lost disappointment. So desolate, when my father died and the whole family faced the situation of being swept out of the house and having no house to live in, it was even more helpless. At this time, Tess is mentally dead, and her existence is only a sacrifice for the family. Since the spirit is dead, the body is no longer important, what's more, the body has never established its position in society. Tess seems to have been plunged into the "hell", suffered great pain, shouldered the cross of the soul and walked to the end of her life. She still hasn't escaped Alec's clutches, and in despair she turns to Alec again.

Hardy called Tess "a pure woman" in the book title. The word "purity" in English means "purity and integrity" in addition to "innocence". Alec possessed Tess's body twice, forcing her to split her whole personality. In Tess's nature, if she wants to restore her integrity and finally achieve a pure woman, she can only kill Alec and abandon the oppression of the power he represents. She is the direct victim of the patriarchal culture, so it is natural to give her the strength to resist. In fact, her unfortunate tragedy revealed the repressed and hidden side of women: their pain and anger.

"Hegel said:' Love is the most beautiful in women, because women focus all their spiritual life and real life on love and promote it. Only in love can she find the support of life. If she encounters misfortune in love, she is like a flame blown out by a gust of wind. The supremacy of love will lead to revenge. [6] Tess is such a woman who is pure in love, truly pursues love, is loyal to love, and truly sacrifices for love. Until Alec was finally killed, it was also because Alec destroyed the love of Angie, the pillar of her life, and because of anger, the most persistent pursuit of true and pure love was destroyed and accumulated to the extreme.

Second, the internalization of male power in women's ideas.

Not only the men of that era looked at women in this way, but also the autocratic power of men was deeply rooted in the concept of women and became an internalized concept of male power. Male culture denies the value of women and female culture, and regards women as accessories and private things of men. In such a strong situation, women often unconsciously acquiesce in these things imposed on her by men. It's like a master-slave relationship. In such a relationship, the principal party seldom or never considers the interests, ideas and needs of the subordinate party. The main party has the right to formulate norms to meet its own needs. The subordinate party deprived of the initiative can fully realize and cater to the needs of the main party. "Gilbert's analysis tells us that patriarchal values control even the most rebellious and creative women." [7] What's more, their strength and discourse power are so meager? Under this mental poison, they may even doubt whether their voices are reasonable or whether traditional norms are wrong. Or does it violate the fallacy of traditional norms? Sad!

Zhang Jie, a female writer in China, said in The Ark: "Men face one world and women face two worlds." As Raqqa pointed out: "Men have always been in a position of power, which enables them to arrange the social structure ... so that they can establish a system to explain their experiences. Create a world with clear gender boundaries. The position we have achieved in this world is also a position with clear gender boundaries. " "[8]

1) male aesthetics and female concept

With the long-term rule and historical accumulation of paternal cultural aesthetic consciousness, paternal cultural concepts try to bring female beauty into their own value system. Their definition of this kind of beauty is completely in accordance with men's intentions, which is another satisfaction for their sexual psychology. Because this aesthetic relationship has been in a dominant position for a long time in history, its one-sidedness (male's unilateral consciousness) makes women unconsciously adjust their behavior according to male's aesthetic standards and inherit it.

Men's expectation of women's appearance, figure and personality constitutes a kind of control over women from another angle. As the subject of aesthetics, women are in a specific situation of exploitation. Men create the image of women for themselves, and women create themselves by imitating this image. As aesthetic subjects, they are appreciated by aesthetic objects. The existence of women often only brings aesthetic pleasure and emotional comfort to men. This makes the existence value of women in the aesthetic sense not for themselves, but for men, and this value belongs to men instead of themselves.

This aesthetic ideal is actually a role, an image and a value imposed on women by the male reproductive system. As the main body to realize this ideal, women passively accept the aesthetic taste from men. In fact, under the mask of "ideal woman", women have lost themselves. This seemingly perfect mask is actually a kind of effort that women lose more than they gain. They just transformed themselves into commodities with more use value, exchange value and value to satisfy men's abnormal aesthetics, desires and wealth. And their status is still the same as that of commodities. In fact, women do not improve their value as human beings, but imitate men's dreams, thus improving their social status in men's eyes.

The idea that women try their best to meet men's aesthetic requirements is accepted by them and solidified in their ideas. It seems that they think this is a matter of course and cannot be refused, and even women are willing and merciless about it. So Zhao An, the mother, believed in the so-called "rich life" of her daughter in the fortune-telling book. She imagined that the beauty, fullness and innocence of her daughter Tess would surely conquer Alec. She dressed Tess up and sent her to the manor to raise chickens as Alec said. The D 'Urbervilles are vain and full of joy. They think that it is a great use value for them to present Alec's daughter, who is just right for her eyes (that is, her aesthetic taste). I hope that through such an exchange, more value can be obtained for them.

If Freud's psychoanalytic theory is used to examine Tess's spiritual world, it is not difficult to find that Tess actually acts according to the "realistic principle". Although she loves, hates, complains and suffers, in the final analysis, her ideal has not surpassed the "rules of the game" formulated by the patriarchal society. Although she struggled with male chauvinism, she still fell into the aesthetic framework of men to women. For example, Tess hopes that her body will appear intact in front of clay and will never be destroyed. For example, although Tess was abandoned by Clay, she was still waiting for him to change his mind. No matter how much pain and humiliation she endured, she still expected to stay with her beloved Clay and be a gentle, obedient, virtuous and loyal "wife and mother".

2) Patriarchal system and female concept

From the analysis of Tess's mother Zhao An, she thinks that her daughter's beauty is a trump card. She hoped that Tess's cleverness would win the favor of her family. The best thing is "as long as she catches the trump card, she can crush him." I hope my daughter's beauty can help Tess become a lady. She knows that the beauty of women in that society may be dangerous, but it may also be an opportunity. "The deep truth is that women in a patriarchal society exchange her sexual intercourse for her survival. Or she has to hand over her gender in order to survive. " [9] So Tess fell into a dangerous conspiracy. When Zhao An learned that her daughter had lost her virginity on Alec, she actually had a hunch that Alec would marry Tess sooner or later. She clearly knew the consequences and countermeasures, and told her daughter, "In that case, you can't try to propose to him!" " "Since there is such a thing, other women, no matter who they are, should do it" (P 1 12). Later, her daughter wrote to tell her that she would be Angie's wife, and Zhao An wrote back warning: "Don't show him your past troubles little by little" (P264). As a woman who has lived in the society of that era for so many years, she knows that women's social orientation is beyond their control.

Similarly, for Father John, in the traditional concept, Tess, as a daughter, is regarded as a treasure by her father and a gift that men can give to others. Women who are of value to men in the traditional sense also have exchange value among men. Women's own price is established, branded by their father or husband, and their value in sexual business exchange is certain. In the words of Strauss: "She is the currency, and' her exchange' constitutes the society." [10] According to this anthropological point of view, the daughter has become a symbol of wealth, and the potential transmission from one man to another is the guarantee of psychological and social "wealth".

3) Social etiquette and women's ideas

In such a society, women's status is only determined by their gender, so chastity as a woman has become a decisive factor in establishing their basic status. The traditional deep-rooted concepts of morality and chastity are solidified in Tess's thoughts. Therefore, after losing her virginity, Tess once felt that she had lost the right to live. She began to tremble helplessly, filled with resentment: "I regret having children, whether there or elsewhere" (P 103). The painter brushed the epigrams in the Bible in front of her, and she felt scared and hit, and even subconsciously thought she was a "witch girl", or even worse. Tess unconditionally obeyed religious consciousness and social customs. Therefore, after being raped, her first thought was not hate, but her own impurity. After winning clay's love, her deepest feeling is guilt, followed by a sense of belonging.

In the old concept represented by Genesis in the Old Testament, God made Eve out of a rib of Adam, so women were "destined" to be taken out of men. Adam's fall is eating the forbidden fruit of Eve's "Garden of Eden" lured by snakes. In a sense, women hurt men, so it seems that women should have a deeper sense of original sin than men. They feel more guilty than men, at the same time, they also have more scrutiny and severe condemnation of themselves and more tolerance for men. God has also set for women that "you should admire your husband, and your husband will rule you". [1 1] The traditional deep-rooted religious thought has solidified in Tess's mind, and there is no "I" in her mind. As a wife, she is only an accessory of her husband. This attachment is heartfelt, natural and conscious. However, instinctive consciousness has a rebellious and rebellious ideology in this truly pure female mind. She is innocent and should not get such a result, but this subconscious voice is so weak that the overwhelming judgment of power on her "crime" drowned her voice.

Feeling sad and regretful, she regarded herself as a criminal who longed for forgiveness. With a sense of inferiority, she kept explaining and demanding to Angie, and she built her position on Angie's love. What she longs for is a marriage based on inequality, and what she longs for is the opportunity to belong to a patriarchal society. She compared her relationship with Angie to "master" and "slave", indicating that she would be his slave as long as he was willing to live with her. She hopes to redeem her "sin" through these hardships.

Tess is the victim of the conflict between her personality and society, and also the victim of different forces represented by Alec and Angie influenced by male chauvinism. She is a pure and complete woman, but she is always torn apart by the two forces represented by Alec and Angie. Her body was defiled by Alec and her spirit was abandoned by Angie. As a victim, she didn't realize how to actively seek self-integrity until the last moment. However, the female status that she has been striving for and fighting for all her life has never been realized.

The establishment of women's status in that era must be pursued under the condition of pain and sores. Tess was cheated of her virginity and became an "unclean" woman because she was pure and innocent. Because of kindness and sincerity, she missed the wedding happiness in sight and became an abandoned dissatisfied housewife; What's more, obsessed with the true nature of life, she lifted sword of vengeance, eventually killed Alec, who ruined her life, and finally was forced to hang herself and became a victim on the altar. Tess's passionate love led to her separation from society and her ultimate death. All these tragic experiences were carefully planned and designed by ruthless fate. The master of the universe, who arranges the world, has covered the good people and kind people in the ethical and moral sense in a dilemma without mercy through the huge net of fate. From the beginning, Tess had no freedom of choice. She not only became a victim of patriarchy, but also became a victim of patriarchy.

In the final analysis, Tess's awakening and resistance is not based on the awakening of self-consciousness, but another kind of "selflessness" and "selflessness" that she shows under the oppression of the patriarchal society. Tess's "unconscious" awakening and resentment is aimed at Alec in form, and strictly speaking, it has not really risen to the height of criticizing and resisting male chauvinism. In the predicament, at the moment of despair, she still gave her fate to a man, which we can understand as a contradictory and helpless choice for her. All she did was prove to Clay and herself that she would always belong to Clay, his "husband". Tess's killing Alec is the best proof of her loyalty to Clay. She has been burdened with a heavy heart for most of her life, and finally has a calm and relaxed sense of relief and a hotbed of rest. She cut off Alec's hand, and her strong sense of atonement and passionate and loyal love for Clay were a sword that drove Tess to the wall in this patriarchal society.

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Note: The above original quotations are all from Tess of the D 'Urbervilles translated by Zhang Guruo, People's Literature Publishing House, 1980 edition.

[1] Xu Yugan, Cui et al. Going to the depths of women, Beijing Normal University Press 1993.

[2] Huang Lin, Wang Guangming, "Gender Dialogue" China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Press 200 1 P3.

[3] Xu Yugan, Cui et al. "Towards the depths of women" Beijing Normal University Press 1993.

[4] Ma Xian's "The Bible Deconstruction of Tess's Tragic Image" (Foreign Literature Research, No.3, 2002)

[5] Gao Wanlong's Feminism and British Novelists (Foreign Literature Review 1997 No.2)

[6] Zou Guangsheng's Interpretation of Female Images in Western Male-dominated Discourse "Studies on Foreign Literature" 1999 No.3.

[7] Fang Cheng "Psychoanalysis and Postmodern Critical Discourse" 200 1 P205

[8] Zheng Shoujiang, "Out of the cage of metaphor-feminist perspective" (Journal of Sichuan International Studies University 200 1 No.5)

[9] Huang Lin, Wang Guangming, "Gender Dialogue" China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Press 200 1 P 166.

[10] Fang Cheng's psychoanalysis and postmodern critical discourse 200 1 P207

Old Testament Genesis Chapter III Bible (Old Testament) P4

refer to

1. Contemporary Feminist Literary Criticism, edited by Zhang Jingyuan, Peking University Publishing House, 1992.

2. Fang Cheng's Psychoanalysis and Postmodern Critical Discourse (200 1 Edition)

3. Xu Yugan, Cui et al. Going to the depths of women, Beijing Normal University Press 1993.

thank you

On the occasion of the successful completion of my graduation thesis, first of all, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor Professor Zhang Shijun for his careful guidance. I have been studying this topic with Professor Zhang since my junior thesis, and I will continue to study this topic in my senior thesis. In this process, Professor Zhang gave me many valuable suggestions, which enabled me to constantly improve the theoretical system of the thesis. In addition, Professor Zhang's rigorous attitude and strict requirements for academics have also benefited me a lot, enabling me to further explore topics and improve my ability. Here I sincerely thank Professor Zhang!

As the final report of my four-year study in college, my graduation thesis can't be separated from the teaching given to me by my Chinese department teacher during these four years. I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all these tireless teachers!