《德伯家的苔丝》中的景物描写的作用(3)
As time goes on, Tess becomes a typical representative in the literature history。 Her bravery to break the old-fashioned morality and her beautiful soul as a woman figure makes her image charming and attractive。 Furthermore, the scenery description in TD is actually regarded as the original stage of naturalism。
Naturalism was a literary tendency。 It prevailed in the later 19th century in Europe and was in fact a trial to be faithful to nature。 In literature, it was defined as a mood with frankness and accuracy。 Human beings were modeled by heredity and environment of which they are unable to take control。 Naturalists tended to show human being’s struggling for survival。 Undoubtedly, Tess of the D'Urbervilles was the typical representative of the naturalism (Yuan, 2010: 62)。
Hardy is good at scenery description; nature under his pen is beautiful, mysterious and humanized。 He views nature in an organic way and thinks that it has subjective mentality like human being。 With the usage of personification, he gives nature man’s thought and feeling and makes it full of vigor。 Tess is identified with nature。 Her mood would be infected by nature and her uneven fate is even consistent with the cycle of nature。
II。 Literature Review
As one of Hardy’s best-known novels, TD is the first typically English novel in style, language and theme。 Thus, scholars at home and abroad are all interested in researching on it。
The research area is perse, including theme discussion, language discussion, etc。 Therefore, the in-depth investigation and study is endless。 Fortunately, previous studies have brought us lots of valuable views which act as a starting point and provide much useful information for further study。
Many foreign academicians started to pay attention to the study of TD in the late 19th century。 In 1895, Lionel Pigot Johnson firstly published The Art of Thomas Hardy, which was specialized in studying Hardy’s collection。 The book contained lots of research on Hardy’s thoughts and art。 In the 20th century, western research presented various situation。 Patrick Braybrooke’s Thomas Hardy and His Philosophy (1973) studied the causes of Hardy’s philosophy thoughts and found that the core of his thoughts was “inner will”。 The Nature Novel from Hardy to Lawrence (1977) written by J。 M。 Alcorn considered the theme of TD was criticism of social reality of Victorian time。 Thus, the tragedy of Tess could be radically attributed to Tess’ disloyalty to then social tradition。 In the article, John thought that Hardy wanted to express his opposed attitude toward the social situation and criticize the social reality which was under the control of capitalism。 The book A Preface to Hardy (2005) written by Merry William presented the theme of TD as “it is absolutely unfair for a poor woman like Tess in the ‘double standards’ of Victorian society。”(98) Therefore, he thought it was the “double standards” social system at that time that destroyed Tess。 Cheryll Glotfelty considered the theme as stress on the importance of money in transitional society in his work The Eco-criticism Reader-Landmarks in Literary Ecology (1996)。 He argued that it was the poor economic condition of Tess’ family that led to her misfortune。 Also, the whole novel was full of criticism of money evil。 As Cheryll Glotfelty commented, “had her family been better off, she would not have encountered such a disgrace and such a disastrous end。”(1996: 220)文献综述
There are also many domestic scholars devoting themselves to such a huge project of research。 In 1934, the earliest translation version of the novel appeared。 Since the 20th century, the study transferred its focus on the general depth think to evaluation。 From 1979 to 1989, only 15 Chinese critical papers were reviewed。 From 1990 to 1999, articles about TD reached 61。 From 2000 to 2009, relevant papers increased to 604, among which 415 were about the tragic fate of Tess。 They usually gave the opinion that the tragic fate of Tess was not accidental; it was the social injustice that should be to blame。