Causes of Tess’s personalities in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.doc

Causes of Tess’s personalities in Tess of the D’Urbervilles 　　Abstract: Tess of the DUrbervilles is generally acknowledged as one of the enduring masterworks of Thomas Hardy with abundant connotation. In this essay, the author would analyze the causes of the personalities of Tess in order to make a better understanding of this figure. Keywords: Tess of the D?Urbervilles ; Tess; personality 1. Historical reason In the end of 19th century when the capitalism mode of production invaded the remote backward agricultural area and made the small-scale farming by individual owners and old order collapses and brought the dominating farming laborers adversities. The startling contrast between the powerful consciousness of time and the pastoral ideal affects the characters of human unconsciously. The story of Tess just happened in such a rural background. The poverty of her family reflected the real living condition of the needy laborers in the countryside at that period of time. As the eldest daughter in such a family, Tess was partly educated, and then farmed and worked when she was still a teenager. She adapted herself to the changing rural economic situation to eke out a living, and became a member of the hired laborer class. Such a pure and honest girl like Tess, she was influenced by the environment around her deeply and accepted those historical reasons without any choice. 2. Living environment In the end of 19th century, the group of small farmers had a sharp conflict with capitalist. Small farmers were emerging and growing while capitalists were decaying and dying out. At that time, Tess was born in a poor tradesman?s family. She inherited many social opinion of the old generation including their moral ideas and living standard. In that environment, every person was tracing to the fame and money to raise their own power and change the living condition and so did Tess?s parents. It was reasonable for them to “sell out” their own daughter to strive for t