The Inevitability of Tess’s Tragedy

Abstract

Thomas Hardy is the influential English novelist and realist writer in the nineteenth century. His masterpiece Tess of D'Urbervilles has won him the world prestige. Tess’s tragic fate is the core and clue of the novel. By analyzing the contemporary social, historical and cultural backgrounds and the heroine's character flaws, this paper points out that Tess's tragedy is caused by women's status of economic appendages and the subordinate position in society. Tess’s tragedy in life is inevitable. The arrangement of the plot structure also reflects the fatalism views of Hardy, and renders the necessity of the heroine's tragic destiny.