Darwinism And The Sociality Of Tess's Tragedy

Tess of the d'Urbervilles is usually treated as the best of Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels and one of the tragedies with the deepest connotations in the history of English literature. Since its publication in 1891, it has invited different schools of critical theories and has been subjected to a multitude of interpretations. Nevertheless, most of these criticisms and interpretations focus upon one goal, that is, to probe into the roots of Tess's tragedy. Some critics attribute Tess's tragedy to Tess's obedient and passive character; some others to the Victorian double-standard of sexual morality; others to the dominant patriarchy and masculinism. All these criticisms conducted before have revealed the roots of Tess's tragedy from a certain perspective; however none of these have been able to exhaust its sources, which always invite further explorations and new insights.This thesis attempts to probe into the root of the profound sociality of Tess's tragedy in the light of the theory of Darwinism. It is my argument that Hardy responds actively to Darwinism with his belief in Darwinism including desperation with Christian God, compliance with the three principles of natural selection, and application of the law of evolution to human society. Under the forces of natural selection, the core component of Darwinism, Tess who is pure and natural but weak is doomed to fail in her struggle for love and happiness against the strong and dominant Victorian environment, just as the weak must be exterminated out of the fierce competition against the strong in accordance with the law of biological evolution.The thesis consists of five parts: The Introduction, recollecting and summarizing the previous criticisms of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the roots ofTess's tragedy in particular, leads to the proposal that the spirit of Darwinism reflected in Tess contribute to the inevitability of Tess's tragedy. Chapter One discusses the essence of Darwinism and its influence upon Hardy as well as his major works. Chapter Two is an examination of the disappearance of God in the eyes of Thomas Hardy. Chapter Three analyzes the principle of natural selection running through Tess including the principle of adaptation, struggling for existence and heredity. The conclusion summarizes the aspects of Darwinism reflected in Tess, makes a brief analysis of the significance of this research and finally points out that Darwinism contributes to the inevitability of Tess's tragedy.