A Comparative Study Of The Heroines In Tess Of The D’urbervilles And Jane Eyre On Different Destiny

Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles was the most mature novel of his realistic ideology and art in the 19 th century.It is the excellent work which makes Hardy win the world reputation.In Victorian novels,Hardy enriched the tragic art with his unique novels of “character and environment”.Tess’ s tragic fate was the most attractive and its tragic connotation was the most profound and abundant,and the causes of its tragedy were also the most complicated.“Tess of the D’Urbervilles”,depicts a pure,beautiful,noble,and hard-working rural girl——Tess,when she lost her chastity unfortunately,she has been desperately killed by indifferent society and decadent morality,she killed Alec who made her lose the important things in her life——chastity and made her life miserable and unfortunate.In the novel,we can see that Tess fights against her destiny again and again,but she fails again and again,and suffers great painsuntil the final ruin.We have been greatly shocked by Tess’ s story,and we would like to know the reasons of her tragedy.I will try to explore the causes of the heroine’s tragedy from these aspects,the factors of family environment,the factors of society,the factors of religion and the factors of personal reasonsto study the tragic causes of the heroine and its tragic significance.In the nineteenth century,there was an important literary work in Britain,and its author was a female,that is,the renowned female novelist of critical realism Charlotte Bronte and her representative masterpiece——Jane Eyre.It was the background of the British Industrial Revolution in the later period,with the heroine Jane Eyre’s experience as the main line.Through the protagonist Jane Eyre’s growth experience and twists and turns’ love story between Jane Eyre and Rochester,it tells us agirl with inferiority complex turning into a girl with self-improvement and self-confident,successfully creating a country girlimage of humble birth,who suffers the twists and turns of life but exerts unyielding pressure against the conventions and always adheres to the maintenance of independent personality and pursues individual freedom all the time.Charlotte Bronte explores Jane Eyre’s resisting consciousness,reflected in her struggle for freedom,equality,independenceand respect for women.In the Gateshead Hall,Jane Eyre turns from being obedient into fighting for survival,and in Lowood,she fights for respect and equality for women and for the true love.Finally she wins Rochester’s love and gains equality.In this age,people are crazy to worship money,Jane Eyre,an image created for resisting the materialistic world is still of profound significance.The first chapter is the introduction part.It gives a brief introduction to the background of Thomas Hardy,Charlotte Bronte and their works,and then makes a summary of the similaritiesbetween Thomas Hardy and Charlotte Bronte and proposes the main theme of this dissertation.The second chapter explores the reasons of the heroine Tess’ s tragedy.In the Victorian era,although the causes of its tragedy are complicated,the heroine has experienced the factors of family environment,the factors of society,the factors of religion and the factors of personal reasons,which are the main reasons to lead to her tragedy.The third chapter analyzes the perfect transformation of Jane Eyre.Her reasons for success are her life experience and outlook of love,and the influences of the people on Jane Eyre including Rochester’s influence and a hidden heroine’s influence,and the transformation of Jane from youthhood to adulthood that makes her acquire comparatively perfect love.The fourth chapter discusses the reasons why both Tess and Jane Eyre are in the same social age,but get different endings,the reasons for a girl peacefully moving toward the execution ground,and the reasons forthe otherstruggling for her equal marriage and love.Here are the authors’ intentions,it tells us that their characters determine their fates,and theiroutlooks of love affect their destinies.The fifth chapter is the conclusion part.In the present real world,people are frantically drowned out of love for money and status,let us break away from the secular hustle and bustle,let us own our independent personality and be a woman with self-esteem,self-love,self-reliance and self-confidence.