摘 要

托马斯·哈代是英国维多利亚时代著名的小说家。他是一位文体学大师，擅长在小说中运用意象和象征主义手法。《德伯维尔·苔丝》是其最著名的代表作。这部小说显著的写作特征之一是大量使用意象，这些意象具有多种象征意义，表现了哈代的自然观和女性观，折射出了小说的主题思想。本文将分析这部小说里众多意象中“水”这一意象，旨在为更好地理解这部小说的主题以及更好地欣赏其艺术特色提供一个新的视角，同时也突出了意象分析在文学研究方面的重要性。

本文共有五个章节。第一章介绍了作者托马斯·哈代的基本情况和小说《德伯维尔·苔丝》的主要内容以及研究现状。主体部分的三个章节分析了“水”这一意象的三个例子，它们分别是布莱克摩尔河、洗礼之水和弗鲁姆河。布莱克摩尔河象征着纯真，也象征着苔丝命运的分界线；洗礼之水象征着净化和拯救，同时也是主人公苔丝的化身；弗鲁姆河象征着遗忘、活力和希望。最后，本文得出的结论是：“水”这一意象在小说中的不同阶段和不同地方有着不同的象征意义，反映了这部小说蕴含的宿命论以及对工业化和父权制度的批判等多种主题。

关键词：《德伯维尔·苔丝》；水；意象；象征

Abstract

Thomas Hardy is an eminent British novelist in the Victorian Age. He is a great stylist who is good at using imagery and symbolism. Tess of the D’Urbervilles is his most famous masterpiece. This novel is characterized by using many images with various symbolic meanings which show Hardy’ s view of nature and women and echo the novel’s theme. This paper analyzes the images of “water” in the novel so that its theme can be better understood and its artistic characteristics can also be better appreciated. Moreover, the image analysis as an important method in literary study is to be highlighted.

This paper consists of five chapters. The first chapter introduces Thomas Hardy and the novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. The main body includes three chapters which respectively touch upon three images of “water”: the river Blackmoor, the baptismal water and the river Froom. The river Blackmoor is the symbol of innocence and the dividing line of the heroine’s life; the baptismal water is the symbol of purification, salvation and the heroine herself; the river Froom is the symbol of forgetfulness, vitality and hope. The final chapter is the conclusion, stating that the images of “water” in different phases and places have different symbolic meanings which are related to the theme of fatalistic tragedy and criticism on industrialization and patriarchy.

Key Words: Tess of the D’Urbervilles；water；imagery；symbolism

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Hardy and Tess of the D'Urbervilles  1

1.2 Literature Review 2

1.3 The Significance and Layout of This Paper 3

2 The Image of the River Blackmoor 4

2.1 Symbol of Innocence 4

2.2 Symbol of a Dividing Line 6

3 The Image of the Baptismal Water 8

3.1 The Religious Meaning of Baptism 8

3.2 Symbol of Purification 8

3.3 Symbol of Salvation 9

3.4 Symbol of Tess Herself 10

4 The Image of the River Froom 13

4.1 Symbol of Forgetfulness 13

4.2 Symbol of Vitality and Hope 14

5 Conclusion 16

5.1 Summary 16

5.2 Further Study 16

References 17

Acknowledgments 19

The Analysis of the Image of "Water" in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

1 Introduction

1.1 Hardy and Tess of the D'Urbervilles 

Thomas Hardy is an English novelist and poet. He is a Victorian realist, much influenced by George Eliot and Charles Dickens. He is most famous for his novels set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex. His novels can be classified into three types: novels of environment and character, novels of romance and fantasies and novels of ingenuity. Among them, novels of environment and character are the most famous ones, including Far from the Madding Crowd, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure. Hardy often explores the declining rural society, the tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances, and what he calls the "ache of modernism"(Hardy, 2012, p.131). As for his novels’ artistic characteristics, although he keeps the tradition of realism, his works are also characterized by symbolism, allusion, metaphor and some other modernist elements.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is Hardy’ s masterpiece. It tells the tragic fate of the heroine Tess. She is a beautiful and innocent country girl who is seduced by her master Alec and gets pregnant but loses her baby not long after his birth. Later she is deserted by her husband Clare on their wedding night because of her terrible past. Then she is forced to go back to Alec. When Clare comes to her for reunion, she kills Alec and spends a short time with her lover. Finally, she is executed.

This novel receives mixed reviews when it first appears, in part because it challenges the sexual morals of the late Victorian England. However, Hardy pays great tribute to the heroine Tess and adds to the novel a subtitle “A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented”. "Hardy' s feelings for her were strong, perhaps stronger than for any of his other invented personages" ( Miller, 2008, p.119).

1.2 Literature Review

Hardy’ novels have been studied by scholars at home and abroad for over 100 years. Both the content and the form of his novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles have been chosen as research targets.

As for the research on the content, this novel has been analyzed in different viewpoints, like views of philosophy, sociology and so on. Aviram discusses “women’ s autonomy and the realities of female criminality”(Aviram, 2010, p.156) based on the character Tess. One theme of this novel that has been frequently studied is the theme of tragedy. Yu Kun points out Tess’ s tragic fate is the result of “the destructive impact of industrialization” and “the hypocrisy of patriarchy”(Yu Kun, 2011, p.71). Another theme is the relationship of nature and human beings, which is often probed into from the perspective of ecocriticism. Jia Pei claims that industrialization damages the natural ecology and man’s spiritual ecology, that man should abandon the idea of dualism and keep in harmony with nature(贾培, 2010). Feminist themes are hot topics in recent years. Some critics focus on Hardy’ s views on the standard of virtue in the Victoria Age, the relationship between love and marriage, the relationship between sex and marriage, the images of new women under patriarchy and so on. Zhong Weixuan chooses the female images in Hardy’ s novels as examples to study feminist consciousness(Zhong Weixuan, 2014). Moreover, the combination of feminism and ecocriticism is applied to interpret the novel’s theme. Yu Kun explores the relationship between Tess and nature, and criticizes hierarchical dualism and male domination(于坤, 2006). Lv Zhenhua and Chen Baodi analyzes the character of Tess from the perspective of eco-feminism(Lv Zhenhua, Chen Baodi, 2014). There are also some modernist themes in this novel, like spiritual isolation and loneliness, impossibility of self-fulfillment and disillusion alienation (Guan Yanjun, 2013) and so on.

Other articles touch upon such artistic characteristics as the poetic language and circle structure in this novel. The analyses of imagery, symbolism, allusion, archetypes in this novel is becoming more popular in recent years. Generally, a novel contains several elements like plot, character, theme, point of view, image, symbol, tone and so on. Among them, the image plays an important role in understanding the novel’s theme and appreciating its form. Imagery and symbolism are the distinct feature of the novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Zhen Qi analyzes several biblical archetypes in the novel and points out that Tess is the symbol of Eve and Christ (甄琦, 2011). Bao Wanyu and Bu Xiaowei analyze the novel’s imagery and symbolism in the characterizations of main characters, and show that “Hardy has an extremely pessimistic view on fate, nature and has a negative attitude towards urbanity”(Bao Wanyu, Bu Xiaowei, 2009, p.67). Qi Yonghui studies several natural images in the novel, like birds, strawberry, the season of spring and so on (Qi Yonghui, 2007). Sun Gengmei and Zhou Juntao illustrate the symbolic meaning of the confession scene in the novel (Sun Gengmei, Zhou Juntao, 2014).