摘 要

《无名的裘德》是托马斯哈代作品中最受争议的小说。托马斯哈代是维多利亚时期英国小说家中最杰出的代表之一，他在小说创作中表达了对于悲剧的独特见解。然而，这部小说受到了广泛的关注，并且在英国文学史上影响很大。《无名的裘德》主要反映了中低阶层人们为生活的奋斗和对精神的追求，以及当时人们生活中的许多冲突，比如爱情和婚姻价值观，两性关系和社会道德观念等等。本文着重从不合理的教育和婚姻制度以及周遭环境的影响等方面分析造成裘德悲剧的原因。

本文分为四个部分，第一部分简要介绍了哈代的人生经历及他的著名小说《无名的裘德》；第二部分归纳了有关这部小说的国内外研究成果；第三部分从社会原因，自身原因以及周围人的影响等方面分析了裘德悲剧的原因。 最后一部分是对《无名的裘德》这一小说现实意义的分析。

关键词： 社会悲剧 教育 婚姻 宗教观点 性格 辛辣批评

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

中文摘要 iii

1. Introduction 5

1.1 A basic introduction of the writer 5

1.2 Introduction of the work 5

2. Literature Review 7

2.1 Previous studies about the background information 7

2.2 Previous studies about the reason of Jude’s tragedy 7

3. A Critical Analysis of the Tragic Factors in Jude the Obscure 9

3.1 Social background and ethics 9

3.2 The reasons for Jude’s tragedy 9

3.2.1 Educational system 9

3.2.2 Marriage system 10

3.2.3 Individual personality and environment 13

4. Conclusion 16

Works Cited 17

1. Introduction

1.1 A basic introduction of the writer

Thomas Hardy was known as a “sad and formidable” artist. “Sadness” comes from his own spirit, philosophical thought, and natural sentiment, but “sadness” does not mean “decadence”. “Fortitude” is Hardy’s main point in Victorian period in Britain. It is the true nature of the characters and works of artists, poets and novelists. Tragedy is the most important feature of Hardy’s novels, so the research in this area is still the focus in recent years.

1.2 Introduction of the work

Jude the Obscure, the last work of Thomas Hardy, is a full-length novel which narrates a tragedy of a man named Jude, who is a dedicated and industrious country young man. Heroin in this novel is cute and smart and most importantly, she is an individual with independent thinking and living ability. She despises common customs and rigescent religion. Nevertheless, their love isn’t accepted by their society. In desperation, Sue leaved from Jude and her excellent spirit has been abandoned and Jude, without hesitation, died in desperation.

This book describes the different stages of Jude’s life, and each stage is a turning point in his life. Jude was a man with diligence in study and high aspirations. He was a poor and obscure orphan of uncertain origin, living with his great-aunt at Marygreen, which is a decay and underdeveloped place. He not only fought for existence but also cherished great ambitions to strive for. To make his university dream come true, Jude worked hard and was a man deserved to be respected. At the age of sixteen, he had to work out to do hard labor, so as to assist his great-aunt, he tried his best to support the family, fetching water from the well and bringing bread to villagers when he only was a child. Although he already felt the misery of life, poverty and harsh environment did not quench his fervent interest and he didn’t quit his ambition. On the contrary, they became driving forces for him to work hard with an intention to change his humble fate, which push him advance.

He admired Richard Phillotson, a local school headmaster, a man of rich learning. In order to become a man useful to society and attend the university, he followed his footstep and read whatever books were available to him. Then, Arabella Donn, a butler’s daughter, seduced Jude to have relations with her and forced him to marry her by pretending to be pregnant. Jude was impelled towards the embrace of her for whom he had no respect and whose life had nothing in common with his own. The marriage was based on a lie and they shared little in temperament and pursuit of life. Their marriage finally broke down. Obviously, Arabella was not the kind of the woman for Jude.

In reading Jude the Obscure, we find that there are lots of reasons for Jude’s tragedy life and this will be discussed in the following sections.

1. Literature Review

Jude the Obscure is the most controversial novel of Thomas Hardy. Therefore, this novel received extensive attention and has a great influence in the history of British literature. The novel primarily reflects the living, striving and spiritual pursuit of people in the middle and lower classes. It discusses many conflicts in human activities, such as love and marriage values, sex relations, and social moral concept. The thesis focuses on analyzing the reasons of Jude’s tragedy from the unreasonable education and marriage system, and the influence of surrounding and personality.

2.1 Previous studies about the background information

What kind of tragedy were Hardy’s tragic novels? Undoubtedly, it was that of the conflict between human aspirations, desires and ambitions—the expressions of the Immanent Will and the force thwarting their realization, the conflict that ended with man’s death. What was then the force? This was the question to which Hardy had been making a persistent effort to find an answer in the writing of the tragic characters.

Hardy’s tragic consciousness of “character and environment novel” is connotatively rich and complex, which reflected his pessimism and uncover the evil depths and selfishness of human(Zhang Yang, 5). However, the connotation of “fate” manifests itself as an incomprehensible and unintentional meaning in ancient Greek tragedies, and more understandable in Hardy’s tragic novels.

2.2 Previous studies about the reason of Jude’s tragedy

At the end of the 19th century, many profound changes took place in urban areas in many aspects such as politics, economy, customs, values and so on due to the industrial civilization and the rapid growth of capitalist economy. His works reveal the tragic destiny of people particularly of women and criticize capitalist growth, legal system and religion for their hypocritical actions and the common value lies in—faced with tragic fate, holding the spirit of resisting balance, uncompromising, and struggling to the last breath of life. Obviously, Jude the Obscure was a social tragedy. It was a tragedy of a poor and obscure youth from the laboring class placed against the educational, religious, legal and marital systems of a class society. As a matter of fact, it was the clash between an individual of the oppressed and the society of bourgeois oppression. Jude’s tragedy was a miniature of the fate of the poor youth in that society.

Concerning the reason of Jude’s tragedy, various studies have been made. Some of those studies analyzed the reason in a systematical way, and some other studies deduced it from the condition of the whole society.