Destruction of a Pure Flower--Symbolism and Imagery in the Characterization of Tess of the D’urbervilles

哈代的《德伯威尔家的苔丝》,是一部诗化的小说,也可以说是一首优美的意象诗。作品中大量的象征主义和意象反映了该作者悲观主义的自然观,他善于通过意象和象征,表现对大自然的双重感受力。哈代还通过鸟的意象,黑夜的意象,及大量的富有寓意的自然意象等反映了悲观主义的命运观,这些意象和象征被看成人类命运的缩影。该文试图通过对意象和象征主义在人物形象的塑造中的运用及分析,探究哈代创作中的思想倾向及其艺术特性,尤其是他的悲观主义的自然观和命运观。

Tess of the D’Urbervilles, essentially, a poetic novel, or we say, it is a long imagery poem. There’re many allegoric images and symbols in this novel which are regarded as condensed pictures of human being’s tragic fate and concrete manifestos of Hardy’s view of nature and fate. By analyzing the symbolism and imagery in the characterizations of main characters—Tess, Alec, Angel, this thesis is meant to illustrate the author’s understanding of the destruction of this pure flower. Analysis and discussion have been done based on a lot of examples of images and symbols from the novel and the exploration of the art characteristics, Hardy’s pessimistic thinking tendency and its literary beauty. The results have shown that Hardy has an extremely pessimistic view on fate, nature and has a negative attitude towards urbanity. It may help readers have a better understanding of Tess of the D’Urbervilles and deeply perceive some art characteristics of the Hardy, 'the poet of nature'.