Hardy’s works have an far-reaching effect on English literature, for his works not only heritage the specialties of the Victorian Era but also pave a new way for the realistic literature in the 20th century.
2.2 Fatalism
2.1.1 Origin of Fatalism
Fatalism is a view that has existed for a long time coming from Mesopotamia and Egypt, as Jean Bottero once said that every aspect of modern civilization is affected by Mesopotamian culture. ( Bottero Jean,2004:135) It converts into a branch of Indian philosophy with the combination of its issue about fate，which holds that we are powerless to do anything other than what we actually do. It is believed that something in one’s life is destined to occur regardless of human’s efforts.
The idea of fatalism also appears in Chinese traditional cultural, as the old thing goes--Life and death are destined; riches and honor depend on God. This pays much attention to destiny but emphasizes people’s initiative ability.
2.1.2 Main idea of fatalism
Fatalism is a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate or inevitable predetermination, that is to say everything in life is predetermined and it is destined to happen and people can not restrain form mock or tease by their own fate.
Fatalism can be divided into two categories—non-rational fatalism and rational fatalism. The former was popular in the ancient times when the productive force was very low and people had no idea of the causes of changes in nature or in society; while the latter came into being after Darwin published his Origin of Species, in which he denied the existence of holy God whom had been worshiped for the almighty power, instead, Darwin declared that human being are chosen by nature and that it was circumstance around that would determine one’s fate. (Zhang Xue, 2008:209) The reason why one can not get away from his predetermined destiny is that human being is a part of nature, so they are definitely controlled by the environment around. For example, Tess of the d’Urbervilles is pervaded with rational fatalism, in which Tess are destined to have a suffering life.
Though these two forms of fatalism differ from each other, there is at least one thing in common, that is, one’s fate is destined and can not be changed under human action.
2.3 Hardy’s Fatalism
Hardy once said that irrationalism seemed to be the governing rule of the universe. (Williams Merryn.2005:76) Hardy spent most of his lifetime in Victorian Era (1837-1909) which was famous for ethic morality. At the mean time, England was marching toward industrialization and agricultural mechanization, which left a lot of problems, especially the sharp confliction between the proletariat and the bourgeois. On one hand, the whole society developed, on the other hand, the rural area had world-shaking changes and people suffered a lot. Though Hardy felt sorry for those poor people, he can not explain this phenomenon but to attribute all this to destiny.
In addition, Hardy was deeply influenced by Schopenhauer’s voluntarism. He once said that his philosophy was “a development form Schopenhauer through later philosophers.” (Robert Schweik, 2003:71) So he believed that there was always something mysterious controlling one’s fate, which people can not get away from. With this thought in mind, Hardy set a chain of coincidence or accidental events in his works in order to give readers an impression that every one’s fate is predetermined and cannot be changed.
3 Influence of Fatalism on Tess’s Tragedy
3.1 A general introduction of Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Tess of the d’Urbervilles is one of the representatives of Hardy’s novels concerning “Characters and Environment”, which tells a tragedy of Tess, a naïve, brave and honest girl. Tess was ordered by her parents to visit their “relative”—a wealthy family, also a branch of d’Urbervilles family, but unfortunately she was seduced by Alec, the young master and had a baby. She returned home distained by her neighborhood, but the baby died before long. Upon the pressure, she had to go far away to work as a laborer in a dairy in Talbolthays in order to get rid of her disgraceful experience. There she met Angel, a gentleman from a clergy family full of honesty, integrity and love. The felt in love with each other irresistibly though Tess once had prevented herself form being loved only because of her own unrespectable past. They told each other their own disgraceful experience in the past, but Angel can not forgive Tess even though Tess had forgiven her, so he went to Brazil. After that, Tess had suffered a lot. Because of poverty, she went to another dairy –Port Bredy where she was scorned by the master because of some misunderstanding in the past. What’s worse, on account of her father’s death and the difficulty of her family’s livelihood, she had to return to Alec who was a preacher then for help though she did not want to. But unfortunately, Angel returned back and wanted to be with Tess again. Tess thought that it was Alec whom prevented Angel and her, so she killed Alec and lived peacefully with Angel for five days before she was arrested and hanged.
3.2 Fatalism Analysis in Tess of the d’Urbervilles
3.2.1 Hardy’s Fatalism Influence on Tess of the d’Urbervilles
As for the causes of Tess’s tragedy, most people attributed them to social circumstance, family factor and the character element. It is undoubtedly reasonable that these elements have a substantial effect on Tess’ tragedy. In addition, there is another factor that must not be ignored, that is Hardy’s fatalism in this novel. In order to goes smoothly to the ultimate tragedy, Hardy not only sets a chain of coincidence but also uses a large quantity of word like “ God”, “soul, heaven” to express that one’s destiny is predetermined and can not be surpassed by human behavior, which led the inevitable tragedy. The whole clue goes so smoothly that indicates Tess was pushed into tragedy step by step by all these coincidence.
3.2.2 The causes of Tess’s Tragedy
First, Tess’s tragedy tooted in her poverty-stricken family. Both of her parents are uneducated and shortsighted. Her father got drunk after he heard the news that he was the direct descendant of a ancient noble family-- d’Urbervilles, but Tess can not change that since she was born in such a family. (Zhang Jing, 2009:565) She had to send honey to the town, but unfortunately her old horse “Prince” was killed on the way due to an accident. This was unaffordable for her family, because the old horse was the only livelihood for the whole family. So unfortunately, Tess was sent to visit a wealthy “relative” in Trantridge even though she did not want to. There she was seduced by Alec and had a baby, thus she was no longer pure and marked with “disgrace” forever. Since then everything changed, Tess had forced to get away from her original life and to flee from indignity. It is not difficult to find out that Tess is doomed to meet Alec and it is destiny that can not be changed. Tess’s tragedy started from her struggling in her anguish life. (Qi Shouhua, 2001)
After being seduced by Alex, Tess suffered a lot, and then she left for Talbothays as a worker in a dairy. She intended to forget the past and leave peacefully, however “destiny “arranged a meet of Angel and her. They felt in love with each other and get married although Tess had had made up her mind not to be with Angel because of her disgraceful experience. But Tess did not want to cheat on Angel, she put all her past experience in an envelope hoping that Angel would forgive her, but unluckily, Angel did not see the envelope which had lying under the carpet thus Angel could not understand her fidelity, which finally led to the abandonment on the wedding night. It is more a destiny’s arrangement than a coincidence. Tess put her past experience into an envelope, which means that she give all her happiness to her destiny and let her fate to judge whether she would win. Actually Angel and Tess had met many years ago at a ball, but Angel did not invite her. If Tess had met the right person at the right time, she would have suffered so much. (Ma Yixiang, 1993)Anyway they felt in love. Upon the first sight, Angel thought that Tess must be the right wife for him, for she was so pure, beautiful and hard-working. And Tess also felt that Angel had all the qualifications for her. Although she felt guilty for her disgraceful past, she could not resist Angel’s passionate love. But unfortunately she was abandoned by her husband right on the wedding evening for Angel can not accept her past experience.
Unexpectedly, coincidence occurred once again. Tess went to Angel’s parents for help but drew back because of his brother’s insulting words on the way. But she met Alec once again who became a preacher then and wanted to gain Tess back through fawning on her. However, destiny chased on her once again since her father died and her house was taken back, she had to turn to Alec for help. At the moment she made up her mind to try to forget Angel and to live with Alec, Angel came back from Brazil and tried to reconcile Tess or too be with Tess once again. But he returned sorrowfully, which stimulated Tess’s intention to kill Alec. Tess had been thinking that Alec was the obstacle between Angel and her, besides; she could not stand Alec’s scornful word. Eventually, she spent her last five days with Angel before being arrested and hanged.
Under the influence of Hardy’s fatalism, Tess was doomed to step toward tragedy. (He Yun, 2010) Although all the coincidence seems accidental, the ultimate consequence is inevitable. Tess was chased by her fate or the chain of coincidence regardless how much effort she had tried. She cannot get rid of the arrangement of her destiny. In this novel, Tess went into tragedy under the guidance of Hardy’s fatalism.
3.3 Influence of Hardy’s Writing Style on Tess of the d’Urbervilles
“There are two events in 1940s that brought great changes to Dorsetshire—the spreading of railway to Dorsetshire and the abolishment of Food Law.”(Williams Merryn, 2005:90) In this campaign, the rural area was totally ruined by the industrialization, especially the peasants and the original life style. This can be regarded as the foundation of Hardy’s fatalism—on one hand, he felt deep sympathy toward those peasants for their miserable living condition, on the other hand, he felt powerless what to do while on the dilemma. As a realistic writer, Hardy witnessed the downfall of the peasants, but he did not know the tendency of the development of society, as a result, he could not understand the benefit of industrialization and contributed all the facts to a mysterious power—destiny. (Zhu Weizhi, 1994) This can be seen easily from his works, especially in Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
Besides, Hardy did not believe in God, instead he preferred science, especially Darwin’s Origin of Species. He believed that one had to compete if he wanted to be alive though sometimes he was destined to fail. This reflected in his works very often, especially in Tess of the d’Urbervilles. As he lived in rural area for his lifetime and was closely connected to the peasants and original customs, he could only see the poverty and bad condition brought by the industrialization while not the general trend. He believed that life was not easy for those poor people even they had tried their hardest, so he always reflected the good, old days in his works to express his regret and explain all this to “fate”.
“Once individuals conflict with the society in most ways of thinking, the world is destined to be pessimistic”. (Casagrade, Peter, 1992) Hardy described vividly many characters who were determined to fight for their own happiness.
4 Conclusion
As a realistic writer, Hardy described the perseverance of many common people during the fighting with unfair treating but with a tragic ending, which left us an impression of permission. Hardy put his theory of “fatalism” in most of his works, especially in Tess of the d’Urbervilles. He believed that people were always powerless in one’s destiny or some accidental factors no matter how hard they had tried. This seemed somehow pessimistic, but considering the background information at that time, it is not difficult to find out that Hard had tired to seek a proper way to release the poverty-stricken people but failed due to the environment he brought up and the limited attitude. But we cannot hastily draw a conclusion that Hardy’s works are meaningless due to the pessimistic opinion in them, instead we should realize that these works revealed not only the powerlessness or fear towards the unknown future world but also the brave confrontation and acceptance. Even though the result may not be satisfactory or tragic, one should still continue going on instead of drawing back. Just like Tess, even she had expected the final result, she tried to fight.
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