苔丝的反叛精神

 
I. Different Reasons for the Rebellion of Tess
A. Reasons for Subsistence
1. A Hard Life for Peasants
In Tess’s time, the society is full of tremendous changes in almost every respect. The industrial revolution continues to develop in spite of the social evils that accompanied. The emergence of locomotives throws Britain into a frenzy of railway building. Agriculture is further mechanized. Trade and commerce grow apace, driving more peasants, hand spinners and weavers to the crowded factories of the smoky cities. The great transformation makes England from an agricultural base to an industrial base, under the process of industrialism and the disintegration of peasantry. More and more peasants become impoverished and live a miserable life. Rural workers produce beyond subsistence. As a daughter of a poor villager, and a wage-laborer later, it is very difficult for Tess to live a better life with her family.
2. Unequal Morality for Female
The highest virtue of the Victorian woman is sexual purity, and adultery is the worst of all possible sins. Her dress concealed her whole body except her hands and face, and to show an ankle or a shoulder is considered ‘improper’. Public notions on sexual morals are that woman must remain virgin before marriage, but men could have their fling. The sexual morals are presumably rooted in people’s rational minds: when either men or women engaged in sexual lapses, the former would be forgiven and the later would be condemned. As Engel’s in the "family, private ownership and national origin," the book states: "All women are considered serious offenders and the legal and social consequences of everything. For men are considered an honor, at best, but can appreciate the moral acceptance of small stain." It seems so innocent from the dialogue, “How could I be expected to know? I was a child when I left this house four months ago, why didn’t you tell me there was danger in men-folk? Why didn’t you warn me? Ladies know that…” [1]. But Tess wins no comfort and consolation, instead, “she is surrounded by ‘a cloud of moral hobgoblins’ which terrify her ‘without reasons” [1]. Then, the same sexual experience, Angle is pardoned but she is abused. Is it equal that any kind of sexual encounter would earn a young woman moral rebuke and social condemnation, regardless of how the man involved conducted himself? Moreover, the whole society turns against Tess, which aggravates her miserable life.