Causes of Tragedy of Tess of the D’UrbervillesAbstract: Tes s of the D’Urbervilles, the greatest novel of British famous writer Thomas Hardy, describes the unfortunate, short life of a poor peasant girl, Tess.It is also a realistic novel which reflects the miserable fate of the individual farmer of England in the late of 19th century. Tess’s tragedy is a true portrayal of the poor of her time. The cause of her tragedy is always a concern of people. Key words: Tess；destiny tragedy；accidental tragedy；psychological determinism What is the dominant force that leads to the tragedy of Tess? Why is inevitable for her to avoid the unfortunate fate? It is a key to analyze this female image. In the novel, the author, Hardy offered the whole society a thoughtful question through the tragic sufferings of Tess. He said: Such a beautiful girl, who is so sensitive like gossamer and at that time so pure like snow. Why did it happen to her fate to be covered with that rough shadow? The profound philosophy from thousands of years is not able to explain the fact according to the traditional concept on order. A series of questions and confusion of the author, all of these just prove the necessity to find out the essential cause of Tes s’ tragedy.The destiny tragedy opinion scholar thought that the unfortunate of Tess’ life results from heredity gene of her noble blood, and the presage of certain inauspicious fate. The scholars prove it by quoting the sight line from the other characters in the novel. The ancestor of Tess is the old knight aristocrats. Although her forefathers had been reduced to poverty, neither rich nor famous any longer, she was still the descendant of the D’Urbervilles family, the noble blood relationship. And it is easily for her to become enamored. Besides, her obedience is also a deadly cause for tragedy. When she was in first sight of Angel Clare, evidently, she was enamored for him, but Clare did not dance with her. At last Tess was raped by this bloodthirsty devil. The destiny tragedy thought that she deserved it. When Clare sleepwalked, he put Tess into a stone coffin in an old temple. All of these facts make the people believe that Tess’ suffering is a trick that the God played on her.The accidental tragedy scholars think that the inevitability of Tess’tragic fate is result from certain occasional incidents. As the novel mentioned, if her horse,the prince had not been crashed to death by the postal car, Tess would not have to go to work for the chicken house of the D’Urbervilles. Then, she would not be raped by Alec and had not had the love baby, and she would not be censured by the others. Namely, if only there was no the first accidental incident happened to her, all kinds of unfortunate and miserable ending would not occur latter. Just because of a little wrong step, it leads to being negative in the latter matters and finally falls into the dark abyss. All of these incidents lead to more unfortunate of Tess. These explanations, obviously, are ridiculous, because the logic of life does not equal with the principles of literature work creation. And the authentic of art dose never contradict with the fortuity of incident. If you want to have endless creative inspiration, as long as the chance will do.”The practice proves that, the necessity of life is presented by certain fortuity. The coincidence in the literature works are an expression skill that the writer refine from all kinds of life materials to make them centralized, well-knit and concise. Both coincidence and fortuity in art are the writer’s special method to comb out images, integration the plots. The aim is to make the literature work dramatically.The psychological determinism scholar considers that Tess’tragedy is determined by the psychology quality of the male character in the novel. Contemporary British critic Leon Waldoff made an explanation for it in 1979. He thought that Tess’ fate is controlled by the men’s paradox attitude towards the women in physical and mental.When his ideal Tess sharply contradicts with the one in real life, he could not accept it. And Clare sent Tess back her home and required she could not go to find him unless he allowed. From then on, they separated. For a few years, they never met each other. Clare once explained to his parson father, he did not wish to become a parson as his brothers because the church was too strict to allow people to think freely. The reason why Clare loves Tess is that Tess is a very beautiful, poetic and industrious simple. She was expected to be his good wife. Seen from the surface, the love between them is a spirit of self-sacrifice of Clare with no minding whether Tess was poor or lowly. In fact, it is totally out of the bourgeois utilitarian socialist. The vindication is a self-exposure of the criteria of choosing life and love. The utility is obvious. Then let’s come back to the psychology. When Clare knew the truth, he abandoned Tess and went to Brazil alone. His change in psychology controlled Tess’fate. It is he who made Tess fall into despair finally. At last, in order to fight against the unfair, she killed Alec, became a murder. This kid of theory is according to the Floyd’s psychoanalysis concept. I think, except Tess’own character factor, her tragedy is mainly decided by her economic status and social situation.Tess and her family went from bad to worse. The novel also is description of the completely collapsing of rural peasant system in the late 19th century, and the collapsing of the free economic structure. It is a process that the old system is replaced and engulfed by the powerful capitalist mode of production. It also helps to bring about her unfortunate circumstances. As a result, Tess’ fate is not an individual accidental tragic incidence but a tragic event of society. The author conveys it in the way of metaphor. Meanwhile, Tess’fate also could be defined as a result of the capitalistic he needn’t be responsible for anyone. Instead, living in a patriarchal society, having impure, Tess was abandoned by her love, family and society. She was a so kind, obedience, pure girl. But the society ignored all her virtue, it only stresses her impurity. Both the personal reason and the social one, finally, force Tess become a murder and joints their forces in bringing about her destruction.Works CitedHardy, Thomas. Tess of D’Urbervilles. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1994. Chen Jia. Selected Readings in English Literature. Beijing: The Commercial Press,2000.Liu Bingshan. A House History of English Literature. Zhengzhou: Henan People’s Publishing House,2002.丁芸. 英美文学研究新视野[M]. 浙江: 浙江大学出版社，2005.刘文荣. 19世纪英国小说史[M]. 上海: 中国社会科学出版社，2004.托马斯哈代. 苔丝[M]. 北京: 北京燕山出版社，2005.张中载. 托马斯哈代――思想和创作[M]. 四川: 外语教学与研究出版社，1987.Lu 7。