Author(s)

Jing Yan, Keyi Chen, Chunxin Bai, Sijie Wang, Yuping Wang, Yasi Shen

Corresponding Author

Keyi Chen

Abstract

In Tess of the d'Urbervilles (hereinafter called Tess), Thomas Hardy tells the tragic fate of Tess, an underclass woman in a remote English village under the background of urban-rural conflict. During the Industrial Revolution, mass production by machines gradually replaced manual labour. The peasants were further cruelly oppressed by the bourgeoisie. Hardy vividly created the image of Tess, the country girl showing the profound connection between the character, destiny and environment in the period of great social change. Based on the original intention of studying the tragic fate of the heroine Tess, this paper attempts to use qualitative analysis software MAXQDA to code statistics of Tess's character images, so as to realize the organic combination of rational data analysis and perceptual close reading of the text and to excavate the heroine’s main traits of character in Tess under the background of urban-rural conflict through fine grinding. Using quantitative data and graphic lists to reveal the inner relationship between Tess's character, destiny and the environment, thus providing a new way of thinking for the study of Tess.

Keywords

Tess, Urban-rural conflict, Qualitative analysis