The Function of the Landscape Description in Tess of the D’urbervilles

Chapter 1 setoff appearance Tess of the Durbervilles is an extraordinarily better-looking book, as easily as an extraordinarily moving iodine. Tess Durbey field of force, the daughter of a poor foolish peasant, who believes that he is the desc arresting(prenominal) of an ancient aristocratic family, first is seduced by Alec, the son of the neighboring family by the name of Durbervilles. because Tess encounters paragon Cl be, a man of sp atomic number 18 heed and the son of a clergyman, and they fall in bang with severally other. On the evening of their wedding ceremony, Tess confesses to saint her seduction by Alec, and past nonesuch rescinds her and leaves for Brazil by himself.Subsequently nonesuch adopts to to a lower placestand his moral and intellectual arrogance and searches for Tess, that to find that the extreme p everywherety of her family has driven her tooshie to Alec. So arduous is Tesss love for angel and so stringy her disgust at Alec when nones uch comes back to look for her that she kills Alec. After inter for a short period of time with Angel, afterwards sp terminaling a few days of loving reconciliation with Angel, Tess is arrested, sentenced to death for murder and put to death es opine writer price. The gloomily tragic atmosphere embedded in the fable is doubtlessly related to the author, Thomas stouts views of life sentence and populace.In addition, it fits in with braves rely to express the disaster that the valuable is rack and tangled by the irresistant force and at oddment is destroyed. Hardy is a swell-know pessimist and abides by the belief of fatalism that e reallything in the being is entertainled by the inwrought Will(Luo 1996 206), which has no passions, no consciousness and no knowledge of the differences meet by the reliable and the satanic and which is present in all parts of the universe and is impartially hostile towards human beings desire for joy and happiness(ibid. . So human bei ngs are doomed to failure when they struggle against the fell and nefariousness exigency, which is p ruby- bolshieestined by the Immanent Will. So theres no doubt the prevailing moods in Tess of the Durbervilles are tragic and gloomy. Tesss tragic assign moves the readers so directly and profoundly that they only steering on the set ining narration ab expose Tesss tragedy and s contain out applause to the authors genius on arranging untold(prenominal) secret plan. effective now a nonher unique characteristic of the allegorythe remarkableChapter 2 compendium of the Function of the Landscape Description on the Basis of Six Places on that point are six placesMarlott, Trantridge, Talbothays, Wellbridge flour-mills, Flintcomb-Ash and Stonehengeconstituting the foundation stone of this bracing as well as the pillar of Tesss sufferings and tragic fate. The landscape interpretations of these six places, machine-accessible with each other sequentially, ground level a ri ver which propels the tragic waves in Tesss life and soupcons its demeanor from the tooth root to the end of Tesss life.E really place represents one important period and level of Tesss life and they unite to line upher, reservation the maturement of the plot proceed forward compactly, smoothly and coherently, linking up incompatible episodes of Tesss life together, defining the basic tone of the setting. They bend the symbols that express the fate of Tess, symbolize what Tess is feeling and thinking and p vehementict a serial publication of tortures that Tess go out suffer from. 2. 1 Marlott 2. 1. 1 Tesss hometown Marlott is not only Tesss hometown where she indeed spends her happy times, to a gravider extent(prenominal) sarcastically, it is also the birth place of Tesss tragedy.It is a beautiful place and nonpluss amid the north-eastern undulations of the beautiful Vale of Blackmoor aforesaid, an engirdled and monastic region and this is a fertile and sheltered tract of country, in which the fields are never brown and the springs never dry(Hardy 1994 18). Not only does the indwelling beauty drift in Marlott, unless it has historical origins the vale was known in former times as the Forest of White Hart, from a curious legend of King Henry(ibid. ). So with its innately elegant scenery as well as its historical background, Marlott gives batch a feeling of comfort and relax.Then the heroine Tess queers her veil on an exciting eventMay-Day dance. She wears the washcloth gown and the red ribbon and she was a fine and detentionome fillenot handsomer than some others, barely her mobile peony mouth and thumping innocent affectionatenesss added eloquence to color and shape(ibid. 51). It seems that Tess, a disassemble of the natural man, a natural phenomenon herself, so innocent, pure, naturally beautiful, is in free musical harmony with the beautiful and historical place as well as the comfortable and happy atmosphere.But a carriage carr ying her drunk return breaks this harmony and some people begin to retrace jokes of her father which drops naive Tess in a deep shame. Then a young man of professional class takes part in the dancing. That beautiful place, such(prenominal) beautiful Tess and a handsome young man, these are, undoubtedly, the comp permite elements of romance. However, nothing romantic happens but the speculative and lost chance. Although the young man feels a infinitesimal bit macabre that he didnt dance with the pretty maiden, yet he is skittish to walk and dismissed the subject(ibid. 23) quickly and easily.The contrast between the beautiful landscapes and what Tess has encountered enables sensitive people to feel some tragic atmosphere, but it is so dim, thin and light, a handle(p) the haze that emerging in the morn that people will in short forget its existence and ignore it. But after reading through with(predicate) the full impudent, we give the bounce find it very romantic that Te ss and Angel encounter with each other at the beautiful May but its really regretful and sad that they let each other slip easily. We couldnt help asking why not Angel dance with Tess at that time and whence love her when Tess was 16? then maybe Tess can avoid so many another(prenominal) sufferings in the future. . 1. 2 The death of the horse Its unexpected but solid truth that the true life doesnt include such hopeful ifs for Tess. What is wait for Tess is the gloomy rear ender and sorrow. They kindred fresh buds conceal themselves in the beautiful and pleasing May, prying their chance and preparing for their complete appearance. With the development of the plot, we can feel that the darkness and tragedy is sucking the energy and maturation gradually. So Tesss duty and sufferings are also beginning to swell. When Tess helps her father deliver the beehives to the retailer, the Princeher fathers horse dies on the road.The hue of the landscapes of a explosive converts to so rrow. The atmosphere turned pale, the birds shook themselvesthe lane showed all its white featuresPrince go under alongside still and stark (ibid. 37). Pale white and stark advise Tesss moods after her murder of Prince. They express what Tess is thinking and feeling like a translation machine, they translate the inconspicuous emotion and home(a) sum of Tess and it is Tess herself that is really pale, stunned and disappointed in her body as well as her spirits. Then in her desp oxygenize Tess puts her hand upon the hole Princes wound(ibid. whereas this gesture is as absurdly ineffectual as all her motility will be and the only result is that she becomes splashed with blood(Van bloke 1953 430). Maybe this is the first time that Tess has manifestationd such a bloody(a) scene and it is also the first time that the author has referred to death and red blood in this novel. This scene staged at the beginning of the novel seems to give a hint at something. The hints become a littl e bit clear with more clues given by the author. The pointed shaft of the pusher had entered the breast of the unhappy Prince like a sword(Hardy 1994 37). Sword and bloods make us easily recall another scene that Alec is stabbed in the knocker with a knife when we read through this novel. It seems that at the beginning Tesss fate has been displayed to us implicitly. So this accident has a intemperate allusion to Tesss future life. The death of the horse is the beginning of Tesss tragic fate and forces Tess to leave her hometown and civilize at Trantridge where Tesss body and mind both confront with a fatal shock and destroy and in the first time people can clearly feel the tragedy abundant in the air. 2. 2 Trantridge 2. 2. 1 The SlopesWhen Tess is forced to Trantridge to work for her rich congener Durbervilles, she is stunned by Mrs Durbervilles housethe Slopes. The house, beyond Tesss expectation, is not an old mansion, instead, its almost parvenue with level brick lodge, surrounded by various trees and planting. The person in the house, the young Alec Durberville differed more from what Tess had expected than the house and grounds had differed. (ibid. 43) Tess primarily hopes an aged and honor face in an old mansion but what she sees is a beautiful and frivolous young man in a new house.The new house, new persons, everything is new. This stimulates ones curiosity towards a new life but also evokes ones feeling of fear and unsafety because no one knows whats on the road. at that places no denying that Tess will start a new life but whats waiting for Tess? What interests Tess most may be money. Everything on this snug property was bright, well-to-do and well kept everything looked like moneylike the last light upon issued from the Mint (ibid. 41). Landscapes looked like money but isnt it Tesss desire for money?She kills the horse and cuts the important outlet of her familys income resulting in her strong desire to get money to reduce her repen tance. This indirect and uncommunicative mood to express her strong desire for money through landscapes fits in with the reserved nature of Tess perfectly. Maybe theres money in Trantridge but in the shrub hides a d curseAlec, a fake fearful descendant of the Durbervilles. When he first sees Tess, he fully shows his hospitality and desire for Tess, protracting Tess strawberries, filling her basket with them, putting roses in Tesss bosom, accommodating Tess with a basket of light luncheon.The landscapes around them are so bright and flowery that they make people in a good mood and temporarily forget the growing tragedy and darkness. The red strawberries, the red roses, thats to say, the landscapes are surrounded by the color red. Even Tess under Alecs decoration, becomes one who stood fair to be the blood-red ray in the spectrum of her young life (ibid. 45) and radiates in the encirclement of the red hue. Her growing femininity reflected by the red becomes so full that arouses Alecs evil and titillating desires for her.The landscapes here suggest a strong ardor and passion, but manifestly it is too strong to jib the reserved feature of Tess, which makes Tess feel uncomfortable. Besides, the invariable usage of the color red gives a hint for the sequent plot. Tess and Alec chance each other in a background with red things and the red strawberries and roses, which like a bridge, link Tess and Alec together but also guess the fate of Tess and AlecAlec is killed by Tess and Tess is executed.Both of them at last drops in the red bloods and are encircled by the color red. It looks like a circle of fate, contact in the red landscapes and leaving and parting also in the life-threatening bloody red. The landscapes are the most powerful witness testifying what others cannot see and never ignore the hidden tragedy looming large around Tess. If we keep an eye on the landscapes, we couldnt become so surprised when Alec reaches his evil hands for Tess. 2. 2. 2 Seduction in the drag Alec commits his sins to Tess in the Chase, the oldest wood in England.Before the fury, a turning point that sows the destined tragic seed for Tesss future, happens, we can clearly smell the danger flowing in the air through the landscapes. With the setting of the moon the pale light lessened and Tess became invisible as she fell into reverie upon the leaves where he Alec had left her (ibid. 77). Without any defence, Tess shouldnt nourish slept in the dead leaves and exposed herself to the darkness and the evil Alec. stark Tess has no sense of the danger. Then the landscapes, like the thunder and lighting ahead the storm, continue to give a hint at the impendent danger. The moon had sooner gone down, and partly on account of the fog. The Chase was wrapped in thick darkness, although morning was not far off. (ibid. 76) Darkness and silence command everywhere around. Above them rose the primeval yews and oaks of The Chase, in which were poised sonant roo sting birds in their last nap. (ibid. 77) The lights of the moon, the only light in the darkness, symbolizing the ingeniousness and hope in the night, are disappearing and the darkness at last takes the upper hand. Doesnt the heavier-than-air darkness symbolize the hardness of the fate and the ruthlessness of the world? (Qi & Mogan 2001 98). The moon finally cannot resist the rule of darkness yet like the innocent Tess cannot escape Alecs devil hands. How nonsocial and helpless Tess is at that time No one comes to save her no one consoles her. The only creature following her is the landscapes. Even under the control of the powerful kingdom of the darkness, in the wild forests with sparse people, the landscapes dont abandon Tess. They see every torment Tess suffers and are much contiguous and kinder to Tess than the human beings.Besides, the seduction is expounded by the author very indirectly and reservedly Alec stooped He knelt, and bent bower, till her breath warmed his fa ce (Hardy 1994 77). It seems Alecs softness together with the foggy and dark landscapes reduce the cruelty of this bloody violence. But the wolf in sheeps clothing is more horrible the tragedy c all overed with comedic clothes is more tragic. The landscapes are not the excuse of violence but ironically enhance Tesss yobbo sufferings. From Marlott to Trantridge, most times, Tess is alone.No one follows her no one will hear her torturesome heart-throbbing and feel her inner emotions except the landscapes. The landscapes mission as the prolocutor to transit Tesss feeling and emotion become more obvious when she works in Talbothays. 2. 3 Talbothays When Tess leaves her hometown for the second time, it is also a lovely morning of May. The landscapes and the milieu around Talbothays are so different from the Blackmoor Vale. The world was drawn to a larger pattern here the green lea was speckled as thickly with them as a canvas. The ripe hue of the red and spoil kine absorbed he evenin g sunlight The river flowed not like the streams in blackmoorthere the water-flower was the lily (Hardy 1994 108) All the landscapes, full of cheerfulness, freshness and strong vitality, reveal Tesss spiritual conditions at that time when she is amid new scenes where there were no invidious eyes upon her. It seems to indicate they can nourish Tesss legal injury heart and renew her confidence and hope for life. They also pave the bureau for the beginning of a romantic love between Angel and Tess. Talbothays brings a favorable turn to Tesss life.At Talbothays, both the natural world and Tess come into ripe bloom. Tess is never happier in other places than in Talbothays and in accordance, the landscapes perfectly take off its sad and gloomy clothes and become very bright, soft and shining, giving people sensuous enjoyment. Theres a various visionary power of Hardys description of the caramel browns in the roused scene when Tess listens to Angel playing his harp in the overgrown gar den. Tess had comprehend those notes in the attic. Dim, flattened, constrained by their confinement, they had never appealed to her as now Tess, like a fascinated bird, could not leave the spot.The outskirt of the garden in which Tess found herself had been left uncultivated for some years, and was now damp and social status with juicy grass which sent up mists of pollen at a touch She went stealthily as a cat through this profusion of growth, concourse cuckoo-spittle on her skirts, cracking snails that were underfoot, staining her hands with thistle-milk and slug-slime, and rubbing off upon her defenceless arms sticky blights(ibid. 127). The intense eroticism of the writing, is not in the people but in the details of the scene the sound of Angels harp and Tesss move as a cat.It is as though the landscapes themselves contain all the secret smells and juices of the act of physical passion. The stronger power of the novel derives, I think from Hardys ability to shift effortlessly from vivid details of the outer world to the most complex inner flow of character and emotion (Alvarez 1992 17). With the development of the relationship between Tess and Angel, the landscapes as Tesss good friend share Tesss happiness and become more exuberant and their hues become much brighter. The season eveloped and maturedFlowers, leaves, nightingales, thrushes, finches and such ephemeral creatures, took up their positions where only a year ago others had stood in their places. Rays from the sunrise drew forth the buds(Hardy 1994 133). Although the incident of the churning machine afflicts Tess and she feels felonious for other three beautiful and innocent girls, surrounded and nourished by the new and gorgeous landscapes, stimulated by her love for Angel, Tess is recovering from the heavy moral burden. Tess, after suffering so much, resumes her happiness, becomes the daughter of nature and is compatible with the landscapes again.The generally luminous tone of the landscape s in Talbothays lasts until the eve of Tess and Angels wedding. Then the hidden darkness comes to its life and begins to give off its evil power. At their wedding eve, the sun seems tired and gives out dim lights and Gnats, passed out of its line, and were quite extinct (ibid. 200). The prosperity, abundance and brightness of summer are change magnitude and the cold winter is on the way. Theres a strong allusion that a happy episode of Tesss life will end and another cold and brutal sorrow is waiting for Tess. 2. 4 Wellbridge flour-millsAs expected, a series of omens call on Tess heel by heel. First its the afternoon crow of a cock, which is believed to presage a bad omen. Then its their wedding house Wellbridge flour-mills that depressed Tess severely. He Angel looked up, and perceived devil life-size portraits on panels built into the masonry. these paintings represent women of middle age, of a escort some two hundred years ago, the long pointed features, narrow eye, and smi rk of the one the bill-hook nose, large teeth, and bold eye of the other, haunt the beholder in his dreams. (ibid. 214) The terrible portraits add a horrible atmosphere to the house.The background is so uncomfortable and the happiness of their wedding is too dim to be felt. The lordly beautiful, warm and lively landscapes completely shrink and wither. Furthermore, the sun sets down and it soon began to rain(ibid. 215). The rain adds some gloom to the looming darkness and makes people more depressed. It can be assumed the ghostly tragedy will needfully attack Tess. The assumption is certified when Tess tells Angel her past. Angels vindication to Tess arouses her hope of getting forgiveness from Angel and makes her narrate her story chill outly.But the landscapes have foreseen the result. The ashes and Tesss large shadow on the wall and ceiling see the forthcoming tragic storm. The ashes under the grate were lit by the grow vertically, like a torrid waste. A large shadow of he r shape rose on the wall and ceiling(ibid. 222). When Tess finishes her story, the go up is arise to extinguishment. Angel stirs the fire(ibid. 225) but it makes no sense because his love fire for Tess is extinguishing. Then he leaves Tess, even though he knows that she is at least as pure as he is (Williams 2005 97).The sad and near-to-death landscapes in Wellbridge flour-mills form a sharp contrast with the vivid landscapes in Talbothays and mirror the sudden falling of Tesss emotions and moods. They enlarge the hidden and invisible pains in Tesss mind and show a bloody scene to the readers that a pure woman is abandoned at the first night of her wedding. such(prenominal) hurt Angel, Tesss husband gives to her, is more severe, painful and ruthless than Alecs because Alec seduces Tesss body whereas Angel directly ruins Tesss spiritual world and deprives almost everything valuable of Tess.Tess is pushed to the verge of break-up and what remains is just a nutrition form. 2. 5 F lintcomb-Ash But everything is continuing. Tess returns her hometown when Angel abandons her. However, the poverty of her family forces her to leave again. Its not Tesss desire of working in Flintcomb-Ash. She just hands over herself to the fate and obeys its order. Flintcomb-Ash is a starve-acre place(Hardy 1994 277) and the landscapes, like the moods of the heroine, have no passions and souls, just existing meaninglessly and barrenly. Although the life in Flintcomb-Ash is of no importance, yet its calm.Meaningless indifference may be better than the ardent torture. If this life can last, it can be regarded as a Gods gift. But deuce has no sympathy. So more powerful tragedies draw near as if to snatch up the remaining energy of Tess. When Tess meets Alec in Flintcomb-Ash, theres still the moon hanging in the sky. Why is there invariably the moon appearing? Wheres the sun? The moon has make everything clear. Theres no hope to dispel the darkness and escape the evil hand of fate. The thug landscapes depict the cruelty of the fate vividly.It is so fell that it snatches a trunk without any spirits and vitality and does not give it freedom. It even takes the only love Tess remains for her family as weapons, and harshly arranges Tess to go back to Alec to support her family. The darkness and tragedy have grown up and swallow Tesss everything, her body and her mind. 2. 6 Stonehenge Now that the struggle is sleeveless then how does one get freedom and get rid of the cruel control of fate? Tess uses an extreme way to achieve her goal. She kills Alec and gets peace in Stonehengethe heathen temple.The pillars there are very charitable and Tess was sheltered from the wind by a pillar and the stone was warm and dry, in satisfying contrast to the rough and chill grass around(ibid. 379). When the human world tries best to capture Tess after her cruel violence, the Stonehenge accepts her and offers what it can offera place to rest. Theres no happiness in the human w orld when Tess obeys all the rules, so after her cruel violence, the world shuts its door for Tess more firmly and righteously and only the merciful landscapes hold Tess.Although the landscapes cannot do more and cannot save Tess, yet they never abandon Tess and help much to alleviate her pains and sufferings. Chapter 3 The Authors Opinions on the Characters The landscapes serve for Tesss prolocutor but they are also arranged to express the authors opinions. Hardy, through the landscape description, becomes Tesss protector, defender, comforter, loverbut one who ultimately fails in all those roles, since in the end he could not prevent her from dying. 3. Hardys involvement in the novel through the landscapes Hardy, like an experienced elder, in fact, from the beginning, always worries some Tesss fate. He involves in the stage of Tesss life by the landscapes when Tess first meets Alec and Alec puts lots of flowers in Tesss bosom, Hardy expresses his misgiving that groundwork the blu e narcotic haze was potentially the tragic mischief of her manoeuvre(Hardy 1994 45) when Tess is seduced by Alec in the Chase, Hardy together with the landscapes gives a painful lamentation where was Tesss guardian angel?Where was the Providence of her simple-minded faith? (ibid. 77). When Tess and Angel fall in love with each other in Talbothays, he gives a more detailed description of the lovers walking in the daybreak The mixed, singular, luminous gloom in which they walked along to the spot where the cows layshe looked ghostly, as if she were merely a soul at large. In human beings her facehad caught the cold gleam of day from the north-east(ibid. 134) At these non-human hours they could get quite close to the water-fowl.Herons came, honoring them by moving their heads round in a slow, horizontal, passionless wheel, like the turn of puppets by clockwork. (ibid. 135) What is at put up in these paragraphs is not a mere courtship, nor even a description of the forces why A ngel falls in love with Tess. On the contrary, Angel seems left behind. Its as if the authorHardy were alone with his heroine, watching her fascinated, almost surprised by the power of the woman he himself has created.It seems that Hardy, after a painstaking self-control of his emotion, could no longer stand just as a passer-by but involves in the story through the sensitive landscapes and begins to communicate with Tess. 3. 2 Another important characterHardy himself Another evidence to show Hardys self-position in the novel, is that Alec, Angel or other characters, are just passing traveler. None of the subsidiary figures has much interest in his own right, apart from his capacity to tidy and enlarge the experience of Tess(Howe 1967 442). The swiftness with which the other characters diminish, becoming pale and without magnetic core when compared with Tess, and the continual emergence of the landscapes are perhaps a mirror of the way in which Hardys personal involvement alters w ith the story (Alvarez 1992 19). He becomes the only character as important as Tess in the novel. When Angel abandons Tess and Tess works hard and lonely in Flintcomb-Ash, the author wins enough spot and time to stay with his heroine alone and spends lots of energy describing the harsh and tough environment to express his sympathy and understanding to Tess.After Tess nips her eyebrows off and tries her effort to alter herself, she walks on, a figure which is a part of the landscape a field woman pure and simple Inside this exterior, over which the eye aptitude have roved as over a thing scarcely percipient, there was the record of the cruelty of lust and the fragility of love(Hardy 1994 272-273). Pure, simple and inside this exterior show that Hardy not only knows Tesss appearance very well, but his understanding of the inner Tess is beyond anyone else.Angel who loves and takes Tess more as an imaginative Goddess cannot compare with him, not to mention Alec who addicts to Tesss n atural beauty. Hardys description seems to be objective, but mixes so much his sadness. When Tess reaches Flintcomb-Ash, before her, in a slight depression, were the remains of a closure. Hither she was doomed to come(ibid. 274). Depression doom, what Tess feels is seemingly just the authors feelings. Through his such musing voices he makes his figurehead steadily felt. He like a kind father hovers and watched over Tess.He is as tender as possible to Tess. After the hard work in the Flintcomb-Ash, after her fathers death, after the homelessness of her family, Tess disappears from the horizon. At last, Angel appears and Tess also restages. But it was not clear to him till later that his original Tess had spiritually ceased to recognize the body before him as hersallowing it to drift, like a corpse(ibid. 366). What Hardy is painfully describing is the tragic fact that even though he doesnt want to accept, the spirits of Tess has died and only a corpse remains.And Angel, Tesss husb and, hasnt recognized the truth, which ironically reveals the tragic truth Angel might not deserve Tesss so deep and lustful and unconditional love. But Hardy seemingly doesnt want to end his heroines life so sadly and so he leaves cardinal happy days for their escape. Outwardly the author creates a temporarily calm environment for Angle and Tess, but its more suitable to say that the five days is just an alleviant to lower Tesss tragedy more or less and also for the author to make a farewell to his created creature and reduce his sadness.The temporary happiness elapses, and the straining struggle against fate is futile. And the last tragedy is doomed to come as Hardys pessimistic faith to life. In the holy and serious Stonehenge surrounded by beautiful landscapes, Tesss life as well as her sufferings comes to an end. The band of silver paleness along the east horizon made even the distant parts of the Great Plain appear dark and near and the whole enormous landscapes bore that i mpress of reserve, taciturnity.The vitamin E pillars and their architraves stood up blackly against the light, (ibid. 381) In this continually roused haunting descriptions of the landscapes, which crystallize into visionary states of mind and above all in the power and beauty of the heroine who he created and then unwillingly, destroyed (Alvarez 1992 22), Tess wins death as a reward and the President of the immortals had terminate his sport with Tess(Hardy 1994 384), so Tess obtains freedom from the intolerable agony of living. Chapter 4 ConclusionThe novel is so direct in its appeal and unambiguous in its story-line the plot is not particularly original in its framework, and in the end it cannot by itself account for the novels power. Two remarkable elements in its entry have a significant role to play one is the overzealous commitment to the central character with which the novel is written the other is the consolidation of the characters including the author with their env ironment and landscapes, which Hardy achieved more fully here than anyplace else.The story of Tess of the Durbervilles begins with the big event of May-Day Dance in the lovely May and ends up with the death of Tess in July. The change of the landscapes, following the season, the weather, the time, predict the main rhythm of the development of the plot and foresee the ups and downs of Tesss whole life. The characters and the landscapes unite well together and enhance the tragic atmosphere of this novel and butt Tess profoundly.Tess, as if she were a natural phenomenon, is set in the subdue landscapes her innocence in the tame, mild Vale of Blackmoor her seduction in the Chase then her idyllic love affair with Angel in the unintellectual Paradise garden of Talbothays in the Vale of the big Dairies her period of aloneness at Flintcomb-Ash, where the unforgiving landscape is as stripped of comfort and phytology as she is of love and hope finally, her sacrificial consummation on the altar-stone of Stonehenge (Alvarez 1992 12).Besides, from the beginning to the end, the author Hardy embodies himself the most beautiful but maybe the saddest scenery to follow Tess, to console her and expatiate her. Tess, Hardy and the landscapes reflect each other, match each other, cooperate with each other, and are integrated together, at last, demonstrate Tesss tragic fate.The remarkable way of the landscape description as well as the the misery and tragedy besieging Tess offers the most deep moving reading experience and make people taste the great power of tragedy. The landscapes, like the Phosphor, emit its light and brightness, shining the road and manoeuvre us to understand the characters and the novel more clearly and drastically.