Thomas. Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" tells the story of a beautiful and kind woman, Tess, who after being seduced, suffered the death of her children, the abandonment of her beloved, and the displacement of her family due to poverty, and she had to take on the responsibility of supporting her family and had to commit herself to seducing yare. Just as she was living her life in annoyance, she met her beloved again, painfully regretted the story of killing Yare, the executioner who ruined her life, and finally being hunted down and hanged!
The book revolves around Tess's life trajectory, describing Tess's before and after changes in her attitude towards life, and how she still carries the burden of life strongly after being hurt. Tess is not only beautiful in appearance, but also simple kindness without a trace of impurities in her heart, but in that social environment, the simple kindness of individuals is not enough to win the respect of others for her, but is used and hurt by people with hearts.
Burdened by the family's life, Tess sacrificed herself again and again, without receiving a little comfort and care from her biological mother. On the contrary, her mother selfishly asked Tess to jump into the fire pit for the sake of family use, which did not discourage Tess, but what made her lose the courage to live was the person she truly loved, Angel. Claire, whose lost and regained love makes her mind spin, kills Yare and eventually goes to the guillotine in order to maintain Claire's intact image in her mind.
Tess's tragic life begins with Yare, the "Grey Rhinoceros" incident. Without Yare, Tess may still be poor, but she will use her own strength to live desperately and passionately. It's not wrong to say that Yare is a "grey rhinoceros"! The Grey Rhino event refers to a risk that is so common that people take it for granted, as a metaphor for a potential crisis with high probability and great impact. Generally speaking, gray rhino events actually have certain signs in the early stages, but the early stages are ignored in the early stages of various small events that may trigger gray rhinos.
From the first time he saw Tess, Yare began to covet her beauty, and Tess knew it. Yare deliberately fed fresh strawberries to Tess's mouth; deliberately rushed to the car quickly, so that the frightened Tess held her waist; the most fatal thing was that Tess knew Yare's thoughts after losing the opportunity to go home with her companions, but she still did not guard against it, or was powerless to prevent it, and let herself go to the edge of being hurt! And all this is the slow process of the "gray rhinoceros", Tess let this potential danger step by step, but there is not enough attention and defense, in the final analysis, she is too simple, she thinks that the people of the world are like her, will abide by the rules and etiquette of society, there will be a certain reverence for the law, will not do serious harm to her behavior. This is one of them.
The most important thing that Tess underestimated the Grey Rhino Yarey was that she was too young and not very old. Her mother also thought she was young and never instilled in her knowledge about sex education, but paid great attention to her dress and dress as a way to gain attention. The book says that her mother knew that there was a relative of the same race in their family, and after the death of the only cow in the family, she had to feel guilty that Tess went to recognize this relative, hoping to get some financial help, so she specially washed Tess's hair and washed it, and changed into beautiful clothes, but it was the only thing that did not tell her what would happen between men and women, and even when her brothers said that Tess was going to be a daughter-in-law, the mother did not think of telling Tess these things, so that Tess faced Yare's ill-intentions. There is no awareness of guard and vigilance.
The many "gray rhinoceros" events in the book constitute Tess's tragic life. The father was drunk, Tess and her brother drove the ox cart to deliver the goods, knowing that they could not sleep and doze off, they should pay attention to the car, and the result was still dozing and rolling over the cattle.
After Tess's father died, the family was driven away and left without a stable home, as mentioned at the beginning of the book. My father was sick but still drowsy all day and did not do his job, which made the already poor family worse! Tess is the boss, and naturally has to take on this responsibility, so she has to commit herself to Yare. This potential "grey rhinoceros" has always existed, but Tess's personal strength cannot be defended, so she has to let this "gray rhinoceros" run wild!
Tess loves Claire, she loves her heart,she doesn't think claire will appear in front of her again, but she doesn't expect Claire to re-confess her penitent love for her, or when she is most embarrassed. Similarly, Claire's return of the "Grey Rhinoceros" sooner or later broke Tess's life that could have been peaceful and fatal, and with Yare's long-term assertion of Claire's words, Tess made the most powerful resistance in her life - killing Yare, she could not let the "Gray Rhino" rule her life, she still had a lot to do, even if she only spent 5 days with her beloved, she died without regrets. For the first time in her life, Tess rebelled against the "gray rhinoceros" of fate, but brought herself a catastrophe, and it has to be said that the god of fate has always played with Tess as a toy.
Hardy wrote a thrilling sentence after Tess was hanged: "The head of the gods ended the game he played with Tess. The most ironic and pathetic thing is that one of the main tools of the game of the head of the gods is Angel Claire, who loves Tess so much. If Tess's previous suffering had only pushed Tess into a crumbling boat, angel was the last strong wind that overwhelmed the boat. His penitent love, instead of making Tess feel the arrival of a new happy life, made her feel that her impurity could not match Claire,and all this was caused by Yare. She resolutely killed Yare, ending the most harmful of these many "gray rhinos".
Tess's tragedy lies in the fact that she did not avoid it in time, the potential danger of the "gray rhinoceros" in fate, and her simple kindness, so that she chose to sacrifice herself to become a whole family in the face of the disaster of fate. In the face of love, her simple kindness made Claire ashamed, but he could not face his wife who was already unchaste, in his words: "I thought—and any man would think so—that I had given up all my intentions to marry a wife of status, wealth, and upbringing, what I had naturally received was a delicate cheek and a simple purity." ”
He chose to go to Brazil to develop, and when he returned a year later, Tess's new tragedy had already been caused. For Claire, Tess's difficulties in life are a "gray rhinoceros" incident, which Claire has always chosen to escape and is unwilling to face up to, and Tess's final tragedy is the result of Claire's promotion, and at the same time, she will also bear the harmful result of losing Tess forever, the "gray rhinoceros" incident.
Tess's entire life is run through the "gray rhinoceros" incident, and she is powerless to avoid and prevent it, so she has to sink into it. However, her innate purity, under the society at that time, was not enough for her to settle down, but was trampled by the cruel iron hooves of fate, and eventually the incense was destroyed.
What happened to Tess is also a textbook for us in real life. For the impermanent fate, we are powerless to choose our parents, our families, but the only choice we can choose is to strengthen ourselves. The "gray rhinoceros" in fate may also be transformed into food to enrich our spiritual life, but its potential risks cannot be underestimated. We can only use our own powerful spiritual world to dissolve, to prevent, in the "gray rhinoceros" slowly arrived, the right choice, to get a happy life!