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

Chapter 1 Introduction Tess of the Durbervilles is an inordinately elegant book, as soundly as an extraordinarily moving one. Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor foolish peasant, who believes that he is the desc stop overant of an ancient aristocratic family, first is seduced by Alec, the son of the neighboring family by the foretell of Durbervilles. past Tess encounters ideal Cl atomic number 18, a man of liberal mind and the son of a clergyman, and they fall in savour with each other(a). On the eventide of their wedding ceremony, Tess confesses to nonpareil her conquest by Alec, and then holy man abandons her and hands for Brazil by himself.Subsequently paragon comes to belowstand his moral and intellectual arrogance and searches for Tess, more everyplace to make up ones mind that the extreme destitution of her family has driven her game to Alec. So severe is Tesss love for Angel and so virile her disgust at Alec when Angel comes back to look for her that she kills Alec. After hiding for a short period of clock time with Angel, after spending a few days of loving reconciliation with Angel, Tess is arrested, sentenced to cobblers drop dead for murder and executed essay writer price. The gloomily tragic atmosphere embedded in the invention is doubtlessly related to the antecedent, Thomas insolents views of aliveness hi composition history and being.In addition, it fits in with inflexibles entrust to express the cataclysm that the valuable is tortured and tangled by the irresistant force and at last is destroyed. audacious is a well-known pessimist and abides by the belief of fatalism that everything in the universe is controlled by the Immanent Will(Luo 1996 206), which has no passions, no consciousness and no knowledge of the differences amidst the honorable and the evil and which is present in all parts of the universe and is impartially hostile towards human beings desire for joy and cheer(ibid. . So human beings ar e doomed to failure when they struggle against the cruel and unintelligible fate, which is predestined by the Immanent Will. So theres no doubt the prevailing moods in Tess of the Durbervilles are tragic and gloomy. Tesss tragic fate moves the readers so directly and profoundly that they only focus on the touching narration nigh Tesss tragedy and give applause to the authors genius on arranging such plot. But a nonher unique char crookeristic of the novelthe remarkableChapter 2 Analysis of the Function of the Landscape Description on the Basis of Six Places on that point are six placesMarlott, Trantridge, Tal both(prenominal)ays, Wellbridge flour-mills, Flintcomb-Ash and Stonehengeconstituting the foundation stone of this novel as well as the pillar of Tesss sufferings and tragic fate. The landscape explanations of these six places, connected with each other sequentially, form a river which propels the tragic waves in Tesss life and winds its way from the growning to the end of Tesss life.Every place represents one important period and level of Tesss life and they unite in concert, making the growing of the plot proceed forward compactly, smoothly and coherently, linking up different episodes of Tesss life together, defining the basic tone of the setting. They function the symbols that indicate the fate of Tess, epitomize what Tess is feeling and thinking and predict a series 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 expert times, more sarcastically, it is withal the birth place of Tesss tragedy.It is a fine-looking place and profanes amid the north-eastern undulations of the beautiful Vale of Blackmoor aforesaid, an engirdled and secluded region and this is a fertile and sheltered bundle of country, in which the fields are never brown and the springs never dry(Hardy 1994 18). Not only does the natural beauty drift in Marlott, precisely it has diach ronic 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 of course picturesque scenery as well as its historical background, Marlott gives pile a feeling of comfort and relax.Then the heroine Tess reveals her veil on an exciting eventMay-Day dance. She wears the black-and-blue gown and the red ribbon and she was a fine and handsome girlnot handsomer than some others, but her mobile peony mouth and large desolate eyes added eloquence to color and shape(ibid. 51). It seems that Tess, a fragment of the natural world, a natural phenomenon herself, so innocent, pure, naturally beautiful, is in complete harmony with the beautiful and historical place as well as the comfortable and happy atmosphere.But a carriage carrying her drunk father breaks this harmony and some people begin to make jokes of her father which drops naive Tess in a deep shame. Then a young man of superior class takes part in the dancing. That beautiful place, such beautiful Tess and a handsome young man, these are, undoubtedly, the complete elements of romance. However, nothing romanticist happens but the regretful and lost lay on the line. Although the young man feels a brusque bit sorry that he didnt dance with the pretty maiden, yet he is anxious 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 lightheaded, same the haze just emerging in the aurora that people go out soon forget its existence and ignore it. But after reading with the whole novel, we canful find it very romantic that Tess 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 then love her when Tess was 16? then mayhap Tess ca n avoid so many sufferings in the future. . 1. 2 The death of the sawhorse Its unexpected but solid equity that the true life doesnt include such hopeful ifs for Tess. What is time lag for Tess is the gloomy darkness and sorrow. They similar fresh buds conceal themselves in the beautiful and lovely 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 growing gradually. So Tesss duty and sufferings are also ascendent 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 suddenly converts to sorrow. The atmosphere turned pale, the birds shook themselvesthe lane showed all its white featuresPrince lay alongside still and stark (ibid. 37). Pale white and stark indicate Tesss moods after her murder of Prince. They express what Tess is thinking and feeling like a translation machine, they translate the invisible emotion and inner meaning 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 despair Tess puts her hand upon the hole Princes wound(ibid. whereas this gesture is as absurdly ineffectual as all her effort will be and the only result is that she becomes splashed with blood(Van Ghent 1953 430). Maybe this is the first time that Tess has faced such a bloody scene and it is also the first time that the author has referred to death and red blood in this novel. This scene arranged at the beginning of the novel seems to give a hint at something. The hints become a well-lightedtle bit croak with more clues given by the author. The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of the unhappy Prince like a sword(Hardy 1994 37). steel and bloods make us easily recall another scene that Alec is stabbed in the heart with a knife when we read through this novel. It seems that at th e beginning Tesss fate has been displayed to us implicitly. So this accident has a strong 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 work 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 overflowing in the air. 2. 2 Trantridge 2. 2. 1 The SlopesWhen Tess is forced to Trantridge to work for her rich relative Durbervilles, she is stunned by Mrs Durbervilles housethe Slopes. The house, beyond Tesss expectation, is not an old mansion, instead, its al to the highest degree impudently with crimson brick lodge, surrounded by various trees and planting. The somebody in the house, the young Alec Durberville differed more from what Tess had expected than the house and grounds had differed. (ibid. 43) Tess originally hopes an aged and dignified face in an old mansion but what she sees is a beautiful and frivo lous young man in a saucy 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. Theres 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, thriving and well kept everything looked like moneylike the last coin 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 repentance. This indirect and reserved way 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 accessAlec, a fake noble descendant of the Durbervilles. When he first sees Tess, he fully shows his hosp itality and desire for Tess, bring home the baconing Tess strawberries, filling her basket with them, place 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 cleaning womanhood reflected by the red becomes so full that arouses Alecs evil and erotic desires for her.The landscapes here suggest a strong ardor and passion, but seemingly it is too strong to match the reserved feature of Tess, which makes Tess feel uncomfortable. Besides, the continual usage of the color red gives a hint for the sequent plot. Tess and Alec meet 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 predict 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, meeting in the red landscapes and leaving and parting also in the unutterable 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 abide by an eye on the landscapes, we couldnt become so surprised when Alec reaches his evil hands for Tess. 2. 2. 2 Seduction in the Chase Alec commits his sins to Tess in the Chase, the oldest wood in England.Before the violence, 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 about the pale ligh t 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 feel slept in the dead leaves and exposed herself to the darkness and the evil Alec. Innocent Tess has no sense of the danger. Then the landscapes, like the thunder and lighting in front the storm, continue to give a hint at the impendent danger. The moon had quite gone down, and partly on account of the fog. The Chase was wrapped in thick darkness, although morning was not outlying(prenominal) off. (ibid. 76) Darkness and silence ruled everywhere around. Above them rose the primeval yews and oaks of The Chase, in which were poised gentle roosting birds in their last nap. (ibid. 77) The lights of the moon, the only light in the darkness, symbolizing the brightness and hope in the night, are disappearing and the darkness at last takes the upper hand. Doesnt the heavy darkness symbolize the hardness of the fate and the ruthlessn ess of the world? (Qi & Mogan 2001 98). The moon finally cannot resist the rule of darkness just like the innocent Tess cannot escape Alecs devil hands. How sole(a) 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 more than closer 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 face (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 covered with comedic dress is more tragic. The landscapes are not the excuse of violence but ironically enhance Tes ss gnarly sufferings. From Marlott to Trantridge, most times, Tess is alone.No one follows her no one will hear her painful 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 working 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 dun oxen absorbed he evening sunlightlight 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 weird 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 hurt heart and renew her reliance and hope for life. They also pave the way 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 suddenly take off its sad and gloomy attire and become very bright, soft and shining, giving people sensuous enjoyment. Theres a various impractical power of Hardys description of the lovers in the roused scene when Tess listens to Angel playing his harp in the overgrown garden. Tess had heard 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 rank with gamey grass which s ent up mists of pollen at a touch She went stealthily as a cat through this profusion of growth, gathering cuckoo-spittle on her skirts, breeze snails that were underfoot, staining her hands with thistle-milk and slug-slime, and rubbing off upon her naked arms sticky blights(ibid. 127). The intense eroticism of the writing, is not in the people but in the expand 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 guilty 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 harmonious with the landscapes again.The generally lambent tone of the landscapes 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 diminishing and the algid 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 predict a dark omen. Then its their wedding house Wellbridge flour-mills that depressed Tess severely. He Angel looked up, and perceived two life-size portraits on panels built into the masonry. these paintings represent women of middle age, of a realize some two hundred years ago, the long pointed features, narrow eye, and smirk 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 originally beautiful, warm and rattling(a) landscapes completely shrink and wither. Further more, 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 pret cease the ghostly tragedy will inevitably attack Tess. The assumption is certified when Tess tells Angel her past. Angels confession to Tess arouses her hope of getting forgiveness from Angel and makes her narrate her story calmly.But the landscapes have foreseen the result. The ashes and Tesss large shadow on the wall and ceiling forecast the forthcoming tragic storm. The ashes under the grate were lit by the sex vertically, like a torrid waste. A large shadow of her shape rose on the wall and ceiling(ibid. 222). When Tess finishes her story, the fire is near 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 to the lowest degree as pure as he is (Williams 2005 97).The sad and near-to-death lan dscapes in Wellbridge flour-mills form a sharp contrast with the vivid landscapes in Talbothays and mirror the sudden locomote of Tesss emotions and moods. They annex 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 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 living corpse. 2. 5 Flintcomb-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 hero ine, have no passions and souls, just existing meaninglessly and barrenly. Although the life in Flintcomb-Ash is of no importance, yet its calm.Meaningless calmness may be better than the ardent torture. If this life can last, it can be regarded as a Gods gift. But Satan 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 always the moon appearing? Wheres the sun? The moon has made everything clear. Theres no hope to dispel the darkness and escape the evil hand of fate. The tough landscapes depict the cruelty of the fate vividly.It is so inhumane 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 bo dy and her mind. 2. 6 Stonehenge Now that the struggle is fruitless then how does one get freedom and get rid of the cruel control of fate? Tess uses an extreme way to attain her goal. She kills Alec and gets peace in Stonehengethe heathen temple.The pillars there are very merciful and Tess was sheltered from the wind by a pillar and the stone was warm and dry, in comforting 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 world 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 serv e 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 about 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 behind the blue narcotic haze was potentially the tragic whimsicality of her drama(Hardy 1994 45) when Tess is seduced by Alec in the Chase, Hardy together with the landscapes gives a painful plaint where was Tesss guardian angel?Where was the Providence of her simple 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 dawn The mixed, singular, lambent 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 reality 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, watching them by moving their heads round in a slow, horizontal, passionless wheel, like the turn of puppets by clockwork. (ibid. 135) What is at stake in these paragraphs is not a mere courtship, nor even a description of the forces why Angel 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 communi cate 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 secondary figures has much interest in his own right, apart from his capacity to illuminate and enlarge the experience of Tess(Howe 1967 442). The swiftness with which the other characters diminish, becoming pale and without substance when compared with Tess, and the continual emergence of the landscapes are perhaps a mirror of the way in which Hardys personal involvement alters with 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 unaccompanied in Flintcomb-Ash, the author wins enough space and time to stay with his heroine alone and spends lots of energy describing the harsh and tough environment to express his sympathy and ground to Tess.After Tess nips her eyebrows off and tries her eff ort to uglify 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 might 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). complete(a), 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 natural 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 village. 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 presence steadily felt. He like a kind father hovers and w atched 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 husband, hasnt recognized the truth, which ironically reveals the tragic truth Angel might not deserve Tesss so deep and passionate and unconditional love. But Hardy seemingly doesnt want to end his heroines life so sadly and so he leaves five 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 al leviant 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 fight 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 unfinished appear dark and near and the whole enormous landscapes bore that impress of reserve, taciturnity.The eastward 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 ended 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 creation have a significant role to play one is the passionate commitment to the central character with which the novel is written the other is the integration of the characters including the author with their environment and landscapes, which Hardy achieved more fully here than anywhere 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 a nd the landscapes unite well together and enhance the tragic atmosphere of this novel and demonstrate Tess profoundly.Tess, as if she were a natural phenomenon, is set in the appropriate landscapes her innocence in the tame, mild Vale of Blackmoor her seduction in the Chase then her idyllic love affair with Angel in the sensual Paradise garden of Talbothays in the Vale of the big Dairies her period of destruction at Flintcomb-Ash, where the unforgiving landscape is as stripped of comfort and vegetation 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, sustain 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 distress and tragedy besieging Tess offers the most deeply 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 guiding us to understand the characters and the novel more clearly and drastically.