【Abstract】According to the environment-personality-destiny main line， my paper proceeds with theoretic discussion， systematical analysis and thorough dissection on five selected heroines in Hardy's novels.

【Key words】female characters， environment， personality， tragic fate， Matters of gender

【中圖號】G640【文獻標示碼】A【文章編號】1005-1074(2009)01-0079-01

1Living Environment

The female characters in Hardy's novels are always accompanied with inharmonious circumferential environment. Their existing conditions are difficultand make people worried. Bathsheba Everdene， a weak young lady， operatesand managesa farm. The natural disaster and man-made calamity may take place at any time. In case of losing the farm， she will drop into the lowest social class， so the pressure that she facescould imagine. Eustacia isput in the Egdon Heath， a place of gloom and solitude， which is also unalterable. Living in such an environment， Eustacia always feel constrained， depressed， boringand lonely. So sheeagersto flee away from this barren landas soon as possible. Tess'family is as poor as a church. And under the pressure of poverty， she has to seek help from the rich Mrs. D'Urbervilles， whom they believe to be a relative. Seducedby Alec D'Urbervillesmake her lose chastity. She becomes people's laughingstock.

2Personalities

Different environment can not only mold different characteristics， but also influence differently on the same person. Bathsheba is a country girl who is looking forward to pursuing independence， and she also is a supercilious woman who usually seems to be very self-confident and resolute. Hardy molds her as a person with complexitiesand various characteristics. In The Return of The Native，Eustacia is a female hedonist who has the over-sensitive tendency put forth studiously by Hardy. She has a courageous treacherous personality， pride and self-willed， warmly free， disregarding the custom morals and not followedthe prevalence. Eustacia Vye combines the strength of a man with the beauty of a woman. The Victorian ideal displayed in Eustacia's feminine desires conflicts with this masculinity.Tess is an ideal female image in Hardy's mind， and he gives herall thefine qualities that workwomen have:beautiful， pure， kind， unpretentious， tolerant and fortitudinous and resilient. Hardy even uses \"a pure woman\" as a subhead in the novel. To pursue the love without any impurity， she would rather choose losing impure love， and this is the noble choice of Tess.

3Tragic fate

Hardy attributes the reason for his tragedy to the fault of environment and fate.The clash of character and environmentresults in the character'stragedy. Fate createscharacter's tragedywithout rhyme or reason. The characters' fatesare always suffered by the control of environment and their resistance will fail no matter how they persist. It is a pity that the clash between character and environment cannotbesolved.But also the heroines in Hardy'snovels have a common characteristic---lack of self-awarenesswhich is another reason for their tragedies.

For Hardy's part， all the females have the right to pursue the freedom of happy love and marriage. He disproves the traditionalmoral notion， and disregard affective right comprehensively. This concept restrains and snuffs out female individualities， so it is difficult for women to rely on that moral estimation system with colour of blazing prejudice to acknowledge and ensure their own affective rights. Fromthis point of view， Hardy is a sympathizer of females.

4References

[1]Bayley， John. An Essay on Hardy[J].Cambridge: Cambridge University Press， 1981

[2]Wang， Guiqin，王桂琴，哈代的女性觀透析[J].襄樊學院學報，2003，24(1):66-70