A Pure Woman - Literature review Example

Tess of the d’Urbervilles: The Story of a Pure Woman When Thomas Hardy wrote his story Tess of the d’Urbervilles, he added the subtitle A Pure Woman at the last minute. This addition angered many and puzzled others. After all, it is the story of a woman impure before marriage, mother of a dead bastard baby, mistress of her rapist while still married to her estranged husband and, finally, murderer of her lover. Such a brief summary of the main events of the book would seem to indicate a woman who is anything but pure, particularly for her time period in the late Victorian age. However, there are many ways in which the word ‘pure’ might be used. While most likely considered it in terms of a chaste woman or a woman unstained by sin, Hardy clearly intends it to be used as literally as he wrote it, indicating that Tess is fully woman through and through. She proves this in many ways throughout the book. As the story progresses, Tess is shown to be pure woman as she participates in the traditional rites of spring, as she becomes connected with the natural order of the world and as she accepts the fate that has been determined for her – all elements considered inherent to the female gender. The first appearance of Tess in the novel is as she dances with the other young women of her village in the town’s May Day Celebration. This ancient rite of spring was intended to celebrate the return of the earth’s fertility following the desolate winter months, a ceremony Hardy characterizes as “The forests have departed, but some old customs of their shades remain” (Ch. 2). Tess’s participation is therefore an indication of her initiation into womanhood, marking her from the beginning as a pure woman. To help emphasize this point, Hardy also mentions the symbolic accessories that make up the celebration as a means of emphasizing this point: “In addition to the distinction of a white frock, every woman and girl carried in her right hand a peeled willow wand, and in her left a bunch of white flowers” (Ch. 2). The constantly moving circle of girls and women, including Tess prominently marked by her red ribbon, thus also represents the beginning of Tess’ cycle of life as she finally joins in the dance. In spite of her participation in this ancient dance, Tess scorns the suggestion of her family history and its connection to nobility. “Tess herself realizes the incongruousness of the distant past in relation to her own present as she scorns her ancestors and ‘the dance they had led her’ (Chap. 16)” (Rogers, 1996). This again illustrates her purity as she remains fully aware of herself and her natural place in society. From the May Day Dance, Tess is forced into a closer connection with the greater world, strangely tying her even closer to the pure laws of nature as she seeks a position with her supposed relation Mrs. d’Urberville in order to help her more immediate family. The lady in question lived on the outskirts of The Chase, which Hardy describes as “a truly venerable tract of forest land, one of the few remaining woodlands in England of undoubted primeval date, wherein Druidical mistletoe was still found on aged oaks, and where enormous yew-trees, not planted by the hand of man grew as they had grown when they were pollarded for bows” (Ch. 5). It is because of her innocence and inexperience that Tess is unable to fully understand the advances of Alec d’Urberville throughout her employment with the family, but when he finds her alone and vulnerable within the very natural setting of the ancient oaken glade, Tess is fully introduced to the animal nature of man as Alec rapes her. “The one particularly exigent connection between man and nature is that of sexuality. Like other natural forces, the sexual impulse is essentially amoral; it influences human destiny without regard for human notions of appropriateness” (Bonica, 1982: 859). Although this event will have long-term implications on the rest of Tess’s life, a purely natural interpretation of what occurred presents the case in such a way that Alec is not seen as purely evil and Tess is not considered to be impure. Throughout the remainder of the story, Tess grows to be increasingly sensitive to the signs of nature around her. For example, Tess seems aware of the omen signified when a cock is heard to crow three times during her afternoon wedding. Violating the natural order of crowing only in the morning, the signal is also a famous marker of Jesus’ betrayal in the Bible, indicating Tess’s marriage will not be a happy one. Another ominous symbol placed on Tess’s marriage is Angel’s addition of a sprig of mistletoe that he hangs over their marriage bed. A long-time symbol of fertility and romance (Harrington, 2005), it was also a characteristic of Tess’s earlier disgrace and will eventually be dried and crushed under Angel’s hand as he crushes the life out of their marriage. Finally, although she feels the wrongness of the action even at the time, Tess agrees to take an oath on the Cross-in-Hand monolith to satisfy Alec’s demands. According to an old shepherd that Tess encounters: “It was put up in wuld times by the relations of a malefactor who was tortured there by nailing his hand to a post and afterwards hung. The bones lie underneath. They say he sold his soul to the devil, and that he walks at times” (Ch. 45). Tess’ connection with this stone symbolizes her near fate, to die by hanging, a fate she recognizes. “She felt the petit mort at this unexpectedly gruesome information, and left the solitary man behind her” (Ch. 45). In the end, Tess is content to sacrifice herself to the natural order of the world by lying herself down on the altar stone of Stonehenge until she can surrender to the police. She seems to sense the change coming as she and Angel approach Stonehenge after Alec’s murder: ‘What monstrous place is this?’ said Angel. ‘It hums,’ said she. ‘Hearken!’ He listened. The wind, playing upon the edifice, produced a booming tune, like the note of some gigantic one-stringed harp. (Ch. 58). This dark circle of stones, devoid of the life energy found in the circle of trees at her rape or the circle of women at her introduction, emphasizes her movement through her natural world. Finding the altar stone warm and inviting and sheltered from the cold wind by an upright pillar, she finds a tremendous peace and drifts into a restful sleep. “The stone upon which Tess rests is an altar, but also prefigures a grave, with all the ominous associations of a final resting place, ‘so solemn and lonely’” (Harrington, 2005). Thus, Tess transforms herself into a heroine by willingly accepting her natural fate. Rather than insisting Tess is a pure woman as in she is chaste, Hardy instead seems to be indicating she is pure in that she remains purely connected to the natural world to which she belongs. She is initiated into this world at the beginning of the story through her participation in the May Day Dance and consecrated to it within the circle of oaks. As she makes her troubled way through the social world of her times, she becomes increasingly aware of the natural signs and symbols that reveal her future, illustrating her pure nature as woman. When finally pushed too far to bear, she runs to the only natural place from which she might sacrifice her soul – the altar at Stonehenge, fully recognizing what she’s about. The fact that Tess, a pure woman closely associated with the concepts of Nature itself, is destroyed at every turn hints that there may be a deeper social message in what Hardy was trying to communicate. Works Cited Bonica, Charlotte. “Nature and Paganism in Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles.” ELH. Vol. 49, N. 4, (Winter 1982). Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 2005. Harrington, Ralph. “The Shadow of Stonehenge: Paganism, Fate and Redemption in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles.” GreyCat.org. (2005). Rogers, Sharon. “The Medievalist Impulse of Thomas Hardy.” Cross Connect. University of Pennsylvania, 1996. Read More