Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles and George Eliot's Adam Bede - Essay Example

Thomas Hardys Tess of the DUrbervilles and George Eliots Adam Bede Thomas Hardys Tess of the DUrbervilles: A Pure Woman and George Eliots Adam Bede are two of the most important works published in the late 19th century. Though both these works are very different in many literary aspects, there are also certain similarities because of the contexts that these novels have been set in (Danahay, 2005). This study takes a look at how the class divide and death have an effect on the story and the characters by comparing the way in which these motifs have been used by the writers. The social class and level of poverty are two factors around which the plot of Tess of the DUrbervilles and Adam Bede revolve. The writer, Thomas Hardy lived in an era when England was facing a deep social crisis after the onset of the industrial revolution. Tess belongs to an extremely poor family who are in the lowest strata of the society. This is clear from the fact that the horse was the only means through which their family survived. This plight is also evident when Tess exclaims, "Tis all my doing--all mine! the girl cried, gazing at the spectacle. "No excuse for me--none. What will mother and father live on now?”” (Hardy, 1891, Part IV1). Hence, it can be said that poor economic condition is the reason that leads her to the impending tragedy. These circumstances lead to a situation where Tess is forced to go to work to the family of DUrbervilles, from where the entire tragedy of Tess starts. The social set up of the 18th century where the peasants were poor and the landlords exploited them considerably forms an integral theme of Tess of DUrbervilles. After the industrial revolution, the economy in the rural areas collapsed and created a number of poor peasants who had no means to sustain their livelihood. Then, they were exploited by the capitalist community who formed the upper class of the society. Such was the plight of Tess when she was forced to go to the rich family of the DUrbervilles for work, that there was no other means to survive. This helplessness is evident in the lines, “"Well, as I killed the horse, mother," she said mournfully, "I suppose I ought to do something”” (Hardy, 1891, Part V). This situation is the starting point of the great tragedy that Tess was about to endure. She gets raped, her child Sorrow dies, Angel leaves her and her father dies, and it is again the extreme poverty that leads to their family from being thrown out of the house. Once again, she is forced to become mistress to Alec, leading to the ultimate tragedy of the story. On a deeper look, Eliots Adam Bede is also a novel that reflects certain similarities in terms of the social set up. As Tess, the female protagonist of the novel, Hetty Sorrel belongs to the working class of the society. She gets attracted to the rich Captain Arthur Donnithorne. For Arthur, Hetty is a mere fascination; and being rich and powerful, the society has given him the freedom to express the fascination openly. However, for Hetty, Arthur was someone who could change the world. Therefore, when Hetty becomes pregnant, she becomes the helpless poor woman who has nowhere to go. As she was from the lower class of the society, there was no choice before her, but to abandon the child. Her plight is evident in the following words, “But which way could she turn ? It was impossible for her to enter into any service, even if she could obtain it ; there was nothing but immediate beg- gary before her. She thought of a young woman who had been found against the church wall at Hayslope one Sunday, nearly dead with cold and hunger — a tiny infant in her arms : the woman was rescued and taken to the parish...but held them a mark of idleness and vice” (Eliot, 1859, Chapter XXXVII2 ). As discussed earlier, Tess also was a victim of such a circumstance – something that can be attributed to the low class that both these women belonged to. There are similarities between Alec in Tess and Arthur in Adam Bede. Both belong to the rich class with little disregard for the working class women, whom they think they can flirt easily with. In both the novels, there is such a strong sense of divide between the higher affluent class and the lower working class as seen in the actions of Alec and Arthur. While Alec is cruel and rapes Tess, Arthur felt it was better to abandon her, rather than admitting the true status of relationship to Adam. Both Alec and Adam are thus, examples of the striking class divide that existed the the society that Hardy and Eliot wanted to highlight. Though the social milieu is similar in both the texts, there is a striking difference in the way in which the characters react to the situation. Tess and her family are poor, and hence become the victim of the circumstance. Throughout the novel, the recurrent themes of their poverty and miserable circumstances emerge showing the lower class as a group of people who would always suffer because of their inherent poverty. However, in Eliots Adam Bede, the lower working class is shown as a group of hard-working people, who in spite of their sufferings and misery can bring about happiness because of their hard work. This is shown through the characters of Adam Bede, who excels at carpentry, Mrs. Poyser who works hard in her dairy, and also Dinah who works in a mill. The significance of this hard work is illustrated when Adam says, “There’s nothing but what’s bearable so long as a man can work” (Eliot, 1859, Chapter XL). Both Eliots and Hardys novels highlight the plight of the working class and show the suffering that they undergo. However, Eliots Adam Bede also illustrates the fact that only hard work can bring about both relief and happiness to the working class. Another strong theme that connects both the novels is that of death. In Tess, death comes across as a repetitive metaphor for the impending doom that Tess has to undergo and ends only with their death. The premise of the story begins with the death of the horse Prince. It seemingly sets the tone for the rest of the plot because Tesss misery starts from this point, “Then she stood helplessly looking on. Prince also stood firm and motionless as long as he could; till he suddenly sank down in a heap” (Hardy, 1891, Part IV). The brooding sense seen throughout the narration is strengthened by the deaths that happen. The death of Prince also indicates the death of any means of livelihood that Tesss family had. While Adam Bede also has many instances of death in the story, the sense of loss and brooding is not as strong as seen in Tess. In Adam Bede, even if the circumstances are adverse, there is a positivity reflected because of the hardworking characters. Tess and Adam have to deal with the death of their respective fathers. For Tess, dealing with the death of her father was tough, especially because it meant that they would have to leave their home and had nowhere to go. This episode intensifies her grief and again forces her to take the tough decision of accepting the proposal of Alec to be his mistress. The melancholy of Tess is evident through these lines, “The news meant even more than it sounded. Her fathers life had a value apart from his personal achievements, or perhaps it would not have had much. It was the last of the three lives for whose duration the house and premises were held under a lease” (Hardy, 1891, Part L). However, in Adam Bede, the death of Thias Bede does not bring this brooding sense. In fact, when he was a drunkard, Adam could have left his house because he was tired with his fathers drunkenness. Nonetheless, he chooses to stay on, as evident in, “If you’ve got a man’s heart and soul in you, you can’t be easy a-making your own bed an’ leaving the rest to lie on the stones” (Eliot, 1859, Chapter IV). This attitude of Adam continues even after the death of his father. After a brief grieving period, Adam was again back to what he was doing best, which is carpentry. He also realized that his mother would need a lot of support and hence, instead of being bogged down as in the case of Tess, Adam took it as an opportunity to work hard. Both the protagonists - Tess and Hetty have to face the death of a child, the child that was born out of wedlock. In both the cases, the mothers conceived their children out of circumstances that they were victims of. Tesss child Sorrow was very ill and died soon. The painful death is described in the sentences, “So passed away Sorrow the Undesired--that intrusive creature, that bastard gift of shameless Nature, who respects not the social law” (Hardy, 1891, Part XIV). The death of a her child becomes a turning point in the life of Tess, who realizes that she needs a way to escape as she can never be happy in her village of Marlott. Hetty on the other hand, does not know what to do once she finds herself pregnant. She even thinks of killing herself to get out of the tough situation. Through Adams discussion with Irwine, the readers get to know that she had abandoned her child and the child died due to exposure, even though Hetty had come back to the child as she could not ignore the cries (Jones, 1968). The death of her child leaves Hetty traumatized and she is found guilty of the trail. While the death of her child bought about a sea change in the life of Tess, who moved on to work in a dairy and got on with her life, it signaled the end of the road for Hetty, who was tried and sentenced to death. Both the novels have not only narrations of actual death, but have used death as a metaphor too. This is clear from the way in which Angel Clare talks about the Tess of death in the 37th chapter, "Clare came close, and bent over her. “Dead, dead, dead!” he murmured. After fixedly regarding her for some moments with the same gaze of unmeasurable woe he bent lower, enclosed her in his arms, and rolled her in the sheet as in a shroud. Then lifting her from the bed with as much respect as one would show to a dead body, he carried her across the room, murmuring, “My poor poor Tess, my dearest darling Tess! So sweet, so good, so true!...My wife—dead, dead!” (Hardy, 1891, Part XXXVII) he said. While this can be considered to be an indication of Tesss death in future, it also stands for the metaphor of how the pure and virtuous Tess no longer exists in the life of Angel. Earlier, Angel had adored Tess because she was the symbol of purity and good morals and now, in terms of purity, she is dead for him. A similar metaphor is used in the description where Tess kills the suffering pheasants to put an end to their misery. “Under the trees several pheasants lay about, their rich plumage dabbled with blood; some were dead, some feebly twitching a wing, some staring up at the sky, some pulsating quickly, some contorted, some stretched out...she exclaimed, her tears running down as she killed the birds tenderly.” (Hardy, 1891, Part XLI) The killing of pheasants is a metaphor for the killing of Tesss agony. In a way, this brings about a change and gives her the strength to overcome her tragic life and take revenge from Alec. In Adam Bede, there is an intense description of death when Hetty decides that she would end her life, “The horror of this cold, and darkness, and solitude — out of all human reach — became greater every long minute ; it was almost as if she were dead already, and knew that she was dead, and longed to get back to life again. But no ; she was alive still ; she had not taken the dreadful leap” (Eliot, 1859, Chapter XXXVII). Her loneliness during this event was almost like death. From both these books, it is clear that the theme of death has been used a number of times. However, it appears that in Tess of DUrbervilles, it has been used in a more intense manner when compared to Adam Bede. The most important similarity between the two novels when it comes to theme of death is the death of both Tess and Hetty. After an intensely traumatic life, Tess kills Alec and is sentenced to death. Tess embraces her death gracefully when she says, "Angel, I am almost glad—yes, glad! This happiness could not have lasted. It was too much. I have had enough; and now I shall not live for you to despise me!" (Hardy, 1891, Part LVIII). In the case of Hetty, though she is not executed, she is sent away as a transport prisoner and later she dies in imprisonment. The death of Tess and Hetty in a way signals the advent of new relationship between the characters in the novel. In Tess of the DUrbervilles, Angel and Liza Lou (Tesss sister) are shown walking hand in hand after her execution, whereas in Adam Bede, it also signals the start of a relationship between Dinah and Adam Bede. Another theme which can be considered to be a similarity between both the texts is the morality of the women. In contemporary society, the characters of Tess and Hetty may not be looked at as those with loose morals, however, in the Victorian era, such characters were scorned upon as dirty (Mermin, 2001). In the case of Tess, who was at no fault, had to undergo a painful life. Even her own mother had questioned her when she had come back after she became pregnant with these lines, “You ought to have been more careful if you didnt mean to get him to make you his wife!” (Hardy, 1891, Part XII) This shows that any unwed mother in the society is considered to be one who has dirty morals. Similar is the case with Hetty, who falls in love with Arthur. After she is subjected to intense humiliation and is not successful in meeting Arthur, Hetty has no choice to but to run away as it is clear that no one would accept her. However, in Tess of the DUrbervilles, Hardy attempts to restore the honor of Tess as he gives the subtitle of A Pure Woman to the book. However, in Adam Bede, the focus immediately shifts to the life of Adam and Dinah. Therefore, this study illustrates how the themes of class differences, death and dirty morals are used in both Tess of the DUrbervilles and Adam Bede, but in different ways. Citations Danahay, M. (2005). Gender at Work in Victorian Culture: Literature, Art and Masculinity. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Co Hardy, T (1891). Tess of the DUrbervilles. Oxford: Oxford University Press Eliot, G (1859). Adam Bede. Oxford: Oxford University Press Jones, R. (1968). A critical commentary on George Eliots Adam Bede. London: Macmillan Mermin, D. (2001). Victorian Literature: 1830-1900. London: Wadsworth Publishing. Read More