Analysis of Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy - Research Paper Example

number 11 April Tess of the DUrbervilles related research paper Tess of the DUrbervilles is one of the most famousnovels of a prominent English writer Thomas Hardy. The novel was first published in 1892 under the title Tess of the DUrbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, which implied the authors affection for the protagonist of this tragic story, Tess. Telling the story of Tess, an innocent woman who became a victim of stigmatization and deeply entrenched prejudices that prevailed in the British society of Victorian era, Thomas Hardy touched upon social injustice, littleness of mind, hypocrisy of Victorian attitudes on women, sex and marriage, and a lot more. The life of Tess, a typical woman from the middle class of the British society, is characterized by unendurable hardships incidental to gender inequality and restricted womens rights in the 19th century and is used by the author as a personification of some philosophies of nature, such as naturalism and neo-paganism. Thomas Hardys Tess of the DUrbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a multifaceted story that explores Victorian era within the context of gender roles that restrict womens rights, the way impersonal forces might influence and devaluate the freedom of choice of a person, the rigidity of the British class system of the late 19th century, contradictions between Christian and pagan traditions sitting alongside each other in the collective mind of the British society and a lot more (Radford 93). Thus, the story of Tess Durbeyfield is full of symbolism and allegories being, to a certain extent, an anthropological research of the English society of late-Victorian era and extending beyond the tragedy of a modest milkmaid from an English village. The main character of the novel is a young woman from impoverished English countryside, Tess Durbeyfield. Her troubles start when her father mistakenly concludes that their family name might derive from one of the oldest noble families in Great Britain, namely, DUrbervilles. Tess is forced by her family to pay a visit to the town of Trantridge in order to establish and strengthen relations with the wealthy family of DUrbervilles who reside there (Hardy 6). The whole situation seems to be tinged with a cutting irony as the father of Tess doesnt even know that the name DUrbervilles has nothing to do with the family that lives in Trantridge. This aristocratic surname was once adopted for the sake of high public profile and better social standing by the deceased husband of Mrs. DUrbervilles, Simon Stoke, who was not related to real DUrbervilles at all. The desire to be associated with a noble family name seems ridiculous in the twenty-first century but it was in trend back in Victorian era when a humble background meant fewer opportunities within the framework of a sharply defined class system of Great Britain. On the other hand, it should be noted that the speculations around the issue of family trees and changing of names reveal that, unlike earlier times, classes in Victorian England are divided based on financial position only. If back in the Middle Ages an aristocratic name was a synonym of high social standing and wealth by birthright and line of consanguinity, in the late-Victorian era rich people buy genealogical trees to acquire noble surnames in order to just show off. Having an illustrious name doesnt even mean that one belongs to noble kin anymore, which typifies strikingly the spirit of time during Victorian era with its double standards and double dealing of rich that set benchmarks for all. Furthermore, the relative ease with which one could gain a noble surname in Thomas Hardys story of late-Victorian England demonstrates how blurred the boundaries between classes have really become in Great Britain by the end of the 19th century. However, what still matters is the domination of men over women in all spheres of life, which has somewhat increased within the framework of domestic relations during the late-Victorian era as compared to the preceding century. In fact, at times the dictatorship of men within the context of marital relations shown in Thomas Hardys novel has a strong resemblance with customs and mores of primitive societies, especially when it comes to the issues of the wedding-night and virginity of a bride. As the story unfolds Thomas Hardy manages to touch upon the aforementioned archetypes of the British society of the late-Victorian era bringing to light some aspects of social life that show readers how surprisingly close the outline of events in the 19th century can get to the logic of social relationships that once prevailed in primitive societies. For instance, Thomas Hardy describes in punctilious details Tess participates the feast of May Dance, which Tess participates. It shows readers how Christian traditions may yield to pagan rites in the end of the 19th century, which is a bright illustration of the fact that human civilization has not gone too far from its origins and influences of primordial condition of man cannot be underestimated and may be awakened with marvelous facility any time. Thomas Hardy describes in colorful detail how Tess takes an active part in May Dance and dances around the maypole watching her future husband Angel Clare, whom she is ready to sacrifice herself for. However, Angel doesnt even notice Tess this time and she will have to get through unimaginable hardships before Angel marries her. The feast of May Dance serves as the celebration of innocence in a mysterious metaphysical way, a kind of innocence that the principal personage of Tess Durbeyfield will never lose despite anything that happens to her as the chain of events spiral down to the bitter end by the will of some impersonal force that ruins all her benevolent intentions. The May Dance was the first but not the last attribute of pagan practices that defy Christianity and question the system of beliefs according to which the most pure in heart are destined to be happy. It is quite strange how Christianity and neo-paganism sit alongside and coexist in this novel reminding readers of duality of human nature, which allows one to accept things that thwart one another without even noticing a discrepancy. When Tess goes to the town of Trantridge to meet the family of DUrbervilles she, to all appearance, ends up being raped by the son of Mrs. DUrbervilles, Alec DUrbervilles. Nevertheless, it must be noted that there is a slight ambiguity in the way Thomas Hardy describes the sex between Alec. Despite the fact that this situation foredoomed the unfavorable drift of events for Tess and Alec, it remains unclear Alec actually raped Tess or seduced her, and she was really carried away by temptation and, thus, resigned herself to the fatality of life (Tumanov 252). As a result of sexual intercourse with a man Tess doesnt even love, she gets pregnant. Tess goes back to the house of her parents to hide herself from public and escape social condemnation for giving birth to a child without being married to anyone. Unlike modern days when a single mother stands high for the will to foster ones kid without the support of a father, back in the end of the 19th century a woman who lost her virginity before getting married deserved nothing but undisguised disdain and condemnation. So Tess chose to separate from all of her friends and the whole world and sacrifice all her time to her child. But, unfortunately, shortly after she gave birth to her boy, he gets sick and dies. His death and the way Tess buried her deceased child becomes yet another illustration of Victorian manners and attitude to family issues during the late-Victorian era that Thomas Hardy so painstakingly describes. Tess is forced to baptize her child by herself as her own father prohibited to invite the parson for the ceremony. She made a cross without any help of a man and buried her boy without a priest. The way she held a funeral of her come-by-chance child reminds of the way people bury their pets in shoeboxes these days, and the whole ceremony served as a manifestation of discrimination that a child of sin had to encounter in his life unless he died a few weeks after his birth. The Victorian uncompromising attitude toward the so-called illegitimate birth makes one think that the sudden death of this unwanted child saved him from a lifelong humiliation of a hypocritical society that he was foredoomed to by his birthright. The child of Tess dies but her brief extramarital affair that took away her virginity jeopardizes her future and, in fact, ruins her life (Hughes, n.p.). In the society where it seems that people fear gossips more than death, one cannot hope for the best in a situation like that of Tess. Yet Tess proves to be a strong person and doesnt lose hope, while approaching slowly to her bitter end, the guilt for which might be as well imputed upon the rigidity of the Victorian sexual morality that Thomas Hardy managed to expose in his book. Two years after the death of her child of shame Tess seeks to find a job far from her village and gets employed as a milkmaid at Talbothays Dairy where she has a chance to get acquainted with her future husband, Angel Clare. Tess and Angel quickly fall in love with each other. Soon Angel visits his wealthy parents and reveals them his intentions to marry Tess. Although the social statuses of Tess and Angel are incomparable as both belong to different social classes of the English society (Tess represents impoverished working class and is descended from the family of uneducated villagers, while Angel represents a middle-class family), it must be noted that Angels parents do not attempt to thwart his marriage plans and accept his desire to marry a woman from a lower social class. This nuance of the story stresses on the fact how blurred the lines between the social groups are in late-Victorian England as compared to its recent past before the Victorian era, when marriage of wealthy and poor was almost impossible to imagine being a social taboo that was rarely broken (Harvey 44). On the other hand, it must be duly noted that Angels parents were only too ready to accept arguments of their son in favor of his marriage with Tess, when they learned her family name might take origin from the ancient noble surname of DUrbervilles. Thus, the old English traditions that took into consideration the social class and origin of the future spouse were not fully abandoned in late-Victorian England. In fact, such traditions lost their power and influence within the context of a marriage in England nowadays, yet are not fully abandoned these days. A belonging to a certain social class is still taken into account in British society today and is often used as an argument by relatives of a spouse-to-be in order to influence his or her decision on whether to marry a person or not. Indeed, not that much has changed since the end of the 19th century but if one may say that a certain breakthrough is obviously there when it comes to late-Victorian attitude to marriage. The thing is that Victorian era, the way it is described in Thomas Hardys novel, seems like a certain bridge between the times when one could only marry someone who belonged to his or her social class to the modern times when the main impetus to a marriage is usually the feelings that people share toward one another. Angel and Tess loved each other and, under the circumstances, it looked like the only thing that could thwart their marriage was they themselves. And that is exactly what happens. Tess marries Angel without telling him of his extramarital relationship with Alec DUrbervilles. And this is a part of the novel where the atavistic notion of the so-called wedding night, when a husband finds out if his wife is a virgin, takes the stage. The wedding-night practice, which is utterly discriminative to women, is a bright illustration of gender inequality and level of domination of men over women during the Victorian era. Once Angel learns that his wife is not a virgin and hears her story he prefers to neglect how much Tess loves him and how innocent her soul is regardless the fact that she is not a virgin physically. Angel ignores his own feeling to Tess and proves to be vulnerable to the public prejudices and ruins his marriage. Before leaving his wife and fleeing to Brazil Angel tells Tess that she has become another person to him once he found out that she is not a virgin and there is no way he can tolerate such a terrible transformation and forgive her (Hardy 269). Following the sexual morals imposed on him by the society Angel fails to believe that Tess has managed to retain her spiritual purity and innocence and thinks that Tess lies to him and doesnt tell the whole story. He thinks that she can cheat on him in future because thats just the way it goes with women who are not able to save their virginity before getting married. On the other hand, Tess believed in love and hoped that Angel would find strength to forgive her. All in all, Angel vanishes having chosen to leave for Brazil, and Tess is left all alone. Tess still hopes that Angel would find courage to forgive her and get back to her against all odds, but as time passes by Tess eventually loses hope to see Angel again. She meets Alec DUrbervilles one more time. He seems to have changed. Alec became the preacher of a Methodist church but deep inside him he obviously stayed the same. When Alec asks Tess to marry him, she tells him she is married to Angel and still hopes he will come back to her. Instead of repenting what he did to her and move on, Alec abandons church and gets back to Tess later only to tell her that he is sure her husband will never forgive her and wont come back to her. Alec seems to be ready to do anything to marry Tess and eventually she agrees to marry him, although she does not love him and is sure that he is the one to blame for her ruined marriage, while it is quite evident that unless Angel had bowed to the stereotypes of Victorian sexual morals and attitudes towards marriage he would have been together with Tess, happily married (Davis 13). Finally, out of despair Tess surrenders and decides to marry Alec DUrbervilles. Meanwhile Angel Clare gets back to England. He regrets that he left Tess and realizes how much he loves her. He seeks a chance to meet her to tell her he repents what he did to her but she tells him it is too late to get everything right and he has blown his chance. In spite of any public pressure, social stereotypes and prejudices soon it becomes clear that love is stronger than that. Tess understands that the only man she wants to be with is Angel, not Alec. In fact, she hates Alec for ruining her life and tricking her into losing virginity and than losing hope that the day will come and Angel gets back to her. Obviously, that is exactly what Tess wants to tell Alec when he comes home but their conversation ends up with a tragedy. Tess murders Alec and leaves the house. She comes to Angel and tells him what has just happened and how much she loves him. As a matter of fact, she loves Angel so bad that she is ready to do anything for him, even murdering those who stand in the way between them. Angel decides to hide Tess from police but it doesnt take long till Tess gets caught and executed. The place, where she gets caught by police has a symbolic meaning and employs the theme of pagan traditions once again. The last place where Tess is enjoying freedom with the man she loves is Stonehenge, an ancient pagan monument that was once a place to bury people. Tess is lying on one of the stones of Stonehenge in bliss, not as innocent as she used to be but happy. There is an irony concealed in this chapter of the book. First of all, the title of this final chapter is called Fulfillment and implies the state Tess is in. She has abandoned all the stereotypes and morals imposed upon her by the society, including the Christian system of beliefs. Secondly, it is the moment of the story when she finally gets free and is lying with the man she loves by her side. She sacrificed everything to get here. She killed her husband, who had done wrong to her, and finally reunited with the one she always loved. She was fully aware of the consequences of her actions but she did not care a bit. All her life long she did everything shes been told and she was as unhappy and broke as one could possibly get. She was innocent and pure in her heart but she failed to find justice and happiness. And now she finds herself in this pagan entourage totally free from all the fear for future being in harmony with the surrounding world. There is something mystic in the place and in the state of mind of Tess Durbeyfield at this very moment. And it is the moment when she has to pay for what she did to get here. It is the moment when police comes and seizes her. It is the moment when she loses everything but herself. She loses her freedom, the man she loves and consequently the right for a living. But this is the only moment when she feels herself complete. The bitter end of her personal story and the end of the booked is marked with the scene where Angel Clare stands shaking hands together with another woman and waits for the black flag to be raised over the prison to let people of the town know that Tess is executed for the murder she committed. There is no doubt that Tess is one of the most tragic characters in English literature of the 19th century. The purity of her soul is fascinating. Till the very day she yields to emotions and murders the one who has ruined her life, there is absolutely nothing one can blame upon her. She is obviously not the one to blame for the fact that she has been seduced by Alec DUrbervilles as she was asleep when he took advantage of her. Nobody can blame Tess for the death of her child either. She has been through so many hardships in her life before and after the marriage with Angel Clare that at times it seems incredible how she manages to keep the purity of her soul free from such emotions as hatred, jealousy or fury. She is ready to sacrifice for the sake of common good; she helps her family, spreads love and joy and nothing seems to break her no matter what happens. For a long time, practically all her life long, she has been suffering meekly and tolerating unimaginable hardships of fate. She can sell her peace of mind but there is one thing she cannot give away. She doesnt accept any compromises when it comes to conscience. The day she did compromise on that she lost everything. Being a victim of a reckless and tricky seducer Tess is doomed to be a victim forever. Unfortunately, the power of coarse and cynical circumstances looms over her till the very end, while the mediocrity looks leniently how evil comes from evil. Nobody ever helped Tess escape the bitter end. Every man she met was yet another step to the moment when she would sacrifice everything for the sake of another person. The character of Tess serves as an embodiment of unbending will doomed from the start, a personification if a woman struggling for her rights in the atmosphere of gender inequality that has long become a norm, an example of a person who is ready to sacrifice everything she has for common good hoping to get at least justice, not happiness, but gets punished in the end. The story of Tess tells readers that there is no justice in this life for those who deserve justice. It is up to the reader whether to agree with this statement but it refrains all the way down in the novel, from the very beginning, when the horse of Tess is wounded and dies, til the end, when Tess is executed while the man whom she had killed for is shaking hands with another woman already. This makes the book of Thomas Hardy heretical, exciting and filled with a rebellious thought. It is no wonder that the author was subject to various attacks of both the audience and the critics when the novel was published. Works Cited Davis, William A., Jr. "Hardy and the Deserted Wife Question: The Failure of the Law in Tess of the DUrbervilles." Colby Quarterly 29.1 (1993): 5-19. Print. Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the DUrbervilles. New York: Dover Publications, 2001. Print. Harvey, Geoffrey. The Complete Critical Guide to Thomas Hardy. London: Routledge, 2003. Print. Hughes, Kathryn. "Gender Roles in the 19th Century." British Library. 9 Aug. 2007. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. . Radford, Andrew D. Thomas Hardy and the Survivals of Time. Farnham: Ashgate, 2003. Print. Tumanov, Vladimir. "Under the Hood of Tess: Conflicting Reproductive Strategies in Thomas Hardys Tess of the DUrbervilles." Neophilologus: International Journal of Modern and Mediaeval Language and Literature 97.1 (2013): 245-259. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. Read More