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Inglese Homepage LiteratureThomas Hardy |
1840 - 1928
| The greatest representative of the
late Victorian literature, Thomas Hardy, was among the
novelists who marked the transition to XXth century
English and American fiction. He wrote many novels such
as: "Far from the Madding Crowd", "Jude
the Obscure", The Mayor of Casterbridge", etc. Tess of the DUrbervilles" is regarded as Hardys tragic masterpiece. It is the story of innocence, of Man and Nature, of history and its relation to the present, concentrated on the fate of a simple young girl. |
Tess of D'Urbervilles
tess of
durbervilles
Tess Durbeyfield is a victim of
external and uncomprehended forces. Passive and yielding,
unsuspicious and fundamentally pure, she suffers a weakness of
will and reason, struggling against a fate that is too strong for
her. Tess is the easiest victim of circumstance, society and male
idealism, who fights the hardest fight yet is destroyed by her
ravaging self-destructive sense of guilt, life denial and the
cruelty of two men. It is primarily the death of the horse,
Prince, the Durbeyfield’s main source of livelihood, that
commences the web of circumstance that envelops Tess. Tess views
herself as the cause of her families economic downfall, however
she also believes that she is parallel to a murderess. The
imagery at this point in the novel shows how distraught and guilt
ridden Tess is as she places her hand upon Prince’s wound in
a futile attempt to prevent the blood loss that cannot be
prevented. This imagery is equivalent to a photographic proof - a
lead-up to the events that will shape Tess’s life and the
inevitable “evil” that also, like the crimson blood
that spouts from Prince’s wound, cannot be stopped. The
symbolic fact that Tess perceives herself to be comparable to a
murderess is an insight into the murder that she will eventually
commit and is also a reference to the level of guilt that now
consumes her. “Nobody blamed Tess as she blamed herself...
she regarded herself in the light of a murderess.” Her
parents, aware of her beauty,view Tess as an opportunity for
future wealth and coupled with the unfortunate circumstance of
Prince’s death urge Tess to venture from the ‘engirdled
and secluded region’ of Marlott to seek financial assistance
from the D’urberville’s in nearby Trantridge . It is
here that she first encounters the sexually dominating and
somewhat demonic Alec D’urberville, whom she is later to
fall victim to. Alec’s first words to Tess , “Well, my
Beauty, what can I do for you?” indicate that his first
impression of Tess is only one of sexual magnetism. Alec then
proceeds to charm Tess by pushing strawberries into her mouth and
pressing roses into her bosom. These fruits of love are an
indication of Alec’s lust and sexual desire for Tess as he
preys upon her purity and rural innocence. Tess unwillingly
becomes a victim to Alec’s inhumane,violent and aggressive
sexual advances as Alec, always the master of opportunities,
takes advantage of her whilst alone in the woods and rapes her.
Tess has fallen subject to the crueller side of human nature as
Alec seizes upon her vulnerability.
After this sexual violation and corruption of innocence, Tess
flees home and although she has escaped the trap of the sexually
rapacious Alec for the time being,her circumstance is similar to
that of a wounded animal - her blood of innocence has been
released. At this time Hardy gives reference to
Shakespeare’s ‘The Rape of Lucrece’ -’where
the serpent hisses the sweet birds sing’ suggesting that
Alec was equivalent to Satan tempting Eve. Tess is undoubtedly a
victim and her lack of understanding over such matters only
increases the guilt that already embodies her. To add further to
her shame she chances upon a holy man who paints exerts from the
bible around the countryside. In red accusatory letters she reads
“THY, DAMNATION, SLUMBERETH, NOT” and is horrified to
think how relevant it is to her recent misfortunes. Tess at this
stage is a victim to her own self - conscience and she becomes a
recluse trapped within her home - away from the society that has
unjustfully condemned her whilst in reality she has broken no law
of nature.
Returning to work in the field, Tess witnesses the rabbits forced
further to shelter as the corn rows in which they dwell are
reaped and the harvesters kill every one of them with sticks and
stones. This is symbolic of Tess’s own situation as she is
being separated little by little from family and friends and from
her childhood innocence ,it is suggestive of the loneliness she
now feels. The baby she has baptised as Sorrow dies, his name
being an indication of the anguish that has taken place within
Tess due to the circumstances of his conceival and it also
epitomises what is to follow through the events of her own
sorrowful life.
In an attempt to start her life anew, Tess decides to move away
from the seclusion of Marlott to Talbothays - where no one will
know of her past. Although filled with natural optimism,
Tess’s past has already begun to weave the fatalistic web
that will trap her like a fly and from which the ravenous spider
of chaotic doom will draw all of her life’s animation out.
Talbothay’s Dairy is the phase of Tess’s life in which
she experiences her only period of sheer happiness, although at
times this is tinctured by mental hesitations as to her purity
and righteousness. Here we can see in an abstracted form the way
society has entrapped Tess by its assertions of what is
supposedly morally correct.
‘Like a fascinated bird’ Tess is drawn into the wild
and overgrown garden by the sound of Angel Clare’s harp -
playing. We gain here, a sense of Tess’s affinity within the
natural environment as she proceeds as stealthily as a cat
through this profusion of growth. Hardy has likened Tess to an
animal and this is symbolic also of the eminent disaster to
follow. Tess is trapped once again - although on this occasion
she is bound to Angel by ideological fetters . Tess is
transformed in Angel’s sight ‘... a visionary essence
of woman - a whole sex condensed into one typical form’.
Tess’s material, physical relationship with Alec has been
replaced by a spiritual, idealised one with Angel. She has now
become a victim of Angel’s idealisation as her individuality
is becoming further suppressed by his imaginative and ethereal
reasonings. As the spring season progresses so does Angel and
Tess’s romance and eventually she succumbs to Angel’s
charms.
After failing to tell Angel of her past, she writes him a letter
which is placed beneath his door. In a cruel twist of fate , the
letter slides beneath the mat and there it remains - unread. Tess
and Angel’s marriage is marred by ill - omen. Hardy gives
reference to the gnats that know nothing of their brief
glorification - as Tess herself cannot fathom the potent fatalism
that will cause her such sorrow. Hardy’s continual use of
ill -omen gives the impression of the extent of Tess’s
victimisation to fate; the D’urberville coach and the crow
of the cock symbolising the death of their relationship.
On their honeymoon, traditionally a joyous occasion, Tess
confides in Angel the nature of her past. Prior to this
confession, Tess is horrified by the portraits she sees hanging
on the walls. Angel beholds a similar quality within Tess - an
arrogance and ferocity which is the truth linked to her past. On
hearing of Tess’s unfortunate past, Angel withdraws from
reality by refusing to admit that she is the woman that he loved.
‘You were one person; now you are another’ Angel’s
departure to Brazil leaves Tess almost as a widow . Angel ‘s
physical rejection of Tess has subjected her to the cruelty of
love, a victim once again - she is broken both spiritually and
emotionally. It is at this point in the novel that she begins to
understand that her beauty is part of the cause of her
destruction. In answer to this she dons her oldest field gown,
covers half her face with a handkerchief, and snips off her
eyebrows to “keep off these casual lovers”. Tess has
realised that part of the victimisation she has undergone is
because of her beauty, although this realisation has come too
late to save her from Alec’s lustful actions and
Angel’s idealised ones. Tess seeks shelter one night beneath
some bushes to hide from a lustful man and awakens to find
pheasants left half - dead by a shooting party. All of these
birds are writhing in agony apart from those which have been
unable to bear any more and have died through the night. Tess
reprimands herself for feeling self-pity; ‘I be not mangled,
and I be not bleeding’ - and although she is not physically
marred by the events that have so irrevocably altered her life ,
emotionally and spiritually she is exhausted.
The potent tragedy of Tess’s life is that her decisions have
always been made with good and pure intentions but have resulted
in damaging consequences.Tess is undoubtedly a victim as misery
punctuates her life. She is a victim of circumstance in that her
individuality makes little difference to her fate, she is a
victim of society in the sense that she is a scapegoat of narrow
- mindedness and she is a victim of male ideology on the grounds
that her powers of will and reason are undermined by her
sensuality. Tess herself sums up her own blighted life best;
‘Once a victim, always a victim - that’s the law!’
Summary of the novel
Tess Durbeyfield is the daughter of a poor farmer, whose life is troubled by a minister who once told him he was a descendant of the ancient noble and rich family of the DUrberville. In order to acquire favorable relationshipps he sends his daughter as a maid to the house of a family who bears the surname DUrberville with doubtful right to it. Seduced by Alec, the heir of the family, Tess gives birth to an illegitimate child who dies in infancy, after an improvised midnight baptism of its mother. Some time later, while working as a dairy-maid on a large farm, Tess becomes engaged to Angel Clare, a clergymans son. But Tess is pressed by her fault, and on their wedding night confesses to him her affair with Alec. Angel, who thought of himself as being free of prejudices, proves to be their slave. He abandons Tess going to seek his fortune somewhere in Brasil. Misfortunes and hardships come upon her and her family. An accident throws her once more in the path of Alec and she accepts to continue her relationship with him. Returning from Brasil, Angel finds her in this situation. Maddened by this second wrong Alec had done to her, Tess murders him to liberate herself. After a brief period of concealment with Angel Clare, Tess is arrested at Stonehenge, trialed and hanged.
The conflict of the novel: the Blind Destiny, the conflict between Man and Nature
According to Hardy, man and woman are condemned
to live in a world that is ruled by universal pitiless laws,
predetermined by Nature itself. Fatal chance is an invisible
force in all the relationships of human being, there is the Blind
Destiny, the sin which is to revenge some day, the merciless laws
ignored by the characters who, ultimately, will be crushed by
them. Man does not accept these rules and becomes a desperate
fighter. Hence, the tragic fight between mans aspirations and his
possibilities. The fragment presenting Tess and Angel at
Stonehenge is symbolic for the whole novel and for Hardys
philosophy.
Tess is an elementary nature, with powerful instincts, capable of
violent passions and infinite devotion. Throughout the novel she
is presented as passive, obedient and submissive to the laws of
nature, of society and of her own temperament. She shows a
complete acceptance of whatever comes upon her, understanding
destiny as a law of Universe. That is why she faces Destiny with
dignity, resignation and grace. She knows that she had disrupted
the equilibrium in Universe, the code of laws and she accepts her
fate, feeling that order has been re-established.
The scenery - Stonehenge As soon as they arrive in the presence
of Stonehenge the realistic level sinks into insignificance.
Their stepping into myth is announced by some classical symbol
motifs: their state of ignorance is suggested by their "groping"
around. Gradually, they become acquainted - through their senses:
hearing, touching - with the place which they define as "a
temple of the winds", and the author defines it as "the
pavilion of the night". The ancient, timeless character
impresses by its firmness. The way architecture influenced Hardy
in depicting the "pagan temple" can easily be seen.
"Feeling sideways they encountered another tower - like
pillar, as square as the first, beyond it another and another.
The place was all doors and pillars, some connected above by
continuous architraves." The setting is perfect" a
concrete place with mysterious meaning, the remnant of a very old
civilization that worshipped nature bringing human sacrifices and
thus suggesting the insignificance of man in the face of Nature.
It becomes the place of her punishment and the shrine of
sacrifice and forgiveness. Tess seems caught between the sky and
the earth - looking like an innocent victim sacrificed to the
gods on an altar.
The chromatic element plays a major part in the creation of the
dramatic atmosphere. The images connected with darkness, light
and wind have a definite position in the picture. Time gradually
passes from mere chronology - midday, afternoon, 8 oclock - to
duration and symbolic time: night march, midnight, the night wind.
Nature is concordant with Tesss state of mind: dark, with an
impress of reserve, taciturnity and hesitation, cold as the
stones. The coming of light is the coming of death. The figures
of the soldiers appear at the first break of dawn. On the other
hand, Nature seems to anticipate the events that are to come:
"Presently the night wind died out, and the quivering little
pools in the cup like hollows of the stones lay still." The
dialogue is reduced to the minimum, the emphasis lying on the
description of the scenery. We notice metaphors, chromatic
epithets, visual images, gradation - from night towards dawn,
alongside with the gradation of the torments within Tesss heart
from despair to resignation. In the end, Stonehenge is in full
light, marking the heroines serenity and peace of mind.
The novel may be considered both a psychologic one (because it
draws a few years in the evolution of the heroine) and a social
novel at the same time (it is described the condition of
peasantry as well as the contrast between the latters life and
aristocracy), and perhaps even a love story (the story of unhappy
love tormented by the absurdities of life.
Haunted by fatalism and determinism, Hardy is a tragic writer and
illustrates his unique humanitarian attitude towards the dramatic
struggle between man and evil.
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