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TESS OF THE D URBERVILLES
The son of a master mason, Thomas Hardy was born in Upper
Bockhampton, Dorset. He was apprenticed to an architect in Dorchester
when he was 16, and his mother encouraged him to go on studying. His
career in letters notwithstanding, Hardy retained an interest in
stonework and architecture all his life.
It was his profession as an architect that took him to London in 1862,
about the time when he first began to write. In this he received
encouragement from his friend, Horace Moule, a university-trained
scholar. The friendship was a valuable stimulus to the young Hardy;
Moule was eight years his senior and had a classical background. (Moule
committed suicide in 1873, believing himself a failure. His death
affected Hardy deeply, and some of his characters-notably Jude-have more
than a suggestion of his friend in them.)
One of 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.
"Considered one of the major classic novels of nineteenth-century
literature, Tess is the compelling story of an extraordinary woman and
her tragic destiny -- a brilliant, transcendent work of compassion and
courage by one of the finest English novelists, Thomas Hardy." (Mass
Market Paperback edition).
Novel by Thomas Hardy, first published serially in July-December 1891
and in its entirety in book form (three volumes) the same year. It was
subtitled A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented because Hardy felt that its
heroine was a virtuous victim of a rigid Victorian moral code. "At the
time of its publication in 1891, Tess of the d Urbervilles was scorned
by readers for what was then considered its indictment of
Victorian society and its unconventional heroine, Tess Durbeyfield.
Tess of the D Urbervilles" is regarded as Hardy s 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.
Like the greatest characters in literature, Tess lives beyond the final
pages of the book as a permanent citizen of the imagination, said Irving
Howe. In Tess he stakes everything on his sensuous apprehension of a
young woman s life, a girl who is at once a simple milkmaid and an
archetype of feminine strength. . . . Tess is that
rare creature in literature: goodness made interesting. The novel is
powerful and depressing. Tess is a weak-willed woman. Angel is a
provincial, moralistic, and unforgiving husband and Alec is just plain
mean, he is the embodiment of evil. The mood is somber, and the few
happy things that happen are overshadowed by the unhappy things that
they foreshadow.
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 D Urberville. In order to acquire
favorable relationshipps he sends his daughter as a maid to the house of
a family who bears the surname D Urberville 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 clergyman s 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 man s aspirations and
his possibilities. The fragment presenting Tess and Angel at Stonehenge
is symbolic for the whole novel and for Hardy s 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 o clock - to duration and symbolic
time: night march, midnight, the night wind. Nature is concordant with
Tess s 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
Tess s heart from despair to resignation. In the end, Stonehenge is in
full light, marking the heroine s 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 latter s 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.
This book has touched me in a very different way than many others
have. It is a tragic story and envelopes the reader in a different kind
of sadness - a sadness which one cannot pull out of quickly or just draw
aside. The happy moments are all tinged with a bitter taste. Each
character is drawn as a natural human being and each mistake they make
reflects on their future and affects them drastically. Everything
that happens to Tess happens for a reason, and the reader must be able
to realize how each affects her to appreciate this book.
I think that Tess was “created†by Hardy in order to present the
world from that times with all her conflicts, with the injust rights
that the women had, and Tess is a heroine, a heroine who succeeds to
leave all that behind and continue her life.She is a powerfull women,
because she haves the power to pass over her problems and to reach at
the end , as a winner.She also is a women half pure and half impure.I
say that she is pure because she succeds to remain unchanged with all
tha everything surrounding her is changing, she remains as pure as when
she was just a small girl.
Another thing why I believe that makes Tess a pure women, is that she
always have trust in God.Even when the troubles, and problems are
overwhelming she does not losses her trust in God.
Also ,at the end of the novel she is condemned to death and she is
burned alive.The fire, in some cultures represents a way o
purification.Many cultures considered that through fire, the man could
be purified.The reason why I think that Tess is not a pure women is that
she is a murderer.After Alec takes advantages of her, she kills him.This
act makes her impure.But even after she kills Alec she still remains a
very faithfully women, her trust in God is even higher, maybe because in
her heart the feelling of guilty had taken proportions, and she was
looking for a way to be forgived by God.
Another important fact relating the novel is that the entire
novel is filled with simbolls.For example the railroad or the train.The
train symbols the future.Everything is into a continuous changing.All
the places, all the peoples, all the habits that Tess knew will
change.This symbol is presented in the text also because the novel was
written in the Victorian Age, and in this age, the age of development
everything was into a continous and important changing.
The primordial elements of nature are also symbols and are to
support and to echo Tess’s tragedy.
The Stonehenge fragment begins with Hardy’s detailed description of
the monoliths. We can almost see Tess passing her fingers along the
vertical surface of the stones.
Angel himself names this edifice a “very Temple of Winds†because
the wind blowing among its blocks of stone made a sort of a buzz.
(“What monstrous place is this?†said Angel. “It humsâ€Â, she
said. Harkenâ€Â). He listens. The wind, playing upon the edifice
produced a blooming tune, like the note of some gigantic one-stringed
harp...(chapter LVIII)
Tess’s and Angel’s symbolical phrases are meant to
express its darkness, coldness, wildness and greatness. “You mean that
pagan temple? Yes. It’s older than the ages, even than the
d’Urbervilles.†Than follows the description of the Great Plain and
that of the Stone of Sacrifice and the Sun stone.
The Altar Stone, lying within the horseshoe-shaped arrangement on which
Tess is resting peacefully, gives her a feeling of comfort. She said
that she felt like home and that she liked it very much there. When Tess
falls asleep everything is dark, the night wind dies out.
The author than gradually prepares the reader for her awakening: the
light is growing, the light is strong, the sunbeams “shine full†on
the heroine’s face, the stones are “glistening green grayâ€Â. Hardy
is using alliteration to amplify the feeling of anxiety. Notice the
parallelism between the character’s feelings and the nature itself.
From dusk to dawn, the whole nature (light, wind, water, stone)
accompanies Tess.
The Stonehenge scene illustrates once again the idea that in Hardy’s
novels, the nature projects the tragedy of mankind on the primordial
axes, it doesn’t help them through the moment.
With the help of his character, Tess, Hardy succeds to create a good
picture of the world then . I think Tess is an important work. Hardy was
among the first to describe the persecution of weak women by unforgiving
men. Some of those lessons have not yet been learned by people of today.
Hardy s writing is exquisite.
Hardy uses also ,another kind of symbols, symbols that are
very important for the text because it gives the novel originality and
creates the novel into a masterpiece.
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