Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy is the story of a young woman brought down by circumstances beyond her control. The setting is Hardy’s fictional Wessex.
Tess Durbeyfield is the eldest of several children. She has assumed the role of parenting her siblings since both parents have abdicated their responsibilities. Tess blames herself for causing an unfortunate accident resulting in the death of their only horse. This begins a series of unfortunate circumstances and coincidences, catapulting Tess from one disaster to another.
Her parents exploit her feelings of guilt and send her out into the world to claim kin from their ostensible relatives, the wealthy D’Urbervilles. The beautiful young Tess is hounded by the son, Alec.
Tess is in her element in nature. She is associated with nature, the rustic outdoors, and natural purity. Most of the novel takes place on country roads, in woods or fields in a Wessex bustling with agricultural activity. Hardy’s strength lies in his depiction of the pastoral environment. The language describing animals and landscape is lush with natural abundance. He draws the reader in with diction that is detailed, immersive, visual, and stunningly beautiful. He laments the changing world of labor, setting up a contrast between traditional rural labor and the introduction of threshing machines that dehumanize the laborer.
Tess is seen to be glaringly out of place against the incursions of modernity. Hardy portrays her as a pure, innocent young girl, more comfortable in nature than in society. Her beauty and innocence work against her, making her prey to an unscrupulous predator. Her parents fail her; men who claim to love her abuse and abandon her; and a society riddled with injustice and a gendered double standard is quick to condemn her. Hardy evokes sympathy and compassion for his heroine while critiquing the society that gives rise to her tragic circumstances.
This timeless classic is a plea for social justice. Tess is victimized by socially constructed laws that conspire to discriminate against women—laws that privilege men over women, laws that blame women when they are victimized by the men who exert power over them. Hardy is unabashedly on the side of women. He uses as his vehicle a young, innocent girl betrayed by everyone around her and condemned unfairly by society. In Tess he has created one of the most memorable protagonists in literature. She garners sympathy, compassion, and pity in her pleas for understanding and in her attempts to overcome the myriad of obstacles thrust in her way.
In this his second to last novel, Hardy makes an eloquent plea for social justice and equality.
Highly recommended.