THOMAS HARDY
TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES
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 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.
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.
