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Angel is a victim of the
moral principle. He loves Tess as a “fresh and virginal daughter of nature”
He is idealist influenced by his early religious teaching. He is enlightened
by fresh belief, submits the pressure of the society.
The structure of Tess is simple. The story is about only one
character. The plot develops mainly about the principle character and her
tragic fate without any digression. Angel is also a very important figure,
but he only serves to form part of the environment which ruins Tess.
The sub-head of Tess D’Urbevillis is “a pure woman”. Tess is seduced by Alec
twice, but Hardy regards Tess as a pure woman, which is a challenge to the
old-fashioned moral principles in Victorian Age. Hardy attacks the social
systems and the old-fashioned moral principles by presenting this tragic
figure-Tess, who suspects the rite of religion and ignore the “moral
standard” in that age. In this sense, Hardy criticized the conventional
views of marriage and sexuality. He influenced on D.H. Lawrence’s
revolutionary writing about sexuality and the unconscious mind in the 20th
century. The cause of Tess tragedy is not mainly her subjugation to the fate
and humiliation, like the cause of the tragedy lies in the society. The
industrial development has big impact on the rural life, on one hand, it
brings prosperity, and on the other hand, it brings hypocrisy of the
bourgeois society. The distance between the rich and the poor is enlarged
and most of the peasants go into the debt, so Tess at the age of 16 has to
go to the family of K’Ubevillis as a maid for a better life. The society
does not blame Alec to take any responsibility for Tess after Alec seduces
Tess. When Tess confesses everything about her self and Alec, Angle deserts
her to live abroad, just because Angle, the man with “a literal mind”, who
is deeply influenced by the Victorian principles of inequality attitudes
towards men and women, Tess suffers extreme hardships spiritually. In order
to reduce the life burden, she has to live with Alec again. Therefore, Tess
tragedy speaks out women’s fate in that society, which Hardy wanted to
criticize. Environment and coincidences are in the book. The bourgeois
society is responsible for the miseries and sufferings of the people whom
Hardy described in his works.
There are coincidental accidents in the novel that is one of
the features of Hardy’s novel. There is no exception of this novel. For
example, the accidental death of the horse, the misplacement of Tess’s
letters of confession in the novel is detailed illustration of coincidence
of the plots.
The novel is tragedy full of features of
symbolism and
realism to reveal the theme
to readers with the skills of allusions and symbols by Hardy. For example,
when Tess is seduced by Alic, birds perch on the trees quietly. When Tess
and Angle stay together, she feels each bird sing happily. The birds have
symbolic meanings to allude to tragic fate of Tess.
Hardy adopted detached authorial narrative to achieve tragic
effect. The narrator is neither involved in the development of plots nor
Hardy himself. This kind of narrator can speak to readers about Determinism
through objective comments. For example, the narrator expressed Hardy’s
thought of determinism and insignificance of human beings before mysterious
fate in the following description of Abraham’s gazing at the twinkling stars
in the sky.
“He[Abraham] leant back against the hives, and with upturned
face made observation on the stars, whose cold pulses were beating amid the
black hollows above, in serene dissociation from these two wisps of human
life. He asked how far away those twinklers were, and whether God was on the
other side of them. But ever and anon his childish prattle recurred to what
impressed his imagination even more deeply than the wonders of creation.”
When Tess is hanged, the book ends. This following
passage is the last paragraph of Chapter LIX
“Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals (in Aeschylean
phrase) had ended his sport with Tess. And the D’Urberville knights and
dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent
themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained there a long
time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as
they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.”
Readers can sense the tired and unimpassioned tone that
suggests the narrator’s weariness with the ways of the world. Nothing great
is achieved. Tess’ tale has been a very common affair that perhaps happens
all the time.
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