Tess of the dUrbervilles

Thomas Hardys Tess of the dUrbervilles begins with a seemingly insignificant incident: John Durbeyfield, a middle-aged peddler, is informed is the descendent of an ancient and knightly family, the dUrbervilles.the story is about his oldest daughter, Tess who is seduced by her cousin who raped her and has a child who dies. When she meets another man whom she wants to marry, she is unable to tell him about her past until after their wedding. Her husband abandons her, and Tess is driven by despair into the arms of her former seducer. When her husband returns, Tess kills the man she is living with.

Themes
Fatalism
Hardy presents a world in which circumstances beyond the control of Tess determine her destiny. Luck, chance, coincidence, and environmental forces continually work against Tess to entangle her in one predicament after another. Her social status, her accident with the horse, her row with Car Darch, the forest encounter with Alec and the resulting pregnancy, the death of her father, the eviction of her family, and so on all weave her into a web from which there is no escape. The narrator calls attention to this theme in Chapter 11 after Alec rapesor seducesTess: As Tess's own people down in those retreats are never tired of saying among each other in their fatalistic way: "It was to be." There lay the pity of it. An immeasurable social chasm was to divide our heroine's personality thereafter from that previous self of hers who stepped from her mother's door to try her fortune at Trantridge poultry-farm. Male Predominance and Sexual Harassment In the 19th Century, males dominated society and expected females to do their bidding. Tesss resistance to the advances of Alec succeed for a time, but he eventually entraps her after continually harassing her. Although Angel loves Tess and marries her, he abandons her shortly after their wedding when he discovers what happened between her and Alec. It does not matter to him that he himself had an affair before he was married. Men may stray with impunity, he believes. Women may not. After Tesss father, John Durbeyfield dies, his wife and children are evicted. It was he who was privileged to hold the lease to their property, not his wife.

Comment: Males domination is another theme, one which makes me angry. Tess's problems are largely due to society's laws concerning the sexes, not due to her own failings. I am glad to be living in an era when women are not subject to men.

Prejudice This theme manifests itself in Chapter 2 when Angel Clare asks his brothers to attend the country May dance with him. Felix replies, Dancing in public with a troop of country hoydenssuppose we should be seen! In Chapter 40, Mercy Chant exhibits an anti-Catholic bias after she hears that Angel is going abroad.

Irony
Situational Irony

Tess Durbeyfield and her family are commoners descended from nobility. Alec d'Urberville and his mother are wealthy landowners who, though perceived as nobility, are really members of the bourgeois class. It is also ironic that Tess, a young woman of modest education, intuitively knows more about what really matters in life than either Angel Clare or Alec d'Urberville, both exhibiting a knowledge of literature, art, philosophy, and religion but lacking in the knowledge to make the right moral decisions.
Dramatic Irony

Hardy uses dramatic irony to create suspense or to reveal a truth, a situation, an attitude, or a trait of which at least one character is unaware. In the climax of the story, for example, dramatic irony reveals a bias in Angel of which he is ignorant. The moment occurs when he has a change of heart after Tess tells him about her past. Another example of dramatic irony occurs when Angel's mother decides to accept Tess as a suitable wife for him at the very time when he and Tess are separating, a development of which Mrs. Clare is unaware.

Climax
The climax of the novel takes place on the wedding night of Tess and Angel after Tess reveals to her new husband the details of her relationship with Alec d'Urberville. The key moment occurs when Angel rejects Tess, saying that her disclosure makes him realize that she is not the woman he believed her to be. His inability to accept Tess as she is precipitates the tragic events that follow. There is a kind of secondary climax that occurs when police catch up with and arrest Tess at Stonehenge.

Characters
Tess Durbeyfield: Intelligent, sensitive, and attractive teenager who lives with her impoverished family in the village of Marlott in Southwestern England. She is a diligent worker who helps her father support the family and assists her mother in looking after the younger children. She can speak two languages. Alec dUrberville - The handsome, amoral son of a wealthy merchant named Simon Stokes. Alec is not really a dUrbervillehis father simply took on the name of the ancient noble family after he built his mansion and retired. Alec is a manipulative, sinister young man who does everything he can to seduce the inexperienced Tess when she comes to work for his family Angel Clare - An intelligent and religious young man who has decided to become a farmer to preserve his intellectual freedom from the pressures of city life.

Mr. John Durbeyfield - Tesss father, a lazy peddler in Marlott. John is naturally quick, but he hates work. Mrs. Joan Durbeyfield - Tesss mother. Joan has a strong sense of propriety and very particular hopes for Tesss life. She is continually disappointed and hurt by the way in which her daughters life actually proceeds Mrs. Clare - Angels mother, a loving but snobbish woman who places great stock in social class. Mrs. Clare wants Angel to marry a suitable woman, meaning a woman with the proper social, financial, and religious background.

Settings
Most of the action takes place in the late 19th Century in Southwestern England in the county of Wessex, the fictional name of Dorset County. The town where Tess lives, Marlott (fictional), is four hours from London by horse-drawn coach or wagon. In Chapter 41, the action shifts for a time to Curitiba, Brazil, where Angel Clare and other Englishmen discover that the promise of riches is an ignis fatuus. In Chapter 58, the scene shifts to the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge, north of the town of Salisbury, England, in the county of Wiltshire. Author Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset County in 1840 and died there in 1928. Because he knew the county intimately, his descriptions of its landscape, its people, and its customs ring with authenticity.

Opinion
I think Tess of the DUrbervilles is one of Thomas Hardys most tragic yet beautiful novels. I enjoyed reading it even if the story has got to be one of the saddest books Ive read . First of all, I found it incredibly easy to read. In fact, the opening pages were so surprisingly accessible. Moreover, the book only gets better as it goes on. Which brings me to perhaps what is my favorite aspect of the book, and what makes it so good: the incredibly authentic and heart wrenching emotions of the main characters. Though I was hooked pretty much right from the start. This book will at first upset your heart, then make you believe its on its way to being mended, and finally, break it irrevocabl y. That being said, it is so worth the read!