FREE ESSAY ON TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES

TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES

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teacher
English IV
20 March 1998
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy was considered a fatalist. Fatalism is a view of life which insists that all
action everywhere is controlled by nature of things or by a power superior to things. It
grants the existence of Fate, a great impersonal, primitive force, existing from all
eternity, absolutely independent of human wills, superior even to any god whom humanity
may have invented. The power of Fate is embracing and is more difficult to understand
than the gods themselves.
The scientific parallel of fatalism is determinism. It acknowledges, just as fatalism,
that man's struggle against the Will behind things, is of no avail, but does decree that
the laws of cause and effect must not suspend operation. Determinism seeks to explain
conditions which fatalism is content to describe. The use of fatalism for furthering the
plot was a technique used by many Victorian authors, but with Thomas Hardy it became
something more than a mere device. Due to his fatalistic outlook of life, Hardy presents
the character of Tess as having a variety of forces working against her efforts to
control her destiny. Fate approaches Tess in a great variety of forms. Fate is present
through chance and coincidence, and the manisfestations of nature, time, and woman.
The fundamental basis of Thomas Hardy's fatalism is seen embodied in his youthful actions
and the very first works he wrote, and there is evidently a gradual development up to the
day of his death. He had a fatalistic outlook throughout his whole life. In fact, even
his birth seemed to be caused by a mere twist of fate. When Hardy was born, the attending
surgeon pronounced him dead. He was thrown aside until Fate stepped in and summoned a
nurse to realize that Hardy was in fact alive. Probably stemming from this, never in
Hardy's whole life did he look upon existence as being much worth while. He felt that his
stoically born life was a record of unhappiness. He believed that Fate maintains a
disinterested attitude toward man. Hardy incorporates these feelings into the novel Tess
of the d'Urbervilles. Fateful incidents, overheard conversations, and undelivered letters
symbolize the forces of Fate working against man's destiny.
Hardy's tender sympathy with nature and his belief in her as an instrument of Fate, is to
be explained that his entire childhood was spent close to the soil. Growing up in the
countryside of a small village of Egdon Heath, he could carefully observe the relentless
regularity of natural changes. It is evident that Hardy considered Egdon Heath a
personality, and likewise thought of it as an agent of Fate.
Hardy lived in an age of transition which added to his natural disposition toward a
melancholy view of life. The industrial revolution was in the process of destroying the
agricultural life and the nature around him that he was so fond of. Subsequent shifting
of population caused a disintegration of rural customs and traditions which had meant
security, stability, and dignity for the people. It was a period when fundamental beliefs
-- religious, social, scientific, and political -- were shaken to their very core and
brought in their stead the "ache of modernism". 
Hardy's early struggle with religious problems was an important factor in shaping his
fatalistic nature. As a child, it was Hardy's dream to become a parson. He had several
clerical relatives who supported him in his goal. His grandfather, father, uncle,
brother, cousin, and two sisters had been musicians in various churches. As a young man,
he frequently read church lessons and became curious of the different religions of
Christianity. He couldn't understand that if each religion believed in the same god how
they could practice their faith so differently. This was very bothersome to him and
eventually resulted in his conversion to a fatalistic approach to life. Hardy's loss of
religious belief was very painful and was accompanied by deep struggles, but his new
belief of fatalism enabled him to write many great works. Hardy's fatalistic philosophy
is expressed the most in Tess of the d'Urbervilles, than in any of his other
publications. Actually there is similarities between Tess's life and Hardy's life.
The use of chance and coincidence is given mostly a negative effect in Tess. Throughout
the novel it is often realized that coincidences could have taken place but did not.
Meetings which might have saved many lives are missed by a few moments. A good example of
this can be found in the beginning pages of Tess. Angel Clare and his two brothers,
passes through Tess's village and sees her and her companions dancing on the green. He
looks on for a while and then chooses a partner. He "took almost the first that came to
hand", but he didn't take Tess. After dancing a short time he left, not having noticed
her at all. The reason Hardy probably introduces this episode is to make his readers
realize that if Angel had selected Tess for his dancing mate, both of them would have
escaped their tragic end. In fact, almost every chance that Tess takes and every
coincidence she encounters, brings her sorrow in the long run. For example she took a
chance to aid her parents by going to the market for them, but she ended up killing the
family's horse. A like desire sends her to her fatal position at the d'Urbervilles. In
her desire to escape from a group of vulgar women, she is thrown coincidentally into the
clutches of Alec d'Urberville. Subsequently, her baby dies of cold and hunger, because
she, for the sake of honor, refuses to take another 'chance' with Alec, by refusing the
aid he offers. Her marriage with Angel Clare is wrecked because by her code of honor she
must take a 'chance' and tell him of her affair with Alec. What a different story this
would have been if Angel had not caught sight of the d'Urberville lady outside Tess's
chamber. He probably would have weakened and entered the room with all together results.
If Tess had not overheard the conversation of Angel's brothers and had instead followed
through on her plans to visit her parents, she probably would not have met Alec again and
her entire life would have been changed.
Nature as a conscious agent, usually for evil is often found in Hardy's works. Fate
appears in the form of nature, endowing it with varying moods which affect the lives of
the characters. It's chief function is to show man's defenseless condition before the
devices of Fate. Nature usually gives the impression of being content, but as Hardy
displays, nature can also take on sinister aspects, becoming more of an actor than a
setting for an action. "The night came in, and took up its place there, unconcerned and
indifferent; the night which had already swallowed up his happiness, and was now a
thousand other people with as little disturbance or change of mien" (Chapter 35). Nature
also takes on the sinister effect when the wind sighs mournfully when sorrow threatens
Tess: "The occasional heave of the wind became the sigh of some immense sad soul,
conterminous with the universe in space, and with the history in time." (p.31) At other
times nature cannot so easily reflect the moods of its people: "July passed over their
heads and the Thermidorean weather which came in its wake seemed an effort on the part of
nature to match the state of hearts at Talbothay's Dairy." (p.166) In these instances of
Nature a kind coincidence as well as Fate are manifested. In employing the Nature motif
in his works, Hardy used it with affection and understanding. He felt at home in the
great outdoors, and he interpreted it only as one could who had dealt long and
thoughtfully with it.
Hardy has shown very clearly in Tess that he considers Time a principal manifestation of
Fate. Hardy has two chief uses for the motif of Time: the tremendous importance of the
moment, and the disillusionment and change which come with the years. The first emphasize
how much may depend on a few seconds; the other how little really matters in a thousand
years or more. There is tremendous importance placed on the moment, for time is a great
series of moments. Moments of joy may be turned into bitterness by time. Love may be
changed by time. For example, when Angel and Tess knew that "though the fascination with
each had exercised over the other...would probably in their first days of separation be
even more potent than ever, time must attenuate that effect...when two people are once
parted...new growths insensibly bud upwards to fill each vacated place; unforeseen
accidents hinder intentions, and old plans are forgotten" (Chapter 36). To be summed up,
this means reason should triumph over passion. When Tess meets Alec: "Had she perceived
this meeting's import she might have asked why she was doomed to be seen and coveted that
day by the wrong man, and not by some other man, the right and desired one in all
respects" (Chapter 5). Time is used as an arch instrument of Fate, but as such it
operates within the bounds of credibility and as a powerful aid to distinction in Tess.
Woman is Fate's most important instrument for opposing man's happiness. Hardy believes
that woman is helpless in the hands of Fate and carries out Fate's work. Hardy unifies
his action around a central figure, usually a woman. In search for love, the motivating
passion of her life, woman becomes an agent in her own destiny. Tess and the dairy maids
are a good example. "The air of the sleeping chamber seemed to palpitate with the
hopeless passion of the girls. They writhed feverishly under the oppressivenesses of an
emotion thrust on them by cruel nature's law -- an emotion they neither e expected or
desired...the differences which distinguished them as individuals were abstracted by this
passion, and each was but portion of one organism called sex" (Chapter 23). Tess sees no
harm in deceit, if there's anything to be gained by it. Deceit suggests a motif which
leads unfailingly to tragedy: a woman's secret. Had Tess told Angel of her secret affair
with Alec, both, perhaps, would have been spared. She was undecided about telling him,
and waited until her confession led only to disaster. It is in the combination of these
characteristics that most often destroys man. Helpless herself in the hands of Fate,
woman acts as an agent for Fate in carrying out its work with man in Tess.
Fate is also revealed by means of many omens and signs. Joan d'Urberville lives by her
fortune-telling book, although she is afraid to have it in her house when she sleeps.
Almost everything has significance. For example, the cows will not let down their own
milk, the butter will not come in the churn, the cock crows in the afternoon. The vision
of the d'Urberville coach is a bad omen, as is the stone of the "Cross-in-hand." Fate is
a part of life, and much can be explained by it. Angel chooses Tess, but it is really
fate which has made the choice; therefore the dairy maids do not blame Tess for any part
f it. Marian says it must be something outside both Angel and Tess which has caused their
separation, for she knows neither of them has any faults. It was to be that Alec should
seduce Tess, that is, she is not to blame. Fate motivates all Joan Durberfield does. The
death of the horse, the knowledge off Tess's bad luck with Alec, even the failure of her
marriage with Clare, her mother accepts as though some high and uncompromising hand is
dealing out these disappointments. 
Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a novel about Tess from the time she is sixteen to the age
of about twenty-one. Above all the characters in the short, Tess herself is the fullest
expression o fatalism. She, from the begnning is hopelessly resigned to her doom. There
is a continuity of events from the time she is introduced until she dies. We are told of
her actions, her qualifications for them, her trials and tribulations, and her efforts to
overcome the fatalistic will against her enjoyment. The novel is divided into seven
phases. At the end of each, a fateful incident has changed Tess's life. I feel that she
begins each phase of her life with an altered view of her life and her destiny. I have
seen that Hardy's conception of Fate as an artistic motif divides naturally into a series
of distinct yet related themes, which run through Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Tess's
character seems to be a mirror image of Thomas Hardy. 
Works Cited
Bjork, L. A. (1987). Pschological Vision and social criticism in the Novels of Thomas
Hardy. Stockholm, Sweden: Almquvist & Wiksell International.
Courney, W.L. (1955). Vision of Thomas Hardy. Stockholm, Sweden: Almquvist & Wiksell
International.
Elledge, S. (1965). Norton Critical Editions, Tess of the D'Urbervilles. New York:
WWNorton & Co.
Force, L. M. (1966). Cliff Notes on Hardy's Tess of the D'urbervilles. Lincoln, Nebraska:
Cliffs Notes , Inc.
Hardy, T (1980). Tess of the D'Urbervilles. New York, New York: The New American Library,
Inc.
Maxwell, D. (1928). The Landscape of Thomas Hardy. London, The London Press.
Wright, T. (1987). The Critics Debate Tess of The D'Urbervilles. Atlantic Highlands, NJ:
Humanities Press International.