"Tess of the D'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy

My first acquaintance with Thomas Hardy in four key-points

The bridge between times

What has stricken me most about this book is how oddly it looks among other novels written on the verge of 19th and 20th centuries. The style of Hardy, strangely enough, reminds me of Jane Austen and Bronte sisters. It seems like this book has been lost in time and was written in 1891 by mistake. "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" is full of long descriptions and... the characters wear their hearts on their sleeves which is so rare for the novels of the period. What also makes it feel like an earlier novel is Gothic elements in the plot (by which I mean the scene in Stonehenge and strange dreams of Angel Clare which are depicted masterly I must say, they are best-written episodes in the book in my opinion).

You won't find here the profound psychological study of characters like that of Henry James or Emile Zola nor blunt erotic scenes of David Lawrence. Still it couldn't be written in 18th century or even in the beginning of 19th for the whole novel is a pure denial of all conventions and traditions of British society.

Pure Woman

This is the subtitle that Hardy gives to his novel. "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" tells about a country girl Tess Durbeyfield who discovers that her father might be an outspring of an aristocratic line of D'Ubervilles. Mr. and Mrs. Durbeyfield quickly decide to snatch at the opportunity and send their daughter to meet their new rich relatives living in the neighbourhood. It could be the beginning of the fairy tale but for the fact that the relation was stated by the local priest who even himself couldn't explain clearly how he reached the conclusion. The  D'Ubervilles, on their side, have become aristocracy quite recently and, frankly speaking, only due to a wisely offered bribe. 

Anyway, Tess finds her "cousin" Alec D'Uberville, positively amused by the story as well as attracted to her beauty. So Alec sees this as a good reason to seduce the girl and later, having palyed with his toy long enough to get bored, drive her away as he has previously done to his numerous lovers. This episode turns into a real tragedy for poor Tess when she falls in love with honest and kind Angel Clare.

Now if calling Tess "pure" is not an affront to Victorian morality than what is? In doing so Hardy breaks all the rules, though pure she was and not only before her affair with Alec D'Uberville, but also after it and even after what happened in the end of the novel.

The tragedy of Tess is not easy to understand from the modern point of view, but it was often a case for Victorian society - if a poor country girl was seduced by a rich young man and then left by him, it was she who had to pay for it later, not the young "gentleman". He could find another girl to make love to and then a wife, when he was tired of leading a fast life. The girl couldn't even look into the eyes of other people and feel her conscience was clear. Sometimes other people pitied her, but despise was a more often case. And for sure she couldn't even think of finding any husband, unless she goes somewhere where her past wouldn't be revealed.

Having been seduced by Alec Tess became one of such girls, but let's think about it, what was her fault? The fact she was innocent and too naive to believe in Alec's true love? You may think she was a fool but where was she supposed to get to know about such thing and sex and seducing? It wasn't discussed in the family or outside of it and it wasn't written in books. Don't say you wouldn't repeat Tess's mistakes - you wouldn't indeed but that's not to your credit, that's to the credit of 20th century and its "sexual liberation".

And here Hardy asks the reader a question - if it's not Tess's fault then why should she be punished so severely? This is one of the most important questions in the novel and you have to answer it after you've finished reading it.

The second important question is - Whom should we call a pure woman? Can somebody with a bad reputation still be pure? Can somebody commit something which is considered a crime in the society and still remain pure? Another question to think about provided by Thomas Hardy.

"The beauty or ugliness of a character lay not only in its achievements, but in its aims and impulses; its true history lay, not among things done, but among things willed".

So why was Tess so pure anyway? First of all she was pure in her innocence, though this innocence was bound to bring disgrace upon her. Then, Tess is able to feel deeply and to love with all her heart as she loved Angel. She is ready for self-sacrifices for the sake of those she loves. But the most important maybe is that Tess is able to repent and she does repent for her mistake and suffers from it much more than Alec whose fault is much bigger than hers will ever be able to suffer.

The Return to the Native

In "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" Hardy doesn't fail to use one of the distinguishing features of his novels - the topic of nature. Tess is a child of nature and there is where her innocence comes from. but it's not just about Tess. Hardy inserts a lot of descriptions of the Wessex county (the imaginary part of England the descriptions of which are based on the native places of the author). There is a lot about country life with all its problems and pleasures, it's impossible not to enjoy it.

The topic of the nature and the link between nature and people actually makes Hardy's novel closer to 20th century - with the raise of so called "Mechanical civilization" the writer felt need to search for something true, authentic, created by God, not by the hands of people and here is when the idea of returning to the native comes from. the novels of Thomas Hardy reveal this idea most clearly.

Fate and people

Throughout the novel we can meet a lot of hints at fatalism, a lot of statements about Tess's destiny and that she had to go this way whether she wanted or not. Still, you shouldn't be deceived - all this statements are opinions of Victorian age, but not the author's. Fatalistic sayings are strangely mixed with attempts of the author to explain that it was not fate but society and its conventions that caused this tragedy. And this again makes the novel closer to our times - the statement that one's fate is often determined by social conditions or one's origin is a bright feature of naturalism (literary trend that appeared in the end of 19th century in France and then in many other European countries and even in the USA).

Tess of the D'Urbervilles hasn't become one of my favourite books but I remind you that it is only my opinion. In fact it is a very good work of literature which is both thought-provoking and emotionally rich. highly recommend it for if it doesn't become your favourite book it will surely be a great reading experience.