193
See also: Frankenstein 120–21 ■ Wuthering Heights 132–37 ■ Bleak
House 14 6 – 49 ■ Far From the Madding Crowd 200 ■ The Waste Land 213DEPICTING REAL LIFE
Tess is first shown as an innocent.
She is dancing—a “maiden” in
white—as part of a May Day
celebration, and captures the
attention of Angel Clare, whom
she too notices. Although the
author asserts in his subtitle (A
Pure Woman) that Tess is “pure,”
evoking a Christian sentiment,
she appears at first to be the
embodiment and celebration of
the pagan, feminine, and natural.
The series of misfortunes that
shapes Tess’s story is precipitated
by the suggestion that she is
descended from an aristocratic
Norman family, the d’Urbervilles.
This revelation distances Tess from
her natural self—Angel’s “new-
sprung child of nature”—and
eventually leads to consequences.
As events unfold, and Tess’s
life becomes entangled with Alec
d’Urberville, she is depicted in
more disturbing settings, such as
beneath an “inflamed” sun or in
bewildering, mist-shrouded forests.
In an intense example of pathetic
fallacy, she wakes in a woods to
find herself surrounded by dying
pheasants, hunted and abandoned,
and she is forced to show mercy by
ending their agony. Reflecting on
her own misery, she is humbled by
the suffering of the birds.Virtuous victim
But Tess’s love for Angel is pure
and Hardy shows that they can
overcome adverse circumstances.
They marry, but their happiness is
disrupted; a cock crowing in the
afternoon after their marriage
ceremony is a bad omen.
Angel is compelled by his
background and upbringing to turn
against Tess after she confesses to
a turbulent past, despite agreeingthat she was “more sinned against
than sinning.” Hardy no longer
represents her in nature, working
in the fields or with animals—he
places her in the new and lonely
environment of a town, Sandbourne,
living as a kept mistress.The inevitability of fate
When Angel finally accepts that
he wants to be with Tess, the
lovers are reunited and experience
a short-lived pastoral bliss before
darkness sets in again. They retreat
to the New Forest, where, like
nymphs, “they promenaded over
the dry bed of fir-needles, thrown
into a vague intoxicating
atmosphere at the consciousness
of being together at last....” Here
Hardy again suggests Tess’s
oneness with nature. The forest
atmosphere evokes a joyful, pure
love, which triumphs even over
the prospect of death. The stone
circle at the end of the novel
represents both paganism and
nature; and Tess’s sleep on the altar
stone symbolizes her final, willing
surrender to her fate. ■Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy was born in
Dorset in 1840, the son of a
stonemason and builder, and
at the age of 16 became an
architect’s apprentice.
When he was 22 he moved
to London, but after five years,
concerned for his health and
yearning to write, he returned
to Dorset. Hardy set all his
major novels in the southwest
of England, and named his
fictional landscape “Wessex”
after the medieval Anglo-
Saxon kingdom. Although
many of the novels’ locations
are real, he always gave
them fictional names.
Hardy was disposed to
write about suffering and
tragedy. The death of his
estranged first wife, Emma, in
1912 led him to write some of
his finest love poetry. After his
death in 1928, his ashes were
interred in Poets’ Corner at
Westminster Abbey while his
heart was buried with Emma.Other key works1874 Far from the
Madding Crowd
1878 The Return of the Native
1886 The Mayor of
Casterbridge
1887 The Woodlanders
1895 Jude the ObscureThe atmosphere turned pale,
the birds shook themselves in
the hedges, arose and
twittered; the lane showed all
its white features and Tess
showed hers, still whiter.
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