514 Hardy, Thomas
lures Jude into marriage by employing sexual desire
and alcohol as bait.
The overall impact of sexuality and eroticism is
ambivalent in Jude the Obscure, the gender question
being obscured by observations on society. There is
no purely satisfying and blissful sexuality (neither
sexual identity) to be found throughout the novel;
in the end it always has sad consequences. It forces
Jude into his first marriage, it keeps him from the
city and his ambitions awhile, it kills his ambitions
again when he has to feed the hungry mouths of
his and Sue’s family, he even betrays Sue with Ara-
bella on one occasion. Concerning Jude, sexuality
is one of the factors that have formed the tragedy
of his life. “For each ecstatic instant / We must an
anguish pay” as Emily Dickinson puts it. Yet Jude
refrains from a clerical path to be no longer “the
soldier and servant of a religion in which sexual love
was regarded as at its best a frailty, and at its worst
damnation.” The negative powers are not inherent in
sexuality itself but in what society makes of it. And
maybe here lies one purely fatalistic strain of Hardy’s
thinking, as, at this point, his pessimism is projected
onto society. For example, characters who behave
progressively are punished by society; as Jude says,
“I perceive there is something wrong somewhere in
our social formulas,” and Phillotson loses his teach-
ing position as a consequence of letting his wife,
Sue, go to live with Jude (“She is not [my wife]; she
is another man’s except in name and law.” To sum
up: A repressive society prevents both pure love and
a satisfying sexuality by the instruments of religion
and, indeed, marriage.
Thomas Schares
HarDy, THomaS Tess of the
d’Urbervilles (1891)
Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d ’Urbervilles, set in rural
southwestern England, was published serially in a
periodical before appearing in book form in 1891.
Hardy faced a great deal of criticism from his audi-
ence and from publishers who disapproved of the
“infidelity” and the “obscenity” of this novel that
narrates Tess’s hardships following her unwilling
loss of innocence. Hardy resented the changes edi-
tors expected him to make; after a similarly nega-
tive reaction to his next novel, Jude the Obscure, he
announced that he would never write fiction again.
However, the last novel sold well and was a financial
success, though many readers found it depressing
and shocking.
Tess of the d ’Urbervilles takes place during a time
of dramatic social and economic change in Eng-
land, and, like many of Hardy’s novels, illustrates a
great awareness of the trials and hardships faced by
the rural poor, especially the women. Here, Hardy
pre sents a compassionate depiction of a young
woman victimized by a morally rigid and often
hypocritical society. Moreover, Hardy examines the
nature and implications of the slow transition from
an old-fashioned, community-centered agricultural
society to a modern, industrial economy driven by
money and in which individuals often must fend
for themselves.
Erica Artilescommunity in Tess of the d ’Urbervilles
The first image readers get of Tess Durbeyfield is
that of a young woman dressed, like her peers, in
white, participating in a May Day dance. Despite
her simple, natural beauty, Tess does not stand out,
but rather fits well into this safe, comfortable com-
munity that she has known for her entire life. Fol-
lowing a series of events that jeopardize her family’s
livelihood, Tess leaves her native Blackmoor and its
familiar community. While away, she encounters a
new, rougher community and is sexually violated by
her employer, Alec d’Urberville. As a result of her
loss of virginity, Tess finds herself cut off from her
native society and begins a futile search for a new
community and a sense of belonging.
As a girl, Tess was popular. She had two par-
ticularly close friends with whom she spent a great
deal of time. Moreover, she played a very important
role in the community of her family, caring for
and loving her younger siblings when her mother
failed to do so. Despite her safe and comfortable
position, Tess leaves her home behind in order to
cultivate relations with the d’Urberville family in
Tantridge, hoping to help out her family that has
suffered the loss of their horse, their primary means
for income. In Tantridge, Tess meets a rough, hard-
drinking community of men and women. Though