GREAT LITERARY LADY: Tess Of The D’Urbervilles
For all her beauty, grace and tenderness, Tess is a tragic figure. Her fate is to suffer, as she descends from the relative security of her poor peasant parents’ farm, to poultry-keeper for rich estate owners, to near destitution as a day-rate field labourer, and eventually to becoming a wanted fugitive. Tess is a woman who struggles vainly against the limitations created by her society for beautiful but impoverished peasant girls. Hardy ironically subtitled the original text, A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, as her tragedy is created by the double standards applied to women in Victorian society, rather than by any particular fl aw in Tess.
She confesses to her much-loved husband – the ironically named Angel Clare – after their wedding that she has lost her virginity, because she had been forced to have sex by libertine Alec d’Urberville. One foggy night Alec took advantage of her poverty and naiveté. However, the distraught Angel blames her for the rape, abandons her and flees to Brazil.
Finally realising that he has wronged her grievously, Angel returns, prompting the final tragedy. Tess kills Alec, with whom she has been living as his mistress. Fleeing with Angel from the police, she falls asleep on an altar at Stonehenge, but is caught and eventually executed.
A woman more sinned against than sinning, her death attains a mythic, sacrificial dimension, personifying those who are exploited and marginalised in society.
She confesses to her much-loved husband – the ironically named Angel Clare – after their wedding that she has lost her virginity, because she had been forced to have sex by libertine Alec d’Urberville. One foggy night Alec took advantage of her poverty and naiveté. However, the distraught Angel blames her for the rape, abandons her and flees to Brazil.
Finally realising that he has wronged her grievously, Angel returns, prompting the final tragedy. Tess kills Alec, with whom she has been living as his mistress. Fleeing with Angel from the police, she falls asleep on an altar at Stonehenge, but is caught and eventually executed.
A woman more sinned against than sinning, her death attains a mythic, sacrificial dimension, personifying those who are exploited and marginalised in society.