Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

*contains spoilers*

Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles is a novel of fate, chance and expectations that lead to tragedy rather than prosperity. When the family horse is fatally wounded in an accident, Tess is forced to take charge of the family duties in lieu of her ill father, and so she reaches out to the more notable Stoke-d’Urbervilles for help; “the wrong man the wrong woman, the wrong woman the wrong man,” (P65) There, at The Slopes, Tess meets and ends up working for Alec Stoke-d'Urberville, the man who would later come to seduce, manipulate and abuse her, leaving her with a child, Sorrow, who passes not long after birth. Later, as Tess wishes to discreetly reveal her forced but shameful indiscretion to Angel Clare, the man who she loves and the man to whom she truly devotes herself, her note slips not only under the door of his apartment but also under the carpet, so that Angel is made aware of her secret much too late; “’O Tess! If you had only told me sooner, I would have forgiven you!’” (P234) Chance and fate have condemned poor Tess.

Taking Angel’s reaction to Tess’s unfortunate and shameful secret on their wedding night into consideration, it is clear that Hardy is keen to address the hypocrisy regarding the gender politics and the social morality of his time. This is exemplified by Angel’s willingness to expect forgiveness of his own sordid past – an illicit affair with an older woman – whilst unfairly qualifying Tess’s forced indiscretion as simply unforgivable. Consequently, Angel abandons the country altogether, almost immediately after his marriage to Tess, only to come to his senses after a long and unsuccessful farming endeavour in Brazil. Angel then returns having finally forgiven Tess, only to find that she has been forced, once more, into the unfortunate position of surrendering to Alec Stoke-d’Urberville. Angel thus turns and flees, whereupon a distraught Tess murders Alec in their expensive boarding house and chases after him. Tess begs forgiveness, further illuminating Tess's characteristically unconditional devotion, as well as the hypocrisy of Angel's expectations, and Tess and Angel then must run away together. Chance and fate, once more, have no leniency on poor Tess.

As Tess is finally found by the search parties sent to imprison and execute her for Alec's murder, the reader is forced to reflect on the struggles she has endured, which have accumulated throughout the text, and this is compounded by the way in which Hardy presents the delicate Tess. Her eyes, “neither black nor blue nor grey nor violet; rather all these shades together” (P80), are that of an everywoman; the reader is encouraged to imagine Tess as any, or every, female in society. Our heroine’s gentleness is apparent, as well as her intelligence, compassion, beauty – particularly her upturned upper lip, to which Hardy constantly refers and to which the malignant imposter, Alec, is partial – and a devotion that ultimately resolves in the tearing down of the initial expectations of grandeur for the family Derbeyfield. For, from the moment Tess’s father is endowed with the knowledge of his noble ancestry, whereupon he elevates the family name from Durbeyfield to d’Urberville, the reader, as well as the family itself, wrongly expects an elevation of fortune to accompany the name. Tess’s temperament and nature, along with her “flower-like mouth and large tender eyes” (P80), only serve to heighten the fateful decline in fortune and expectations – and thus intensify the tragedy of poor Tess.