Tess of the D'Urbervilles Study Guide
“Tess of the d’Ubervilles” is a novel by Thomas Hardy also entitled “A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented”. The author was born in a rural family of a builder and he couldn’t resist writing about peasant life, outlook, and psychology of the working class.
The novel consists of a couple of parts, they represent the stages in the life of a protagonist Tess. She is a peasant by birth, a lady by circumstance, and a human by calling. One day her father, John Durbeyfield, comes to find out that they are the descendants of a noble family of d’Ubervilles. In the light of these findings, it becomes hard for the old man to hide his natural arrogance and hot temper.
The author vividly depicts that one might change the last name and attribute himself to a royal chevalier generation, but the bones of the ancestors won’t develop the family values and strengthen the will in a person. The daughter is quickly sent to the d’Ubervilles mansion where a man who has no relation to her heritage deceives her.
Tess grows through her hardships and learns to make her own decisions. Her parents or her newly acquired last name didn’t teach her pride and didn’t help her build her self-esteem. But she learnt to do it herself.
The author “gives” the family an instant social boost and they immediately start to think and act differently. Why couldn’t they grow and develop while being poor? Does it automatically mean that if you have no status, you should also have no principles? The limits are in our heads and this particularity of peasant thinking is shown in the text.
The book is a demonstration that to be significant one doesn’t have to be rich. It's a conscious choice to do the things you are doing with your head up high. To perceive life as an opportunity and not a burden is a benefit modern society has, but it took us centuries to arrive at this kind of thinking. The “Tess of the d’Ubervilles” shows this process.
Author: Noah Kennedy
New Essays
Injustice and Fate The theme of fate is one of the major ones in “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”. Tess is a generally good person and doesn’t deserve even a tenth part of the misfortunes that happen to her. It is more of a fate than her own responsibility: Tess is sent to Trantridge against her will...
“A strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength, she is worse than a weak woman who has never had any strength to throw away.” — — “Beauty lay not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized.” — — “Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess?""Yes.""All like ours?""I don't know, but I think...
?Fizzah Abid Warris October 22, 2013 Tess of the D’Urbervilles If Fate is behind Tess’s Tragedies, why does Angel find it difficult to forgive her given the fact he ‘loved’ her? “You were more sinned against than sinning, that I admit. ” These were the words spoken by Angel in Chapter Thirty-Five...
?‘symbolism will quickly and effectively reveal the writer’s true intentions. ’ To what extent do you agree with this view? All language can be viewed as constructing symbols, through which a reader can identify modern ideas and concerns. Techniques used to create any aspect of a text can be seen...