discuss the major themes of tess of D'urbervilles of thomas hardy

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Tessof the D'Urbervilles
-Thomashardy

2. Themes of the “Tess of the D'Urbervilles”
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Born:2 June 1840
Stinsford, Dorset, England
Died:11 January 1928 (aged 87)
Dorchester, Dorset, England
Resting place:Stinsford parish church (heart)
Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey (ashes)
Occupation:Novelist, poet, and Short Story writer
Alma mater:King's College London
Literary movement:Naturalism, Victorian literature
Notable works:Tess of the d'Urbervilles,
Far from the Madding Crowd,
Collected Poems
Jude the Obscure
Spouse:Emma Lavinia Gifford
(1874–1912)
Florence Dugdale
(1914–28)
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3. THEMES
• FATE AND FREEWILL:
The cruel hand of fate hangs over all the characters and actions
of the novel, as Tess Durbeyfield's story is basically defined
by the bad things that happen to her. Hardy presents a world in
which circumstances beyond the control of Tess determine her
destiny. Luck, chance, coincidence, and environmental forces
continually work against Tess to entangle her in one casualty
after another. Her social status, her accident with the horse, her
row with Car Darch, the forest encounter with Alec and the
resulting pregnancy, the death of her father, the eviction of her
family, and so on all weave her into a web from which there is
no escape. The narrator calls attention to this theme in Chapter
11 after Alec rapes–or seduces–Tess.
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4. THEMES
• MALE PREDOMINANCE AND SEXUAL
HARASSMENT
In the 19th Century, males dominated society and expected
females to do their order. Tess’s resistance to the advances of
Alec succeed for a time, but he eventually entraps her after
continually harassing her. Although Angel loves Tess and
marries her, he abandons her shortly after their wedding when
he discovers what happened between her and Alec. It does not
matter to him that he himself had an affair before he was
married. Men may stray with impunity, he believes. Women
may not. After Tess’s father, John Durbeyfield dies, his wife
and children are evicted. It was he who was privileged to hold
the lease to their property, not his wife.
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5. THEMES
• MODERNISM:
Shortly after Tess becomes a mother she leaves her home to
labor in the fields as part of the villager community that must
bring in the communal grain for the winter. In the middle of
this golden bucolic scene, Hardy places a bright red reaping-
machine. These mechanic intruders enable the field workers to
get much more work done in a shorter period of time. The
work is done quickly, the workers must travel about from farm
to farm trying to eke out a living, and onward then in time to
cities like London and Manchester to work in factories as cogs
in the machines of the Industrial Revolution. Hardy called this
the “ache of modernism,” which separated man from Nature.
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6. THEMES
• KNOWLEDGE VERSUS IGNORANCE:
Tess and Angel struggle with their parent's unwillingness to
accept change and progress and, therefore , this causes a lot of
friction between them.
Tess, who has had formal schooling, is not only in
possession of a greater intellect than her mother, but also has a
much better sense of right and wrong.
Angel is different, because, with the exception of
himself, he is in a family of scholars. Angel has common
sense, and is able to see that for all his family's "real"
education, they are not always wise in their choices.
Both Angel and Tess see their parent's as choosing to be
ignorant, or at the very least, unwilling to move with the times,
and their relationships suffer for it.
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7. THEMES
• PREJUDICE:
This theme manifests itself in Chapter 2 when Angel Clare asks
his brothers to attend the country May dance with him. Felix
replies, “Dancing in public with a troop of country hoydens–
suppose we should be seen!” In Chapter 40, Mercy Chant
exhibits an anti-Catholic bias after she hears that Angel is
going abroad.
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8. THEMES
• THE LURE OF MONEY:
In the novel, Alec d'Urberville uses money to attempt to win Tess.
He succeeds. Here is the scenario: After John Durbeyfield dies
and his family is evicted, Alec offers to house the Durbeyfields
if Tess will yield to him. Tess–ever concerned about the
welfare of her family–accepts his proposition.
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