Tess Of DUrbervilles Essay Research Paper If

Tess Of D`Urbervilles Essay, Research Paper

If written today, Tess of the d’urbervilles by Thomas Hardy may have been called

Just Call Me Job or Tess: Victim of Fate. Throughout this often bleak novel, the

reader is forced by Tess’s circumstance to sympathize with the heroine (for lack

of a better term) as life deals her blow after horrifying blow. One of the

reasons that the reader is able to do so may be the fatalistic approach Hardy

has taken with the life of the main character. Hardy writes Tess as a victim of

Fate. This allows the reader to not blame her for the things that happen around

her. Much of the critical debate surrounding Tess centers around this very

point: Is Tess a victim. Are the things that happen to Tess beyond her control

or could she have fought her way out of her circumstances. Better yet, could

Hardy have written her out of her troubles or did his fatalistic approach to the

novel force him to ultimately sacrifice poor Tess. Further, Is Hardy’s approach

to the novel and its main character truly fatalistic. In this essay, I will

explore these questions and the doctrine of Fatalism as it applies to Tess.

Fatalism is defined in Websters Dictionary as "the doctrine that all things

take place by inevitable necessity" (175). Fatalism is the idea that all

actions are controlled by Fate, a primitive force that exists independent of

human wills and outside of the controls of power of a supreme being such as God

because God ultimately has no power; he is a creation of man who granted Him His

power. Since He doesn’t truly possess those powers, he is left without the

ability to alter circumstances. In short, if one subscribes to this doctrine,

you believe that Fate controls how things happen and God can do nothing to save

you, even Tess. Overall, Tess seems to go through life experiencing one negative

event after another. Fateful incidents, overheard conversations and undelivered

letters work against her ability to control the path her life takes. Tess’s

future seems locked up from the beginning of the novel. As the story opens, we

first meet her father and learn of Tess’s ancestry: "Durbeyfield…are the

lineal representative of the ancient and knightly family of the d’Urbervilles…that

renowned knight who came from Normandy…if knighthood were hereditary, like a

baronetcy…[John] would be Sir John" (4). Somehow the reader knows almost

immediately that this knowledge isn’t necessarily going to save the poor clan,

especially once we learn of the Fate of Tess’s ancestors: "Where do we

d’Urbervilles live." asks "Sir" John to the parson who responds,

"You don’t live anywhere. You are extinct" (5). If one believes in the

concept of natural selection, they probably realize rather quickly that this

isn’t the best family from which to descend. Tess seems to sense her doomed

state. This is evidenced in her identification with the d’Urberville clan.

Examples of this are her ability to see or hear the d’Urberville Coach and her

realization of her resemblance to the d’Urberville woman of the farmhouse at

Wellbridge: "[Tess's] fine features were unquestionably traceable in these

exaggerated forms" (277). These eerie events suggest that the fated

d’Urberville blood undoubtedly flows through her veins. Another example of

Tess’s awareness of being ill fated is when she meets Alec. Tess laments about

her fate: "Had she perceived this meeting’s import she might have asked why

she was doomed to be seen and converted that day by the wrong man, and not by

some other man, the right and desired one in all respects (75). She may not have

known what to call it, but she definitely applies the doctrine of Fatalism to

herself which according to author Leonard Doob is a telltale sign of a person

who feels fated: "When the principal is judging himself [in this case,

herself] and believes that fate is affecting him, his perception is usually

direct: he introspects, thinks, or meditates. But he may respond indirectly when

someone else, an observer,, gives him information about himself…Fatalism by a

principal, therefore, is a pessimistic inevitability doctrine applied by him

about himself to himself" (7). If Tess didn’t start life feeling as though

Fate was working against her, there are plenty of incidents which could easily

convince her: the death of the family horse because of her negligence, the

letter of confession that slipped beneath the carpet and caused her to enter

into marriage as a deception, the death of her father, and the return of Angel

just too late. Incident after incident seem to point to only one thing: Tess was

not meant to have a happy existence. So does Tess believe that God can save her.

Throughout the novel, we see Tess moving away from God. She is appalled by the

evangelical sign-painter warning of damnation and

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