Tess Of Durbervilles Essay Research Paper Tess

Tess Of Durbervilles Essay, Research Paper

Tess Durbeyfield is a victim of external and uncomprehended forces.

Passive and yielding, unsuspicious and fundamentally pure, she suffers a

weakness of will and reason, struggling against a fate that is too strong

for her. Tess is the easiest victim of circumstance, society and male

idealism, who fights the hardest fight yet is destroyed by her ravaging

self-destructive sense of guilt, life denial and the cruelty of two men.

It is primarily the death of the horse, Prince, the Durbeyfield.s

main source of livelihood, that commences the web of circumstance that

envelops Tess. Tess views herself as the cause of her families economic

downfall, however she also believes that she is parallel to a murderess.

The imagery at this point in the novel shows how distraught and guilt

ridden Tess is as she places her hand upon Prince.s wound in a futile

attempt to prevent the blood loss that cannot be prevented. This imagery

is equivalent to a photographic proof – a lead-up to the events that will

shape Tess.s life and the inevitable .evil. that also, like the crimson

blood that spouts from Prince.s wound, cannot be stopped. The symbolic

fact that Tess perceives herself to be comparable to a murderess is an

insight into the murder that she will eventually commit and is also a

reference to the level of guilt that now consumes her. .Nobody blamed Tess

as she blamed herself… she regarded herself in the light of a

murderess..

Her parents, aware of her beauty,view Tess as an opportunity for future

wealth and coupled with the unfortunate circumstance of Prince.s death

urge Tess to venture from the .engirdled and secluded region. of Marlott

to seek financial assistance from the D.urberville.s in nearby Trantridge

. It is here that she first encounters the sexually dominating and

somewhat demonic Alec D.urberville, whom she is later to fall victim to.

Alec.s first words to Tess , .Well, my Beauty, what can I do for you..

indicate that his first impression of Tess is only one of sexual

magnetism. Alec then proceeds to charm Tess by pushing strawberries into

her mouth and pressing roses into her bosom. These fruits of love are an

indication of Alec.s lust and sexual desire for Tess as he preys upon her

purity and rural innocence. Tess unwillingly becomes a victim to Alec.s

inhumane,violent and aggressive sexual advances as Alec, always the master

of opportunities, takes advantage of her whilst alone in the woods and

rapes her. Tess has fallen subject to the crueller side of human nature as

Alec seizes upon her vulnerability.

After this sexual violation and corruption of innocence, Tess flees home

and although she has escaped the trap of the sexually rapacious Alec for

the time being,her circumstance is similar to that of a wounded animal -

her blood of innocence has been released. At this time Hardy gives

reference to Shakespeare.s .The Rape of Lucrece. -.where the serpent

hisses the sweet birds sing. suggesting that Alec was equivalent to Satan

tempting Eve. Tess is undoubtedly a victim and her lack of understanding

over such matters only increases the guilt that already embodies her. To

add further to her shame she chances upon a holy man who paints exerts

from the bible around the countryside. In red accusatory letters she reads

.THY, DAMNATION, SLUMBERETH, NOT. and is horrified to think how relevant

it is to her recent misfortunes. Tess at this stage is a victim to her own

self – conscience and she becomes a recluse trapped within her home – away

from the society that has unjustfully condemned her whilst in reality she

has broken no law of nature.

Returning to work in the field, Tess witnesses the rabbits forced further

to shelter as the corn rows in which they dwell are reaped and the

harvesters kill every one of them with sticks and stones. This is symbolic

of Tess.s own situation as she is being separated little by little from

family and friends and from her childhood innocence ,it is suggestive of

the loneliness she now feels. The baby she has baptised as Sorrow dies,

his name being an indication of the anguish that has taken place within

Tess due to the circumstances of his conceival and it also epitomises what

is to follow through the events of her own sorrowful life.

In an attempt to start her life anew, Tess decides to move away from the

seclusion of Marlott to Talbothays – where no one will know of her past.

Although filled with natural optimism, Tess.s past has already begun to

weave the fatalistic web that will trap her like a fly and from which the

ravenous spider of chaotic doom will draw all of her life.s animation out.

Talbothay.s Dairy is the phase of Tess.s life in which she experiences her

only period of sheer happiness, although at times this is tinctured by

mental hesitations

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