Tess Being a Victim of Fate in Tess of the D'Urbervilles
“The president of the Immortals had done his sport with Tess”
In his novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy expresses his
dissatisfaction, weariness, and an overwhelming sense of injustice at
the cruelty of ‘our’ universal fate disappointment and
disillusionment. Hardy puts out an argument that the hopes and desires
of Men are cruelly saddened by a strong combination of fate, unwanted
accidents, mistakes and many sad flaws. Although Tess is strong willed
and is clearly educated emotionally and mentally she soon becomes a
victim of ‘fate’.
Many people would say that Tess was just unlucky, “Had a stroke of bad
luck,” others would prefer to differ and argue that she has fallen
into fates hands. In order to decide whether her story is one of bad
luck or bad judgement we need to look into closer detail at her
account.
Tess is introduced to the readers as a pure and innocent young lady
dressed all in white, which symbolizes virginity and purity, whilst
her physical appearance suggests a form of innocence and naivety.
Hardy proposes that maybe her innocence and purity comes from her lack
of experience with people, love and danger. This can be seen when she
is exposed to new and different environments and forces. Hardy also
introduces class and status very early on, Tess comes from a lower
class yet she can make herself seem in a higher status due to her
education.
Tess’s first encounter of bad luck is when she kills the family horse,
Prince. Tess is with her brother Abraham in their wagon whilst
discussing about the stars and how they are worlds just like Earth.
Tess continues with saying that, “Most of them splendid and sound-a
few bligh...
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...e may feel that the choice has been
taken away from her and it is a case of survival.
Hardy has a strong sense of accidental, coincidental, fate and bad
luck. However it is trying to decipher which events are what. For
example there are hints that Tess preordained to be murderess, and
early in the story, when Prince dies, “Her face was dry and pale, as
though she regarded herself in the light of a murderess.” I believe
that many actions that took place in her life were not always bad luck
were not always fate but just the path that she led. However her
constant bad luck caused her to make bad judgements which then caused
us the readers to believe it is fate. To conclude Tess’s innocent and
beauty proved to do her no good and she was also unaware of her
sexuality. Her lack of common knowledge and wanting from her also made
her susceptible to other men.
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