An Analysis Of Tess In Thomas Hardy's Tess

Above all, it is clear from the author’s commentaries inserted into the novel that

from his point of view Tess is overvaluing her problems and even her whole

existence:

She might have seen that what had bowed her head so profoundly – the thought

of the world’s concern at her situation – was founded on an illusion. She was

not an existence, an experience, a passion, a structure of sensations, to anybody

but herself. [...] Moreover, alone in a desert island would she have been

wretched at what had happened to her? Not greatly. If she could have been but

just created, to discover herself as a spouseless mother, with no experience of

life except as the parent of a nameless child, would the position have caused her

to despair? No, she

Why didn’t you tell me there was danger in men-folk? Why didn’t

you warn me? Ladies know what to fend hands against, because they read

novels that tell them of these tricks; but I never had the chance o’ learning in

that way, and you did not help me!’ (100)

Mrs. Durbeyfield’s “advice” comes too late and Tess can rightfully blame her for not

warning her earlier. In fact, her mother does not have any right for blaming Tess for

what happened to her because she herself is warned to be careful when she is

discussing sending Tess off to “claim kin” with her husband at Rolliver’s Inn: “Tess

is a fine figure o’ fun, as I said to myself to-day when I zeed her vamping around

parish with the rest,’ observed one of the elderly boozers in an undertone. ‘But

Joan Durbeyfield must mind that she don’t get green malt in floor.’ It was a local

phrase which had a peculiar meaning, and there was no reply” (TOD 36). As Craik

observes:

[M]ost editors (including the most recent) understand only the general sense

[...] glossing the phrase as ‘get herself pregnant,’ ‘herself’ being Tess. Hardy

himself furnished a different explanation in 1926 when in reply to a readers

query he pointed out that “To have ‘green malt in floor’ means to