Uniqueness and Universality in Tess of the D'Ubervilles
She can flirt, she can listen, she can sympathize, she can work with her hands. (Hardy 131)
The above line from Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles demonstrates a great deal about the themes of the novel as well as the character of Tess. The line reprinted above is supposed to reveal the versatility of Tess' character. However, it also reveals a good deal that helps us understand Hardy's central theme of the book. This is because the versatility of Tess' persona is what makes her unique. However, she is purity, fortitude, woman and suffering personified. Nonetheless, she is herself and no other person, unlike any other woman. This contrast of her universal qualities but her individual differences is significant to understanding one of Hardy's core themes if not the core theme in the novel: Tess is a symbol of the common predicament of all mankind-we are meant to suffer, love and endure. However, despite this universality Tess' pain is made to seem unique by Hardy's skill. In her unique vitality and versatility we understand the universality and unique phenomena of tragedy.
The character of Tess is one that symbolizes the positive aspects of life, but she represents the unrealized potential that is within all human beings as much as she comes to symbolize how so very often we end up differently than we might. Of course, her universality is also embodied within the Christian community wherein she exists, but she also represents as do others in the novel the pagan nature of mankind underneath the surface of social appearances. Like the line reprinted at the outset, Tess' unique nature despite being an example of common mankind is also evidenced when she rejects the vicar and his church. The vicar refuses to give her child a Christian burial and Tess replies, "'Then I don't like you!', she burst out, 'and I'll never come to your church again'" (Hardy 147). However, this is not meant to show Tess rejecting God or men of God, but, instead, it is designed to show us how sensitive and clear-headed Tess is when facing those who are so heartless that even when they are a man of God they could heartlessly act. She once again symbolizes the common lot of mankind (to be sensitive to heartlessness and human deprivation), but she also symbolizes a
Tessie Hutchinson, or Bill’s wife played a major role in this story. There are many signs of Duality of Human Nature in Tessie. Once Tessie arrived, realizing that she was late, she started to casually talk with Mrs.Delacroix, “Clean forgot what day it was,” she said to Mrs.Delacroix, who stood next to her and they both laughed softly.”. Everyone appeared to be in a good mood, “The people separated good-humoredly to let her through,”. Even her husband was joking around with her, “Thought we were going to have to get on without you, Tessie,” and, “and a soft laughter ran through the crowd as the people stirred back into position after Mrs. Hutchinson's
...he shows us her character, not by how she gives herself respect, but by the continued respect that she gives to others: even her tormenters. Her secret shame was kept inside, and it was an impossible burden to bear. She was brave.
Tess' true strength is her determination to overcome her misfortunes. When the Durbeyfields' horse, Prince died, Tess took control of the situation of the horse's death and the beehive delivery. She takes care of the kids and she had done well in school, even though Tess seems to go nowhere. Also when she leaves her job of taking care of the flock at the d'Urberville household, because of her experience with Alec, it showed she tried to take control of the situation. Even when Alec was following her home on his carriage asking her why she left, 'Her lip lifted slightly, though there was little scorn, as a rule, in her large and impulsive nature.
...ed to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority” (American 1). The major players in the transcendentalist movement are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. They shared ideas such as self-reliance, and ideas about how there is a divine being that controls every person. They influenced many other writers and they even had an effect on the American society, then and now. Transcendentalism was a philosophy and a way of life. It will continue to be this as long as we have access to the great minds of the transcendental movement.
At the beginning of the story, we see her desiring going to the lottery. She was laughing, joking, and encouraging her husband to go up and get a drawing when he didn’t move right away. She never would have suspected her family would be chosen, and furthermore, herself. Jackson creates a great contrast between Tessie’s nonchalance and the crowd’s nervousness (Yarmove). When her family is chosen, her character changes around knowing that there’s the possibility of her own death. Tessie’s character change is shocking, but falls into place with the holocaust. She symbolizes the human instinct of survival, and tries to offer up her own children and their families to lower her chances of death. In Yarmove’s analysis of Jackson’s work, he writes “It is the peevish last complaint of a hypocrite who has been hoisted by her own petard” to drive this thought home. The Nazis involved in the roundup of the ‘lesser’ people, alongside with whoever aided, did so because either they were naïve enough to believe they wouldn’t be killed themselves, or because they believed in the cause. Tessie symbolizes those who did so because they thought they wouldn’t be
Philosophers, whether they are atheists, or believers have always been eager to discuss the existence of God. Some philosophers, such as St Thomas Aquinas, and St Anselm, believe that we have proven that God exists through our senses, logic, and experience. Others such as Soren Kierkegaard, and Holbach, feel that we will never have the answer to this question due to our human limitations, and reason. The believer tends to rely on faith for his belief, and claim they do not need proof in order to believe in the God's existence. The atheist however, tends to lean more towards common sense and reason, such as science, or the theory of evolution for an answer. The determinalist for example believes that all actions are caused by nature, and we are nothing more then a causal effect. We cannot have faith or beliefs because we are nothing more then puppets of nature.
By stoning Tessie, the villagers treat her as a scapegoat onto which they can project and repress their own temptations to rebel. The only person who shows their rebellious attitude is Tessie. She does not appear to ...
Plato states being a just person ultimately lead to being a happy person. By giving the definition of what it is to be just, he is giving the definition of what it is to be happy. Plato shows through the definitions of being just he has given us the key to happiness. Through rationality and harmony we can achieve happiness. The definition in its self is a solution to becoming happy. And I thank Plato, for showing me the light.
The setting or settings in a novel are often an important element in the work. Many novels use contrasting places such as cities or towns, to represent opposing forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. In Thomas Hardy's novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the contrasting settings of Talbothays Dairy and Flintcomb-Ash represent the opposing forces of good and evil in Tess' life.
Many people in history have written about ideal rulers and states and how to maintain them. Perhaps the most talked about and compared are Machiavelli's, The Prince and Plato's, The Republic. Machiavelli lived at a time when Italy was suffering from its political destruction. The Prince, was written to describe the ways by which a leader may gain and maintain power. In Plato?s The Republic, he unravels the definition of justice. Plato believed that a ruler could not be wholly just unless one was in a society that was also just. His state and ruler was made up to better understand the meaning of justice. It was not intended to be practiced like that of Machiavelli's. Machiavelli, acknowledging this, explains that it is his intention to write something that is true and real and useful to whoever might read it and not something imaginary,"?for many have pictured republics and principalities which in fact have never been known or seen?(Machiavelli 375)." Therefore, because one ruler is realistic and the other imaginary, the characteristics of Machiavelli's ruler versus Plato's ruler are distinctly different.
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.
Most if not all of the villagers seem to view the death of Tessie as necessary and traditional. To the people of this community, death has
Theism is the belief in the existence God. Theistic are people who affirm the existence of God. This is divided into two. The first is A Priori. These are arguments that are held before sensory experience. Under the A Priori concept, are the Ontological and Moral Argument. St. Anselm is a one of the known proponents in the Ontological Argument. He once said, “Believe in order to understand.” He explains that faith and belief play a very vital role in affirming the existence of God. He claims God is the greatest thinkable being both in mind and reality. The second division of Theism is A Posteriori. These are arguments that are held af...
Hardy’s novels are ultimately permeated upon his own examination of the contemporary world surrounding him, Tess’s life battles are ultimately foreshadowed by the condemnation of her working class background, which is uniquely explored throughout the text. The class struggles of her time are explored throughout her life in Marlott and the preconception of middle class ideals are challenged throughout Hardy’s exploration of the rural class. Tess of the D’Urbervilles revolves around Hardy’s views of Victorian social taboos and continues to be a greatly influential piece from a novelist who did not conform to the Victorian bourgeois standards of literature.
In order to understand how unity and harmony tie the ideal state together, one must first understand the coloration of unity with justice. Simply defined justice, according to Plato, is specialization. Each person doing their own craft is what justice entails. However, this definition of justice leads to something larger within the individual and the state. According to Plato, "... we must compel these Guardians and Auxiliaries of ours to second our efforts; and they, and all the rest with them, must be induced to make themselves perfect masters each of his own craft. In that way, as a community grows into a well ordered whole, the several classes may be allowed such measure of happiness as their nature will compass" (P, p. 111). The theory of justice as specialization leads to the happiness of the whole.