Government College University Faisalabad

Topic
Themes in Tess of the D’Urberviles

Subject
Victorian Novel
Bs(Hons) English Literature
4th Semester (Morning)

Submitted To
Dr. Asma Aftab

Submitted By

Areej Rana
Roll No. 10120
 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Table of Contents

1. Women and Feminism..………………….………………………………………….2-4

2. Marriage…………………………………………………………………………….4-6
3. Sexual Harassment………………………………………………………………….6-7
4. Art of Characterization……………………………………………………………...7-9
5. Natural World and Man for Hardy……………………..……………...…………...9-11
6. God and Religion……………………...………………………...……………….11-12
7. Plot Construction…………………………...………………...…………………13-14
8. Fate and Fatalism………………………………………..……………………….14-15
9. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..15
References…………………………………………………………………………...16

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

❏ Women And Feminism

One of the recurrent themes of the novel is the way in which men can dominate women,
exerting a power over them linked primarily to their maleness. Sometimes this command is
purposeful, in the man’s full knowledge of his exploitation, as when Alec acknowledges how
bad he is for seducing Tess for his own momentary pleasure. Alec’s act of abuse, the most
life-altering event that Tess experiences in the novel, is clearly the most serious instance of
male domination over a female.
“Did it never strike your mind that what every woman says, some women may feel?”
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles

The cause of ​female emancipation was not a major concern for Hardy in Tess. ​However,
he does attack social and moral conventions that condemn and victimise women and to
that extent, he defends more liberal views which seek to redefine the idea of purity.
“
Why it was that upon this beautiful feminine tissue, sensitive as gossamer, and
practically blank as snow as yet, there should have been traced such a coarse pattern as
it was doomed to receive; why so often the coarse appropriates the finer thus, many
thousand years of analytical philosophy have failed to explain to our sense of
order.”(11.63)
It's very important to the ​theme of femininity​, as well. First of all, the narrator uses words
that denote delicacy and fragility to describe Tess's body – "tissue," "gossamer," and "snow."
(Gossamer is a poetical word for the dew-covered cobwebs that appear on grass in the early
morning). This seems strange, given that at other points in the novel, he describes ​her as
strong, healthy and robust – even able to defend herself physically on occasion (take, for
example, the scene in which she almost shoves Alec off his horse at 11.20)
Hardy muses a lot about Tess's status as a woman and the various roles women assume in
society. Tess often plays the part of a passive victim, falling asleep and inadvertently killing
Prince, falling asleep before her rape, and falling asleep at Stonehenge where she is arrested.
She and many of the other female characters also act as symbols of fertility, nature, and
purity.

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

A field-man is a personality afield; a field-woman is a portion of the field; she has

somehow lost her own margin, imbibed the essence of her surrounding, and assimilated
herself with it. (14.10)
Once again, the narrator suggests that women can become one with nature. Women have
some inherent, natural quality that allows them to "assimilate" themselves with ​"outdoor
nature,"​ that men lack.
They are linked with the lushness of Talbothays and the bleakness of Flintcomb-Ash, as well
the fertility ritual of May-Day. Hardy also places a lot of emphasis on the power of men over
women, in terms of both society and strength. Alec obviously dominates Tess in many
terrible ways, but Angel also wields power over the women at the dairy, driving ​Retty and
Marian to a suicide attempt and alcoholism. ​Tess finally assumes the role of an active
agent in her own life when she writes angrily to Angel, and her final murder of Alec takes it
to the extreme, underscoring Hardy's critique of the oppression of women in Victorian
society.
“Why didn’t you tell me there was danger? Why didn’t you warn me? ”
Thomas Hardy, ​Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Tess is only able to actively change her life and escape her male oppressor by murdering him,
which then leads to her own execution. There is no place for a woman in her position to
escape.
Let the truth be told—women do as a rule live through such humiliations, and regain
their spirits, and again look about them with an interested eye.
The narrator describes Tess’s resilience in the face of abuse and loss. Tess leaves home to go
to work for the Talbothays Dairy after the death of the child conceived by Alec’s rape. This
casual treatment of such traumatic experiences shows that, at the time, women had no choice
but to accept what happened to them and move on. As a matter of practicality, Tess could not
hide away forever, and she puts the past behind her to live in the present.

Even Angel’s love for Tess, as pure and gentle as it seems, dominates her in an unhealthy
way. Angel substitutes an idealized picture of Tess’s country purity for the real-life woman
that he continually refuses to get to know. When Angel calls Tess names like ​“Daughter of
Nature” and “Artemis,” we feel that he may be denying her true self in favor of a mental
image that he prefers.

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

He called her Artemis, Demeter, and other fanciful names half teasingly, which she did
not like because she could not understand them."Call me Tess," she would say askance;
and he did. (20.10-11)
Angel thinks Tess is some kind of "Every Woman" – some ideal fantasy of femininity. So he
calls her the names of Greek goddesses. But she doesn't like being generalized like that – she
can't understand those names, and they detract from her unique individuality. She just wants
to be called Tess, and understood for herself.

Thus, her identity and experiences are suppressed, albeit unknowingly. This pattern of male
domination is finally reversed with Tess’s murder of Alec, in which, for the first time in the
novel, a woman takes active steps against a man.
“A strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength, she is worse than a weak
woman who has never had any strength to throw away.”
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Of course, this act only leads to even greater suppression of a woman by men, when the
crowd of male police officers arrest Tess at Stonehenge. Nevertheless, for just a moment, the
accepted pattern of submissive women bowing to dominant men is interrupted, and Tess’s act
seems heroic.
Tess is not an ​“everywoman” or a symbol of fertility, passivity, or oppression, but a unique
individual. ​Angel's relationship with Tess shows this tension between idealized image and
living reality. He falls in love with his version of Tess, which is the Nature goddess and
symbol of innocence,
She was no longer the milkmaid, but a visionary essence of woman – a whole sex
condensed into one typical form. (20.10)
In the early morning hours, Tess's beauty seems other-worldly to Angel. They're the only two
people awake on the farm, and he can imagine that she's the only woman in the world.In
other words, he's making her his ideal woman.

❏ Marriage:
For a Victorian woman, marriage was of prime importance as well as to be pure until
this stage. It is known that marriage is generally supposed to happen first, but on the
occasions when sex happens first, marriage is sure to follow.

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

“she ought to make her way with 'en, if she plays her trump card aright. And if he
don't marry her afore he will after." (7.37)
Mrs. Durbeyfield can tell that Alec is totally lusting after Tess, but she sends her off to work
for the D'Urbervilles anyway, assuming that if Alec doesn't marry her "before" (sleeping with

her), he will "after."

"And yet th'st not got him to marry 'ee!" reiterated her mother. "Any woman
would have done it but you!" (12.76)
Tess comes home having been raped by Alec, but without having married him. This totally
overturns Mrs. Durbeyfield's views of sex and marriage. Yes, marriage is generally supposed

to happen first, but on the occasions when sex happens first, marriage is sure to follow – or so

Mrs. Durbeyfield had persuaded herself.

"How can we live together while that man lives?" (36.82)

In other editions, Angel adds that Alec is Tess's husband in nature, if not legally. So again,
there's a distinction between natural law and social law.
"Remember, I was your master once! I will be your master again. If you are any
man's wife you are mine!" (47.39)
Alec is angry after Tess smacks him with a heavy work glove, and he actually says what he
thinks: that he has some kind of natural right to Tess, just because he's the first man to have

had sex with her. In his mind, this makes him her "natural" husband.

The financial matters were discussed openly by both the families. Everything was decided
beforehand just like the contemporary prenuptial agreement.The concept of sex was an act
that should only take place between a married couple and it also implied that a husband
would care for his wife, both physically and emotionally, for the duration of the marriage. In
Tess sex is often associated with nature; it is presented as a natural part of life.

Hardy uses her example to challenge Victorian attitudes to marriage. Despite having two
"husbands" at different points in the novel, Tess is never actually married to either of them in
the fullest sense of marriage that Hardy proposes. After Alec’s rape Tess is no longer viewed
by society as “pure”; instead she is a sinner and an outcast. Then, after marrying Angel Clare

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Tess confesses her involvement with Alec. Angel is enraged and abandons her, leaving her
only a little money – unable to forgive her despite his own similar past “sin”
Angel adopts a stiffer and more rigid attitude that he might have done if he had learnt it
before the marriage. After separating from Tess, ​Angle goes to Wellbridge to wind up
certain affairs, he kneels by the bedside and says:
“Oh, Tess! If you had only told me sooner, I would have forgiven you.”

Tess had a choice to tell Angel about her past before marriage but she didn't just because of
her​ vain sense of guilt​. A minor mischance thus has grave consequences.

❏ Sexual Harassment:
As we know, in the nintheen century males dominated society. Hardy illustrates how in
a predominantly male dominated society, men hold economic and social power over women
in different forms.
In this novel, Alec’s abuse, which is the most life-altering event that Tess experiences, is
clearly the most serious instance of male domination over a female.
"Well, my big Beauty, what can I do for you?" said he, coming forward. (5.30)
Point of interest here – this is the first thing Alec D'Urberville ever says to Tess. Tess is

repeatedly described as a blooming, country girl – she's also described as very "womanly" for
her age.

The obscurity was now so great that he could see absolutely nothing but a pale

nebulousness at his feet, which represented the white muslin figure he had left upon the

dead leaves. Everything else was blackness alike. (11.60​)

The scene of Tess's rape by Alec is deliberately ambiguous. Hardy never once uses the word

"rape" to describe it, although that's certainly what it was by today's definitions. The sense of

ambiguity is set up from the moment that Alec finds Tess sleeping under the tree – Hardy

uses words like "obscure" and "nebulous" to indicate that what's about to happen is hard to

interpret.
One of the important Victorian values was to be a pure woman until marriage. Despite being

perceived as a truly good woman, she is despised by society after losing her virginity before

marriage.

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

There are also other examples such as when Angel marries Tess, he abandones her shortly
after the wedding when he discovers what had happened between her and Alec. Moreover, it
does not matter to him that he had an affair before he was married. He considers that men
may stray with impunity and women may not.
He then told her of that time of his life to which allusion has been made when, tossed
about by doubts and difficulties like a cork on the waves, he went to London and
plunged into eight-and-forty hours' dissipation with a stranger. (34.83)
Angel confesses his sexual "crimes" to Tess on their wedding night, just before she tells him
about what had happened with Alec. Angel's reaction is obviously unjust, given what he's just
confessed, but the sexual double-standard was pretty well engrained in the society at this
point.But this pattern of male domination is finally reversed with Tess’s murder of Alec .This
is the first time in the novel when a woman imposes herself against a man.

❏ Art of Characterization:
Hardy is a master in the art of characterization, and portrays his characters
faithfully through their manners, speech and other such distinguishing features.​For
example if we see the description of Tess:
“She was a fine and handsome girl—not handsomer than some others, possibly—but
her mobile peony mouth and large innocent eyes added eloquence to colour and shape.
She wore a red ribbon in her hair, and was the only one of the white company who
could boast of such a pronounced adornment.”
However, only his major characters are portrayed with a psychological insight, the minor
ones being used only to ​provide some comic relief and Chorus-like commentary on the
existing situations. ​In fact, Hardy is more interested in portraying the elemental powers of
the universe and the world around him than individual characters. Moreover, he often
employs his characters as mouthpieces for the expression of his philosophy of life. Another
characteristic of Hardy's characterization is his ​greater concern with Man or Woman as a
whole than with a particular man or woman​.​ According to Earnest Baker:
"His chief character is Man, and the play Existence."

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Instead of remaining preoccupied with the psychological complexities of his characters,

Hardy shows the struggle between these characters and the indifferent universe, they have
been thrown into by ​the accident of their birth.
“The oppressive sense of the harm she had done led Tess to be more deferential than
she might otherwise have been to the maternal wish; but she could not understand why
her mother should find such satisfaction in contemplating an enterprise of, to her, such
doubtful profit.”
After Prince the horse dies on Tess’s watch, she feels guilty for falling asleep and letting him
die. Her guilt leads her to grant her mother’s wish by going to work for the d’Urbervilles.
Tess embodies the stereotypically female trait of obedience, but she secretly questions why
her mother thinks they will gain anything from Tess’s journey. While she does not display
any sense of rebellion, she evidences more intelligence and thoughtfulness than her parents.
“He wore the ordinary white pinner and leather leggings of a dairy-farmer when
milking, and his boots were clogged with the mulch of the yard; but this was all his local
livery. Beneath it was something educated, reserved, subtle, sad, differing.”
The narrator describes Tess’s first impression of Angel. While he dresses like any other
farmer, he gives the impression of more refinements than his clothes would suggest. Readers
do eventually learn that Angel comes from a higher social class and chooses to work as a
farmer. Like his biblical name suggests, he descends from a lofty position to spend time with
those beneath him.
“She had not known that men could be so disinterested, chivalrous, protective, in their
love for women as he. Angel Clare was far from all that she thought him in this
respect.”
After Tess agrees to marry Angel, she feels amazed at how he behaves while in love with her.
The only other man who readers know to have declared his love for Tess was Alec
d’Urberville, who professed the sentiment so that he could take advantage of her. However,
Angel represents the exact opposite of Alec from what Tess can see.
“He had an almost swarthy complexion, with full lips, badly moulded, though red and
smooth, above which was a well-groomed black moustache with curled points, though
his age could not be more than three- or four-and-twenty. ​When Tess meets Alec
d’Urberville for the first time, the narrator takes note of his physical appearance and what that
might say about his character. Alec seem like a cartoonish villain, with a curled mustache and

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

a dark look. In contrast to Tess’s purity and innocence, from the beginning Alec looms as a
corrupting influence in her life.
I was born bad, and I have lived bad, and I shall die bad in all probability. But, upon
my lost soul, I won't be bad towards you again, Tess.
Alec d'Urberville, Phase the Second, Chapter 12
Alec d'Urberville admits he was in the wrong, but his admission does not change anything
practical. In fact when Tess Durbeyfield encounters him several years later, he again pursues
her. His integrity is absent, even after he has found religion. Alec's "badness" is oddly
conditional, however: although his attempt to pressure her by offering to provide for her
family is appalling, he actually remains steadfast toward her—unlike Angel Clare, who
deliberately abandons her.

❏ Natural World and Man for Hardy:

It is the ​countryside that abounds in the various phenomena of Nature in their
changing aspects. Hardy observes Nature closely and presents it in his novels with fidelity to
the details related to it. Though it seems often ​to share the feelings of Man as a whole, it
remains indifferent to his suffering. It is against the background of the vast Universe that
the drama of human life is enacted in Hardy's novels, and the tragedy of their heroes and
heroines takes place. ​Hardy presents a picture of the vast elemental forces, and shows
their working on Man's life. The character of human beings is shown by him as being
shaped by the environment around them. ​Often some natural object or scene directs the
movement of
the story and guides the actions of characters,

➢ Similarly In ​Tess of the D’Urbervilles​ we can see the connection between Man and
Natural World:
“Thus Tess walks on; a figure which is part of the landscape; a field-woman pure and
simple, in winter guise.” (42.6)
In a way, the tragedy of Tess​, "a pure woman" (subtitled added by Hardy at the last
moment)​, is also the story of "pure" Wessex from which she comes. ​Both are corrupted
and betrayed by the modern world.

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

"'Tis nater, after all, and what pleases God." (12.83)

This is Joan Durbeyfield's fatalistic response to the news of Tess's rape. Her response is like
the response of the people the narrator quotes in the passage quoted above: "It was to be."
Her remark that it's "nater" (i.e., "nature") puts the blame of it on someone other than Alec or
even Tess. It's only "natural" that Alec should have taken advantage of Tess.
The world of Hardy's novels consists of the region consisting of a part of southwest England,
to which he gave its old name 'Wessex', and some other similar rural places. Belonging to the
rural working class, he was keenly interested in depicting the life of the peasantry and
advocating their beliefs and values. ​Diana Neill remarks
"No other novelist can render the sights and smells of the countryside with such
evocative sensuousness."
The vicissitudes in the life of his characters are described as occurring against the background
of scenes located in the countryside.
“Beauty lay not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized.”
Thomas Hardy, ​Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Hardy differs much from George Meredith in that in Meredith's novels greater importance is
attached to Man than to the universe around him, whereas for Hardy the natural universe is
much more important than Man and his society, and also quite unintelligible to him.

On these lonely hills and dales her quiescent glide was of a piece with the element she
moved in. Her flexuous and stealthy figure became an integral part of the scene. (13.14)

Once again, the narrator associates Tess with nature. Here, she actually seems to become one
with nature. She becomes "an integral part" of the landscape, and is "of a piece" with nature.

So passed away Sorrow the Undesired – that intrusive creature, that bastard gift of
shameless Nature who respects not the civil law. (14.58)

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

It's another juxtaposition of nature and civilization – Sorrow was a "natural" child in that he
(or she?) was born according to "natural" laws, as opposed within the socially sanctioned
bonds of marriage.

❏ God and Relegion:

Thomas Hardy struggled with his own religious beliefs, and that struggle comes
through in his work. He idealized the paganism of the past but was also attached to his
family's Christianity, and generally he accepted some sort of supernatural being that
controlled fate. Tess herself is usually portrayed as an embodiment of that pagan innocence, a
sort of English Nature goddess
[W]omen whose chief companions are the forms and forces of outdoor Nature
retain in their souls far more of the Pagan fantasy of their remote forefathers than
of the systematized religion taught their race at later date. (16.16)
Again, women are connected with old, primaeval, Pagan religion, and "outdoor Nature,"
while men are (implicitly) connected with the "systematized," man-made religion that came
later.

She first appears performing the fertility ritual of May-Day, then bedecked in flowers from
Alec, whistling to Mrs. d'Urberville's birds, and mercifully killing the wounded pheasants.
[W]here was Providence? Perhaps, like that other god of whom the ironical Tishbite
spoke, he was talking, or he was pursuing, or he was in a journey, or peradventure he
was sleeping and was not to be awaked. (11.61)

The superficial meaning of "Tishbite" is pretty clear: the narrator is suggesting that
"Providence" must have been "sleeping" to have allowed this to happen to Tess.
Angel describes her as a ​“new-sprung child of nature” and compares her to mythical
women like There is another side of Tess's “divinity” as well, however: the role of sacrificial
victim, which is a figure associated with both paganism and Christianity.
"How can I pray for you, when I am forbidden to believe that the great Power who
moves the world would alter his plans on my account?"
- Thomas Hardy, ​Tess of the d'Urberville,​ Chapter 46

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Like Jesus, Tess is punished for the sins of another, assuming the weight of guilt for Alec's
crime.
You were more sinned against than sinning, that I admit.
Angel Clare, Phase the Fifth, Chapter 35
Angel Clare acknowledges Tess Durbeyfield is a victim. In this he agrees with a segment of
society that says a victim ought not to be held to the same censure as a woman who "fell" on
purpose. Despite this affirmation, however, Angel rejects and abandons Tess.

When the police finally come to arrest her for murder, she is lying asleep at Stonehenge like
a sacrifice on an altar. Stonehenge was thought at Hardy's time to be a heathen temple.

The Christian end of the spectrum is particularly associated with the Clare family and Alec
d'Urberville. Each character seems to have a different form and expression of faith, and
Hardy critiques them all with empathy from his own religious wrestling.
Never in her life—she could swear it from the bottom of her soul—had she ever
intended to do wrong; yet these hard judgments had come. Whatever her sins, they
were not sins of intention, but of inadvertence, and why should she have been punished
so persistently?
Tess acknowledges that she did not deserve Angel’s cruel treatment of her for actions that she
did not choose to commit. For the first time, she questions why she has experienced such
misfortunes when she did nothing to deserve them. Tess, who was raised with a religious and
superstitious world view, spent her life believing that bad things only happen to those who
knowingly commit wrongdoing. However, here she begins to realize that the world hands out
capricious judgments.
Most of his respect goes to the intense but charitable Mr. Clare, while Alec's conversion is
depicted more as a product of his fickle thrill-seeking than any deep emotion, and the
conformist Clare brothers are mocked for blindly following every fashionable doctrine.
Angel's skepticism and Tess's vague beliefs take the most prominence, and neither moves
much past Hardy's own state of doubt.

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

❏ Plot Construction:
The plots of Hardy's novels are constructed with great skill, and reveal his
inventive powers. ​But they are often marred by ​the element of improbability,
implausibility, causality and excessive use of coincidence. These plots comprise both the
internal and external conflicts, and often present a blend of these two types of conflict.
“You are the lineal representative of the ancient and knightly family of the
d’Urbervilles, who derive their descent from Sir Pagan d’Urberville, that renowned
knight who came from Normandy with William the Conqueror, as appears by Battle
Abbey Roll?”

Parson Twingham plants the idea in John Durbeyfield’s mind that he and his family are better
than their neighbors and thus begins Tess’s path toward destruction.
Sudden shifts from one scene to another put a strain on the common reader's attention.
“Tess Durbeyfield at this time of her life was a mere vessel of emotion untinctured by
experience.”
At the beginning of the novel, Tess is angry when the villagers attempt to make fun of her
prideful father riding home in a hired cart he can’t afford. In a state of heightened emotion,
she tells her friends that she will no longer talk to them if they laugh at Durbeyfield. From the
beginning, Tess demonstrates great love for her family. She will defend them to the death.
However, a careful arrangement of various events and situations has been helpful in
imparting a unity to the structures of his novels despite the complex nature of these
structures.
“I wish I had never been born--there or anywhere else. “

Tess says this to Alec d’Urberville after he has seduced her and she feels forced to return
home to Marlott in disgrace. She will make this wish over and over throughout the novel until
she finally gets her wish.
On the whol​e, Hardy makes his plots serve as a compact unit to convey his tragic view of
life, and all the foreshadowing, scenes and events lead towards a climax which embodies
this view.

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

"I couldn't help your seeing me again!" (56.107)

Alec argues that his meeting with Tess again after so many years was fate, and that it means
that they are meant to get back together.
“Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Aeschylean phrase, had ended
his sport with Tess.”
The Greek dramatist Aeschylus wrote tragedies. Like Aeschylus’s characters, Tess ultimately
had no control over her life. Her actions were fate-driven, predestined, determined solely by
the whim, or the sport, of the gods
.

❏ Fate and Fatalism:

Because of his pessimistic outlook, Hardy restricts the scope of human endeavour and
makes its outcome subject to ​Chance, coincidence, accident and workings of a malignant
Fate.It is important to know also that Thomas Hardy considered himself to be a fatalist.
He believed that everything in life was predetermined by fate. These things play a
significant role in all his novels, and shape the destiny of his characters​. The excessive use
of these elements takes off much of the effectiveness of his tragedies, because they
overshadow the actions of Man, which are supposed to lead to tragic consequences.
Characters like Henchard, Jude and Tess suffer much in life, not only because of their
own mistakes or weaknesses, but also because of the circumstances prevailing around
them, and the cruel hands of Fate pushing them towards their doom.

For Example:
In ​Case of Tes​s,Early in the story, Prince, the horse of the Durbeyfield Family is killed in an
accident. Tess’ father being in no condition to undertake an important journey, Tess offers to
take his place.
She had hoped to be a teacher at the school, but the fates seemed to decide otherwise.
While Tess prepares to leave home to work for the d’Urbervilles, she reflects on the fact that
fate has set her in a different direction than she originally envisioned.
“As Tess's own people down in those retreats are never tired of saying among each
other in their fatalistic way: "It was to be." There lay the pity of it.” (11.64)

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

The rape scene is shrouded in ambiguity. First of all, none of it gets described – the narrator
backs away and talks in general terms about how rapes have always happened, and describes
the setting of The Chase where it's happening. Secondly, the narrator seems to go back and
forth about whether​ "fate" or "free will" is to blame for the rape.
he had asked himself why had he not judged Tess constructively rather than
biographically, by the will rather than by the deed? (53.25)

Angel realizes his own injustice, and that the only real justice is in judging people by their
intentions, rather than by their actions: "by the will rather than by the deed."

Conclusion:
There can be no doubt about the merit of Hardy's art as a novelist, despite certain
shortcomings that it may betray. ​As a story-teller, as a constructor of plots, as a delineator
of character and as a painter of scenes and situations, he is simply superb. His greatness
as a novelist lies in his cosmic view of life​, and the beauty and dignity of his best work. His
view of a malignant Fate and hostile Nature may be a bit too gloomy to be easily
acceptable; but his ​concern for and depiction of the pitiable lot of Man in this world is
admirable indeed.

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 ​ Themes in Tess of the D'Urbervilles

References:

● Gradesaver.com. 2020. ​Tess Of The D'urbervilles Essay | Marriage Between A Pure

Woman And An Angel​. [online] Available at:
● <​https://www.gradesaver.com/tess-of-the-durbervilles/essays/marriage-between-a-pur
e-woman-and-an-angel​> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
● Course Hero. (2017, August 23). Tess of the d'Urbervilles Study Guide. In
CourseHero.​ Retrieved April 21, 2020, from
https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Tess-of-the-dUrbervilles/
● Elearning.masterprof.ro. 2020. ​Literary Themes In The Novel.​ [online] Available at:
<​http://elearning.masterprof.ro/lectiile/engleza/lectie_15/literary_themes_in_the_nove
l.html​>
[Accessed 23 April 2020].

● Course Hero. (2017, August 23). Tess of the d'Urbervilles Study Guide. In ​Course
Hero​. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from
https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Tess-of-the-dUrbervilles/

● Cosby, Matt. "Tess of the d'Urbervilles Themes: Paganism and Christianity."

LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 3 Nov 2013. Web. 23 Apr 2020.

● Gao, Haiyan. “The Inevitability of Tess’s Tragedy.” Theory and Practice in Language
Study, vol. 3, no. 3, Mar. 2013, pp. 515–520., doi:doi:10.4304/tpls.3.3.515-520.

● Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D’Ubervilles. 1891,

www.planetebook.com/ebooks/Tess-of-the-dUrbervilles.pdf​.

● “The fatalism of Hardy’s work.” Fatalism in Hardys Work,

thomashardyfatalism.wikispaces.com/.

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