As humans, fate and destiny play a major part in our thoughts. Nothing can happen without the possible thought that destiny played a hand and that it was fated to happen. When tragedies occur, often the blame is shifted onto something out of control. However, Tess of the d’Urbervilles demonstrates that while fate may play a role in life, it is the decisions that truly determine which route life will take. Therefore, Tess’s choices, made myopically and emotionally, instead of logically, led to her eventual downfall and death To properly understand the way humans make decisions, both sides of human rationale are needed: emotion, and logic. When decisions are made using either emotion, or logic, the decision lacks the facets that would make it the best choice for that specific person. For example, when making a purely emotional decision in the moment without thinking logically, multiple outcomes are not considered. Similarly, if someone …show more content…
were to think logically, he would lose the emotional aspect that relates to his specific code of morals and ethics. The best decision is one made combining both aspects, resulting in a proper and well-considered decision. However, very few people are able to carefully think their decisions through and fully believe in the solidity of their choice. Tess is not such a person. With the many trials Tess has faced in her life, Tess becomes a more impulsive character as the novel progresses. From the time Alec rapes her to her marriage, Tess starts ignoring her instincts, becoming more emotional. From this point forwards, Tess can only think of that moment when making a decision- she lets her anger and sorrow rule her choices. Tess’s assault changes her character and her thought process. She is no longer the girl who trusted her instincts regarding Alec. Being thrust into an unforgiving world as a rape victim has permanently changed the way Tess thinks. While Tess has experienced unhappiness and suffering in her life, she was given a chance to live a happy life; Angel Clare, a young man that Tess fell in love with, asks her to marry him. However, Tess is hesitant to marry Angel due to her past assault by Alec and her child born out of wedlock: “… her own heart was so strongly on the side of his…that she tried to fortify her resolution by every means in her power…On no account could she agree to a step which might afterwards cause bitter rueing to her husband... And she held that what her conscience had decided for her when her mind was unbiased ought not to be overruled now” (Hardy 261). She knows better than to marry him, but eventually, “her heart” gives in. She abandons the decision her objective mind makes, and tries to appease her conscience by trying to tell him about her past. However, she only gains courage at hearing Angel’s indiscretions, after which she tells him the truth after their wedding: “she entered on her story of her acquaintance with Alec d’Urberville and its results, murmuring the words without flinching, and with her eyelids drooping down,”(336). Tess, ignoring her conscience, avoids telling Angel at the right time and pays as a result. She lets her love for Angel blind her to the best choice she could have made: to tell him the truth before the wedding. Marriage is based on trust, and if Angel could not reconcile himself to her past, she would have known that Angel would not be supportive and willing to accept her, past experiences and all. Tess is reminded of her past experiences as she is separated from Angel while he farms in Brazil, and cannot help but feel even more helpless with her life. At this time, a newly-reformed Alec re-enters her life and asks her to live with him as his mistress; he is still infatuated with her. She refuses his advances until he eventually wears her down. When Angel comes, Tess tells him, ‘He kept on saying you would never come any more, and that I was a foolish woman. He was very kind to me, and to Mother, and to all of us after Father’s death. He-‘ ‘I don’t understand.’ ‘He has won me back to him.’” (563). Tess has nursed her broken heart and grows increasingly bitter towards Angel for abandoning her. She considers sending him a letter at one point, but ends up letting her fear prevent her from sending it. By losing faith in Angel, she agrees to live with Alec as his mistress, based on what he tells her: Angel will not come back. She is so desperate for an easy way out of her problems that she believes what she knows to be a lie. She acts suddenly, changing her mind rashly and ignoring what she told Alec for many months. When Angel inevitably returns, she regrets her decision when he leaves, heartbroken. By letting her frustration get the better of her, she makes an emotional decision she would not ordinarily make, resulting in a regret that may end her. When Angel leaves, Tess, angry at Alec for coming in between her and Alec for the second time, cannot bear the realization that Angel may be suffering for her decisions: “And then he came back! Now he is gone. Gone a second time, and I have lost him now forever- and he will not love me the littlest bit ever any more- only hate me!... Oh yes, I have lost him now- again because of- you!” (566). Thinking only of her ruined life, Tess stabs and kills Alec for all of his misdeeds. She lets her broken heart control her actions and does the one thing that will never let her live peacefully with Angel: murder. She kills him, against her better nature. Because Tess was married to Angel, not Alec, she has every right to leave with Angel when he comes back. However, her emotion blinds her to the fact that she has choices. Short-sighted, she inexorably ensures that she will die for her crimes. Others, who believe that Tess is entirely blameless for her life, would argue that society is responsible for Tess’s fate. Hardy does condemn society and the double standard throughout his book, as seen by his characterization of Tess as a pure woman, one who embodies the Earth itself. He portrays the other members of society as the ones who are responsible for Tess’s eventual downfall. While her rape is what sets her on her path, Tess does have some control over her decisions- she could choose whether or not to tell Angel, and in fact, societal expectations of truth and honesty in marriage should have factored into her decisions. Tess could have left Alec and lived with Angel again as his lawful wife, but she chooses otherwise and forgets where her true standing is, morally and ethically. Others may say that Tess did not have another viable choice, and each decision she had to make would have been an impossible one. However, Tess did have a choice in telling Angel her past, because the decision was when she should tell him, not if. Tess also had the option of writing Angel or claiming some of his money as his wife. Out of a misguided sense of self-pity and doubt, Tess does neither, when in fact, money and lack of love was what drove her to reunite with Alec. Tess of the d’Urbervilles was originally published as a censored version and only later released in its entirety, because Hardy wrote something that challenged society and its expectations of women.
Hardy wrote characters that had a measure of liberty and did not believe themselves to be playthings of fate. He challenged conventional stereotypes and takes the blame off Tess for her assault and places it where it was deserved. He also does not write Tess as a perfect woman, demonstrating the truth of humanity; humans are not perfect. However much Tess of the d’Urbervilles affected Victorian society, it continues to influence society that much today. People often take decisions without carefully considering the ramifications of them. They act either too emotionally or too logically, and blame soured decisions as a twist of fate. Instead, Tess shows us that while fate may influence day-to-day life, in the end, choice is the deciding factor. Fate, gender inequality, racism and discrimination don’t define the lives of humans, choices
do.
Feeling Sympathy for Tess in Tess of the D'Urbervilles I think that throughout the novel Thomas Hardy uses many different techniques that lead his readers to feel sympathy for Tess. Through reading Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' I have realised that it is. invaluable that the readers of any novel sympathise with and feel compassion for the main character. In writing 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' Thomas Hardy is very successful in grabbing the win.
to keep her out of the house” (138). The sexist and racist attitudes of that era, in addition to the idolized Kurtz’s savage behaviour towards the Africans, amplify the anomaly of an African woman instilling fear into colonial white men. Conrad establishes the influence that women can have, as it clearly contrasts Hardy’s insinuation of the powerless nature of females when compared to men. While both novels show women embodying traditional male roles and characteristics, the chivalric trait of honour in a woman is most prominent in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
Both Tess of the D’Urbervilles and The Hound of the Baskervilles take a critical approach to humanity’s use of modern technology in manners that impose on or damage the natural world. The theme is explored in several instances in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, with the first clear example being a modernized mail-cart killing the Durbyville horse, Prince. The new form of transportation sped along the road “like an arrow” and drove into the Durbeyville’s “slow and unlighted equipage. The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of the unhappy Prince like a sword, and from the wound his life's blood was spouting in a stream. [...] Tess became splashed from face to skirt with the crimson...
Tess, the protagonist and heroine of Hardy's novel, becomes a victim of rape and in turn, her life grows to become degraded, humiliating and depressing; of which none of these things she deserves. Although initially striving to be heroic and providing for her family, (after she was responsible for the death of Prince) the position she takes on at the d'Urbervilles' ultimately leads to her death as she is raped and then pursued by her seducer Alec d'Urberville until she must murder him. This courageous yet dangerous decision to murder Alec epitomises her character as a heroine as she is brave enough to perform such a malicious act in order to kill her suffering at the root rather than being passive and perhaps choosing to take her own life instead.
During the late nineteenth century, women were beginning to break out from the usual molds. Two authors from that time period wrote two separate but very similar pieces of literature. Henrik Ibsen wrote the play A Doll's House, and Thomas Hardy wrote Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Ibsen and Hardy both use the male characters to contrast with their female counterparts to illustrate how women are stronger by following their hearts instead of their minds.
The question as to whether humans are emotional or rational beings when it comes to decision making has been widely studied and debated extensively throughout history. In today’s world emotion is usually associated with weakness and vulnerability. Rationality and logic are universal. Everyone uses the same logic (although some people use it more than others), but morality and feelings are unique and personal. They stem from our personality structure, values and are what make each one of us different from one another.We are cognisant that using our emotions to sway our decision making is wrong, and that we should strive to be more analytical and levelheaded; emotions tend to cloud our ability to make the proper choices nonetheless. The truth
... Finding the equilibrium between emotion and reason n is crucial for one to be able to make moral decisions that can be justified in an acceptable manner. The ability to balance those two can be very challenging, especially in situation where the emotion side of the brain attempts to take control. It should be kept in mind that emotion and reason can keep reasonable thinking from turning into irrational behavior.
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.
Tess spent the worst days of her life. But at the same time she began
Tess of the d'Urbervilles Through life people may fault, or get on the wrong side of the tracks. Yet hopefully they keep faith and then willingly they may recoup and redeem themselves by recovering. Many believe that, Tess in, Tess of the d'Urbervilles was a great example of this. In Hardy's Victorian age novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, he illustrates casual wrong, the will to recover, the growth of love, and death. Almost everybody has done something casually wrong and not think much of it, many call this indifferent nature.
...cept her. ?Unadvisable? gives the impression that Angel does not really care one way or another. All of this is unfair to Tess, as Alec?s decision to rape her was not her fault in any way. Also, Angel?s sexual history is more promiscuous than Tess?s, and yet he sees only her flaws. Hardy uses specific word choices and diction to thoroughly inform the reader of the injustice of Tess?s circumstances.
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.
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.
Humans are constantly making decisions during their daily life. According to Huffington Post, an average person makes around 35,000 decisions per day. From choosing which shirt to wear to important life decisions that have long-lasting effects, the decision-making process is very complex. There are mainly two types of decision-making methods. The first method is using intuition, which is taking a decision with one’s “gut” feeling or what it seems to be right without thinking about it logically. The second way of taking a decision is through reason, which carefully analyzing all the data and using logic to conclude to a decision, which is the go-to method when taking important lifelong decisions. Different areas of the brain are responsible
It is important that one must have emotions to understand that that reason for justification is mandatory in some cases. Even though an emotion triggers a reason for justification is some cases, it doesn 't mean that emotion will be more important out of the two. Reason helps us to determine the good and the bad emotions and we could not be able to justify a moral decision without reason. It is seen that emotion and reason associate and a decision might not be made if we can 't include any of the two so both are equally important to justify. Emotions may brainwash us and lead us to making decisions only considering the immediate consequences. If I see a new student in the school being bullied, I might wanna take the action of helping him/her due to my emotions, but then if I go to help the student the I could also be bullied. This shows that emotional reasoning can 't help justify a decision so we have to use reasoning too. A good reason for thinking of doing something of a moral decision does not mean that it gives a good reason for a decision to be taken in the future, one can also justify a decision that was taken in the