Tess Of The D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy - Is Tess a Pure Woman?

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Thomas Hardy’s Tess Of The D’Urbervilles (A Pure Women) - Do You Agree with Hardy’s Subtitle, A Pure Women?

‘Tess Of The D’Urberville’ was written by Thomas Hardy in 1891. Tess is

the main character who gets exploited by the character, Alec. The

question is whether Tess is pure or not. The subject

of purity caused a lot of controversy in the Victorian times. The dictionary

definition of the word purity is that if someone is pure they are

innocent, fresh, virtues, chaste and very trustworthy.

Thomas Hardy English poet and novelist, famous for his dispictions of

the imaginary county “Wessex”. Hardy’s work reflected his stoical

pessimism and sense of tragedy in human life.

In the Victorian times you were able to buy names depending on

whether you were rich or not this will show if you have social status

or not. Victorians believed that any man or women having a sexual

relationship or sexual contact before marriage was seen as a sinner.

If you pregnant and was not married society will not accept you they

were very strict and very religious. In the Victorian times there were

three classes. The Masses, the Nouveax Riches, and the Landed Gentry.

The Masses were the poor working class, the Nouveax Riches were the

people who worked in factory’s In the city they get the new money and

that is were the name came from, they were hated by the Landed Gentry

because they were almost the same standard as them, the Landed Gentry

were the rich people who didn’t work but got their money from their

ancestors (old money).

Tess a young cottage girl ‘she was a fine and handsome girl… and large

innocent eyes added eloquence to colour and shape…’ Tess and her

family were the poor working class and were happy the way they...

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...Angel and tells him what she has done

and says that if anything happens to her he has to promise to look

after her younger sister Liza- lu this shows us that she is very

loving towards her sister and is willing to do anything for her

happiness. Tess is then captured and is hanged in the last chapter.

Conclusion:

To conclude I think Tess is a pure woman. I have shown how fate has

taken a major part in her life. Thomas Hardy is a person who wrote

most of his novels in a pessimistic way. His view on life and in women

was completely different to the rest of the society; he reckons that

men and women should have an equal right. The reason why he wrote ‘A

Pure Woman’ as his subtitle is because he wanted to put it out to the

rest of the society and because this is a question everyone wants an

answer to. This subject caused a lot of controversy at the time.

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