Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Hardy

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SAC Out come 2 – Literature

In “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” Hardy does expose the social injustices and double standards which prevail in the late nineteenth century.

These injustices and double standards are evident throughout the whole novel, and Tess, the main character, is the one who suffers them.

This becomes evident from the first page when Parson Tringham meets Jack Durbeyfield and refers to him as “Sir John”. With his whimsical comment, made from the safety of a secure social position, the Parson begins the events which start the destruction and downfall of the whole Durbeyfield family.

Logically the fact that Tess’s family and their “gentlefolk” relatives have the same descendents should mean that both sides of the family are equal, but this is not true.

Hardy makes this obvious in the contrast between Tess’s mother’s dialect and the sense of her words,

“That was all a part of the larry! We’ve been found to be the greatest gentlefolk in the whole county.”[p.21]

The industrial revolution had begun a social revolution, and with ideas of democracy becoming popular, the notion of equality existed. But in the areas of England that housed the “landed gentry” it was no more than a notion. The gentry and peasantry were still totally separate and even if the gentry espoused the idea of equality, as Tess was accepted into the richer side of the family, the acceptance was hypocritical.

As we find out later in the novel, Alec is not even a real D’Urberville; this perhaps represents the false and dishonest nature of that class privilege. It also highlights how arbitrary inherited position is.

Alec D’Urberville, who believed because he had social position that he could do whatever he wanted, treated Tess cruelly. This raises the questions, should the rich treat the poor as they do? And how do the rich get rich? Could it be because they treat the peasants as they do? If they always have someone to look down upon they will always be of a higher class. If they are superior they have a duty to treat the less fortunate with respect and help them.

One of the reasons the higher-class people saw themselves as superior was because of their strict religious beliefs. What ever happened to “do unto others”, and the fundamental equality of all before god? They are strongly religious but can still treat the peasants with disrespect and superiority. I believe t...

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...e “had” Tess before he did, and if so, what about his responsibility for his preloved status? There was really no interest in this at the time, but Hardy does bring it to the reader’s attention.

The last phase is called fulfilment, and Hardy finishes his long tale of misfortune and injustice. In a sense there is fulfilment. Tess is not released from the injustice or hypocrisy that she has suffered, but Hardy has ensured that it has been made apparent. The evil and false Alec is butchered, and Hardy does not encourage sorrow about this in the reader. Tess experiences forgiveness and the peace of total love from her ‘Angel’. Her last moments of love are set by Hardy in an ancient place that transcends the preoccupations and petty divisions of her time. Tess has stood with innocence and pride against all the injustice that was sent to her. This strength makes her endure as a symbol of the triumph of innocence over social restrictions, and a deeper meaning seems to imbue the beginning of Hardy’s last paragraph:

“ ‘Justice’ was done, and the President of the Immortals….had ended his sport with Tess”.(p.397)

Bibliography

Thomas Hardy, Tess of the Durbervilles, Penguin Classics, 1998