Why Is Tess Considered A Destructive Hero

An Oppressive Society and an Impressive Heroin;

The 1891 novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy is a progressive piece of literature that illustrates some of society’s greatest flaws. The Victorian era was one of rampant poverty, elite struggle, and unprecedented industrial growth. Moreover, literature was accommodated to reach the masses; poetry was made easier to comprehend, magazines published stories to be read by the general public, and novels were mass produced as they grew in popularity. Within this period of growth and discovery, society had yet to experience equality of gender, race, religion, and class. The novel depicts a protagonist’s struggle in supporting her family out of obligation though it is not always consistent

Outside of their respective classes - Angel Clare being that of a wealthier class and Tess Durbeyfield being that of a lower class - they find happiness independently and as a pair by defying societal standards. The very beginning of the novel, for instance, introduces a young Angel Clare who strays from his journey with his brothers to join in a dance with some country girls. In Angel’s initial description, Hardy states that

“the appearance of the third and youngest would hardly have been sufficient to characterize him; there was an uncribbed, uncabined aspect in his eyes and attire, implying that he had hardly as yet found the entrance to his professional groove. That he was a desultory tentative student of something and everything might have only been predicted of him.”

After learning that their family descended from that of a noble class, Tess’s father, John Durbeyfield, goes about drinking and is unable to fulfill his important delivery the next morning causing Tess to feel compelled to fill in. While the rest of her family is consumed with the news of their ‘status’, “Tess turned the subject by saying what was far more prominent in her own mind at the moment than thoughts of her ancestry - ‘I am afraid father won’t be able to take the journey with the beehives tomorrow so early’” (Hardy 24). These events snowball and eventually bring Tess to the doorstep of one Alec d’Urberville, a supposed relative of Tess, in hopes to earn income to sustain her family. Tess’s status as established by society in being a d’Urberville brings her nothing but trouble as her connection to the name is what brings her to Alec where her troubles begin. An exemplary character of the era’s higher class, Alec manipulates Tess, eventually causing her distress and raping her. The original sacrifice of herself to support her family led to her falling victim to Alec d’Urberville and being impregnated. Though already disapproved of by the Church for conceiving this child out of wedlock, Tess is further shunned when she chooses to desert Alec, endure the pregnancy, and