Tess of the d'Urbervilles 



 TO WHAT EXTENT IS TESS A VICTIM, A CREATURE CAUGHT IN A TRAP? 
Tess Durbeyfield is a victim of external and uncomprehended forces. 
Passive and yielding, unsuspicious and fundamentally pure, she suffers a 
weakness of will and reason, struggling against a fate that is too strong 
for her. Tess is the easiest victim of circumstance, society and male 
idealism, who fights the hardest fight yet is destroyed by her ravaging 
self-destructive sense of guilt, life denial and the cruelty of two men. 

        It is primarily the death of the horse, Prince, the Durbeyfields 
main source of livelihood, that commences the web of circumstance that 
envelops Tess. Tess views herself as the cause of her families economic 
downfall, however she also believes that she is parallel to a murderess. 
The imagery at this point in the novel shows how distraught and guilt 
ridden Tess is as she places her hand upon Princes wound in a futile 
attempt to prevent the blood loss that cannot be prevented. This imagery 
is equivalent to a photographic proof - a lead-up to the events that will 
shape Tesss life and the inevitable evil that also, like the crimson 
blood that spouts from Princes wound, cannot be stopped. The symbolic 
fact that Tess perceives herself to be comparable to a murderess is an 
insight into the murder that she will eventually commit and is also a 
reference to the level of guilt that now consumes her. Nobody blamed Tess 
as she blamed herself... she regarded herself in the light of a 
murderess. 

Her parents, aware of her beauty,view Tess as an opportunity for future 
wealth and coupled with the unfortunate circumstance of Princes death 
urge Tess to venture from the engirdled and secluded region of Marlott 
to seek financial assistance from the Durbervilles in nearby Trantridge 
. It is here that she first encounters the sexually dominating and 
somewhat demonic Alec Durberville, whom she is later to fall victim to. 
Alecs first words to Tess , Well, my Beauty, what can I do for you? 
indicate that his first impression of Tess is only one of sexual 
magnetism. Alec then proceeds to charm Tess by pushing strawberries into 
her mouth and pressing roses into her bosom. These fruits of love are an 
indication of Alecs lust and sexual desire for Tess as he preys upon her 
purity and rural innocence. Tess unwillingly becomes a victim to Alecs 
inhumane,violent and aggressive sexual advances as Alec, always the master 
of opportunities, takes advantage of her whilst alone in the woods and 
rapes her. Tess has fallen subject to the crueller side of human nature as 
Alec seizes upon her vulnerability. 

After this sexual violation and corruption of innocence, Tess flees home 
and although she has escaped the trap of the sexually rapacious Alec for 
the time being,her circumstance is similar to that of a wounded animal - 
her blood of innocence has been released. At this time Hardy gives 
reference to Shakespeares The Rape of Lucrece -where the serpent 
hisses the sweet birds sing suggesting that Alec was equivalent to Satan 
tempting Eve. Tess is undoubtedly a victim and her lack of understanding 
over such matters only increases the guilt that already embodies her. To 
add further to her shame she chances upon a holy man who paints exerts 
from the bible around the countryside. In red accusatory letters she reads 
THY, DAMNATION, SLUMBERETH, NOT and is horrified to think how relevant 
it is to her recent misfortunes. Tess at this stage is a victim to her own 
self - conscience and she becomes a recluse trapped within her home - away 
from the society that has unjustfully condemned her whilst in reality she 
has broken no law of nature. 

Returning to work in the field, Tess witnesses the rabbits forced further 
to shelter as the corn rows in which they dwell are reaped and the 
harvesters kill every one of them with sticks and stones. This is symbolic 
of Tesss own situation as she is being separated little by little from 
family and friends and from her childhood innocence ,it is suggestive of 
the loneliness she now feels. The baby she has baptised as Sorrow dies, 
his name being an indication of the anguish that has taken place within 
Tess due to the circumstances of his conceival and it also epitomises what 
is to follow through the events of her own sorrowful life. 

In an attempt to start her life anew, Tess decides to move away from the 
seclusion of Marlott to Talbothays - where no one will know of her past. 
Although filled with natural optimism, Tesss past has already begun to 
weave the fatalistic web that will trap her like a fly and from which the 
ravenous spider of chaotic doom will draw all of her lifes animation out. 
Talbothays Dairy is the phase of Tesss life in which she experiences her 
only period of sheer happiness, although at times this is tinctured by 
mental hesitations as to her purity and righteousness. Here we can see in 
an abstracted form the way society has entrapped Tess by its assertions of 
what is supposedly morally correct. 

Like a fascinated bird Tess is drawn into the wild and overgrown garden 
by the sound of Angel Clares harp - playing. We gain here, a sense of 
Tesss affinity within the natural environment as she proceeds as 
stealthily as a cat through this profusion of growth. Hardy has likened 
Tess to an animal and this is symbolic also of the eminent disaster to 
follow. Tess is trapped once again - although on this occasion she is 
bound to Angel by ideological fetters . Tess is transformed in Angels 
sight ... a visionary essence of woman - a whole sex condensed into one 
typical form. Tesss material, physical relationship with Alec has been 
replaced by a spiritual, idealised one with Angel.  She has now become a 
victim of Angels idealisation as her individuality is becoming further 
suppressed by his imaginative and ethereal reasonings. As the spring 
season progresses so does Angel and Tesss romance and eventually she 
succumbs to Angels charms. 

After failing to tell Angel of her past, she writes him a letter which is 
placed beneath his door. In a cruel twist of fate , the letter slides 
beneath the mat and there it remains - unread. Tess and Angels marriage 
is marred by ill - omen. Hardy gives reference to the gnats that know 
nothing of their brief glorification - as Tess herself cannot fathom the 
potent fatalism that will cause her such sorrow. Hardys continual use of 
ill -omen gives the impression of the extent of Tesss victimisation to 
fate; the Durberville coach and the crow of the cock symbolising the 
death of their relationship. 

On their honeymoon, traditionally a joyous occasion, Tess confides in 
Angel the nature of her past. Prior to this confession, Tess is horrified 
by the portraits she sees hanging on the walls. Angel beholds a similar 
quality within Tess - an arrogance and ferocity which is the truth linked 
to her past. On hearing of Tesss unfortunate past, Angel withdraws from 
reality by refusing to admit that she is the woman that he loved. You 
were one person; now you are another 

Angels departure to Brazil leaves Tess almost as a widow . Angel s 
physical rejection of Tess has subjected her to the cruelty of love, a 
victim once again - she is broken both spiritually and emotionally. It is 
at this point in the novel that she begins to understand that her beauty 
is part of the cause of her destruction. In answer to this she dons her 
oldest field gown, covers half her face with a handkerchief, and snips off 
her eyebrows to keep off these casual lovers. Tess has realised that 
part of the victimisation she has undergone is because of her beauty, 
although this realisation has come too late to save her from Alecs 
lustful actions and Angels idealised ones. Tess seeks shelter one night 
beneath some bushes to hide from a lustful man and awakens to find 
pheasants left half - dead by a shooting party. All of these birds are 
writhing in agony apart from those which have been unable to bear any more 
and have died through the night.  Tess reprimands herself for feeling 
self-pity; I be not mangled, and I be not bleeding - and although she is 
not physically marred by the events that have so irrevocably altered her 
life , emotionally and spiritually she is exhausted. 

The potent tragedy of Tesss life is that her decisions have always been 
made with good and pure intentions but have resulted in damaging 
consequences.Tess is undoubtedly a victim as misery punctuates her life. 
She is a victim of circumstance in that her individuality makes little 
difference to her fate, she is a victim of society in the sense that she 
is a scapegoat of narrow - mindedness and she is a victim of male ideology 
on the grounds that her powers of will and reason are undermined by her 
sensuality. Tess herself sums up her own blighted life best; Once a 
victim, always a victim - thats the law! 



Word Count: 1537 