Tess Of The D'Urbervilles-- review from teenager's POV.

TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES: A REVIEW 

 

I think that it is the best Victorian book ever written. It can be considered revolutionary for THAT era, but may seem conservative to most of the present day readers. It's a book that will make you ponder on so many worthy questions about love, life, freedom, personality, and what not. You'll find yourself digging up in the deep recesses of mind for the answers. You'll empathize with the protagonist, will accept her with all her faults, exaggerate her merits, downplay her demerits. You'll question whether what we have in OUR society is any better or not.

Let's first start with the plot. 

The story takes place in an area of England, to the southwest of London in the late 19th Century. This is mainly about a country girl bestowed with all the fine features that were supposed to make a girl beautiful in that Victorian Era- thick long tresses of hair, snowy white satin smooth skin, rosy lips, expressive and large eyes; in short, the Snow White of the era ( by the way, the character of Snow White is not a modern day contraption, in fact, it is an old European tale and was published by the Grimm Brothers in 1812 ). Her father got to know of their lineage with the D'Urbervilles- a powerful knightly family that had died out. He forced his daughter-Tess or Teresa to go work for Alec D'Urbervilles, and charm him into marrying her. But Tess did not fancy Alec, who was an impostor, by the way- his father got rich in business and bought the D'Urbervilles title. Alec got entranced by Tess' beauty and raped and impregnated her. When her parents got to know that she did not take up Alec on his offer of marrying her, they were furious, and her father refused to provide for her child and let it die of sickness. Tess went away from her birthplace to Talbothays, a dairy farm. Here she fell passionately in love with Angel Clare- the Parson's son who wanted to enter into farming. She tried to tell him about her past, but couldn't gather enough courage up until the night they got married. Angel was deeply hurt and abandoned her, leaving her with some money. Tess managed on her own, till Alec came back in her life. She pleaded with Angel to come back to her, but he was too late. Alec forced Tess to marry him by supporting her mother and her siblings when her father passed away. Angel returned and found Tess, only to know she married Alec. Tess, on the other hand, killed Alec because he blinded her with his cruel words about Angel and brainwashing her into marrying him. She and Angel ran away, spend some beautiful days together on the run, but finally got caught up at Stonehenge, where Tess was arrested. She was hanged, and Angel honored her last wish of marrying her sister.

Criticism 

1.  It is completely hypocritical of Angel to leave Tess. He too had made love with some other woman prior to Tess, WITH HIS OWN VOLITION! Tess forgave him, but he couldn't come too terms with her being raped. Sure, he did say that it wasn't her fault, but then why abandon her and punish her so? This weakness of character  portrayed by Angel Clare makes him undeserving of Tess' pure and complete love for him. Also, Tess shows a docile attitude by accepting him back in her life. After all this humiliation and sacrifice, she was convicted for the murder of Alec. Why does she, and only she has to sacrifice her joys, happiness and life? She didn't commit any mistake other than being docile. Thomas Hardy basically portrayed that if a woman loses her virginity, whether forcibly or on her own volition, she has to pay for it with her life and sorrows. But if a man loses his, it's considered to be natural and forgivable. I don't think that the 21st Century is any better in this respect. We, the so-called "open-minded" people still have this notion firmly rooted in our mind that if a girl gets physical, raped or is in a relationship- she is impure, a blot on honor, etc. But if a guy fools around, it is his nature, they have the right to do so. How are WE any better than the people of those bygone, pre-independence days? At least Thomas Hardy bypassed that stage where "defiled" women were eradicated from the society. From his point of view, he at least showed some compassion for Tess.
2. Tess gets so easily swayed! Alec comes to her the second time, provides for her family, feeds her tall tales that her husband won't ever return to accept a defiled woman, that he in relation, is her true husband, and she accepts all of it. She lives a comfortable life, shares the bed with the man who raped her. Who does that? And that too after calling him a monster? She couldn't go to the Talbothays Dairy, where she knew she would get work and could provide for her mother and siblings, just because of self-respect, because they would pity her that Angel left her. But where did her self-respect vanish when she married her tormentor?!
3. There are streaks of feminism here and there. Like that one instance where Tess wrote a strong worded letter to Angel, saying that he doesn't deserve her love. She was so right at time! She should've stuck to it. Not with Alec though. I liked her independent, she oozed out strength in those times. She, actually has so many personalities. Rebuking Alec almost all the times, a strong and loving single mother, a hardworking dairy maid, a passionate lover, a rock in the face of problems- taking care of her husband when he was in distress and had walked in his sleep on the night of her confession, the weak woman whom Alec molded to follow his way, the murderer who killed Alec to run away with her love- Angel, the caring sister who beseeched Angel to marry Liza-Lu (her sister) before getting convicted for her crime. 
4. Thomas Hardy ( the author) digresses sometimes, giving unwanted information about in-substantiate characters- like that boy who drew the carriage carrying Tess and Angel on their way to get married. Information about him wasn't really needed I feel. 
5. According to me, Angel loved Tess only for her good looks. The moment he got to know that Izz Huett(Tess' friend and fellow dairymaid) loves him, he asks her to accompany her to Brazil, but when she tells him that she can't love him more than Tess, he withdraws his offer. But I think the point to be highlighted here is the fact he asked Izz to accompany him to Brazil, as a mistress. How shallow can he be? He states his views are liberal, but it sure doesn't look like it at all. He used to think of Tess as the embodiment of his ideals- his disdain of social status was proved when he fell in love with, and married a milkmaid; Tess' otherworldly beauty attracted him. He was in love with the idea of Tess, and the morality of the situation, rather than her personally. His high and unrealistic thoughts were made to taste the dirt when he had his fall in Brazil. He realized that he had been unfair to Tess. In this novel, the "angel" didn't guide the human, rather the human guided the "angel" to the more realistic path of life, though the payment was her life.