1. Meliorism may be defined as the view that the world is capable of becoming increasingly better through human action, thus improving the human condition. In theology, it is the view that God wanted the world to be as good as possible for humanity, a view that may contradict the free will defense, which holds that an evil world may provide the best test for salvation. However Hardy’s interpretation of meliorism involves the compromise between optimism and pessimism “which affirms that the world may be made better by rightly directed human effort.” (Hardy) In Tess we find that meliorism is seen through her purity and innocence which she brings to the world, even if it only causes her great despair. Although her persistent belief is that she lives on a “blighted star” (pg. 26) she often realizes that if people were generally pure and innocent that the world would become a better place.
Hardy in some ways departs from this philosophy in Tess by the way in which fate is strikingly bad for Tess. It states that human effort will make the world a better place but for Tess the more she tried to improve herself, the worse the world became, for her at least. Tess is at first seduced by her thought to be cousin, Alec D’Urberville. This is unjust because Tess is only working for the D’Urbervilles to try and support her family and the horse (prince) that was mistakenly killed under her control (pg.
27).
Website – web (pg. 26-27).
The Essay on Flintcomb Ash Tess Angel Hardy
Thomas Hardy, who believed that we are all in the inescapable hands of fate, thrives on hap throughout Tess of the durberville. Through this characteristic, Hardy is able to develop the heroine of the novel, Tess Durbeyfield. Hap plays a role in fate, coincidence, bad luck, and accidents throughout the novel. Hardy begins the novel with early distinctions of fate. When Angel Clare, who is briefly ...
