Tess of the D’Urbervilles was first published in 1891 to mixed reviews. The book is about the character Tess and it is a haunting and tragic tale set in England in the Victorian times in around about the mid 1800’s. The book was initially turned down by publishers because the story included seduction and illegitimate birth. In the book Hardy uses a lot of symbolism, some of which foreshadows the events that occur later in the story. Tess’s world is rural Wessex where agriculture was the most important industry. The story contains many rustic characters which are links back to Hardy’s own life; the rustic characters are friendly and understanding and do not judge other people as much as the aristocratic characters.
During the 1800’s England was getting more industrialized which Hardy was upset by. I think his feelings are shown with the character Tess as she works on farms and manages machine all day, doing long hours for little money to pay for a large family when higher society were just getting richer and richer of the work done by people like her. In the opening chapters the rustic women including Tess are described as wearing a lot of white which symbolizes their virginity. He uses words like ‘secluded’, ‘engird led’, ‘beautiful’, and ‘fertile’ to describe Mar lott which is where Tess lives, the is also how you can describe Tess and this makes her decline even more shocking. Tess is secluded and lonely because her parents send her off to her rich relatives hoping for something good and ignoring how Tess feels about it even though she cares about her family. She is fertile meaning that she is ‘untouched’ and pure also Hardy regular describes her beauty,’s he was a fine and picturesque country girl, and no more’.
The Term Paper on Tess Alec Angel Hardy
c~n. Introduction: Thomas Hardy is one of the the most important authors in British literature. Hardy's own life wasn't similar to his stories. He was born on the Eldon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester. His father was a master mason and building contractor, his mother, whose tastes included Latin poets and French romances, provided for his education. After schooling in Dorchester Hardy was ...
There is another point in the book where Tess prays at what she thinks is some sort of holy relic but later finds out it was the grave of an evil man,’ Tis a thing of ill-omen, Miss. It ws put up in would times by the relations of a malefactor who was tortured there by nailing his hands to a post and afterwards hung. the bones lie underneath. They say he sold his soul to the devil, and that he walks at times’, this foreshadows when she is hung at the end of the book.
Another use of symbolism is used late in the book where Tess and Angel are at stonehenge, ‘But Tess, really tired by this time, flung herself upon an oblong slab that lay close at hand, and was sheltered from the wind by a pillar’, some people speculate that ritualized funerary processions where held at stonehenge which could foreshadow her coming death or this could be a reference to sacrifice,’ and the stone of sacrifice midway’. Also when Tess spends a night in the woods she is described like she is hiding and there is also the story of the deer, this is foreshadowing to when she becomes a wanted criminal and is hunted by the authorities,’ It is no use, sir, he said. There are sixteen of us on the plain, and the whole country is reared.’ The rustic characters in Tess of the D’Urbervilles are links to Hardy’s life. They are described as hardworking, understanding people who will help each other out, have fun but will grab any chance for a better life. They usually have a lot of kids too which makes their life harder to manage. The rustic characters tend to say whats on their mind when their with each other because since they are part of the lower society with not much to lose in terms of their status, they don’t have to conform to he sensible way the higher class characters speak and act.
This is shown when they comment on how unnatural Tess looks after she is with Alec who dresses her up to look posh, they say she is ” posy’.
