Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Abstract

Tess of the D’Urbervilles is in some ways an easy novel to understand. This is because it tells a straightforward story and tells it with great force. Tess, a poor country girl, is raped and made pregnant by Alec D’Urberville. The baby dies and Tess goes to work on a farm. There she meets and marries Angel Clare, but when she tells him about her past he rejects her and goes off to Brazil. Tess then meets Alec D’Urberville again and for a variety of reasons, including the fact that he has persuaded her that Angel will never return, she agrees to live with him. Angel does return, however, and Tess murders Alec. She experiences a few days freedom in company with Angel, but at the end of the novel she is arrested at Stonehenge and subsequently executed. Something of the force of the novel is conveyed in its subtitle ‘A Pure Woman’: the innocent Tess could be said to be a victim of society’s attitudes towards sex and women. What comes across vividly in the novel is Hardy’s anger at the way the world treats Tess and his intense sympathy for her. These are feelings that most readers of the novel share: you are likely to find yourself totally on the side of Tess and indignant with Alec and Angel.