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Introduction
Tess Durbeyfield is a perfect picture of ideal womanhood. She is an embodiment of the whole nature of women. She belongs to the class of Shakespeare’s tragic heroines like Desdemona and Cordelia. She is a child of nature. She is a daughter of mother earth. She comes before us as a simple country-girl. She behaves like a living figure. She is a round character, for she grows from a simple young girl of sixteen into a complex woman in four or five years only. This is because of her first-hand experiences of the world and its people. Indeed she is a masterpiece of her creator. This tragic figure is a lady in her feeling and nature. She crosses the stage in all the pomp of exquisite distress and with sorrows full of dignity. She is a woman more sinned against than sinning.
The sub-title of Tess of the d’Urbervilles reads “A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented”, and so she is. She is the daughter of poor feckless parents and descendant of a proud and ancient family. Since she is the central character, there is a greater richness of information about her than any other. Through Tess Hardy has succeeded in explaining the depths of a pure woman’s soul. In this book, her life for a period of some four years is presented in detail; her thoughts about a variety of subjects and her emotions are explained in all their facets. Her growth from a simple country-girl to a complex woman weaves throughout the novel, while the changes occurring in the men she knows are presented only summarily. Though born of parents of limited means Tess exhibits qualities worthy of her illustrious ancestors. Throughout the novel we are impressed by the nobility of her character, by her pride, loyalty and honesty.
Tess Beautiful and Charming Personality
Tess Durbeyfield is a breathing image of beauty. She is a lovely woman. With her bewitching and bright eyes, she can fill a man’s heart with delight. She is aware of her beautiful looks. She has inherited her mother’s prettiness. Alec d’Urberville is almost maddened with the luxuriance of her aspect. He is bewitched by her large, expressive, fascinating eyes. This dairymaid is a fresh daughter of nature. She is a poetic figure embodying the visionary essence of natural woman. Alec gives up preaching when he sees her again. Angel Clare runs to her and takes her into his arms passionately. Many casual lovers pay compliments to her beautiful looks in the way. One of them takes her on the cart for some distance.
Tess possesses bewitching beauty, youthfulness and freshness. The finest praise of her beauty comes from Clare. She has ‘deep and sparkling eyes, fair cheeks, arched brows, shapely throat and chin’. As regards her mouth Clare “had seen nothing equal on the face of the earth”. Her “red top lip was distracting infatuating, maddening.” She has “flower-like mouth and tender eyes.” All is Grace in her. She has a Lender's voice. Sbe is even fascinating to the strangers who will look long at her in casually passing by. Hardy describes her as possessing an ‘oval face of beautiful young woman with deep dark eyes and long heavy clinging tresses. The teeth more regular, the red lips thinner than is usual in country-bred girl.” He further says, “It was a luxuriance of aspect, a fullness of growth, which made her appear more of a woman than she really was. She retains her pretty and shapely figure” even when she has given birth to a baby and suffered a lot. Her eyes are described in a poetic language as: “Large tender eyes, neither black, nor blue, nor gray, nor violet, rather all these shades together and a hundred others, which could be seen if one looked into their rises—shade behind shade - tint behind tint—around pupils that had not bottom.”
At Talbothays there is no one so beautiful among the milkers. Her friends Sue, Izz Huett and others are no match for her.
Tess Loving and Self-Sacrificing Nature
Tess is an obedient daughter and wife. She is a loving sister and mother. She is a selfless girl. She suffers and dies for the sake of her parents; brothers and sisters. She tries to solve the economic problem of her family. That is why she goes to Trantridge and loses her physical purity or chastity. She has to surrender her body to Alec again to save her family from starvation. She sacrifices her comfort, happiness and all for the sake of her family. When the family horse dies, she realizes her duty. She works very hard at Flintcomb-Ash to save her family. She is a loving mother to Sorrow, the Undesired. She is very anxious for baptizing him before giving him a Christian burial. She visits the grave of her dead son when she comes back to Marlott. She is ready to die for the sake of Clare’s love or happiness.
Her best qualities come out in her love affairs. Right from the beginning to the end, we get a proof of her innate chastity. Initially, when she meets Alec, she does not show any attraction towards him. Her journey in the carriage is a proof of her sexlessness. She does not like Alec and has no hesitation in telling him so. She loves Angel and sticks to him to the end of her life. Though she suffers humiliation, untold sufferings, every kind of privation, yet she could not be insincere to Angel. She is always sincere always truthful, to her parents, to her friends, to her masters, to her lover and even to the man who brought all the miseries in her life. After her four months stay at Trantridge when she returns, Alec proposes to her, but she does not want to deceive him.
She cannot marry, because without love marriage would be futile. She never conceals her faults from her parents and yet her father suspects her words. She returns deserted from her husband and speaks the truth to her mother. In fact, her sincerity always places her in a critical situation. She tells the truth about the loss of her virginity; the whole village turns her enemy; she tells it to her lover, who she was sure would forgive her, he deserts her and never returns till she is almost entrapped by the circumstances; she tells to her room mates, they turn jealous of her. She writes a letter before her marriage in which she reveals her whole history. It is out of sheer sincerity that she kills Alec d’Urbervilles and is hanged.
Tess has a strong moral sense as well as a keen awareness of justice. She is highly self-sacrificing and extremely unselfish. She kills her own interest for the comfort and convenience of others. She suffers and dies for the sake of her parents, brothers and sisters. She tries to solve the economic problems of her family. That is why she goes to Trantridge and loses her physical purity or chastity. When the family horse dies she realizes her duty. She works very hard at Flintcomb-Ash to save her family. She is a loving mother to Sorrow, the Undesired. She is very anxious for baptizing him before giving him a Christian burial. She visits the grave of her dead son when she comes back to Marlott. She is ready to die for the sake of Clare’s love or happiness.
Tess as Kind, Compassionate, Modest and Humble Nature
Tess is a kind and compassionate girl. She is modest and humble by nature. It is out of her modesty that she puts all blame upon herself for the death of Prince. After her moral trouble and reluctant affairs with Alec d’Urberville, she feels that she is polluting the very surroundings in which she moves. She looks upon herself as figure of guilt intruding into the haunts of innocence. It is her sense of humility that makes her write to Angel Clare that he is just in giving her punishment. She says that she deserves the punishments he has given her. She says so even when he does her injustice. She is so kind that she has never hurt a fly or a worm also. The sight of a bird in the cage makes her cry. When she sees the pheasants writhing in pain or agony after being wounded by the hunters for sport, she takes compassion on them. She breaks their necks to relieve them of this pain with an easy death. She calls them poor darlings.
Tess is very modest and full of humility. Though full of dignity, she is not proud and vain. It is out of modesty that she puts all blame upon herself for the death of Prince. After her moral trouble and reluctant affairs with Alec d’Urberville, she feels that she is polluting the very surroundings in which she moves. She looks upon herself as a figure of guilt intruding into the haunts of innocence. It is her sense of humility that makes her write to Angel Clare that he is just in giving her punishment. She says so even when he does her injustice. The sight of a bird in a cage makes her cry. She suffers a lot on account of Angel but she does not blame him. Her humility forbids her to do so.
Tess is innocent, honest and fair to the core of her heart. We are convinced that morally and spiritually Tess is absolutely blameless and pure. In fact Thomas Hardy himself calls her a pure woman though it has often been argued that without physical purity, she cannot and should not be called a pure woman. But it is clear to us that her first affair with Alec is done reluctantly when she is not herself due to sleep and fatigue. During the later period of her dissipation with Alec she is again not herself. Her mind is drugged and dead with weariness, pain and despair. She is crushed under the dead weight of poverty. She is forced by fate and circumstances to become a mistress, She is a pure woman in the heart and soul. She is honest and true, sincere and faithful in her love for Angel Clare.
Tess Passionate, Emotional and Sentimental Temperament
Tess is a vessel of emotion rather than reason. She has a heart which overflows with the milk of true love. She is a passionate and faithful lover. She is faithful in love throughout a long period of suffering and privation. She resists against the temptation which Alec holds out to her. She is willing to die for the happiness of her husband. Izz tells Angel Clare that she can lay down her life for his sake. She possesses in her character something of the faithful love which the Indian wife has for her man. Nothing can separate her from Angel Clare. But fate works against her. She is forced to sell her soulless body to the villain. She stabs Alec to death when she realizes that he has dishonored her husband with his bitter taunts. She loves Angel Clare with her soul. It is due to her emotional nature that she stabs Alec to death all of a sudden. She has in her something of the emotional nature of poet. The letters which she writes to Angel Clare show her highly passionate and emotional nature.
Tess listens more to the demands of heart than those of the mind. Thus, she is highly emotional and sentimental. She is called by Hardy as “a vessel of emotions rather than reasons.” It is her sentimentality which makes her take upon herself the guilt of the murder of Prince, the horse. When Clare deserts her he gives her a sum of fifty pounds, out of which twenty-five pounds she gave to her mother. The remaining sum began to run out as she could get no regular employment because of wet weather. She could not let the sovereigns go. The reason being: “Angel had put them into her hand, had obtained them bright and new from his bank for her; his touch had consecrated them to souvenirs of himself. So the very money given by Angel had been consecrated for her and to spend them was “Like giving away relics.” Another example of her sentimentality is when after stabbing Alec to death. Tess joined Clare and they moved on and on. After covering many miles they found shelter in an empty building. At the time of her departure from it, she said, ‘Ah happy house-good-bye!”
Tess Mental Qualities
Tess is a philosophic and thinking girl. The long sufferings and experiences of the world have turned her into a brooding philosopher. That is why she likens herself to the poor queen of Sheba. She wonders why the sun shines on the just and the unjust alike. She sees all the tomorrows in a line. The first of them seems to be the biggest and clearest of all. The others get smaller as they stand farther away Every one of them is fierce and cruel, so it seems to say to her “I am coming. Beware of me”. At times she thinks of life beyond death also. She tells Abraham that he lives on one of the blighted stars. Like a good thinker, she believes not in the dogma but in the spirit of the sermon on the Mount. She is a poet also. Hardy has breathed into her something of his own poetic quality. This country-girl talks in philosophic vein and deals with the serious problems of life. She speaks of the general bitterness and tragedy of life to Angel Clare. She complains to Joan Durbeyfield of the wicked ways of the cunning immoral people of the world. She laments the lack of opportunities to real love stories, Tess has a poetic mind. Her body breaths poetry. She is a kind of celestial person owing her being to poetry. Like the good poet she has a taste for music also. She is the true daughter of her ballad singing mother. She feels what the paper-poets express in words. At times she feels that her soul leaves the body and wanders upto the stars. She does so only because of her imaginative mind.
Being a good poet, she is also fond of music. She inherits the quality from her mother. “That innate love of melody, which she has inherited from her ballad-singing mother, gave the simplest music a power over her which could well nigh drag her heart out of her bosom at times.” She has her own favorite chants. She thinks how strange and god-like was a composer’s power, who from the grave could lead through sequences of emotion, which she alone had felt at first, a girl like her who had never heard of his name, and never would have a clue to his personality. She had her favorite ditties too and sang them quite often.
Tess Endurance, Dignified Bearing and Pride
Tess has got the remarkable powers of suffering and endurance. She suffers so much even then she does not lose her moral fiber. She puts up with the shame heroically. She does painful, hard work at Flintcomb-Ash. She behaves like a great heroine when she is deserted by Angel Clare. She suffers bravely at the hands of the cruelty of lust and of the fragility of love. She is a dignified figure in her bearing. She is full of pride. She is too proud to accept any help from Alec d’Urberville. She stands against his cruel persuasion for many long months. She does not weep before Angel Clare at the time of her parting from him. She does not do so because of her pride. She does not write to Mr. and Mrs. Clare for help. She is proud of her beauty. Due to this pride, she is not jealous of the three chamber-maids who love Angel. She believes that she can hook any man with her beautiful looks, personal charms and bewitchingly innocent eyes.
Tess has a strong pride and she lives and dies with pride. Miseries after miseries, come and try her even force her to bow, but she never gives in. She can starve but cannot ask any help from Angel’s parents; she can undergo all the difficulties but cannot move to any friend; She can accept all the tortures at Flintcomb-Ash but cannot accept the help of Alec d’Urbervilles. The only one weakness that she has is the poverty of her family. She brings an end to her pride because of her parents, brothers and sisters. Though she fights her best but it is in the end of the novel that she is made to surrender.
The Purity of Tess Heart and Soul
Tess is a pure woman. In spite of her seduction by Alec, Hardy calls her ‘a pure woman? To an orthodox moralist who believes that once a woman, has lost her chastity, she loses all claim for purity, it may appear a great deal shocking. It is on this ground of conventional morality that Angel Clare deserts her but even he has to acknowledge that she is spotless. She is seduced by Alec but she is innocent. She is pure at heart and is faithful to Angel. It is the purity of her soul that directs her to tell Angel all her ugly past life despite her mother’s serious instructions.
Tess is said to be a pure woman even when she has had a reluctant affair with Alec d’Urberville. Thomas Hardy himself calls her a pure woman. According to him Tess of the d’Urbervilles is the story of a pure woman. There are people who judge her with their conventional morality. They say that without her physical purity, she cannot and should not be called a pure woman. They call her a sinner for they say that she admits a few advances of Alec d’Urberville. They point out that Tess is impure also because she goes to live with him as a mistress at Sandbourne. She is a married woman, so she should not have done so. If we exercise our reason, it is clear to us that her first affair with Alec is done reluctantly when she is not herself, due to sleep and fatigue. During the later period of her dissipation with Alec she is again not herself. Her mind is drugged and dead with weariness, pain and despair. She is crushed under the dead weight of poverty. She is forced by fate and circumstance to become a mistress. She is a pure woman in the heart or soul. She is so if we consider the aim and tendency of her whole life. She is honest and true, sincere and faithful in her love for Angel Clare. This purity of heart together with the nobility of her nature make us call her a really great woman.
Tess Tragic Traits and Drawback
In spite of all these points of her character Tess remains an inhabitant of our own world. She belongs to this earth, for she is not without any flaw in her character, her own creator has referred to her element of incautiousness. Moreover, there is something soft and yielding about her nature. She suffers from the tractability or docility of her nature also. Her personal charms and devotion to the family are also responsible for her suffering and death. She is not initiated into the ways of the world nor does she know the wicked men and their ways also. Her sentimental and emotional nature is also one of the causes of her tragedy. She has a weakness for sleep. It is this weakness which causes the death of Prince. It is this sleep which destroys her physical purity. She is arrested while she is found sleeping in Stonehenge. All these things combine together to bring about her tragic end.
In spite of the traits of her character enumerated above, Tess remains an inhabitant of our own world. She belongs to this earth for she is not without any flaw in her character, in fact Hardy himself has referred to her element of incautiousness. There is also something soft and yielding about her nature. She suffers for the tractability or docility of her nature also. Her personal charms and devotion to the family are also responsible for her suffering and death. She is too modest and humble for this wicked world. Her sentimental and emotional nature is also one of the causes of her tragedy. She has a weakness for sleep. It is this weakness which causes the death of Prince. It is this sleep which destroys her physical purity. Thus, all these things lead to her tragic end.
Conclusion
Tess Durbeyfield is to linger long in our memory as a great woman. We are to cherish her memory along with that of sweet Desdemona or gentle Cordelia. We admire her for her devotion to the family, for her faithfulness in love, for her endurance and fortitude. The adverse circumstances of her life break her into pieces. They drive her to her doom. But she gives a good battle to all-powerful fate and its forces. She impresses us with the courage which she shows in the face of her fate. She suffers like Prometheus for having brought fire or light to the people of the world. She teaches us to judge women from a new sympathetic viewpoint.
Though Tess’s tragedy results mainly because of the imposition of conventional values on her by other people, but her suffering would not have been so intense if she had not, acknowledged those values. Unlike, Angel, Tess does not change fundamentally throughout the book; she endures rather than initiates action. But as the story progresses the reader is drawn to a very full understanding of her character, and recognizes a credible personality because of the wealth of detail which Hardy gives for each aspect of his heroine.