tess themes

7/21/2019 Tess Themes

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Men Dominating

One of the

recurrentthemes of the

novel is the wayin which men

can dominate women,exerting

a power overthem linkedprimarily to

their maleness.Sometimes this

commandis purposeful, in

the man’s fullknowledge of his

exploitation, as when Alecacknowledges

how bad he isfor seducing

Tess for his ownmomentary

pleasure. Alec’sact of abuse, the

mostlife altering event thatTess experiences

in the novel, isclearly the most

serious instanceofmale

domination overa female. ut

there are other,less blatantexamples of

women’s passivity toward

dominant men.!hen, after Angel

reveals that heprefers Tess,

Tess’sfriend"ettyattempts suicide

and her friend#arian becomes

an alcoholic, which makes

theirearlierschoolgirl

type crusheson Angel seemdisturbing. This

devotion is notmerely fanciful

love, butunhealthy

obsession. Thesegirls appear

utterlydominated by adesire for a man

who, weare toldexplicitly, does

not even reali$ethat they are

interested inhim. This sort

ofunconsciousmaledomination of

women isperhaps even

more unsettlingthan Alec’s

outwardandself conscious

cruelty.%ven Angel’s love forTess, as pure

and gentle as itseems,

dominates her inan

unhealthyway. Angel

substitutes anideali$edpicture of Tess’s

country purityfor the real life

womanthat hecontinually

refuses to get toknow. !hen

Angel calls Tessnames like&'aughter

of (ature) and&Artemis,) we

feel that he may be denying her

true self in favorof a

mentalimagethat he prefers.Thus, her

identity andexperiences are

suppressed,albeit

unknowingly.This pattern of

maledomination isfinally reversed

with Tess’smurder of Alec,

in which, forthefirst time in the

novel, a womantakes active

steps against aman. Of course,this act

onlyleads toeven greater

suppression of a woman by men,

when the crowdof male police

officersarrestTess atStonehenge. (

evertheless, for*ust a moment,

the acceptedpattern of

submissivewomen bowing to

dominant men isinterrupted, andTess’s act seems

heroic.Love

+ove is aprominent

theme in Tess ofthe '’rbervilles,

whether it is apersistentsuitor,unre uit

ed love, pitiedlove, or family

love. There isalso, at a few

times, the themeof purelove

which one cansee from Angel’sthoughts when

he goes to tellhis parents

about Tess.!hatis odd about the

uotation isthat he

completely turnshis back on Tess

when he

findsout abouther past. &-t was

for herself thathe loved Tess

her soul, herheart, her

substance /notfor her skill inthe dairy, her

aptness as hisscholar and

certainly not forher simple,

formalfaith professions.)

01ardy, phasethe fourth, 23456rom this

passage we seethat Angel

lovesTess for herinnocence and

then canunderstand why

he turns his back on her when she

tellshim abouther past. +ove

comes in manydifferent forms

in this novelfriends love,

familylove andintimate love. -nthe end, it is the

intimate lovethat prevails and

is shown inthis passage.

Man/Woman vsNatural world

1ardy7s veryinterested in therelationship of

women tonature, in

particular. -n

Tess of

the D'Urbervilles, women are

more in touch with the earth

than men are,and are able to

melt intothelandscape and

become one withthe land in a way that men

cannot. eingable to stay

intouch with thenatural rhythms

of the earth isobviously

something that1ardy values inthisnovel.8art of

the tragedy ofthis novel is that

Angel ideali$esTess, and thinks

of her as a kindof9every

woman,9 insteadof as a uni ue,individual

woman. -n hismind, she

representssomekind of

eternal,universal

6emininity. -nthe world of

Tess of the

D'Urbervilles, women haveauni ue

relationship to

nature, and tothe land, thatmen cannot

share. !omen aremore intouch

with theoutdoors, and

men are more intune with

modernity andindustriali$ation.

Changing Ideas

of Social Class inVictorian

England

Tess of the d’rbervillespresents

complexpictures of both

the importanceof social class

innineteenth century %ngland

and thedifficulty ofdefining class in

any simple way.:ertainlythe

'urbeyfields area powerful

emblem of the way in which

class is nolonger evaluatedin;ictorian

times as it wouldhave been in the

#iddle Ages<that is, by

blood alone, with noattention

paid to fortuneor worldlysuccess.

-ndubitably the'urbeyfields

have purityof blood, yet for

the parson andnearly everyone

else in the novel,this factamounts to

nothingmorethan a piece of

genealogicaltrivia. -n the

;ictoriancontext, cash

matters morethanlineage,

which explains

how SimonStokes, Alec’s

father, wassmoothly able to

use hislargefortune to

purchase alustrous familyname and

transform hisclan into the

Stoke d’rbervilles. The

d’rbervillespass for what

the 'urbeyfieldstrulyare<authentic

nobility <simply because

definitions ofclass have

changed. Theissue of class

confusion evenaffectsthe :lareclan, whose

most promisingson, Angel, is

intent on becoming a

farmerandmarrying a

milkmaid, thus bypassing thetraditional

privileges of a:ambridge

education andaparsonage. 1is

willingness to work side by

side with thefarm laborershelps endear

him toTess, andtheir

ac uaintance would not have

been possible ifhe were a more

traditionalandelitistaristocrat. Thus,

the three maincharacters in the

Angel Tess Al ec triangle are

allstronglymarked by

confusionregarding theirrespective social

classes, an issuethat is one ofthe

main concernsof the novel.

Variant Names

renaming, or variant naming,in the novel. (

ames matter inthis novel.

Tessknows andaccepts that she

is a lowly'urbeyfield, but

part of her still believes, as herparentsalso

believe, that heraristocratic

original nameshould be

restored. =ohn'urbeyfield goes

astep furtherthan Tess, andactually renames

himself Sir =ohn, as his

tombstoneepitaph

shows.Anothercharacter who

renames himself is Simon Stokes,

Alec’s father,

who purchasedafamily tree and

made himselfSimon

Stoke d’rberville. The

uestion raised by all thesecasesof name

changing, whether

successful ormerely

imagined, is theextent to which

analtered name brings with it analtered identity.

Alec actsnotoriously

ungentlemanlythroughout the

novel, but by theend, when he

appears at thed’rbervillefamily vault,

hislordly andcommanding

bearing makehim seem

almostdeserving of the

name his fatherhas bought, likea spoiled

medievalnobleman.

1ardy’s interestin name changes

makes reality

itself seemchangeableaccording to

whims of humanperspective. The

village of lakemore,as we

are remindedtwice in

:hapters -and --, is alsoknown as

lackmoor, andindeed

1ardyfamouslyrenames the

southern%nglish

countryside as&!essex.) 1eimposes a

fictional mapona real place, with

names alteredcorrespondingly.

"eality may not be as solid as the

names peopleconfer upon it.

-mages of birdsrecur

throughout thenovel, evoking

or contradictingtheir traditional

spiritualassociation with a higherrealm of

transcendence. oth the :hristian

dove of peaceand

the"omanticsongbirds of

>eats andShelley, whichsymboli$e

sublime heights,lead us to

expectthat birds will have

positivemeaning in this

novel. Tessoccasionallyhears birdcalls

on herfre uenthikes across the

countrysidetheir free

expressivenessstands in stark

contrast toTess’ssilent andconstrained

existence as a wronged and

disgraced girl.!hen Tess goes

towork for #rs.d’rberville, she

is surprised tofind that the old

woman’s pet

finchesarefre uently

released to flyfree throughout

the room. These birds offer

images of hopeandliberation.

et there is

irony attached to birds as well,

making us doubt whether these

imagesof hopeand freedom are

illusory. #rs. d’rberville’s birdsleave little white

spots ontheupholstery,

whichpresumably

someservant<perhaps

Tess herself<willhave to clean.-tmay be that

freedom for onecreature entails

hardship foranother, *ust as

Alec’sfreeen*oyment

of Tess’s bodyleads her to alifetime of

suffering. -n theend, when

Tessencountersthe pheasants

maimed byhunters and

lying in agony, birds no longerseem free, but

rather oppressedand submissive.

These pheasantsare no "omantic

songbirdshovering

farabove the%arth<they are

victims of

earthly violence,condemned to

suffer down below andnever

fly again.

Time and saceTess of the '7rbervilles takesplace in the late2?th century

0a.k.a., the;ictorian period,

orduring the

reign of @ueen;ictorian,234 2?B25,

in an area of%ngland to the

southwestof+ondon.

Almost all of1ardy7s novels

take place in thissame generalarea. The towns

hementions inTess might

appear in othernovels, but

they7re allfictionali$ed

versions ofthatreal regionof %ngland.

1ardy called hisfictionali$ed

version of thisarea 9!essex,9 so

hisnovels thattake place there

are sometimesreferred to asthe 9!essex

novels.9Tess7schildhood home

of #arlott 0alsoin the county of

!essex5 is inthe 9;ale of

lakemoreor lackmoor9 0C.25/ 1ardy

repeatedly refersto it by both

versions of itsname. !hy

mightthat beD-t7s a fictional

valley, anyway / why does hemake up two

versions of itsname,

andcontinuallyremind us that

there are twoaccepted

pronunciationsD!ell, 9lakemore9is the older

version of 9lackmoor9 09

lake9 is #iddle%nglish for9

lack,9 and 9#ore9is the old

spelling of 9#oor95. -t could

be like the 9'7

rberville9E9'urbeyfield9

connection.#aybe 1ardy

wants to remindus how much

history there isin this place / it

was a beautiful

valley long before the

;ictorian periodor Tess7s time.

So giving usthetwo names for

the valley could*ust be a subtle

way of

reminding usthat the valley,

likeindividualfamilies, has its

own history andits own origins.

Characteristi

Victorian

Literature

The literature ofthe Victorian age(1837 –

1901, named for

the reign ofQueenVictoria)entered in a new

period after theromantic re i al

The literature ofthi!era e"pre!!ed

the fu!ion of pureromance to gro!!

reali!m Though,the Victorian#geproduced great

poet!, the age i!al!o remar$a%le

for thee"cellence of

it!pro!e Thedi!co erie! of

!cience ha eparticular effect!upon the

literature of theage&f ou !tud

all the greatwriter! of thi!

period, ou willmar$ four

generalcharacter i!tic! 1 'iteratureof thi! age tend!

to come clo!er todail life which

reflect!it!practical

pro%lem! andintere!t! &t

%ecome! apowerfulin!trument

forhumanprogre!! ociall

economicall , &ndu!triali!m wa!

on the ri!eand ariou!

reformmo ement! li$eemancipation,

child la%or,women!

right!,ande olutioni!

one in which social

reform tendedto contribute more to the

incorporation of the

merchantclass into thegovernance of the

country than to the

improvement of thequality of life of the

working classMany

groups in society were

confused by this change,

notably those ones

which did not benefitostensibly from

therewards of the new

economy, those whowere not what Gaskell

called the "masters" of

the merchant class.Thoseamong the less

inclined t o deal easily

with the transition

included the working

class, who suffered

immensely inthefactories, and the old

aristocratic ruling class.

There was, at least inthis context, a source of

rapport between theold

ruling class andthe working class, much

of the latter group being

one generation

descended from the farm

laborstock of before

!. This common area became factor in the

relationships that would

evolve betweenthe oldguard and their

servants, as both

struggled to define theirroles while resisting the

undermining impulse to

cling toeach other as

familiar comforts of a

yearned for era of safety

and comprehension ofthe environment.

* +oral urpo!e The Victorianliterature !eem!

to de iate fromart forart! !a

$e and a!!ert!

it! moral purpo!eTenn !on,

rowning,-arl le,.u!$in /all were the

teacher! ofngland with the

faith in theirmoralme!!age to

in!truct theworld3&deali!m &t i!oftencon!idered a! an

age of dou%t andpe!!imi!m

Theinfluence of!cience i! felt

here The wholeage !eem! to %ecaught in

theconception ofman in relation to

the uni er!e withthe idea of

e olution Though, the age

i! characteri eda! practical andmateriali!tic,

mo!t of thewriter!e"alt a purel

ideal life &t i! anideali!tic age

where the greatideal! li

$etruth, u!tice,lo e,%rotherhood are

empha!i ed % poet!, e!!a i!t!

and no eli!t!ofthe age

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